Days of Mindfulness Meditation: Collecting Your Own Rubbish

Presented by Sister Esther Kennedy, OP

Saturday, April 14, 2018
10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Cost: $25 (includes lunch)
Adrian Dominican Sister: $15
Deposit: $10 (non-refundable)

“How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of
that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite!
First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough
to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.”
– Luke 6:42 NLT

A rather strange name for a mindfulness day, but let’s see where it takes us. Rubbish refers to things that are
thrown out or rejected because one judges them worthless, nonsensical, no longer useful or wanted. For some
people certain words or ideas have been outgrown and now appear foolish and not true. For others these same
words or ideas may be claimed as bedrock of their very life. The word rubbish is used here as a metaphor for
patterned habits, behaviors, thoughts, perceptions, and attitudes stored for years in one’s own interior space.
Only I, with the blessing of grace, can see what has become worthless rubbish for me. Mindfulness practice makes
of this collecting a work of true grit and love.

We gather monthly as a Mindfulness Community for silent meditation. Through our sitting practice we embrace the
call to wake up and grow up. We pray: May the Common Good of all be honored and respected in this difficult time
in our nation.

Esther Kennedy, OP, a Dominican Sister of Adrian, Michigan, is a retreat leader and spiritual director. Esther conducts a monthly Day of Mindfulness at Weber Center.