Brother Richard

For now, though, gently return to the awareness of the breath.

breathing in and breathing out and as an intention for the rest of your day you can say inwardly I will be a little more aware of my thoughts in the day ahead I will be a little more aware of my thoughts in the day ahead

all the while just breathing in and breathing out.

Take a moment to choose to re-enter a space of connection with others.

and allow the sound of the bell to draw you back to the activity of the day.

Welcome back.

One of the great gifts of beginning to practice with meditation is to realize that everything can become meditation, or at least that we can bring a meditative quality of awareness to all that we are doing.

In our meditation today, we're going to meditate upon food.

And we'll use as part of the meditation the visualization of a particular food.

You can use this meditation later with actual food.

So you don't need to rush off to the fridge or try and find something in the moment.

And if at the end of the meditation you find yourself a little hungrier, that's okay too.

Slowing down, savoring, being with our food in a grateful, appreciative way can really deepen our awareness.

So let's begin.

Entering this time of meditation,

we do so once again with gentleness, openness, and compassion.

We enter this time as a time of gift, a time of slowing down and deeper awareness.

We enter as fully as we can into the moment, connecting to the breath, connecting to the body,

connecting to all that supports us, the earth beneath us, the sky above us, the awareness within us.

This is a moment to enter stillness, to enter into the grace of the present moment, to trust that as we enter into that place,