Move Your Feet

Seen on the door exiting the exam room at Michiana Hematology and Oncology...

The African Proverb, “When you pray, move your feet,” has often been used to encourage Christians, or other people of faith, to take appropriate actions in the world. In fact, faith is intended to guide our choices in ways that is consistent with a greater meaning of life.

As with other things, the truth of this idea is reflected in our physical world. All movement consists of two distinct (and seemingly unrelated) processes: relaxation and contraction. Relaxation is only half the equation for a meaningful life, because contrACTION is also needed. Here are the words to Mountain Top, by singer/songwriter, Amy Grant:

I love to sing and I love to pray
Worship the Lord most everyday
I go to the temple, and I just want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and its ways

[Chorus:]
And I'd love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I'd love to stand on a mountain top
'Cause I love to feel my spirit soar
But I've got to come down from that mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they'll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord

Now, praising the Father is a good thing to do
Worship the Trinity in spirit and truth
But if we worshipped all of the time
There would be no one to lead the blind

[Chorus]

Now, I am not saying that worship is wrong
But worship is more than just singing a song
It's all that you say, and everything that you do
It's letting His Spirit live through you

[Chorus]

Worship is more than just singing a song, and if you are to develop a life that has meaning, you are required to do more than to meditate in a vacuum. So as I prepare to reenter the world of my life back in Michigan, here are three actions I intend to take as a way of honoring the relaxation I have been so thoroughly enjoying this winter on Pine Island, here in Florida: 

1.    Get involved with the new Hospice at Home “No one dies alone” program 

2.    Work to bring Art/Poems (collaboration pairing visual artists with poets) to our area

3.   Join and/or create a writers group/s to keep me inspired and writing

Patty Reddy representing Stories at the Women's Expo in South Bend.

It is exciting to face the changes that greet me on my return, one of which is welcoming my sister, Janis Smith, to the office space where I practice at 815 Main Street. She has a massage therapy practice and has rented the room right next to mine. I look forward to being on her massage table, and to our walking downtown together, and sharing life. What gift that we get to be neighbors! Additionally, I will start getting our home ready for sale and start looking for a mobile/modular home in the park on Glenlord Road. We plan to downsize and make it easier for us to continue to enjoy spending winters in Florida.

The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it,

move with it,

and join the dance.

Alan Watts

Extreme Unction

I am not preoccupied with death, but it would be true to say that I have a hyper sensitivity to mortality, meaning to the passing from the current. The reality is that everything changes form, but it does not mean an end to us, it means a new beginning: “…the caterpillar has the heart of a butterfly.”

 

InThe Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, Caroline Myss writes of the parallels between the sacraments (Christian), the chakras (Hindu), and the Sefirots of the Jewish Kaballah. Growing up as a Protestant, reading her book was the first time I heard the term extreme unction, but I already knew the blessing of prayers for healing and anointing with oil.

Extreme unction today is associated most often the forgiveness of sins and preparation for physical death known commonly as “last rights.” In the Roman Catholic sacrament the anointing and blessing is of the organs of the five external senses (eyes, ears, nostrils, lips, hands), the feet, and, for men, the loins. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the sacrament is done by multiple (seven, five, or three) priests (when it is absolutely necessary it can be done by just one); anointing the forehead, chin, cheeks, hands, nostrils, and breast. You can certainly see why Myss associated the sacraments with the chakras.

The crown (seventh) chakra is located at the top of the head, and is the energy from which our physical manifestation is said to come. It is seen as eternal, having neither a beginning nor an ending, and is the expression of our devotion (as in to a deity or cause), prophecy, and inspiration.

Symbolically it represents the process of retrieving one's spirit from the various corners of one's life that still hold unfinished business. One calls one's spirit back in order to end this world and return to the spiritual dimension complete.

The sacred truth in the seventh chakra is Live in the Present Moment.  

(http://www.englishwordplay.com/myss1.html)

As I organize and pack, in preparation for leaving Pine Island next week, I will hold loving intention for this home on Skipper Lane (and Katey, its owner), the kitties I have visited (Sonny and Hector), the Eagles, the Tortoises, Grandmother Tree, and each of the people I have met. I will remember Dave, from Pine Island Cycles, who brought me an innertube at 9:30 on a Saturday night so I could ride bikes on Sunday with Linda Higbee, visiting from Michigan. I will remember Scott and Diane Lampitt, owners of Earth & Spirit Garden Gallery, where I held a book signing and workshop around Stories. I will especially hold intention for the other members of Pine Island Writers, each of whom have touched my heart.

On my rides, I will sprinkle blessings of loving intention along the bike path just as the priests sprinkle holy oil on the specific areas of the body. I will be mindful of calling my spirit back in order to leave this sacred place and return to Michigan complete.

Cotton Candy Sunset

Nature lets you create a cocoon of silence inside. 

 

In an interesting way, the “sounds” of nature are part of what I experience as “silence.” Today I am listening to the wind. I admit that I love the sound. I am sure there would be an upper limit, meaning I am not delusional to think I would enjoy the sounds of a hurricane. I also value being safe and comfortable inside. To me, Nature is an inside job. 

Last night I was treated to the most amazing cotton candy cloud formation. I don’t think I have ever seen anything just like it. I found myself (I love that phrase!) giddy watching the changing shapes and colors. One friend, humor author Sherri Conor, commented on my photo saying how cool it is that God never paints the same scene twice. Just like the sunsets, we are unique. 

This winter has been a delicious time of self-discovery for me. I have been intentional about that, accepting the healing from surgery to be about a lot more than just having had that tumor removed (along with all of my feminine plumbing). It is not so much what happens to us in life, but what we make out of that. I chose to make this a time to reconnect to my core, and Nature has been the avenue for my doing that. 

So what do you discover when you spend time with Nature in a cocoon of silence? You discover what you forgot: There are no accidents. Your life matters. You are loved. Life is worth living. There are myriad opportunities every moment to celebrate and be in joy.

Seeking nature's truth for your life through quiet appreciation

offers you an important view of your own life

as tied to Nature's support systems

and in turn to the spiritual support system of the Universe.

(Meredith L. Young-Sowers)

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