Dancing the days,…

Hello, Friends!
     It’s hard not to get caught up in the insanity of this season that is right around the corner—so much to do, so much to experience, so much to incorporate into the already-overloaded days many of us experience as “normal” life.
      I’d like to propose an alternative, for each and all of us—let’s remember to breathe, and be.
      The disciples asked  Jesus for guidance when they said, “Teach us how to pray.”   He gave them the template of the Lord’s Prayer, not as the only way to pray, but as a gentle reminder of how to center in the essentials—love for God, surrender of worry and resentment, offering and accepting forgiveness, trusting in holy guidance for life’s choices.
       The way to a holy and serene and meaningful Advent will be as individualized as we are, and there are some universals, some sweet and serious rudimentary behaviors we can practice, alone and together.
      I’ll be facilitating conversation on Sunday mornings beginning this coming Sunday, December 2, and continuing throughout the season, about some ways we can tune in, be still, center, and listen.   We’ll explore a range of approaches, from thoughtful to thought-free, all with the intent of opening new avenues for personal practice of conscious contact with God.
      We all know there’s a difference between the anxious, often self-recriminating mental messages our working brains can pound us with, and the soul-deep wisdom that comes from our deeper intelligence, our God center.
      Our world needs as much centering as we can get—and our faith community is committed to growing, in the Spirit, so as to be of good, peace-making use to the world.     To quote one of my Buddhist colleagues, “If we want peace, we need to be peaceful.”
     Or to paraphrase the much-quoted Gandhi aphorism:   “Be the joy you want to see in the world.”
      I hope you’ll join me and other fellow travelers in human skin for all
our times of listening, learning, celebrating and serving this Advent and Christmastide.
       And I hope you’ll invite a friend to join you on the journey, so that we can all make new connection with the good new of glad tidings, the comfort and joy, and hope for real and lasting peace, that Emmanuel’s story brings anew each year—and every day, if we’re awake.

       I look forward to awakening with you this Sunday, and all our days to come.

Shalom,
Sarah