You know, sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it to, and the body is to blame. One minute you're moving forward, running the race, fighting the good fight, dedicated to your job, your family, the people and organizations you believe in, your friends. You're planning vacations, and feeding the cats (or dogs or gerbil) and then suddenly, you're sick, or someone else is and you find yourself sliding toward a precipice in your life that you didn't even know existed! Life doesn't always go the way you want it to, and sometimes the body is to blame.
During spring break, as April really got beautiful around here, I got sick. Scary sick. My doctors and my caring partner pulled me back from the edge, but I spent over a week in bed, and you'll see me slower and spacier for a little while still to come. There were a million things that were supposed to happen that week -a birthday celebration, an all-family yard clean-up, day trips to fun places, phone meetings with colleagues and friends - I got to one of them: a day in Boston at the New England Aquarium.
I'd been to the aquarium before, but something deeper and richer happened for me this time. I was aware of the beauty and strangeness all around me, of the science, the conservation, and the excitement. But for the first time, because I was so, painfully, aware of my own body, I was fascinated by the bodies of the sea animals - animals I don't usually "like" - animals like sting rays and jellyfish. The graceful movement of their bodies seemed to fill my own stagnant, earth-bound body with well-being. I could not believe I'd never seen how they flow before - how they are not just in water, they are of water: Their bodies and their environment and their fellow creatures so seamlessly tied together that all was in constant harmony - like a dance or a song that they can sustain indefinitely. I sat and stood and walked in wonder and felt tired worn-out things in me begin to smooth and flow again. I felt peace instead of thinking it.
May is the season of the body. It is the ancient beginning of summer, since between now and the end of June we are graced with the longest light of the entire year. May is about physical love: fertility and the joy of finding love in our own bodies and in the bodies of our partners. It is the perfect time to love our bodies into well-being, and to teach our children how to love their physical appearance, and how to honor themselves and others with their romantic and physical behavior and choices. In May our bodies are free - free from all those layers of clothes and socks and coats and scarves and hats! - whew! Free to run, to walk freely, or sit on the porch in sunshine-bliss, to swim, to kayak again, to play ball and to lie in the grass and look up through the newly-leafed trees. May our spirits follow the places our bodies will go, and may we know love, health and happiness in the months ahead.
Warmly,
Rev. Jennifer
PS: I'm off for two weeks in May, on a journey of pilgrimage to France and Ireland. If modern technologies, and the god/desses who watch over us Luddites, will allow, I will blog from France for the first week to include you in the many wonderful experiences our pilgrimage group is encountering. Please check the "Pilgrimage & Mission Page" of my blog for these updates. - JL
During spring break, as April really got beautiful around here, I got sick. Scary sick. My doctors and my caring partner pulled me back from the edge, but I spent over a week in bed, and you'll see me slower and spacier for a little while still to come. There were a million things that were supposed to happen that week -a birthday celebration, an all-family yard clean-up, day trips to fun places, phone meetings with colleagues and friends - I got to one of them: a day in Boston at the New England Aquarium.
I'd been to the aquarium before, but something deeper and richer happened for me this time. I was aware of the beauty and strangeness all around me, of the science, the conservation, and the excitement. But for the first time, because I was so, painfully, aware of my own body, I was fascinated by the bodies of the sea animals - animals I don't usually "like" - animals like sting rays and jellyfish. The graceful movement of their bodies seemed to fill my own stagnant, earth-bound body with well-being. I could not believe I'd never seen how they flow before - how they are not just in water, they are of water: Their bodies and their environment and their fellow creatures so seamlessly tied together that all was in constant harmony - like a dance or a song that they can sustain indefinitely. I sat and stood and walked in wonder and felt tired worn-out things in me begin to smooth and flow again. I felt peace instead of thinking it.
May is the season of the body. It is the ancient beginning of summer, since between now and the end of June we are graced with the longest light of the entire year. May is about physical love: fertility and the joy of finding love in our own bodies and in the bodies of our partners. It is the perfect time to love our bodies into well-being, and to teach our children how to love their physical appearance, and how to honor themselves and others with their romantic and physical behavior and choices. In May our bodies are free - free from all those layers of clothes and socks and coats and scarves and hats! - whew! Free to run, to walk freely, or sit on the porch in sunshine-bliss, to swim, to kayak again, to play ball and to lie in the grass and look up through the newly-leafed trees. May our spirits follow the places our bodies will go, and may we know love, health and happiness in the months ahead.
Warmly,
Rev. Jennifer
PS: I'm off for two weeks in May, on a journey of pilgrimage to France and Ireland. If modern technologies, and the god/desses who watch over us Luddites, will allow, I will blog from France for the first week to include you in the many wonderful experiences our pilgrimage group is encountering. Please check the "Pilgrimage & Mission Page" of my blog for these updates. - JL
