There have been a few changes in our house just recently. Trel has donned leggings and has become fully engrossed in a yoga challenge (seriously he has realised this has improved his running). I've dusted off the ballet DVD and joined my regular ballet class via zoom for a class today. Oh how I had missed it and still have a mad grin on my face. Now I am no Pavlova (I've eaten too many of them) but the virtual group activity of moving to music has been the much needed tonic and wellbeing boost that was needed.
The diocese has issued a great link to a good website for triggering how we respond to our wellbeing and offers ways of encouragement. There are a myriad of suggestions which I have personally found to be good reminders to reconnect with some of the activities that I have been really missing.
One of the activities that St Peters' embraced last Sunday was a practical activity of making a card for giving to someone. The simple act and intention of doing something for somebody else engages our minds into thinking objectively about something else. This focus can guide us to 'block' out the worries and noise without and enable us to create something within and with a purpose. For so many of us at the moment 'blocking' out the noise from the news and general ability to get through January rainy days has increased anxieties to another level! It was with much relief that the suggestion to be active triggered my mind with relish. Golf is off the cards at the moment (my go to activity), salsa DVD's can get a bit boring once you've done them most days for months and it's INSIDE arrrrgggg again! But I'd almost forgotten the manically grinning pleasure of my weekly ballet class that I had been attending. Ladies of a certain age all swaying with graceful movement in synchronicity with each other; one could not help but smile because it gave such joy. There I've used joy again. Joy seemed to touch most pieces of scripture that I had read and heard throughout this week. I realised that joy needs to be nurtured as ourselves need to be nurtured. Jesus reminded us to love one another as we love ourselves, and we often hear this quoted. But it is hard to love ourselves sometimes, and this is where nurturing our wellbeing: our body, mind and spirit is so absolutely vital if we are going to live to the best of our ability and 'walk' with Jesus as He invites us so to do.
Jesus would often take himself off to a mountain to pray, a quiet place, a place away from others. He would then join in debate and discourse as he taught, we have seen how learning helps our wellbeing. Debate and conversation is vital to generate thought and reflection. Jesus loved a good party. Loads of settings where Jesus was eating, conversing, sharing, listening. Jesus on earth as man. Jesus had times of joy, tears, grief, rage, love...the whole range of human experience. He experienced everything of body, mind and spirit, Jesus with us in all of this; for me that is quite a comforting thought.
‘A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.’ John 13:34-35
Recently reminded about liturgical dance, a memory shifted in a move that we had been asked to do in ballet class some months ago. I cannot tell you why or how, but a particular combination of movement and music enabled me and triggered me unfettered to pray in quite a different kind of way. I had shared it with another member at class and a few of us realised that it was an opportunity to literally offer up prayer in a way not experienced before. Ok so I will have lost some of you now as dancing prayer is for many of us a 'little out there' but I do know that in my heart of hearts when I danced (keep it real I am no Billy Elliot and I didn't exactly feel electricity - perhaps a few sparks) I did connect in prayer in a way I had not done so before. But it is nothing new. Another memory was the World of Ballet Book circa 1969/70 and a black and white photograph of the Royal Ballet dancing in a cathedral somewhere, my memory won't recall the rest of that image, but this article in the Church Times suggests I wasn't dreaming it. This more recent experience of dance in church was not the same one as my 1960's memory, however...
Indeed our very own Peterborough Cathedral has it's very own image of dancing Bishops, if bishops can dance, who are we to gainsay?
I cannot imagine for one minuet my friends that anyone of you will be leaping around your home space with 'nice toes, naughty toes', or looking in the mirror to see if your carriage of arms is en point....see what I did there! But there will be an activity that engages your body, mind and spirit and recharges you with an energy that is the Spirit working within you to refill you with joy in your present moment.
https://youtu.be/3iRJyd8t8-g What a Beautiful Name - dance...
For me, that was prayer using body, mind and spirit, and pure joy in praise. Perhaps then, like Billy Elliot and Electricity, prayer can bring sparks.
https://youtu.be/muBrh7Y5ZL0 Electricity - Billy Elliot
Peace be with you friends <><
Caroline :)
Celtic Morning Prayers tomorrow at 9am
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