Virtual Pause

April 3, 2023

Pursuing a just world is what we are called to do. Yet often

Our presence is what makes a difference. Our presence is

Love can never really grow if it makes comfort zone a home.

There will be times when love requires you to shed old skin

And embody something new. You can re-create your love as

Love can only exist where vulnerability exists.

Love can only exist where honesty exists.

Love can only exist where judgment doesn’t exist.

 Comfort Zones, Billy

Chameleon Aura

First reading Isaiah 42

March 27, 2023

In his book, When Stillness Speaks, Eckart

“When you completely accept this moment, when you no longer argue

How many times throughout the day do we resist accepting the

Our listening portion today:

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a

When the soul lies down in that grass,

the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas. language, even the phrase "each other"

-Rumi: Quatrain 158", in Open Secret: Versions of

photo credit: Callum Skelton on unsplash

March 20, 2023

We have everything we need. I don’t always believe that. I

Our listening portion today is from a Center for Action and

Remember:

https://cac.org/daily-meditations/let-nothing-frighten-you-2023-03-17/  

March 6, 2023

I listened to a podcast the other day the cited research on gratitude. Gratitude changes the brain! But what is surprising is what kind of gratitude – it is in receiving gratitude, not giving it, that changes things inside of us.

Today we will listen to a few brief stories about receiving gratitude, and then identify our own memory of when someone was grateful for something we did.

Listening portion today:

For my part, I am almost contented just now, and very thankful.

Gratitude is a divine emotion: it fills the heart, but not to bursting; it warms it, but not to fever.

Charlotte Bronte

Science of Gratitude and How to Build a Gratitude Practice – Huberman Lab Podcast

https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-gratitude-and-how-to-build-a-gratitude-practice/

February 27, 2023

I find that my “way” is to bring my problems and agenda into my tent (my place of supposed stillness and integration) and try to solve them, instead of just being still. The pressures of the outside world squeeze out any time just be, so I end up “doing” in my tent, versus just being. And this just perpetuates the chaos!

If you can, get outside, or look out the window. Today we will be connecting with nature as we root ourselves into the soil and learn the beauty of being, instead of doing.

Listening portion today:

On days you can’t hear yourself

Slow down to

Let your mind and body

Catch up to each other

Stillness – Rupi Kaur

February 13, 2023

We go through life creating the container by which we can feel safe, secure, and succeed. This sometimes means that our world becomes small, and meanwhile our soul was created uniquely to contribute to this world. Our soul was designed to dance – giving its gifts to the world.

Today we will use imagery to settle ourselves into the earth – rooting ourselves deeply in creation and breathing fresh air and life. We will connect with our source, and see what may be holding us back from exploring our soul and letting it dance.

Our listening portion today is an excerpt from the poem Sweet Darkness from David Whyte:

You must learn one thing.

The world was made to be free in,

Give up all the other worlds

Except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet confinement of your aloneness

To learn anything or anyone that does not bring you alive

Is too small for you.

February 6, 2023

When I am dealing with a situation where I feel out of control, neglected, or taken advantage of, I find myself bubbling up with anger and ready to fight. Often my way of expressing myself, whether in my head or through words or actions, is not aligned with my values, and tends to make the situation worse. In this pause, we will allow ourselves to feel what comes up in our body when we are in these types of situations and allow ourselves to transform from a fighting or hiding stance, to a divine dance with God’s goodness, and then to a strong rooted stance that allows our next word or action to have integrity with who we are.

January 23, 2023

Sometimes the fog blocks are literal view of the landscape that we are in, and sometimes our own mental fog of trying to control and fix everything blocks our view as well. We are and have everything we need at this very moment – we just have to relax into it.

In this episode we will learn to relax into the openness in us that is already there.

Listening portion:

Oh do you have time to linger

For just a little while

Out of your busy

And very important day

For the goldfinches

That have gathered in a field of thistles

For a musical battle,

To see who can sing

The highest note,

Or the lowest,

Or the most expressive of mirth,

Or the most tender?

Drink the air

As they strive

Melodiously

Not for your sake

And not for mine

And not for the sake of winning

But for sheer delight and gratitude –

Believe us, they say,

It is a serious thing

Just to be alive

On this fresh morning

In this broken world.

I beg of you,

Do not walk by

Without pausing

To attend to this

Rather ridiculous performance.

It could mean something.

It could mean everything.

It could be what Rilke meant, when he wrote:

You must change your life.

Invitation, Mary Oliver.

January 9, 2023

Using our talents, gifts and skills for our own achievement and contribution to the world is obviously a great goal. Yet when we end up building our lives on these things, protecting them at all costs, and they become our identity, they act as barnacles on the bottom of our boats, keeping us from moving in the world with humility and freedom.

Today we will spend time being grateful for a talent, gift, or skill that we have cultivated in our lives. Then, we will look deeper to see what inner motivation or need may be driving it, so we can move freely and unattached.

Listening portion today:

Have the same mindset as Christ,

Who, being in very nature God,

Did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,

Being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man

He humbled himself

By becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:5-8 (CEB)