Here we find ourselves marking the last few days of February off our calendars. In a month characterized by heart shaped candies and brightly wrapped gifts, it can be difficult to extract genuine meaning from all the flashy displays. We are distracted and consumed with tasks like filing the taxes or maybe some early spring-cleaning. We are simply surviving another semester, another work year, another season. However, we must remember to stay afloat amidst life’s oceans. I invite you all to find a balance in your life: a balance of you heart, your health, and the holiness that connects you to God and others.
“At its most basic level, the everyday practice of being with other people is the practice of loving the neighbor as the self. More intricately, it is the practice of coming face-to-face with another human being”–Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
Take a look inside your heart. What storms are brewing? Do you have unresolved feelings towards someone? Are you pushing others away, and in turn, pushing yourself away? In order to receive the fruits of life, we must treat each human encounter as a chance to love, to learn, to listen. Do this and life will start to bear its fruits to you in wonderful ways.
“The practice of wearing skin is so obvious that almost no one engages it as spiritual practice, yet here is a place to begin: with tears, aches, moans, gooseflesh, heat.”-Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
Next, take a moment to focus on your body. Focus on each breathe and release any aches or pains that reside in your muscles. Go outside for a walk in the rain or the sunshine. Stretch out your arms, your fingers, your toes. Take a bath. Dance barefoot. Be thankful for each limb, each part of you, for the body is sacred.
“As long as you are on the earth and you know it, you are where you are supposed to be. You have everything you need to ground yourself in God.”- Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
Finally, take a look at the holiness around you. Recognize the holiness in the way the sidewalk stretches before you, in the eyes of a baby gazing up at you, in the broth of a cup of delicious vegatable soup. Remember to be thankful for all that was created before you and everything that will begin to unfold after you. Holiness permeates all things and we must not become blind to its wonder.
I hope that you will remember to keep this balance in your life even when the world attempts to push you off its merry go round. It is that connection of our hearts, our bodies, and our souls that enables us to live fully into who were created to be.
Katie Turpen
February 2012