When Everything Becomes a Favorite Thing

Teacher Wei's invitation to love every moment unconditionally.

by Megan Kaun

Today in our morning Zhineng Qigong class (free to everyone who joins our mailing list), we sang and danced alongside Julie Andrews to "My Favorite Things."

Raindrops on roses...

It's a tradition to begin our qigong classes with a "Happy Quarter"; approximately 15 minutes of singing, dancing, laughing, and/or sharing good information with one another. This is not frivolity, it is an essential part of our practice, perhaps the most essential part because it reinforces free and easy energy flow and helps to open our hearts.

This playful exercise of focusing on favorite things ("good information") to manage the more difficult energies life brings is a powerful practice. Aligning ourselves with things that bring happiness, love, and joy is something that The World Consciousness Community Master Wei Qifeng talks about often.

In Teacher Wei's most recent lessons, however, he has started to encourage us to take this practice one step further: to make EVERYTHING in our life -every moment, every thing, every person, every situation -one of our favorite things.

This reminds me of the invitation from Rumi's poem, The Guest House.

The Guest House

By Jalaluddin Rumi

Translated by Coleman Barks

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!

Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably.

He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing, and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

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Yesterday there were a lot of accidents in my house: the milk spilled (my husband), the glass bottle shattered (my daughter), and I accidentally dumped our lunch on the floor ("when the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I'm feeling sad"). It was as if we couldn't keep anything in our hands.

We each took turns being angry and disappointed at each other; pointing fingers, and trying to control so that these things wouldn't happen again. But they kept on happening -these "guests" keep on coming- and by the time the beans were strewn all over the kitchen floor I finally got the message: blame and control is not the medicine we need...mercy is.

So we shifted gears, and turned around to welcome our "guests" with unconditional and immediate forgiveness using the the Ho'oponopono framework (thank you, I love you, please forgive me, I forgive you).

In doing this, we turned this difficult situation into a beautiful moment by strengthening patterns of mercy and forgiveness that hopefully will dominate over the fear/control reflex next time.

This challenging moment has truly now became one of my favorite things.

What if our list of favorite things expanded to include not just raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, but also spilled milk and shattered glass? What if it encompassed both sunny days and stormy nights, joyful reunions and painful goodbyes, moments of clarity and periods of confusion?

Teacher Wei's invitation to love every moment unconditionally isn't about forcing artificial positivity—it's about recognizing the profound opportunity hidden within each experience. When we welcome all of existence as our teacher, the boundary between what we prefer and what we resist gradually dissolves. The spilled beans become as sacred as the shared meal, the argument as valuable as the reconciliation.

This practice doesn't ask us to deny our human reactions but to hold them in a larger awareness that sees beyond temporary struggles to the deeper current of life unfolding perfectly in its own way. In this state of reception, where nothing is rejected and everything belongs, we discover something remarkable: that the present moment—this one, exactly as it is—becomes not just bearable but precisely where we want to be.

Here, in complete acceptance, we find ourselves already home.

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Megan Kaun is a certified Zhineng Qigong Healer and Teacher in the Hearts Rooted Collective. For more information about Megan, her offerings, and her work, visit her website at www.IntoTheHumm.com.