I was invited to a friend's house in Jaffa one Saturday afternoon to help her with a project. We worked on it on her rooftop, and as time slowly passed, we watched the sun dip into the sea.  

We naturally want to protect ourselves from pain & hurt - especially of the *emotional* sort.

Often, our instincts are to put up walls and create distance between ourselves and others - and also within our self. We may become easily defensive, angry, resentful and hardened.

When you notice these tendencies come up in you - when you notice your heart closing - what would it be like to shift towards empathy, compassion, kindness and softness? What would it be like to let your heart open? Towards others, but also towards yourself. 

Let us work on welcoming the feelings, emotions or sensations that arise. To treat them as we would a guest - pay attention to them, be curious as to what they're doing here, treat them with kindness.

Let us practice resisting the tendency to slam the door in the face of these experiences, implying that they're unwelcome; that there's no room for them here. Host your experiences as you'd host your close friends, and notice what happens to your relationship with them.

Could resentment shift to understanding? Could ignoring change to accepting? Could shaming evolve into compassion?