ED: Note. For the summer, our Ministerial intern Brigitta Vieyra will be taking over Reverend Christine’s Notes From Your Dance Partner column, and as per her request, the column name has temporarily changed to Field Notes From Your Ministerial Intern.
One of my daily spiritual practices is to slow down with a good stretch. Some days I am more achy, other days only a little sore. If I stay with the movements and let my breath carry me through, eventually I start to unwind and soften into a humble posture of letting go and letting in. A letting go of stresses and worries that keep my mind and body weighed down and a letting in of gentle compassion into the tender places in my heart.
During one of my stretches, my mind pondered about the ways UUism has become a stretch for my spirit. In private and in public, our faith tradition invites me, again and again, to meet my growing edge. To humbly let go of grasping and striving and make room to let in whatever has the capacity to transform me into greater depths. In community, we gather to practice stretching our minds, our hearts, our bodies, and our spirits back towards ourselves and outwards towards one another. With each stretch, we become stronger in our faith to transform the world with our love.
This week, may you notice the places in your life where you are being called to stretch and strengthen. Perhaps it’s a children’s book at the library that will lure you into laughter, a phone call with a loved one that will expand your heart center, or some chair yoga that will attend to that ache in your lower back.
Whatever it is, may you let go and let in, staying open and curious to the mini moments of daily transformation always ready to touch our lives.
-Brigitta Vieyra