So what happens when we can't imagine the future anymore? When the beach is no longer in our dreams? When dreams no longer show up?

The Weather Was So Nice This Week I Dreamed of the Beach

I read that line in one of the letters this week. It came from one of my students at the prison.

So what happens when we can't imagine the future anymore? When the beach is no longer in our dreams? When dreams no longer show up?

I often wonder about this with the women serving long sentences or life sentences.

Recently as we were doing our weekly check in before starting class, a group of four or five women felt safe enough to share their joy in their expected release and going back to their families within the next couple of weeks.

You can tell sharing this was something special for them and a bit risky.

Prison is not about joy.
Jealousy is baked in to the system.

I knew there are people serving long sentences and life sentences in the group. I felt comfortable asking how they worked with the challenge of what they were listening to, knowing that their time for release was not coming up soon or was not going to come at all unless something in the system changed?

"Pennywise" (not her real name) responded with wisdom that only the heart can teach.

"As you step back into the world," she said, "savor your favorite meal. As you relish the flavors, let out a 'yummy yum yum,' and spare a thought for those of us who remain."

This was more than advice. It was an invitation to practice sympathetic joy—to find happiness in others' happiness, a concept as liberating as it is radical.

Such joy opens our hearts when they're most likely to close, imprisoned by our own thoughts of our misfortunes.

Such joy teaches us how to dream of sunny beaches even from behind barbed wires.

Such joy nurtures a hope that is resilient, grounded, and overflowing with generosity.

I invite you to try this simple yet powerful exercise this week.

Every time you eat, think of those who can’t share your freedom or your meal and say the following mantra before your first bite:

Yummy, yum, yum—savha.

Keeping you all in my heart and wishing you a week of dreaming, hoping, and being that is yummy and liberating.

I'd love to hear from you,

-Carlos