I wonder how you are doing with the snow?
I know in our house it meant the kids got dismissed early yesterday and in the excitement and frustration, it made me wonder about you? Was your day disrupted by early dismissal, difficult travel or cancellations?
Wherever you are, I pray you've arrived safely and am curious if you found the snow to be as beautiful as it was altering? Amid all of the chaos, excitement and change of yesterday, I couldn't help but find myself staring out the window. I was mesmerized by the twirling and dancing of the snow as it blanketed and covered everything it touched.
For today's Inbox Inhale, I want to give you the permission to pause for a few breaths and go take a look.
Maybe find a nearby window or take a minute to step outside and allow yourself to feel the cold against your face, hear the crunch beneath your feet and take in the sight of what's before you. Inhale the truth that God’s love covers you in the same way that the snow blankets creation and is as present to you as the white flakes hugging the branches.
As an adult I've come to see snow as mostly one big disruption. But for my kids - it's ALWAYS cause for celebration. Every time they see a snowflake drop, they immediately squeal in excitement and run out the back door. That’s how we started yesterday. In the early dark hours of the morning before the sun even showed its face, my kids kids' faces were awake, bright-eyed and running outside to catch some snow. With their arms stretched out wide and chins tilted to the sky, they raced to see who could capture a snowflake in their mouth first.
“Look mom, snowflakes on my tongue," they laughed.
"I can feel them!"
That's the wonder and gift of our bodies. That we can feel our life.
This was my invitation for yoga last week and I opened class with this quote:
“Your body is not something you have.
It’s an experience you are.”
- The Wisdom of Your Body
Your body is where you have the felt-sense and revelation of God. Both outside of yourself and within, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Whether that’s catching snowflakes on your tongue, hearing music that moves you, feeling tears of sorrow or wonder slide down your cheeks, or having your heart broken only to be stitched back together with the tender hope of new beginnings...your body is how you experience your life.
I don’t often slow down long enough to recognize and remember that my body is my experience.
Turns out that this forgetting is common in the west.
We’ve come to value our minds as the ultimate way of knowing and see our bodies as objects. Objects that we must evaluate...and in the evaluating we are left feeling frustrated, disappointed, ashamed or judgmental of ourselves. So much so that researchers characterize our relationship with our bodies in western culture as “normative discontent.”
But I love McBride's book, because she invites us towards remembering when writes, “being fully connected to your body is being fully alive.”
So what if we were to pause the evaluating long enough to take in the experiences around us?
To feel the snow on our face? To let our bodies be our experience of living just as they were created to be?
Her words have been a welcomed invitation because I surprised myself yesterday morning. After two minutes of watching my kids outside, I decided to press mute on my mind’s concerned voice about tracking water through the house, or messing up my already messy hair....and slid open the glass door. Letting out a squeal as the cold air hit my face, I jumped between my kiddos and with laughter bubbling up, stretched my arms out wide and waited to catch the snow.
As the icy flakes pricked my palms and face, the contrast of cold and warmth jolted through my skin. Slowly....I became aware that this contrast was a familiar sensation.
I've felt this contrast of warm and cold lately, but somewhat in the reverse. The warmth has been on the outside as it's been a strangely (and worrisomely) warm winter.
And yet I keep catching myself reaching for warm tea. Warm coffee. Part of me just wants to make winter come faster....but it's also felt like I need to comfort myself. The ongoing disappointments, cancellations and anxiety of this still-not-over-pandemic seem to swirl like cold air inside of me.
In The Book of Joy (that I mentioned last time), psychologists found that loneliness causes people to reach for something warm.....Like warm soup or warm tea.
Well who knew?!
I hadn’t really slowed down long enough to let myself recognize that I've been feeling lonely. That's the cool feeling inside of me that keeps reaching for warmth. I think there are a lot of contributing factors, like the pandemic and the reality that I'm living in quite a few in-between-spaces with our kids, future plans, family and life. Maybe you are living in some in-between-spaces too?
I wonder if loneliness is a common feeling that we have with in-between-spaces because it's hard to explain our experience to others and we haven't yet had the time to grow roots that connect us. For me, the gift of tuning into my body as I stood in the middle of the snow, was that it offered pathways of connection within my own life experience. Connections that I can now name and share with you; offering me a bridge towards more connection.
Wow.
And that’s what the Archbishop Tutu went on to say in the book. As humans we naturally reach for warmth when we are lonely. So trust this inclination. Trust God’s nudging within you.
I can see now that God never left me, even when I felt lonely. It was God who was nudging me to reach towards the warmth of laughter with my kids, a snuggle with my husband (which normally is at the bottom of my love language list), some good tea and reaching out to a friend walking through grief. Even before I could name that I was lonely, God was nudging my body to move towards the antidote of connection.
I wonder if your body wants to nudge you towards a way of knowing or connection?
TO TRY:
(Adapted from ch. 1 of Wisdom of your Body)
I invite you to walk outside or to a window, and look at the snow.
(Supposed to get more snow tomorrow, so there's plenty of time!)
Feel it. What do you notice? Or smell? What body sensations do you have? Do any emotions begin to emerge from your body?
Take a deep breath in, and let it out slowly.
Thank yourself for taking a moment to slow down and pay attention.
TO RECEIVE:
Gratitude Zoom Yoga Flow. Join this Friday morning at 615am for a 35 minute embodied gratitude flow.
Gratitude is the second step of the Prayer of the Examen and invites you to see life as a gift given. One to be received. Researchers have also found that gratitude grows joy. I'd love for you to join.
I leave you with a parting prayer,
May you receive the gift of your body.
May connection warm you and your senses delight you.
And may these words of Scripture serve as a reminder:
"What you are now,
you are through the grace of God,
and the grace which was given to you
has not been wasted."
-1 Corinthians 15:10
May it be so,
Devany