Aligning with Grace

I wake up to a beautiful blanket of falling snow - big, fat, gum drops of flakes that take my breath away... I look out with awe, from my perch on the couch, with warm coffee and a newspaper in hand, stealing glances every so often, hoping it will not go away just yet... I don warm clothes and go for a long walk in the falling snow, on this day before the start of Lent, reflecting on what I shall focus on, and what attributes I wish to more deeply cultivate. I reflect on deep conversations and walks with a soul companion which transpired last weekend, out in the Virginia country home where she resides - where the stillness and the dark of night are so incredibly pronounced, and the quiet is only interrupted by the conversations of neighboring horses, cows, and goats. We cover so much ground and territory - holding nothing back - washing it down with copious libation, into the early hours of the morning... I sleep under a skylight feeling that angels and sacred beings ...

I heard two very similar homilies during the first Week of Lent - one by an Episcopal priest - and the other by a Catholic lay deacon.  Both acknowledged that a common question asked during this season is: "What are you giving up for Lent?" To which, both answered, "Nothing." In the first case, the priest is a woman who is presently burdened by many situations - and very much part of the "sandwich generation," and all which that label entails and demands. In the latter case, the person in question is both father and grandfather to several. The first homilist focused on letting go of control during Lent - and letting God take the reigns of her life, which she had tried so hard to steer, to no avail. And of course, we all know, that outcomes don't often yield the results we planned or imagined. The second, spoke of a time for seeding and growing, and fostering new practices and traits to enrich our lives, such as the cultivation of grea...

I am poised to begin the Lenten journey once again, ready to commence it with a seal of ashes tomorrow on Ash Wednesday. Such an ancient ritual - but for the past few years it has been a time of personal growth and recommitment for me... A few years ago, I gathered my Lenten entries from over the years and forged them into a collection I titled, Everything in God and God in Everything... I repeat those words today, as a mantra... "Everything in God and God in Everything." As in other years, Maha Shivaratri, the Great Night of Shiva, observed by many friends, also coincides with this journey... Years ago, a friend gave me a photo with this quote: "I do not know what it calls me to, but I recognize the Voice." I truly do not know what - or where that Voice calls me to - but I know I must respond and go where I am led. It has become more insistent and persistent over the years... The Voice speaks. It beacons. It invites me to a journey. It will be lon...

Sometimes, the paths we take converge... Recently I wrote about the ways of the heart and reconciliation... I believe, the more we commit to one path, the more we express the other - regardless of which one we start with. It does not matter... All roads lead to the same place... If you live from the heart, you strive to live from a place of integrity and in time you see beauty in everything. Nothing is accidental. Everything you do or say or try to be, comes from a place of harmony... It comes from a place of love and seeks self-expression... If you follow the way of reconciliation, you strive for greater harmony and balance - seeking atonement - or to have all things be one: "At-one-ment." This path too, leads to the heart, and it is fueled by love... "Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things..." ~ 1 Corinthians 13:7 We begin with a choice. We follow one path. Then it leads to another. But it does not matt...

References to the heart continue to abound this Lenten season, but also passages, musings, and a deep and innate desire for reconciliation... I shared this with a dear soul companion recently, and she asked me what it was that I was feeling I needed to be reconciled to. God? Others? And I realized that what I meant by reconciliation is so much more... The Bhagavad Gita , a beloved scripture of Hindus, teaches there are many "margas" - ways, or paths to the Divine. For example, there is the path - or yoga of action - of good deeds and doing our duty. There is the path of karma - intricately linked to the choices we make. There is the path of devotion, and the most refined path, which is the way of meditation. But I believe, there is also the path of reconciliation... Implied in the definitions for this word are the notions that reconciliation is about making something consistent or compatible - or seeking harmony or resolution between two opposites in the midst of estr...

Nearly halfway through this Lenten season, I am reminded that it has been a journey of the heart, every step of the way - a journey of breaking the heart wide open! Every single day, I come across a reading, or  a quote that speaks of the primacy of the heart in all things... ... Psalms that proclaim the cleansing and creation of new hearts, or readings by a desert Christian monk speaking of the necessary circumcision of hearts, or other passages extolling the opening - or healing of hearts, the rending and mending of hearts, and the tilling of the fertile soil within hearts, culminating in the eventual reconciliation of the heart. Just this morning I read this passage: "If you open your heart, love opens your mind." ~ Charles John Quarto If your heart opens - it heals, it transforms and transmutes all things, as difficult as this seemingly unending journey can at times be ... "O that today you would listen to God's voice! Harden not your heart...

Everything can be a blessing, if you have the eyes to see - and the ears to hear... Everything can be a blessing - even life's greatest challenges, come bearing blessings... In meditation, and deepest prayer, I review the many blessings of my week... I begin the week by giving two dear ones, a blessing... That night, I attentively listen to a talk during a retreat, with the theme of blessing... In this talk one priest shares his ministry to a Hispanic community that blesses him every day. He is blessed, to be "blessed" so often! And I remember being blessed by my grandmother and mother on so many occasions... Yes, life - and every experience within it is a blessing. A blessing is hidden everywhere... At this retreat, we bless each other. My favorite priest blesses me in a beautiful way, and then I hold a bowl of water while strangers bless each other - with many of them deciding to impart an extra blessing on me. I, am visibly moved. I began my day by impartin...

"Create a clean heart in me, and renew my spirit." ~ Psalm 51 Create a clean heart in me... Sometimes, this means our hearts will be broken open... Sometimes, this means that we must excavate the innermost chambers within and let go of what does not serve... For nearly a year - or more - I have recited this simple verse - and prayed it - almost as a demand - perhaps not truly knowing what it means, or what it implies... If we ask for our hearts to be cleansed, then every bit of us must be cleansed as well: our bodies, our minds, and our very souls. Every part of us must be healed... I begin this Lent, very mindful of where the last one took me, on a most unexpected journey. I begin this Lent by praying with a group of women I have joined every week, for a  good while. Our gatherings punctuate my week and splits it in two... I attend the Ash Wednesday service at this wonderful, and very welcoming Episcopal Church where I go to pray, sitting next to one of th...

I love drinking "Yogi Tea," and I love the inspirational messages that come with every tea bag... Recently, I came across this one: "Wherever you go, go with all your heart." In other words, put your whole heart and soul into everything you do or say. By any measure this is no small feat indeed... To go everywhere with all our hearts is such an appropriate message for this week. Tomorrow Christians all over the world enter into the holy season of Lent through Ash Wednesday. On this day Christians will begin to journey through their Lord's passion and death, and ultimate resurrection - and will most especially reflect on their own mortality and all the ways in which they have failed to miss the mark, and hopefully rectify whatever is in need of inner work.  As I often told my students in my theology classes, Lent is more about cultivating a quality within oneself, or deepening one's relationship with God, or improving an aspect of one's life ...

Buddhists teach, that the only constant is change... Gandhi once extolled, that we must be the change we want to see in the world... The season of Lent invites us to do inner work and reflection and make changes within and ultimately without... It seems that everything that comes into my inbox lately addresses this theme of change - Lenten reflections, Facebook posts, emails... I receive a picture of a beautiful bird, an eagle perhaps, with a huge wingspan accompanied by the caption: "Change your mind. Change the world..." A Lenten reflection I subscribe to, posed this question yesterday: "What would make you drop everything and change directions?" It is never too late for change... Rumi reminds us that, "You transform all who are touched by you..." Truly, the only constant is change... And today, from my Lenten reflections, "Journey to the Cross," I receive the following insights... "We are creating the future today. It is hard to imagine w...

"Out there beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field, I will meet you there." ~ Rumi On this day of Ash Wednesday, and the beginning of Lent, I take time to go church, get my ashes and reflect on my own wrongdoing, and ask for forgiveness for so many things. The readings and the homily for some reason, touch me very deeply, perhaps in light of all the recent events in my Anusara yoga community. Yesterday, my entry reflected my initial preparation as I enter this season... It pains me to see so much separation in my community, but I am also heartened to see the flames of unity sparking in the broad expanse of so much divisiveness... I told my students this morning, that this season is about Hope, because it coincides with spring, and Easter - which is symbolic of Resurrection. And spring, never fails to come - no matter what... And I realize, there cannot be any rising without dying... We cannot give birth to something new, without letting go of the old... Thi...

As uncertainty continues to haunt many within my yoga community, on this day, which is Mardi Gras - following Maha Shivaratri , The Great Night of Shiva - I begin to turn my attention to the coming season of Lent ... When I used to teach theology, I used to tell my students that Lent wasn't a time so much for giving up things - like sweets or watching TV - but that it is instead, a time to acquire something. It is a time for interior growth and a time to cultivate a quality you would like to more deeply embody... So today, I take a moment to reflect and prepare, by doing an "Examination of Consciousness," by engaging in a simple practice popularized by St Ignatius of Loyola, and here simplified by Jim Manney , from The Prayer that Changes Everything: The Examination of Consciousness Ask for light. I want to look at my day with God's eyes, not merely my own. Give thanks. The day I have just lived is a gift from God. Be grateful for it. Review the day. I carefully loo...

On this eve of Maha Shivaratri , the Great Night of Siva, when it is said that prayers and mantras are magnified 10,000 times, I ask a few dear ones, to encircle their own with mine, for this is a time of great need in our yoga community, and in the much larger community of peoples on this planet... On this day, which stands on the threshold of the another season of Lent , always a time of prayer, introspection, and spiritual cleansing for me, I am mindful of the importance of setting strong intentions for the good, for healing, and for emanating as pure a vibration as possible for a community's transition... This is a time when everything is possible. It is a time of letting go of the old and embracing the new. It is not a time of resurrecting what no longer serves. It is the time to boldly go where no one has gone before... No one said that 2012 was going to be easy... I am in a wait and see mode. Yes, wait and see... Evolution takes time. Yesterday I read these words online, off...

There are gifts that are both providential and transformational - and arrive in our lives without expectation... Two gifts received - one yesterday, and the other today - are both meant for my Lenten journey... Yesterday, my spirit merged with a dear soul companion, as our meditations became intertwined while walking the labyrinth. My friend was led to bestow a healing on me, that was both physical and spiritual, and continues to dramatically unfold, gifting me with one miracle after another... This gift take me beyond, in ways that defy articulation... My walk and healing at the labyrinth was an experience of Oneness and merging with the Divine that now enables me to step into the next 40 days of the desert of my Lenten Journey more fully. It is a journey I dedicate to experiencing, embodying, and reflecting, everything in God, and God in everything... Today, I receive another providential gift from a wonderful student and friend. She brings the recording Beyond: Buddhist and Christia...