Happy Father's Day to all fathers!!! 

May you love and teach your children well...all children well!  

I am looking at a picture of my own father now as I write this.  I miss his physical presence, his words of wisdom and his laughter in my life but he is still around me always...of that I am sure. I remember what he taught me both through his achievements and his so called "imperfections and mistakes".  I am so grateful for his presence in my life...all of it.

Anyway, feeling heavy myself in this parenting role, lately...a bit overwhelmed once again by  the suffering of others. When I feel this suffering within me I seek to recognize it...and name it briefly without getting too hung up on labels or concepts.  Then I seek to accept it and allow it into my conscious experience.  It is tricky to lean into suffeirng when the knee-jerk reaction is to pull away, as many of us are conditioned to do....but I am training myself to lean. Then I investigate further ...just so I can better understand the nature of their suffeirng and  how it is absorbed in me.  I try to look a little bit more each time into the nature of suffeirng itself. These are the first three steps of the Buddhist way as explained by Tara Brach's R.A.I.N. I am getting better at these steps.

What I need to work on doing better...is nurturing myself  when I experience suffering in whatever form it comes in. I imagine that is the step that is most challenging for all of us to master.  I will nurture others but fail to nurture myself.  I tend to blame myself, instead, for other people's suffering and my lack of ability to "fix" it. That does absolutely no good to improving the situation for me or anyone else.  I think it is necessary to find compassion not only with the other or the world that is suffering but with ourselves. 

Hmmm! I wish that for all fathers.  That they  are able to recognize, accept , investigate the suffering in their children .  ...all children in this global village and that they are able to nurture all...even themselves through suffering. 

Hmmm!

All is well in my world.