• being human,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Embracing the Poet Within

    We live in a world that teaches us to follow the rules. We live in a world that teaches us to trust ‘authority.’ We live in a world of propaganda. We live in a world of capitalism and of greed … I would even go so far to say that we live in an alternate reality, a matrix of sorts. We live more by the rules of the world than of God’s will. And who can blame us? It’s what we’ve been taught. It’s the water we’ve been swimming in since the establishment of this country. It’s embedded in our cells, in our DNA. And if you’re an American like me, you’ve been taught this is the greatest country in the world. I am not refuting this fact, quite the contrary. I’m thankful to live in a democratic free country. But … I also…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Expectant Waiting

    I have been in the season of Advent this year … Reading. Writing. Praying. Contemplating. Waiting — expectantly waiting. Yes, we wait patiently, expectantly this time of year. We know the story … The prophets of old tell it. Mary says ‘yes.’ Joseph says ‘yes.’ A child is born. A star guides the wise ones. The child grows up, performs wonders, shakes things up a lot, asks people to follow him, dies in a brutal and unjust way, rises to conquer death, and a movement is established in the years that follow. “What did we just witness?” the first Christians asked. They knew in their bodies that it was real … real-er than anything they’d ever experienced before. So during Advent, we’re taught to wait. We wait on Christ, his arrival in the form of a baby named Jesus. God and man as one.…

  • being human,  breath,  embodied liturgies,  musings,  writing

    Wonder, Awe, Amazement!

    For the last several years, I’ve chosen a word for myself during a journaling exercise completed close to the end of each calendar year. For 2023, my word was ALIVENESS, and this word showed up for me in a big way. In fact, it showed up in an extreme way I’d never want to invite again … being profoundly sick for a full two months this summer — the biggest lack of aliveness I’ve ever felt in this lifetime. I chose the word because I wanted to feel fully alive, present, completely IN my life. I didn’t (and don’t) want to miss the magic. Interestingly, the Center for Action & Contemplation’s theme this week is AMAZEMENT, which might have been a better word to choose given the trajectory that followed the choosing of aliveness. From today’s meditation, Rohr writes this: “When the veil is…

  • being human,  embodied liturgies,  embodiment,  learning,  musings,  writing

    Embodying the God Within

    I reflect often about life … why I do certain things, why I am drawn to particular actions and repelled by others, and I’ve realized through the years that when I over-question, it stops the flow. Sure, it helps to get at meaning, but excess is just that. In all things. I wonder if our world of excess plays into these tendencies within us … like increases like. These noticings have helped me to lean into embodiment when it happens … letting things be, posturing my body toward ‘just being’ instead of overthinking. And this leads to the journey that God has been taking me on all along … Throwing myself into the practice of yoga at a vulnerable time in my twenties, becoming a yoga teacher in my thirties, pivoting out of a set trajectory involving yoga in my late forties, finding contemplative…