Last year I ventured back to college being away for almost 20 years. The classes I took in 2011 opened me up to new experiences, and in the end changed how I viewed the world. I decided that in 2012 I would visit a different church every Sunday. I want to see how those around me celebrate their faith, rejoice in their hope, and come together as a community. There are 53 Sundays in the year 2012, and there are so many different places of worship I wish to visit. I began my journey by returning home to WellSprings Congregation.
Due to many class obligations I was unable to be at my own place of worship, WellSprings, for the year of 2011. I thought this was the best place to start, it being a new year and all. I don't think it would ever matter how long I stayed away, for when walking in the door it felt as I had never left. The support the members of the congregation had given me in my absence, the hugs I received and just the overall sense of loving one another brightened my soul. WellSprings truly is my home away from home. It truly is a community charged full with the charge of the soul.
For me my body always seems to catch up with my mind when the minister reflects on a quote from the Buddhist monk, Thich Naht Hanh. "If we want to enter heaven on earth, we need only take one conscious step and one conscious breath."
The service was focused around, in my opinion, focusing on being within the moment. Allowing yourself to be present in the moment and taking those breaths that we need each day, which I always seem to be reminding myself to do. Grey Pelley eloquently placed all of my recent thoughts and anxieties regarding the holidays that just transpired into his sermon. He was right on when he said that when we are sitting in church on Christmas Eve and singing Silent Night in all honesty our minds are racing ahead of us. Thoughts and lists racing through our minds, always thinking ahead and not being within the moment. What gifts need to be wrapped, what parties need attending. Our thoughts always way ahead of our actual bodies, always expecting, speculating, rehearsing what comes next in our minds.
When he mentioned the brand new unmarked calendar, with no appointments, jobs, birthdays, anniversaries marked upon it and how it seemed fresh and uncluttered and that he did not feel tied down. It gave him a sense of freedom. Then he thinks of all the things that will fill the calendar with and begins to feel weighed down and trapped within the days of the calendar. He said he began to think of those entrapment's not as duties or "stuff" but to think of those items that fill the calendar as possibilities of abundance. Time that will be spent caring for oneself, time with family and making new friends and learning new things. He mentioned Jack Cornfield, the buddhist, and his book, "After the Ecstasy, the Laundry." This made a lot of sense, because we may have things planned out in our mind on how life is supposed to be, but in reality these things may turn into something else. Like doing the laundry.
Hearing Greg speak of his daily routine of getting up, having in his mind one thing, which leads to another task and another and another made me laugh. I have always thought that my life resembled that of a kids book called, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie." Because if you give a mouse a cookie it will remind him of something else, and in the end there is a trail of half completed projects and still always so much to do, and at times so much more to clean up and organize. I find this with my thoughts as well. If I don't allow myself to enjoy the time within the moment, it takes away from the simple joys I may have experienced. As Greg says it is time to see your life anew, we all have this opportunity to be within the moment, to allow yourself to see your life in the lives of others in the moment. He ask that we give our self the last gift of the holiday. That we give our self the gift of being present within our own life. I loved this! To think of giving myself the gift of presecnes and maybe in doing so it will bring forth the possibility of abundance.
It was truly a fantastic way to celebrate the beginning of the year. I am thankful for being able to be within the moment with such a wonderful community surrounding me and charging my soul with the charge of the soul.
Things to reflect on:
Possibility of Abundance podcast
http://wellspringsuu.org/index-2.html
Excerpt from Jack Cornfield
http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Buddhism/2000/06/After-The-Ecstasy-The-Laundry.aspx
Thich Nhat Hanh
http://www.plumvillage.org/
Unitarian Universalist
http://www.uua.org/
"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6Dc1ZBJB3U&feature=related
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