Lovingkindness - children's program

 

For February's Children's Program we honored Valentine's Day with a lovingkindness-themed virtual gathering. We first shared interesting things we noticed about the natural world, such as the variable temperatures, sunny days, snow avalanches falling off the temple roofs, and ladybugs cohabitating in our homes. We then read and acted out excerpts from the book The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charley Mackesy. In our excerpt a boy and a mole have a series of chats about life, love and kindness. The mole learns to be present, kind and persistent with the help of his fondness for cake, while eventually realizing that hugs are actually better than cake because they last longer. Kenzan then led us in a lovingkindness meditation, in which we started spreading lovingkindness to ourselves and those close to us, and then let our sense of care radiate progressively outwards to all beings everywhere. We ended with a group OM.