From The Vicar: Grounded

From The Vicar: Grounded

From The Vicar: Grounded

# From The... - Letters to the Congregation

From The Vicar: Grounded

Dear Ones of St. Columba,

 I am writing you from the state of Indiana, home of race cars and corn fields and lots of good people who like us follow Jesus in the Episcopal tradition. I'm here directing the College for Congregational Development, which is part of my role as Canon for Congregational Development. This past year as we begin to emerge from pandemic practices (and maybe even someday the pandemic itself!), I've found myself traveling much more than usual for this work. Everyone wants to catch up on all the things that got postponed or canceled during the first two years of this strange time. 

This return to travel has had an impact on my body. Moving from time zone to time zone in a matter of hours is not what our human bodies, made for travel on the ground and not in the air, are optimized for. I have found myself grateful for what you might call practices of grounding and embodiment, as ways to help myself land in new places and transition back home. This includes taking time to stop and breathe, to notice and validate the places in my body where I am tired, tense, or hurting, and to connect my feet to the ground underneath them. 

It helps. And, it is a way of praying. I think it's good for more than air travel.

I first learned about body prayers through teaching Godly Play. Some of you may remember that we did a body prayer designed for children every Sunday in Easter a few years back, as a way of integrating Godly Play practices into worship for all of us. Breathing deeply activates calm and gratitude, states of beings that orient us toward God.

Siblings in Christ, the world is in a state of constant uncertainty still, it seems. It is hard to tell each night what we might wake up to in the morning. But this state of constant change and chance does not have to keep us from being grounded where we are, be it home or Indiana. I experience worship with you each Sunday as one way of taking a deep breath and orienting my heart toward God. Breathing deeply and noticing myself in my body and my feet on the ground is another. As we work on getting better at fear, as Meghan wrote last week, and as we discern how to grow together toward the realm of God, I hope you will join me in pausing, grounding, and breathing deep.

with care and gratitude,

Alissa

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