Aligning with Grace

What will you give birth to in this new year of 2024? Many people like to begin the new year with a word that exemplifies what they want to focus on, give birth to, and embody in the coming year. This year, the word "Hope" chose me. Perhaps it did, because it is so needed in our world right now. I certainly need it this year. You can always pick a word for yourself - one that you want to work on or experience more of. Or a word can come to you spontaneously. Mine came in so many ways - it was insistent - demanding my attention. I couldn't avoid it. It showed up in everything I seemed to read. It does not have to be one word. It can certainly be more than one, but I find that even with a couple of words, one of them tends to be the predominant one. If this speaks to, it is a simple yet wonderful practice to anchor in the coming year and refer to from time to time. You might want to journal on it periodically to see where you might currently be in your life and decide wheth

Advent - A Season for Balance (A Repost) This week, my yoga teacher asked us if the holidays had a way of throwing us off balance. At first I shook my head nodding no - and then quickly caught myself, because if truth be told, I have been out of sorts and dealing with some issues on the personal and physical front. The whole sequence of poses steered us - not only in the direction of attaining greater balance - but urged us to simply accept where we were, when we experienced ourselves as out of balance, in a non-judgmental way. My teacher, who is perhaps the most enthusiastic person I have encountered in my life, urged us to banish our inner self-critic - and send him or her packing indefinitely to the local watering hole! I loved that image! I had no idea how timely this class would be... Instead of succumbing to unbalance, my teacher reminded us, that tuning into the breath, and availing ourselves of all the skills that our yoga and meditation practices offered us, c

Today we mark the Winter Solstice... It is when  the Earth offers her exhale into her inhale - pausing for a moment, in Stillness, before reversing and beginning her journey back to days increasingly filled with Light. I posted this prayer in 2009, after having borrowed it from a friend... Thanks again Bob! A Midwinter Prayer "From the rising of the midwinter sun to its setting, Scatter the darkness with the light of your love, O Shining One. Make me short on mean thoughts, long on offers of words of comfort. Make me short on being driven, long on paying attention. Make me short on focusing only on my own, long on looking beyond. Make me short on obsessive thoughts, long on spontaneous acts of kindness. Make me short on mindless activity, long on time to reflect. Make me short on tradition as a habit, long on rediscovery and re-owning. Make me short on rushing or tiring, long on walking and wondering. Make me short on false, festive jollity, long on stilling and rooted j

Our ancestors lived in rhythm with nature. After the harvest, time was spent inside, repairing those things that were in need of repair before the spring and planting season commenced all over again. Our forebears adapted naturally to a season which invited them to go to bed earlier - and sleep much longer than we do today. The shorter days and longer nights helped them entrain with nature and journey inward, by perhaps reading a bit, or writing letters, or catching up with others. Even animals observed this practice of slowing down as they prepared for the barren winter with many settling down for a period of hibernation. But we - in this day and age - have accelerated our pace of living. With artificial lights we stay up much longer than we should and we throw off our natural inclinations and rhythm by succumbing to over-stimulation of all sorts. We in essence, do the opposite of what we are wired to do - going out at all hours of the day and night - sleeping very little -