Wandering Along the Path: Right Speech

Today is my brother's birthday.  He died six years ago, but I think of him often.  He was perhaps the greatest love of my childhood, beyond my love of my parents.  His ashes are still in my house.  I just finished listening to my Buddhist teacher Anam Thubten, who was talking about attention and awareness, which are the antidotes to monkey mind and unnecessary suffering.  This words are so relevant at this time of the pandemic, with its dangers of too much media watching, rumors, isolation and waves of fear.  I do try to come back to the breath, or a mantra, and I pray, because that act is a way of connecting with other beings and focus on them, not my own mind.  I'm so grateful to my practice, which steadies my heart and mind, when I feel overwhelmed.  I hold all beings in my heart, which nests them as if I am their mother.  And I know others are nesting me.