You are here.
Welcome.
As you gather in this place,
Allow yourself to relax into the seat.
Allow the chair to care for you in this moment.
If you're comfortable closing your eyes or resting your gaze ahead of you,
Please do so.
And begin to breathe.
As you gather in this place,
Allow yourself to relax into the seat.
This breathing practice is your most important practice.
It's tapping into what is involuntary,
What is ever-present,
What is within you and outside of you all at the same time.
Your breath becomes you and your breath is becoming life outside of you.
Your breath grounds you and enables you to connect with the earth.
Your breath is miraculous,
Really.
So let's connect again with this miraculous breath and appreciate the gifts that you've received this week.
Maybe first and foremost is the gift of breath,
The gift of being.
Now,
Recognize the giver of that gift,
The one whose grace and love is for you and within you.
One whose name is compassion and mercy.
Connect with that grace.
Connect with that compassion.
Connect with that mercy.
Now that you're connected with holy boldness and courage,
Let us begin to review our week.
There's moments in our week where we recognize our behavior,
Others' behavior,
Our response,
Our reaction could be events driven,
Could be movement driven.
Begin to review your week.
Let's begin.
Okay.
Let's begin.
If a thought or feeling arises,
Explore it with compassionate curiosity.
What is that thought linked to?
Can you pinpoint that feeling somewhere in your body?
Thoughts and feelings are information.
Information from within telling us,
Guiding us,
Sometimes even chastising us.
Here's the important news.
They're only thoughts and feelings.
They are not you.
A thought doesn't make you.
A feeling doesn't make you.
Explore them.
What information is this thought or feeling helping me to discern about my life?
About that action?
About that thought?
And continue to review your week.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
Okay.
In the review of your week,
Maybe something has come up.
A mistake,
A misstep,
A miscommunication.
Something that's happened along the way.
Maybe like me,
You focus on the playlet it creates,
Recreating the players involved.
Sometimes if my mind is really active,
I get a chorus and it's in Shakespearean English.
Recognize it for yourself as a mistake,
Misstep,
Miscommunication.
These things happen.
Whatever it is this week,
Ask forgiveness of God.
And now forgive yourself.
Forgiveness is ultimately connected with attachment.
The longer we hang on to those mistakes,
Missteps,
Miscommunications,
The longer it informs our character.
Mistake,
Misstep,
Miscommunication does not define us.
It is God that defines us.
Forgiveness is about breaking the attachment to that thing,
To that behavior and shoring up,
Strengthening an attachment to the God of love,
To the God of peace,
To the God of compassion.
It is God who defined us first as God's original blessing as daughters,
Sons,
Children of God,
Each and every one of us.
I wonder if you can attach yourself to that truth.
This week we recognize the sustenance and provision that God gives us as part of our original blessing.
And just like our breath,
God remains with us ever present,
Ever nurturing,
Somehow within us and outside of us all at the same time.
And here we find ourself once again with our God,
Who invites us to breathe.
Breathe a prayer with all creation,
The prayer that Jesus taught us to pray.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen.
God bless you as you go from this place as forgiven and reconciled people.
Amen.
