"There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near."

As we enter this season of watching and waiting, we remember that God's coming promise will bring justice and right relationship to our broken and hurting world. Our task is to be on guard, to be alert to signs of hope.

“In the fifteenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, and Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip ruler of the region of Ituraea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness. He went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the words of the prophet Isaiah, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'"

The great turning begins with one lone voice crying out in the wilderness – change your life, you are forgiven, be aware, justice is for all. May we each become a voice for change, forgiveness, presence, and justice in our broken world. “My voice feels tiny and I’m sure so does yours.  Put us all together.  We’ll make a mighty roar.”  - from “Resilient” by Rising Appalachia

“John said to the crowds that came out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.’ And the crowds asked him, ‘What then should we do?’ In reply he said to them, ‘Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.’ Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, ‘Teacher, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.’ Soldiers also asked him, ‘And we, what should we do?’ He said to them, ‘Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.’ As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, ‘I baptize you with water; but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.’ So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.”

Metanoia, the Greek word translated as repentance, connotes active conversion, reformation, a transformative change of heart rather than passive feelings of regret or remorse.  The radical transforming John preaches manifests in non-attachment to material things and in how we treat one another – use only what you need, don’t take what’s not yours, be satisfied with what we have. Also for John, the consequences of refusing to change are suffering and loss. 

"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Mary’s song of rejoicing resounds throughout the ages.  This is what she knew – that the incarnate promise comes into even the most ordinary of lives bringing mercy, justice, and blessing.  Let us rejoice!

The stories within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.  Today, we conclude with postscript of sorts in the story of Stephen, the Ready Martyr.

Saint Stephen
(from the Ora Pro Nobis series)
oil on canvas
Daniel Kennedy
2000

Sorry to kill the holiday cheer!  But it is not just me; the liturgical year does not even give us a chance to catch our breath from the festivities before we get the gruesome story of the stoning of Stephen.   This back-to-back sequence of birth and homicide is not chronology, but rather intentional theology.  In retrospect we should not be surprised.  The whole of the Advent season has pointed repeatedly to the high cost of discipleship. 

Daniel Kennedy’s Saint Stephen comes from a series of images of holy people that lined the walls of a theological school library.  In this rendering, Stephen is only glimpsed in a silver outline as if he is merely memory.  In one hand he holds a stone and in the other a laurel branch … his death and his victory.  He is clothed in a dalmatic, the symbol of his ministry of service, and a halo surrounds his head.  But the outline of the martyr recedes in this rendering.  The dominant element of Kennedy’s composition is not the person, but rather the blood-red wounds and the liturgical refrain “ora pro nobis”.  The artist captures the theological reason for the startling sequence of these days in these two elements.

“Ora pro nobis” (pray for us) is the congregational response within the ritual calling of the saints on significant holy days throughout the year.  This liturgical prayer is a form of memory/anamnesis or making present the gifts and graces of a past events.  The congregation’s response to the invocation of each named saint has a two-fold purpose; to both ask for intercession and to celebrate their willing participation in the divine plan for all God’s creation.  The cadence of this call and response is a communal chant that literally folds time and space to bring saints of the past together with the saints of the present.  In this ritual action all God’s people find their strength and their purpose in a time-defying and multi-era communal event.

Stephen, like a whole group of early witnesses to the gospel, when confronted with the alternative of renouncing their faith or suffering death, many voluntarily embraced the death prepared for them.  While this action might seem to some to run perilously close to recklessness (or even suicide), the passions that motivate these actions are at the very core of the commemorations we celebrate in the shadow of the nativity. Stephen was not simply protecting some private claim to win his salvation, he was convinced that the good news of the gospel could radically change the way the world could see itself.  He knew the transformative possibilities of love and therefore renouncing his faith in that promise was unimaginable.  Out of his great love, God had intervened in human history and Stephen was an inheritor of that vision … and that vision was worth dying for.  The self-sacrifice and the blood-red wounds were not personal triumph, Stephen saw himself as a warrior in this great reawakening.  Stephen’s self-sacrifice in the cause of love, justice and social transformation is not death … it is life eternal.  Now that is a nativity!

"She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not see it, they would not have it."

In Toni Morrison's Beloved, Baby Suggs begins her sermon in the clearing with an invocation.  She calls the people to gather with laughter, dancing, and crying in an urgent celebration of bodiliness, a manifestation of incarnate grace.

"We may not reach the ending but we can start slowly but truly mending, brick by brick, heart by heart. Now, maybe now, we start learning how." -  "Beautiful City" from Godspell

Jesus told his disciples that God's reign is among them, in the midst of them, within them.  The learning, building, and mending begins here and now.

What can you learn from the life and death of Stephen?  How do you embody grace?  What are you learning, mending, building?  How will you respond?
 
Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the daily readings for the Feast of St. Stephen.
• Explore the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr.  Perhaps begin with Letter from a Birmingham Jail or Strength to Love.
• Work your way through My Grandmother’s Hands.  In this book, Resmaa Menakim explores how racialized trauma manifests in our physical bodies and offers practices and exercises to begin healing and recovery.
• Spend time with the poems of Mary Oliver.  Much of her work reflects on embodiment, grace, and awareness of the present moment.  Perhaps begin with Mornings at Blackwater, Mindful or The Journey.
  

The stories proclaimed within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.  This week, The Unlikely Liberator.

Sacrifice
oil on canvas
Sr. Mary Grace Thul, OP
2008
 
We treasure the memories and events that shape our lives and our ethical outlook. They come to form the core of our tribe’s identity.  We seek to preserve them for ourselves as well as pass them on to later generations.  They become the honored stories retold at family gatherings, and mementos find places of honor in our homes. 

Regrettably, the love and reverence we have for these stories can become misshapen in our enthusiasm to preserve them.  We see this in the frame shop all the time.  Folks bring in memories of people or events or places that have shaped their lives and formed their identities.  At the heart of the client’s desire for preservation is to have a tangible and visible expression to keep the memory an ever-present reality in the complexities of a life well lived in this generation and hopefully in the next.   

But too often the well-intentioned embellishments of this conservancy can misshapen the memory.  The memento, the photograph, the article of clothing, or the letter is placed behind glass and surrounded by a decorative frame.  This new presentation often shifts the memory from a living event to an object of veneration.  We physically remove the memory from its engagement with its tribe.  We look at it, but we do not touch.  We admire it, but we do not participate.  A wall of separation is built between us and the memories that shape us. 

The same wall is built with the ornamentation, embellishment, and gloss bound to the stories of the season of Advent.  Like us, the ancients embellished their memories in their enthusiasm to preserve them.  Tales of royal courts of great kings and queens, generations of hereditary leadership, a people set apart for favor, and mighty and ever-lasting kingdoms become a decorative frame that can literally remove us from the foundations of our tribe’s story and identity.  At their core, the Advent stories are so much more unpretentious, and filled with a very real, and a very ragtag cast of characters.  When we side-step theses embellishments, we get the true heart of the memory that past people of faith desired to pass on.  These characters are us, and like them, we are called to be more than onlookers in the divine plan for humanity.

It might seem strange to spotlight Sr. Mary Grace’s image Sacrifice when so many churches are placing the baby Jesus in the manger on this Sunday in Advent.  I appreciate this image because it is about memory and memento without any embellishment or gloss.  Like the unwed teenage mother from last week, or the outsider mystic from the previous week, or the angry rants of an ignored and misunderstood prophet that underpins the entire season, Mary Grace’s Jesus is stripped bare to the raw essentials of the story of salvation.  This unlikely liberator is the reason for the season.  He is not separated from his tribe.  Emmanuel is touch-able. This is a real memory/moment in time, and we can have first-hand experience of God’s intervention in the beloved creation.   A new kind of ruler has come to live (and die) among us and remind us of our required participation in the work of salvation.

In speaking about Exodus, midrash scholar Avivah Zornberg says, “I think one of the important issues is…the need for those who have to be liberated to achieve in themselves some sense of the possibility of change…the story of the Exodus is one in which… one of the most important themes for liberation is the need for a process of growth within the persecuted if they are to have a history.” In this powerful anthem from The Greatest Showman, the “sideshow freaks” from P.T. Barnum’s circus imagine the possibility of change when they find their voices, take a stand for their humanity, and proclaim their self-worth. 

In the Liturgy of the Hours, evening prayer on the final days leading up to Christmas features a series of antiphons preceding the Magnificat.  These short verses bid the coming of God’s liberating action with a rich use of imagery addressing each character with the vocative expression “O” – O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Radiant Dawn, and so on.  Thus they are known as the “O” Antiphons.  These texts are most familiar in the Advent song, O Come Emmanuel.  Here is a setting by Sufjan Stevens.  Find a comfortable seat and settle as you listen and reflect on the lyrics and music.

How do you experience God as liberator?  What is your role in the work of salvation?  How will you respond?

Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the lectionary readings for this week.
• Explore the myth of the Exodus by listening to this interview with Avivah Zornberg.  Her work reframes the roles of the characters in the story – Moses, Pharoah, and the Israelites. 
  
• Honor the Winter Solstice with restorative meditation or movement.  As we mark the shortest day/longest night, it is helpful to explore ways to intentionally tune into winter.
• Pray the O Antiphons in the final days of Advent.

The stories proclaimed within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.  This week, Mother & Child.

Wild Eyes
mixed media
Matt Sesow
2010

On a hot summer evening at an airfield near his home in Nebraska, eight-year old Matt Sesow was struck by the propeller of a landing airplane.  The accident resulted in his left arm being severed and the loss of his left hand.  With the help of family and friends, Sesow learned to excel in both athletics and academics.  It was not until he was working as an adult in the tech industry that Sesow discovered painting.   In the evenings and on weekends he played with painting and ultimately developed his hobby into a path of healing and a mission in life. 
 
"My paintings are the emotional response to a traumatic past, the road to healing, and the confidence of finding a new language to express feelings felt but never shared.  While some people see my paintings as angry or aggressive, many of my collectors and fans (including myself), see my work as hopeful, joyous, and eager to take on the world!"
 
Matt Sesow’s Wild Eyes expresses what any new mother might feel. This wild-eyed mother holds her child close as she looks toward a future she knows will be filled with both struggle and hope.  The child in her lap with a severed hand is more than an autobiography.  Sesow’s image is a universal message of family, protectiveness, and faithfulness.  It is about a journey from brokenness to wholeness. 
 
In what will become her great song of praise, the mother that dominates the Advent stories accepts both the pain and hope of a journey she is destined to take with her child.  Her strength for this task comes from her knowledge of the long prophetic traditions of her faith.  Even at her young age, she knew the stories and songs of a God who empowers those of humble estate (from every generation) to scatter the proud in their conceit and bring the mighty from their thrones.  While this mother knew she was unprepared to be in the middle of this great cosmic drama, she also knew that she would grow into the role as all new mothers or prophets do.  God and family and friends would provide.
 
But maybe more heroically, she understood from these same stories and songs the ultimate cost of this discipleship and this journey.  There would be much sorrow before vindication.  The real courage of faith is simply saying yes to the call to be a player in the divine spectacle of deliverance.  Faithfulness is the place where faith is worked out in actions and where even the most banal of actions and gestures achieves profound meaning and significance. In the actions and gestures of this woman/mother are the aesthetic expressions of an ethical worldview lived out.

“In you the journey is.”  Tony Kushner begins his epic work Angels in America with the funeral of the grandmother of one of the main characters.  In this scene, the rabbi (yes, portrayed here by Meryl Streep) describes this Jewish refugee as “not a person but a whole kind of a person.”  Such a person’s actions motivated by a drive for survival and sustained by faith and perseverance, cultivated the ground from which her descendants grow their own futures.

Mary exclaims that all generations will call her blessed and in doing so she affirms the upside-down character of God’s reign – valleys raised up, mountains made low, a little child leading.  Her blessing does not come from seizing worldly power but rather from relinquishing a safe and normal life to play a pivotal role in Gods divine plan.  This does not mean that she gave up agency or self-worth. On the contrary, she stakes her claim by actively consenting to help overturn the status quo and bring about justice.  As Rory Cooney’s setting of Mary’s song, Canticle of the Turning (sung here by Katherine Moore) proclaims, “My heart shall sing of the day you bring.  Let the fires of your justice burn.  Wipe away all tears.  For the dawn draws near and the world is about to turn.”

What do you learn from Mary's story?  How do you experience the call to participate in God's reign?  How will you respond?

Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the lectionary texts for this week.
• Listen to Steve Thorngate's After the Longest Night:  Songs for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany.
• Practice walking meditation to bring mindful awareness to your movements and actions.  Like mindful breathing practice, walking meditation brings focus and awareness to a common action that is often taken for granted.   Such awareness helps in gaining a greater sense of understanding of thoughts, feelings, and actions and leads to more constructive ways to respond. 
• Watch this TED conversation with Marian Wright Edelman reflecting on her lifetime mission to fight childhood poverty. She says, "The reinforced lesson from (my parents) is that 'God runs a full employment economy' and that if you follow the need, you will never lack for a purpose in life."
• Give of your time and resources to support local organizations that serve women and children. Find out more about The Bedford Christmas Station, Bedford Domestic Violence Coalition, Bedford Community Health Foundation, and Bedford Area Family YMCA.

The stories proclaimed within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.

What sort of person ought you to be,
conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion,
waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God,
because of which the heavens will be dissolved in flames
and the elements melted by fire.
But according to God’s promise we await a new heaven and a new earth
in which righteousness dwells.
Therefore, beloved, since you await these things,
be eager to be found without spot or blemish before God, at peace.
 
The 2nd Letter of Peter

Spiritual traditions throughout time have addressed humankind's relationship with money and possessions.  Greed and attachments are impediments to right relationships with others and with God.  However, the drive to consume more than we need and to want more than we have is integral to the human condition.  With a contemporary prophetic warning, Tracy Chapman's Mountains O' Things gives a first person view of this struggle.

What does repentance look like?  Padraig O Tuama, in his poem Twisted, offers that it requires us to "twist our spines to the truth and see behind us."  And in doing so, we take in the consequences of our actions on ours and others lives. Watch O Tuama read his poem below.

I will hear what God proclaims.
Kindness and truth shall meet.
justice and peace shall kiss.
Truth shall spring out of the earth,
and justice look down from heaven.
 
Unnamed Lyricist of the 85th Psalm

Wait, Repent, Renounce, Twist, Hear.  How will you respond?

Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the lectionary texts for this week.
• Listen to Krista Tippett's interview with Bryan Stevenson.  Stevenson's work explores mercy and redemption in American culture.
• Spend some time with Sister Joan Chittister's book, The Time is Now:  A Call to Uncommon Courage, in which she offers a series of brief reflections about the characteristics of prophets and urges readers to abandon complacency and work for justice and peace.
  
• Experience the physical sensations of twisting.  Try a basic seated twist or practice a more advanced reclined yin twist posture.
  
• Learn more about Padraig O Tuama and about the work of the Corrymeela Community to bring peace and reconciliation in Ireland.

Art/Spirituality/Social Change
Advent at Thomas Chapel

As we enter into Advent this year, we find ourselves in a time of chaos and unrest.  It seems that, now more than ever, we are confronted with perennial issues of opportunity and wealth, hospitality and immigration, justice and race, power and powerlessness.  And so, we turn to ancient stories and sacred myths to learn how other people from other times addressed such human brokenness.
 
The stories proclaimed within the Advent liturgies of the Christian tradition recount situations when humanity is most lost in its own greed, tribalism and violence and the victims are those most outside, vulnerable, and powerless  These stories include a remarkable cast of very human characters who played pivotal roles in God’s extraordinary interventions into human history.
 
They are us.  The sacred texts hold a mirror up to the hearer not only urging us summon the courage the be faithful servants, but also challenging us to recognize the villain within ourselves.  These stories call us not only to be watchful and alert, but also to be proactive in the divine plan.
 
Join us over the next five weeks as we reflect on the lives of these Advent characters, and in turn reflect on our own lives, listening to contemporary voices responding to brokenness and longing, and seeking new ways to respond with justice and love. 

War and Tweets
Shelley Koopmann
oil on board/2020
 
The scene is the Musée d’Orsay.  The painting is entitled War by the primitive post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau.  The artist created the monumental piece twenty years after the Franco-Prussian conflict of 1870, his personal horrors with that experience still very much with him.  In the center of the painting is a grimacing female character holding a sword and a torch. This goddess of war rides a horse surveying an earlier slaughter.  A single raised fist in this field of corpses suggests one last stand of resistance.  Rousseau leaves out any anecdotal or narrative elements that would identify any specific time or place.  This is a work about all human inspired carnage.  The dark ground is covered with a pile of bodies, with crows feeding on human flesh. The trees look charred. The clouds are red. The choice of colors contributes to the ambiguous story line: the green of hope is completely absent; black and grey and red, the colors of mourning and blood, dominate. 

In front of the painting a solitary man sits in comfort and tweets seemingly unaware of the chaos that is in front of him.  Whatever his reason for coming to the museum is outweighed by a more immediate need to respond to something outside.  Lost in his own concerns, he misses the lesson the artist longs to teach and the museum works to preserve.  Maybe, just maybe, Shelley Koopmann’s painting, like Henri Rousseau’s before her, is not about a specific time or place.  Is this solitary man only a stand-in for each of our own responses to what we have faced (or avoided) in the chaos and carnage of the previous year?  It is important to remember that the Hebrew prophet Isaiah’s rants that underpin the Advent stories are never directed at the tyrant, but rather toward the faithful who enabled the despot by their own unfaithfulness or inaction.

The following is a scene from the BBC limited series Years and Years.  Set in an alternative near future where political power in both the US and Britain is held by far right entertainers turned politicians.  The drama follows one family over a period of many years as their lives are impacted by political decisions that they seemingly have no control over.  Here the matriarch of the family sets the record straight about their own complicity in and responsibility for their situation.

The text for Each Winter as the Year Grows Older was written by UCC pastor William Gay in 1969 at the height of the war in Vietnam.  Much like the psalmist, Gay laments the brokenness and suffering of the human condition.  Also like the psalmist, he offers visions of hope that God will intervene to renew creation and bring justice.  William Gay's wife, Annabeth, composed the tune "Carol of Hope."

Find a comfortable place to sit or lie down to listen to this arrangement by Marty Haugen.  Close your eyes or focus your gaze.  Breathe with steady and even inhales and exhales, letting the music guide your senses.

How will you be watchful and aware during this Advent season?  How will you respond?

Suggestions for further exploration:

• Read and meditate on the lectionary texts for this week.
• Work your way through the Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life by Karen Armstrong.  In this book, Armstrong explores how some variation of the Golden Rule is prevalent in nearly all religious and spiritual traditions.  She argues that compassion is intrinsic in everyone and offers concrete ways to strengthen our capacity for compassion.  Also see Armstrong's TED prize project, The Charter for Compassion.
• Practice metta meditation, also known as loving-kindness meditation, a process of directing good will to self and others.  Find instruction and guided meditations here and here.
• Learn about Bridges Out of Poverty, a nationally implemented strategy for understanding poverty and building resources for a more sustainable future.  In addition the book, there are also opportunities for online and local training.

Watch and Wait...for Change

My heart shall sing of the day you bring.
Let the fires of your justice burn.
Wipe away all tears,
for the dawn draws near,
and the world is about to turn.
 from “The Canticle of the Turning” - a contemporary setting of the Magnificat
 
During the season of Advent, we watch and wait for a turning world – one characterized by justice, comfort, a new dawn.  This new order is also characterized by seemingly incomprehensible reversals – the lion and the lamb lie together, the first will be last and the last will be first, a little child will lead them.
 
Change is constant and inevitable.  It can be exciting and longed for, but it can also be upsetting and uncomfortable.  Through the practice of yoga – on and off the mat – we build skills to manage the ups and downs of change in our lives and the world.  Through observing change without judgement or attachment, we can cultivate gratitude, balance, and joy.
 
What change are you longing for?  What change do you fear?  How do you watch and wait for change in your life and in the world?
 
Pose
Savasana is customarily the final pose in an asana practice.  It involves lying in complete stillness in order to integrate the effects of the practice.  Total relaxation is the goal of savasana and, for that reason, it is often called the most difficult yoga pose because our minds are going in a thousand different directions and our bodies are tense and fidgeting. 
 
Some may shy away from using the English name for savasasa – corpse pose.  Thinking about one’s self as a corpse might be thought of as morose and unappealing.  However, an asana practice can be considered a metaphor for a day, a season, or a lifetime.   Finding ease in our “corpseness” in savasana, we in some sense prepare for ease in the many deaths experienced throughout our lives.  Savasana becomes the concluding and a beginning act – a death to one’s old self and a rebirth to a new creation.
 
Here are some links to more thoughts about corpse pose:
 Watch + Learn: Corpse Pose, narrated by Jason Crandell, yogajournal.com
The Subtle Struggle of Savasana, Nikki Costello, yogajournal.com

Breathe
Use your breath to change your body.  Read more about it: 
 Yogic Breathing:  The Physiology of Pranayama, Kripalu Center, huffpost.com
Breathing for Life: The Mind-Body Healing Benefits of Pranayama, Sheila Patel, M.D., chopra.com
 
Practice
Consider creating a visual focus in your practice space.  This may be as simple as finding a favorite piece of art or a special object to place in a central location.  Or it could be creating a home altar with religious icons and texts, incense, photos of ancestors, and natural objects such as stone, leaves, or plants.  Such tangible visual references can provide a focal point during practice.  They can also remind you of your intentions as you pass by them in daily life.

MEB

Watch and Wait...for Joy
Is there a difference between pleasure and happiness?  Dr. Robert Lustig argues that there is and that our inability to recognize the difference is killing us.  Lustig’s research focuses on the biological roots of pleasure and happiness.  It comes down to the balancing of two neurotransmitters – dopamine (which regulates pleasure) and serotonin (which regulates happiness).  An excess of dopamine leads to addiction and a decrease in serotonin leads to depression.  So, contrary to how we are often wired, we need to seek out strategies that tamp down dopamine production (pleasure) and increase serotonin production (happiness).
 
Lustig suggests the following strategies, which he calls “The 4 Cs”:  1) Connect – In-person, face-to-face time with other people, 2) Contribute – Do something that makes the world a better place, 3) Cope – Focus on sleep, mindfulness and exercise, and 4) Cook – Eat real, whole foods.
 
For much more detail on these ideas, see the following (the first two provide a simple overview and the last is more in depth):
 
The Difference Between Happiness and Pleasure and Why It Matters at Work, Gabriel Kauper, deliveringhappiness.com
How to Solve for Chronic Unhappiness:  The Four Cs, Gabriel Kauper, deliveringhappiness.com
Are Big Corporations Hacking the American Mind, an interview Robert Lustig on The People’s Pharmacy, peoplespharmacy.com

Breathe
Square Breathing is a practice of observing inhales and exhales along with the pauses in between.  Find a comfortable seat. Close your eyes or lower your gaze.  Breathing through your nose, inhale to a steady count of 4.  Hold the inhale for a count of 4.  Exhale for a count of 4.  Hold the exhale for a count of 4.  Complete 3-5 full squares.

Practice
Using music to create pleasing sensory experience on the mat can help in sustaining your practice over time.  Just as you choose movement and breathing which lead you to be more focused, relaxed, and in the present moment, the music you choose should be an aid to your practice and not be a distraction. There’s no right or wrong music to use.  However, if you choose music with lyrics, carefully consider songs with words that contribute to your well-being.  Take some time to explore music apps to find new music.  Here are links to a couple of Youtube playlists I’ve compiled – one instrumental and one vocal:

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Watch and Wait...for Balance
“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”  Advent heralds the coming of a new beginning, a new world order characterized by an upended status quo – an evening out, a leveling, a balancing.  In anticipation of this time, we watch, we wait, we hope, we prepare.
 
On the mat, we explore balance through movement and mindful breathing.  By intentionally practicing physical balance (and imbalance), we watch/wait/hope/prepare for a deeper balance in our lives and in the world. 
 
What brings you balance?  How do you manage imbalance?  What are your roadblocks to finding balance?  How do you apply lessons learned from balancing on the mat to life off the mat?
 
Pose
While practicing the balance pose Vrksasana or Tree Pose, yoga teacher J. Brown suggests “being prepared to fall out with a smile on your face.”  This cue is a reminder to be content regardless of whether or not you “stick” the pose.  The imbalanced parts of poses are just as important, if not more important, than the balanced parts.  Wobbling and falling out of balance poses are not mistakes. Rather they are a critical part of the practice.  Learning to be content (smiling, breathing, non-judging) with imbalance on the mat, can develop equanimity which is transferable off the mat.  So that you can approach times of imbalance in life with the same smiling, breathing and non-judging contentment.
 
Here are some links to balancing practices you may want to try:
Three Versions of Tree Pose, Baxter Bell, youtube.com
It’s All About Balance, Dianne Bondy, youtube.com
Finding Your Balance Off the Mat, Dianne Bondy, yogainternational.com

e·qua·nim·i·ty
/ˌekwəˈnimədē/
noun: mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in a difficult situation.
 
Breathe
Victorious Breath aka Ujjayi Pranayama is the simplest of breathing techniques to balance the breath.  It involves taking deep inhales and slow exhales on an even count.  As the breath passes in and out of the nostrils through a slightly constricted throat, it makes a soothing, ocean wave sound.  Ujjayi can be used as part of meditation, in concert with yoga poses, or any time you need to calm yourself.
 
Find more instruction on Ujjayi Pranayama here:
Learn the Ujjayi Breath, an Ancient Yogic Breathing Technique, Melissa Eisler, chopra.com
 
Practice
You can make your home practice something you look forward to by creating a unique and special environment in which to practice.  In addition to having a dedicated spot to practice, this can be achieved by paying attention to the sensory aspects of your practice area.  In particular, aroma can be helpful to get you more focused on your practice.  You may want to start with a pre-mixed aromatherapy room spray (available locally at Health Nut Nutrition in Wyndhurst).  Once you figure out what scents you like best, you can try mixing your own essential oil combinations.  Here are a couple of links with guidance for using essential oils:
 
What You Need to Know about Essential Oils, Laine Bergeson Becco, experiencelife.com
How to Use Aromatherapy in Your Yoga Practice, Julie Gondzar, doyouyoga.com
10 Homemade Air Freshener Recipes, Jill Winger, theprairiehomestead.com

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The themes of watchfulness, waiting, anticipation, and expectation are central to the season of Advent and contemplative practices (prayer, meditation, fasting, mindfulness, yoga, etc.) are helpful tools to root one's self in these themes.  Rather than focusing on doing , these practices emphasize being - stilling the mind and body to allow gratitude, balance, joy, and change to come.  I am offering Watch and Wait, a four week yoga practice series at Bower Center for the Arts (Wednesdays, November 28, December 5, 12, and 19, 5:45-7:00 pm) Connecting deliberate movement and breath, this gentle restorative flow is a time to honor the change of seasons outside and in.  Each practice is a combination of movement, rest, and guided  relaxation. Each week will also include resources for your home practice – readings, pose suggestions, meditation and journal prompts.  I will be posting these materials here for easy access. 

Here's week 1:

Watch and Wait...for Gratitude
On his “10% Happier” podcast, ABC correspondent Dan Harris interviews author and speaker Shawn Achor about gratitude.  Achor, who studies positive psychology, discusses the effects of gratitude on the human body and gives ideas on how become more grateful.  He says that, much as we build strength in muscles by using them over time, gratitude builds when you practice it regularly.  One idea he shares is to take a few minutes each day and think of 3 new things you are grateful for.  Write them down.  Use them as a focus for your meditation and/or yoga practice.  In time, you will have a long list of blessings.
 
Listen to the entire interview here.

Pose
“Find a comfortable seat.”  This is a common invitation in yoga classes.  However, sitting for an extended period is often awkward and uncomfortable.  Just as each person’s body is different, each person’s ideal sitting posture is different.  The quest for a comfortable seat is a great lesson in observation.  Take some time over the next week to explore different postures.  Sit in a chair, on the mat with legs crossed, on your knees, etc.  Follow your breath and observe.  What do you find comfortable?  What is distracting?  What props do you need?  How do you feel?
 
Take a look at the following for more ideas on sitting comfortably:  
 
Finding a Comfortable Seat, YJ Editors, Yoga Journal
5 Steps to Finding Ease in Sukhasana, Charlotte Bell, Yoga U
To Fix That Pain in Your Back, You Might Have to Change the Way You Sit, Michaeleen Doucleff, NPR

Breathe
In yoga, we use the breath to focus and center our practice.  Controlling the breath sends a message to your brain that you are safe and able to relax.  The parasympathetic nervous system is activated, heart rate slows, and digestion is calmed.  One of the many tools available to aid in this practice is mantra or breath prayer which involves the repetition of a word or phrase that is connected to inhaling and exhaling.  Try one or more of these breath prayers (or use another of your own choosing) with your practice this week, saying in your mind the first part of the prayer on your inhale and the second on your exhale:
 
Thanks / be             I am / grateful             Give / thanks
 
Practice
You can create a sustainable home yoga practice by focusing on doing what you love—what makes your feel good, what helps center you.  Keep it simple and make it special by having a set place to practice and gathering the props you need for practice.  Everyone can benefit from the use of props in practice, regardless of experience.  Props offer access to greater space, freedom and stability.  Consider investing in the following props as you continue to build your practice:  mat, blocks, strap, bolster, blanket, tennis ball, eye pillow, sandbag, meditation cushion.  You Yoga Journal and Yoga International offer many creative uses of props.

“Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation of all abundance.” 
Eckhart Tolle
 
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