A Non-Religious Spiritual Practice and Volunteer Community Supporting Boston’s South Shore

Sunday Reflection — August 24, 2025

This Week’s Music

Singing and strumming from M+ member Jim Murphy!





This Week’s Theme –  Images of Your Mind That Might Be Useful

What is the relationship between thinking mind and the non-judgmental awareness generated by mindfulness practice?   How does sitting intentionally and quietly – settling ourselves into openhearted attention – how might such practice change the ways we think about things?   I found myself thinking about James Baldwin this week, after reading a critical reappraisal in the current New Yorker.  “Mindfully thinking” about Baldwin I’d say, because, as it happened, I read this article just after my usual morning quiet sit.  I’ve been reading my way through JB over the past ten years, so I was eager to read an of-the-moment assessment of his work and reputation:  his complicated relationship with friends and peers, his strident ambivalence about his own sexuality, religious experiences, and outlook on race relations in America. In our reading for this Sunday, we are invited to picture our own thinking mind as the “flowing of water in a stream or great river.”  I find this a helpful image!  So I’m thinking about James Baldwin, and hard questions about literature, sexuality, race, and power, with this “great river” image at hand   How might mindfulness practice help us ask challenging questions and maintain openheartedness toward the others who ask them?  How might good practice help us share, with each other, whatever answers we might find?

Come this Sunday…sit a spell…and enjoy being curious about this experience of being human.





This Week’s Reading

Each week, we hear a short chapter from Mindfulness for Beginners –  Reclaiming the Present Moment – and Your Life, by Jon Kabat-Zinn.  If you’d like to read along, you can purchase a copy at Buttonwood Books in Cohasset.  Tell our friends at Buttonwood that you’re connected with the “Sunday Reflection Book Club” and you’ll receive a 15% discount!  This week, we’ll hear the short chapter “Images of Your Mind that Might Be Useful”

You don’t need to read along or buy the book to join in!  And you aren’t missing out if you haven’t started “from the beginning.”  Read along if you like, and come whenever and as often as makes sense to you.

We Offer

practice groups, volunteer opportunities, educational workshops & retreats, and social events in support of our South Shore communities.

  • “I have already written some facts of my life, journal-style. But this new Recollections experience allows me to share with my grandchildren, and hopefully their children, some life memories in my own words, my voice for posterity.”

    – Karen from Cohasset

  • "I have been a care giver my whole life. I helped both elderly parents live in their home as long as possible. Been a bedside nurse for over 40 years and raised 2 children . After my mom who was my best friend died Covid hit. I worked in a Boston Hospital ICU T throughout it. When it was over I realized i had lost my compassion. After another year I retired. I started to volunteer to have a sense of purpose. One day I walked into Mindfulness Plus and it changed me I was encouraged to cry and talk and most of all heal. The wisdom of the group was invaluable. Every meeting gave me fresh insight. And soon my words helped others. I will be forever grateful to this group that has transformed me (with alot of hardwork on my part) I encourage everyone to try it. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain."

    - Pat from Hanover

  • “I find the Living with Loss Community Support Group to be very warm and supportive. This experience has allowed me to expose vulnerabitlies without judgment, and the compassionate energy shared is personally healing. I am grateful to the Mindfulness Plus organization and their offerings to the South Shore community.”

    – Claire from Quincy

  • “I have found some comfort attending the Living with Loss group. It is nice being surrounded by others that are also suffering loss and sharing our thoughts and emotions. It is a gentle, non-pressured atmosphere and I have always left feeling just a little bit better after attending. I hope in time to not need the group support but right now I do and it’s a safe, easy, supportive, comfortable place to share some of the tough emotions around significant loss.”

    – Rebecca from Hull

  • “Friday Reflection offers the opportunity to sit with a group of friends, silently review my past week, and if I choose, speak in confidence and without judgemental feedback about what it is like to live in my body, mind and soul. And more than that, I'm offered the enlightening and fascinating opportunity to listen to other members of the group do the same. I find it centering, peaceful and harmonious.”

    - Bill from Weymouth

  • “It is an honor to be a volunteer interviewer in the M+ Recollections program. It is a privilege to enable community members to tell stories of their lives that hold special meaning for them that they can choose to share with others. Through being part of this process, I also learn about, and gain new perspectives about the diversity of our community members, as well as deepening my connections to our community.”

    - Paula from Hull

  • "Loss and grief equals pain. The healing process from this pain is hard work and is exhausting. Whether your loss is deeply personal or on a bigger societal level, the Tuesday Living with Loss group provides a safe space to share your loss with others in a non-judgmental, pressure-free environment. You can share many words or sit quietly the entire time. Knowing that there are others who support you and collectively embrace your soul has helped my own healing process continue after the sudden death of my husband last year."

    Gail from Scituate

Want to find out more about M+?

“Good works need financial support and few of them check as many boxes as M+. I know my monthly check is promoting the spiritual and community values that are important to me. The warmth and kindness of its members are like nothing else I know.”

— Jim from Cohasset