Recently I visited my older sister and her family in Indiana for a visit over the 4th of July. We enjoyed the usual family dinners and conversation. All in all, a great time. While we were getting ourselves settled in, she made an interesting request. She asked us to close the doors very quietly- demonstrating as she spoke. Members of her household slept at different times, and she didn't want us waking anyone with doors being slammed carelessly. "Sure", I said. That was no problem. Suddenly I remembered that opening and closing doors is a mindfulness practice with a long tradition. In his essay, "Closing doors", Ben Howard relates the story of when Thomas Merton, the famous Catholic monk first met Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh in 1996. When Merton observed how Hanh opened and closed doors, he could tell that he was the real deal, an "authentic monk." We often forget that the true purpose of mindfulness is to bring attention to our daily a