Good morning and welcome.
Please settle into your space.
Sit or stand,
However you will feel most comfortable.
You can even stretch your arms overhead and reach and extend yourself.
Here is a Dakota saying,
The greatest journey we will undertake is from our heads to our hearts.
Take three deep breaths.
When you do this,
Try to think of breathing into your lungs and into your heart.
Think of expanding your heart with each one of these breaths and drawing in the light into you.
Inhale deeply and exhale through your mouth.
Once again,
Inhale deeply,
Raise your arms overhead,
Stretch yourselves up,
Inhale,
Exhale.
Last one,
Breathe in,
Open yourself up,
Breathe in light,
Imagine it coming into your heart.
That force that is unseen yet felt deeply.
Lao Cha,
The Chinese philosopher said,
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
We are vulnerable in love yet it must be so.
How else can we discover that strength and that courage that is in each of us?
Even as we may not understand it,
As is generally the case,
It is the greatest of gifts to give and to receive.
Begin with loving yourself,
Who you really are.
God doesn't make mistakes.
That strength feels your being,
It feels your soul.
That light in our hearts that often feels like a slingshot coming both into and out of our hearts.
It has a determination so powerful it can bring tears.
It is an explosion or an implosion.
It is both,
Just as we are a contradiction.
One we do not often understand.
It breaks us and it builds us.
It is that strength,
That courage.
Take a deep breath in and exhale through your mouth.
When we allow more love into our hearts,
It comes holding the hand of joy.
As author James Finley states,
We are here for one thing,
To learn to love because God is love.
1 Corinthians chapter 16 verse 14,
Do everything in love and may it be so.
