Tag Archives: yoga

Christ in Love; Christ in All Things

“Through [Christ]…let us continually offer God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that confess his name.  Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have; God is pleased by sacrifices of that kind.”  ~Hebrews 13: 15-16

My babies have been scooting

little cars and trucks over the furniture,

have been twirling themselves over the soft fuzz of carpet in the living room;

I sit at the top of my mat giving thanks and praise to God

for my life, family, prayer, and practice;

I cross myself in the name of our triune God,

hop to my feet, fold and roll my mat, and

my babies run, skip, and giggle toward me

holding out the purple velcro strap they know

I use at the very end.

 

My babies snuggle down to the bottom edge of their pillow,

pull the blankets to the bottom edge of their ear

and wait in their bed for a kiss.

I bend, lean, and reach over

tracing the cross on their forehead,

“God bless you, for ever and ever and always,” I whisper.

They pull my face close, small hands on my cheeks,

“God bless you, for ever and ever and always,” they whisper

in soft, tired voices.  They reach out their arms

for the hug they know comes at the very end.

Even More

A wise friend has said,
“Yoga is a fine fuel;”
it keeps us going,
sometimes for ages,
past our last practice.
Indeed, it is the repetition
of the little movements
and breaths of our days
that come back to us
when we’ve nothing left to give –
it is the cardinal’s red flash across
our back-porch window,
his flitting between the forsythia branches;
it is the plethora of our little boy’s
generous hugging, his loving squeeze
when we are happy, sad, angry, tired;
it is the unwavering “I love you” of our two-year-old,
the immediate “it’s ok” of our four-year-old;
the surprising “thanks for having me”of our nine-year-old.

All these things come back to us –
our hard work moving and breathing on the mat,
our constant glances through the window,
our cuddling through the night,
our speaking love through the day,
our effortful forgiveness at all hours,
our creation of enjoyable experiences –
and we are given
freedom of movement,
glimpses of beauty,
comforting touch,
words of love, forgiveness, gratitude.

But even more than all of this,
Divinity comes to us without
our effort –
for God loves us first
God chases us always
God never turns away
God always waits.

God in infinite humility
comes to us in person,
in Christ, in a Spirit
that reaches into our own
without our needing to lift a finger of effort

but to say “Yes.”

Sometimes saying yes
feels like mountain-moving.

Thank God he is God.
Thank God he is even more
All-Loving than I can understand.

household gurus

My yoga happens in the middle of things —
playtime,
bedtime,
mealtime,
in the middle of the house.

I am in downward facing dog
and the little ones run toy cars
over the side table,
over the piano bench,
over my back and leg.
They put their little hands on my waist,
their sweet foreheads on my side,
hugging me because I am there.
They camp out beneath my upside down “v”
so that my jump forward becomes a leap, or a walk.
They stand, sit, or squat at the top of my mat,
and now my forward bend is many breaths longer than I planned.
They show me where to go deeper
and when to breathe slower
and how to move faster.

I am in corpse pose
as my husband walks by —
he lifts, lengthens, and releases
each leg in turn,
coaxes my shoulder blades into lying flat,
holds my head and extends my neck.
He’s been paying attention.

When I come back to sitting
the little ones bring the strap for my rolled up mat
saying, “here ya go” and giggling.
My husband smiles at me from the chair.

I am loved.