with Alexa Singer-Telles
Dear friends,
Please join us for a special Monday evening practice on December 22 at 7:00 pm, where we’ll be welcoming Alexa Singer-Telles to lead us in a celebration of the Winter Solstice. A Plum Village Dharma Teacher, Alexa has offered many retreats for our sangha over the years, and her guidance, mentorship, and friendship have supported countless people in our community.
About the event
The Buddha said, “Be a light unto yourself.” Winter Solstice is the darkest night and the time where new light begins to grow toward spring. We will spend some time sitting in darkness to realize how it nourishes us, then touch our inner light to bring it forth into the new year. We will practice sitting, listening to poetry, hear a dharma talk, take time to contemplate tending our light and find ways we can send our light in the ten directions, a bit of writing, and sharing.
We will start here, a poem by Wendell Berry:
To go in the dark with a light is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark. Go without sight,
and find that the dark, too, blooms and sings,
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
About Alexa
Alexa met Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh in 1991 and was encouraged to start a sangha. She immediately co-founded River Oak Sangha in Redding, CA and began practicing regularly. She was ordained into the Order of Interbeing in 2004. Alexa received Lamp Transmission (dharma teacher authorization) in 2014, from the Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village. Alexa practices as a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and an expressive artist. Her joy is to bring the beauty of spirit into form. Her retreats and days of mindfulness encourage your creativity by including ceremony, poetry, creative writing, movement, and art. She has led retreats from California to Calgary. Her new sangha, MotherRoot, practices weekly, in person, in her art studio.