Cherish Hearts. Minds. Body & Soul

01/01/2026

Did you know that the word for the month of January originated from the name of a Roman God named Janus who presided over beginnings, endings, transitions, gates and doorways?
We are crossing a threshold. Moving through liminal space. Some of us are attracted to liminal spaces - the space between day & night, between seasons, between jobs, waiting for a baby to be born for example. Times full of wonder and beauty when the next step is unknown. These times offer mystery & wonder when we can only imagine what comes next. January is such a time when we can
envision, imagining a future possibility, or visualizing a better world or future.
If you are able, join me over the next few days in some quiet time, in wonder. Go out into nature if you can. I will be by the sea listening to the waves lapping over the stones on the shore. Marvel at the mystery of transitions and envision the potential of what could be next.
Happy new year to each and every one of you.

31/12/2025

What a joy 2025 has been being part of the community at Cherish.
Together we have held welcomed everyone who has come through the door.
We have shared something of our lives. - our concerns, grief, passion, ideas, our sadness and our delight. We have held each other, sung to each other, made cups of tea, shared our food, written poetry, discussed books, played games, meditated together, breathed together, hugged, relaxed, moved in unison, chatted, felt like we belong together, shared moments of awe and felt deep gratefulness.
We have quietly and often unknowingly enhanced our mental health. We have enhanced our awareness that we can touch in at any time to the presence & comfort that is always right here within each one of us.
The love that holds us tight and will not let us go.
So grateful!

30/12/2025

2025, End of Year Prayer
By Tarchin Hearn on Dec 25, 2025 08:58 am
From Orgyen Hermitage,
nestled in the lea of the rugged Kaimai range,
cradled in this fleeting appearance called Bay of Plenty,
some words of heartfelt aspiration.

May all beings, everywhere,
be graced with the knowing of loving presence.
Soldiers and weapons makers and politicians and financiers and corporate executives, scientists and artists, healers of myriad modalities, farmers and factory workers, employed and unemployed, obscenely rich and desperately poor, homed and homeless, infants and aged, religious and agnostic, greedy and generous, healthy and ill, able and disabled, emotionally balanced and mentally disturbed, physically incarcerated and nominally freed;
May all of us be strengthened with deeply felt kindness.
May we know the blessing of living lightly on the earth.
May we use our current circumstances, however they may be,
to share beauty with those around us.
May we never close our eyes to suffering and, in the face of whatever we do,
remember our kinship with this planet wide sangha of life and living.

In the immeasurable expanse of nature-in-process,
In faith and trust and wonderment,
We give ourselves to this suchness,
This seamless mystery of birthing/dying.

Spacious, loving,
With feet solid in the earth,
We nurture the hints at blessedness,
The myriad faces and masks of luminous knowing.

Moving as this flow of compassion and deepening enquiry,
We engage with all beings, in ways that support
The integrity, the stability and the beauty,
Of the entire field of life and living.

25/12/2025

A single world.
A single human race.
A single desire for peace, joy, hope and love in our lives.

Stephanie Dowrick

21/12/2025

Peace To All Beings
by John Garrie Roshi

Peace to all beings
may all beings be well and happy
and free from fear.

Peace to all beings
whether known or unknown
visible or invisible
real or imaginary
born or yet to be born
may all beings be well and happy
and free from fear

Peace to all beings
within and beyond the imagination
in the world of ideas
in the world of memories
and in the world of dreams
may all beings be well and happy
and free from fear

Peace in all the elements
of earth and air and fire and water
fulfilled in space
peace

Peace in all universes
from the smallest cells in the body
to the greatest galaxies in space
peace and light rising

Peace and love and comfort and ease
to all in need
may they be well and happy
and free from fear.
Peace To All Beings

19/12/2025

Thank you all for your incredible generosity with our gift and food drive for and . Both organisations were so grateful for the wonderful donations received. 💜

A reminder that Cherish offerings are now paused until 2 February, although therapists may still be operating during this time.

We hope you enjoy a relaxing summer holiday and look forward to seeing you again in the new year!

18/12/2025

15/12/2025

"Love changes the way we know things. is not blind affection or mere satisfaction.
Rather, love is the highest good that seeks and desires the highest good in another.
The person is one whose knowledge is shaped by love and who sees the world through the eyes of love.”

09/12/2025

Last Friday we celebrated the end of the year with a beautiful lunch and meditation. A heartfelt thank you to everyone who came along, lent a hand, and donated so generously to and . Your kindness truly makes a difference.

This is the last week we are running our midday meditations before we pause until February. We’d love for you to join us.

And if you’d still like to donate non-perishable food or new, unwrapped gifts, we have collection boxes in the dining room.

07/12/2025

05/12/2025

As 2025 comes to a close, we reflect on what this past year has brought through the doors of Cherish.

See our reflections in our end of year newsletter here:

As the year draws to a close, we want to look back on everything we’ve experienced together. The past twelve months have been full of so many wholesome moments, and a lot of change for Cherish. We want to take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate it all. This newsletter shares some of reflections...

05/12/2025

“We begin to find and become ourselves
when we notice we are already found,
already truly, entirely, wildly, messily,
marvelously who we were born to be.”

~ Anne Lamott