Young woman with closed eyes experiencing harmony with nature

Serenity Sundays!

Better late than never! Ideally I wanted to write in the morning—but I was busy experiencing my own dose of serenity. It has been a glorious Sunday on the Upper West Side. Mornings are my favorite time of the day, and Sunday is my favorite day of the week.

On Sundays, I enjoy strolling through my quaint neighborhood, sipping my cup of coffee while I admire the prewar architectural landscape that surrounds me. I enjoy walking my two beautiful Golden Retrievers through the Farmer’s market along the cobblestone sidewalk of the Museum of Natural History across the street from my home.

Most of all, I love when the weather is nice, like today, and I can feel the sun on my face. For my first Serenity Sundays post, I thought I’d share a passage from one of my favorite authors, Jon Kabat-Zinn.

Wholeness and Oneness When we are in touch with being whole, we feel at one with everything. When we feel at one with everything, we feel whole ourselves. Sitting still or lying still, in any moment we can reconnect with our body, transcend the body, merge with the breath, with the universe, experience ourselves as whole and folded into larger and larger wholes.

A taste of interconnectedness brings deep knowledge of belonging, a sense of being an intimate part of things, a sense of being at home wherever we are. We may taste and wonder at an ancient timelessness beyond birth and death, and simultaneously experience the fleeting brevity of this life as we pass through it, the impermanence of our ties to our body, to this moment, to each other. Knowing our wholeness directly in the meditation practice, we may find ourselves coming to terms with things as they are, a deepening of understanding and compassion, a lessening of anguish and despair.

Wholeness is the root of everything that the words health, healing, and holy signify in our language and our culture.

Reading this passage gives me a sense of peace. I hope you, too, find peace. Happy Sunday.