Theme/Mantra: “There are possibilities of change within you.”
Reading:
There Comes the Strangest Moment by Kate Light
There comes the strangest moment in your life,
when everything you thought before breaks free—
what you relied upon, as ground-rule and as rite
looks upside down from how it used to be.
Skin’s gone pale, your brain is shedding cells,
you question every tenet you set down:
obedient thoughts have turned to infidels
and every verb desires to be a noun.
I want – my want. I love—my love. I’ll stay
with you. I thought transitions were the best,
but I want what’s here to never go away.
I’ll make my peace, my bed, and kiss this breast…
Your heart’s in retrograde. You simply have no choice.
Things people told you turn out to be true.
You have to hold that body, hear that voice.
You’d have sworn no none knew you more than you.
How many people thought you’d never change?
But here you have. It’s beautiful. It’s strange.
Meditation:
Resting Meditation
Find a comfortable meditative position.
Take some cleansing deep breaths. (Inhale to the count of 8, hold for the count of 5, exhale for the count of 8).
Close your eyes and rest.
Be sure you are sitting comfortably with your back straight.
Allow who you are to truly be revealed.
Hold the words “I am that I am” as you breathe.
Allow your soul to reveal to you who you really are.
Embrace that self as you breathe.
Physical Movement:
Shrugs and Circles
We hold so much tension in our shoulders, so today’s movement is to work to relax that tightness.
Sit or stand in a comfortable position.
Bring both shoulders up toward your ears, exaggerating the shrug and accentuating the hold.
Release quickly, letting your shoulders drop.
Repeat 2 times.
Now bend both elbows and lightly place your fingers on the top of your shoulders.
Rotate your elbows as though drawing small circles with them (5 times in one direction, and then 5 times circling in the other direction).
Drop your arms and breathe deeply.
Focus on how relaxed your neck and shoulders feel.
Repeat as desired.
Now I invite you to also do Half Moon
(I find these three movements together are have a symbiotic benefit to the calming the psyche).
Stand straight, feet parallel and just inside hips width apart.
Raise both of your arms over your head, with the palms facing each other.
Tighten the muscles in your upper legs as you push down through your heels and toes.
Now slowly and gently bend your waist to the right. (If you want, you can hold your left wrist with your right hand and gently pull with your right hand).
As you breathe more deep, sink a little lower to the right with each exhale.
Hold this position for a few breaths.
Now return to center and drop your shoulders away from your ears.
Repeat on the left side.
Return to center.
Relax your arms.
(repeat on both sides as you desire).
Reflection:
I hope you are enjoying the variety of music in these practices as much as I am. I hadn’t realized how much music has been a teacher to me- to my soul, until I started preparing for this practice. Johnny Cash was a voice I grew up with. My father enjoyed all of the classic country artists- Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. But Johnny’s voice, with its deep vibrations have always touched me differently. A Boy Named Sue reveals the playfulness in his heavy voice and person. And in today’s gender fluid world, this song appears to have been a bit ahead of its time.
What I take away from it, though, is a really important lesson. How sure we are of some things. Right? So sure that we get emotional. Passionate, sometimes in a dangerous way. We are angry. We are bitter. We want revenge. We spend time demonizing the other.
And then love steps in (I don’t know how else this change really happens. Fear can bring about the appearance of change- but true change I think only comes through love).
And love- that says maybe you ought to thank me for that gravel in your gut and spit in your eye rather than try to tear mine out through rage.
I think this phenomenon also happens in regards to faith and belief systems. We believe so strongly in something. It is ingrained in our dna, taught to us from childhood. “Homosexuality is a sin.” “Marriage is between one man and one woman.” “Don’t die in the midst of sinning or you’ll go to hell.” I wonder what you were taught and believed for many years? Maybe still believe. But the change in me says, Jesus taught us to love, and said nothing about homosexuality. And change in me knows that one man and one woman marriage is a construct of today’s society, for truth be told, biblical marriage was typically between one man and many women. And Change has been telling me more and more that heaven and hell are right here where we live on earth.
When we are in the midst of the belief system, we would fight anyone to prove it and defend it- until we see that the fight is based in fear and hate. And when love takes over- touches the heart- it changes the heart.
Here is to our changed hearts. May God (or the Universe) teach us what possibilities of change are inside of each of us.
Song: A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash
Lyrics:
Well, my daddy left home when I was three
Didn't leave very much to my mom and me
Except this old guitar and an empty bottle of booze
Now, I don't blame him 'cause he run and hid
But the meanest thing that my daddy ever did
Was before he left, he went and named me Sue
He must've thought that it was quite a joke
And I got a lot of laughs from a lots of folk
Seems I had to fight my whole life through
Some gal would giggle and I'd turn red
And some guy'd laugh and I'd bust his head
I tell you, life ain't easy for a boy named Sue
Well, I grew up quick and I grew up mean
My fist got hard and my wits got keener
Roam from town to town to hide my shame
But I made me a vow to the moon and stars
I'd search the honky tonks and bars
And kill that man that gave me that awful name
Well, it was Gatlinburg in mid-July
And I just hit town and my throat was dry
Thought I'd stop and have myself a brew
At an old saloon on a street of mud
There at a table, dealing stud
Sat the dirty, mangy dog that named me Sue
Well, I knew that snake was my own sweet dad
From a worn-out picture that my mother had
Knew that scar on his cheek and his evil eye
He was big and bent and gray and old
And I looked at him and my blood ran cold
And I said, "My name is Sue, how do you do?
Now you gonna die"
Well, I hit him hard right between the eyes
And he went down, but to my surprise
He come up with a knife and cut off a piece of my ear
Then I busted a chair right across his teeth
And we crashed through the walls and into the street
Kicking and a-gouging in the mud and the blood and the beer
Well, I tell you, I've fought tougher men
But I really can't remember when
He kicked like a mule and he bit like a crocodile
I heard him laugh and then I heard him cuss
And he reached for his gun but I pulled mine first
He stood there lookin' at me and I saw him smile
And he said, "Son, this world is rough
And if a man's gonna make it, he's gotta be tough
And I knew I wouldn't be there to help you along
So I give you that name, and I said goodbye
And I knew you'd have to get tough or die
It's that name that helped to make you strong"
He said, "Now you just fought one heck of a fight
And I know you hate me, and you got the right to kill me now
And I wouldn't blame you if you do
But you ought to thank me, before I die
For the gravel in ya gut and the spit in ya eye
'Cause I'm the f_ that named you Sue"
What could I do?
I got all choked up and I threw down my gun
I called him my pa, and he called me his son
Come away with a different point of view
And I think about him, now and then
Every time I try and every time I win
And if I ever have a boy, I'll name him
Bill or George or Frank, anything but Sue
Petor, I hate that name
Thank you
Until Tomorrow- Peace