YEAR: 2020
START DATE: June 19, 2020
END DATE: November 19, 2020

Beginning of the pandemic. Kelly and I attended an online/zoom retreat offered by our
meditation center - Blue Mountain Center of Meditation in Tomales, California. Setu means bridge. The theme of this retreat was preparation for this post-65 chapter of life and the eventuality of our finite bodies. One of the Eight Point of our meditation practice is repetition of a mantram. My mantram is the Jesus Prayer. “Lord Jesus Christ Son of God Have Mercy on Us. (Or on me.)” I chose this mantram in 2005, when I first began the Passage Meditation practice. For context on this choice of mantram and its use: In the passage meditation practice, we are encouraged to choose a mantram that contains a holy name. I was brought up in Immanuel Lutheran Church in Columbus, Nebraska. While I often took and take issue with church doctrine, I always tried to embody what Christ asked of us. When I started this practice, we were in the days immediately after Hurricane Katrina. Thousands of people and animals were suffering. Homes and property were devastated. Louisianans fled to Dallas and to cities throughout Texas. The idea of asking for mercy of ‘us’ appealed to me. The mantrams in this practice are all ancient and have been spoken or written by human beings for centuries or longer. This connects us/me with the divine spirit each time we say, think or write it. We were all witnessing the nightmare of Covid-19 and lockdown. It was a good time to get quiet and go deep. The pages in this book direct the mantram prayer to different people - those close to me and also the greater spectrum of all living beings. Many of the pages have someone’s initials on the left, and the mantram on the right hand page.

Friends and family going through difficult challenges.

Early days of lockdown in the pandemic. My dealing with age. Needing quiet in the midst of so much noise and tragedy of current events.

Beginning the work on a video for the Trust for Public Land/Cool Schools project.