Mindfulness Center to Organize Community Gathering, Vigil For Jayna Murray

Bethesda’s Mindfulness Center is organizing a community gathering and candelight vigil in remembrance of homicide victim and in support of the surviving victim of

The gathering will begin at the Mindfulness Center, located at 4963 Elm Street, at 8 p.m. Friday — almost a week since inside the Bethesda store.

There will be an open forum for remembrances, followed by a candlelight vigil to the Lululemon store. There, the group will be lead in meditation by Deborah Norris, the founder of the Mindfulness Center, and in prayer by the Rev. John Love. Counselors will also be available at the Mindfulness Center throughout the week.

According to Norris, the Mindfulness Center community is close with the staff at Lululemon. Mindfulness Center instructors have taught yoga, tai chi and meditation courses at Lululemon, and several Lululemon employees have taken courses at the Mindfulness Center, Norris said.

Murray was a regular at the Mindfulness Center’s early morning yoga class, a close-knit community of yoga practitioners, Norris said. “The people in that class are just devastated,” Norris said.

Norris said the gathering and vigil at the center seemed appropriate because of it ties to the Lululemon community. It also goes along with the center’s mission to bring healing to the community, Norris said.

 “People seem to come to the Mindfulness Center in times of need,” Norris said. “We’ve definitely been in a time of need as a result of this tragedy.”

The gathering is also aimed to support the Lululemon community and address the broader Bethesda community’s sense of fear since the homicide and assaults, Norris said.

“Other people are taking care of issues about crime,” Norris said. “This is to heal our hearts.”