• being human,  breath,  embodiment

    Life Lately, Birthday Edition

    Life lately. Birthday edition. Last night, after all of the day’s celebrations, J and I danced to ‘I Hope You Dance’ by the pool … and then I had a deep cathartic cry right before bed. It seemed to come out of nowhere, and then it suddenly all made sense. Both and. I am a highly sensitive, empathic, introverted human. I love people, but I also feel everything very deeply. Unless you have these tendencies, it is hard to explain, and can be overwhelming. For a long time I overindulged to deal with and manage these feelings, but now I know how to honor them. It’s such a paradigm shift to go from a list of things that need to be fixed to making space for what’s showing up. Everything belongs. Good and bad. Both and.  I cried last night, witnessing all of the…

  • being human,  breath,  embodiment,  spiritual direction,  writing

    Sitting with the Questions

    I am a firm believer in spiritual practice. My spirituality isn’t dependent on a strict set of beliefs or a weekly service. And while what I believe guides my life and spirituality, if all I have are beliefs without practice, it feels inadequate. Over the years, I’ve had many practices within my spiritual life: reading sacred texts, meditation, spending time in nature, writing and creating to name a few. I still use many of these practices and others, and allowing them to ebb and flow feels most right for me and my life. A few years ago, as I began a serious contemplative practice, sitting with the questions began to fuel my life with a palpable fervor. It’s a practice of deepening in the mystery of life. As an analytical, left brained individual, it’s honestly not the easiest practice. Sometimes it feels like I’m…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings

    God’s Promise

    I woke up aggravated yesterday, thinking about a Facebook post by an acquaintance. In it she claimed to be cutting ties with all businesses who support LGBTQ+ rights and stated that ‘the pride flag is a mockery of God’s promise.’ I hear this type of speech somewhat regularly, living in southeast Ohio, a hotbed for Christian nationalism. I didn’t comment. This is the type of ideal (and person) that can’t be argued with. In my experience, it’s black and white for them. It’s a deep seated, ‘doctrinal,’ issue of morality. It negates another’s experience in lieu of words on a page that can easily (and often are) taken out of context to prove them right (and those that believe differently, wrong). And yet, here are just two very clear passages that seem to say that God loves us all, regardless of race, creed, culture,…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings

    True Nature

    I’ve never been one to steep myself in ideology, or to even be a devoted follower of anything. It seems that as soon as I attach myself to anything outside of myself or my experience, that thing eventually becomes stale, foreign and untrue. I often think back to the beginning of my yoga journey, wondering what specifically brought me to it. I know the inward drive had to do with seeing past the reality of what was before me, in search of something deeper. I indeed found that something deeper and taught about it for a decade and a half. But life happened and I stepped away. The deeper truths that continue to reveal themselves on the other side of teaching yoga have been inspiring. Those tools gave me a new way to see. They led me to Contemplative Christianity and eventually to what…