Pause for a moment.  Notice your breath.
 
Are you shallow-breathing or holding your breath? 
 
Both are common when in front of a screen.  Both are common during times of fight, flight, or freeze. 
 
Our heart rate increases and breathing becomes restricted readying us for whatever action is needed to help us survive a threatening situation.  While being in front of a screen is a false threat (our survival is not at stake), it can trigger the same bodily responses.  
 
What we see, hear, and read on screens often keeps threats right in front of us keeping us in fear of what looms around every corner…and it’s certainly heightened this year! 
 
Interestingly enough, the breath is in the spotlight this year—the ability to breathe being threatened by COVID-19, breath being forcibly cut off by a police officer’s knee, fear of being unable to breathe when wearing facemasks, fear of others’ breath who are not wearing facemasks…
 
Survival breathing can become the norm when our days (and nights) are filled with hypervigilance (compulsively on the lookout for threats).  This “survival breathing” can lead to a host of issues from sleep problems to overly consuming food or information, from chronic anxiety to the inability to make wise decisions. 
 
Our bodies, minds, emotions, and souls need the fullness of the breath. 
 
Without breath, there is no life (literally and metaphorically).  Poet Mary Oliver speaks of the latter when she writes, “Listen, are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”  To live fully, creatively, and wisely, we need the breath.
 
Earlier this year, I taught “Meditating with the Aramaic Beatitudes.” In Jesus’ native language of Aramaic (which lends itself to various images & layers of meaning), one translation of the very first Beatitude found in Matthew 5:3 reads, “Ripe are those who find their home in the breath (the Spirit); they shall be attuned to the inner reign of God.” 
 
The word for “spirit,” rukha in Aramaic (like ruach in Hebrew and pneuma in Greek), can also be translated as “breath.”  What does finding your home in the breath (which is also Spirit) offer you today?  How is breathing foundational to your ability to be present to God, yourself, and others?  What actions can you take to help others’ “find their home in the breath,” too?  After all, we are all connected by the same breath!     
 
Several years ago after teaching classes on “Breathing as a Spiritual Practice,” I created a short, 3-part video series with light-hearted exercises to give our diaphragms needed attention so that a slow, relaxed breath is more easily remembered and accessible to us.  Even in times of trouble. 
 
You can find those videos here.  I’m going to practice some with my facemask on to remind myself that the mask itself does not need to be a threat!  While I hope you’ll watch the videos, you do not have to in order to receive the gift of a full, slow, relaxed breath…it’s available to you right now (just like God’s presence)! 
 
So pause for a moment again. 
 
Whether privately without a facemask or publicly with a facemask, whether in front of a screen or not, let breathing be your prayer today.  Breathe deep the Breath of God.  

For a related article, see "What do the Coronavirus and the Reign of Love have in Common?: A Facebook Post from June 27th" 

What happens when we discount small actions or fear the possibility of humiliation?

We may not act at all.

When we embrace both, we’re free to act.

Any life-giving act, no matter how small, matters.

According to Jesus, the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed someone planted or like yeast a woman worked through a large amount of dough.

Both the mustard seed and yeast required action from someone to bring about their potential.

Both seed & yeast, the required action, and even the people may seem small and even hidden.

Both may be small and hidden, but some actions require more (planting a seed is easier than kneading yeast through 60 lbs of dough!)

Both contain big potential to benefit an entire community, offering nourishment in a variety of ways:

• Food for the hungry (and that which gives food flavor!)
• Healing of wounds (mustard seed has medicinal value and breaking bread together is its own kind of relational medicine)
• Beauty for all the senses (see, smell, touch, listen, taste)
• Long-term housing, short-term respite, and more!

All of this from two small actions!
If we're going to be sowers of seed and kneaders of the Bread of Life, know this...

Action is never humiliation-proof.

According to Fr. Richard Rohr, we're to pray for one good humiliation a day!
What a way to stay humble and inevitably learn that humiliation is often a gateway to transformation! I promise you, especially if you, like me, are White (& an Enneagram One), it will happen as you enter into the on-going work of antiracism.

Last fall, my daughter and I went to a weekend seminar to hear Nobel peace prize nominee, Fr. John Dear, talk about “Jesus as Peacemaker.”

It’s been a constant part of our conversations ever since, becoming richer with insights from others. Earlier this year, Abby Buter pointed out the difference between being a “Peacekeeper” and a “Peacemaker” during the “Meditating with the Aramaic Beatitudes” class. The distinction is important…Jesus was the latter & said it’s the latter who are blessed.

Fr. Dear gave my daughter a new language of nonviolence and she’s been quick to point out when I’m not (& other Christians aren’t) following in the footsteps of the nonviolent Jesus…oh the blessings of having a teenager in the house!

But she’s right. And having it pointed out can be humiliating.

When my children saw the video and photos of George Floyd, they were distraught.
The conversation around Jesus and nonviolence needed to be taken to the next level.

I decided to begin with my own faults and humiliations so they would learn not to fear their own.

Around the dinner table, I told them stories from my own life of how I have thought, said, or did things that contributed to racism and upheld racist beliefs and systems. We talked about the reality of having inherited racist ideas as a culture and how Western Christianity’s own “superiority complex” has added to the problem by often making us overtly or covertly feel like we are definitely on the “winning team” and others are not.

I told them of when I was a youth pastor and met with a community organizer after having spent time in Mississippi with Dr. John Perkins who encouraged me to do the same kind of community and racial reconciliation work with our students in our Missouri town rather than go elsewhere. Conversations with a couple of Black pastors in the area led me to talk to the Black community organizer. After telling him what I wanted to do, he laughed, and I felt humiliated.

He pointed out how it was fine that I wanted to bring my students from the north side to the south side to help paint or whatever, BUT, it still didn’t change the fact that what the predominately Black kids on the south side were using as a community center was an old building that no one else wanted (but the kids were still happy to have) while the predominately White kids on the north side enjoyed a brand new top-of-the-line sports complex. It was an eye-opening conversation.

Noticing my humiliation and naivete, he said, “I like you” then continued to challenge my White privilege.

Doing “good work” and being a “good person” weren’t enough. At the end of our time, he still put me in touch with those who could help me line up service projects and then he sent me on my way (which included crossing a threshold I had no idea I would be crossing when I first walked in there).

It was later that I could see how he was trying to open my eyes to the larger systemic problem of racial inequality and the problem of “White Savior Complex”--- our White Christian youth group would feel good about “helping” but the larger problems would still exist after we left (& in some cases our help would further uphold the problematic systems).

Looking back, I’m grateful for the humiliation! Why?

• It has shaped conversations. From those within my student ministry years ago to the discussion with my kids around the dinner table, and front yard conversations with neighbors
• It has shaped how I encourage others to ask questions and start conversations. Recently my son mentioned not seeing or hearing as much about the protests and wondering what that meant (it was an important question and he had some beautiful insights for a 9-year-old!).
• It has shaped decisions. From digging deeper into voting issues or simply being on the lookout for everyday opportunities for learning and awareness

Last month the opportunity to join an online discussion group facilitated by a Black friend from high school on the book, How to Be An Antiracist, came up. Aside: I've enjoyed listening to author, Ibram X. Kendi, read the audio version; often my kids listen, too.
I knew a good humiliation (or more!) would come as I listened, shared, and became even more deeply aware of my ignorance both in high school and now (i.e. How did I not or how have I continued to not see, know, or consider this before?).

However, experience tells me that humiliation need not stand in the way (and often is the way!).

Do the conversations with family, friends, and neighbors matter? Does the discussion group matter?

Refer to Jesus’ parables on the mustard seed and yeast.


______________
Two resources for ongoing learning, awareness & action:

• The Sisters of Mercy's 5-Week Antiracism Education Chart- simple ways to “Watch, Listen, Learn, Act, & Pray”
• Local Antiracism Efforts & Education through Everyone’s Wilson & Providence Church

Do you know the difference between Self-Comfort and Self-Care?
 
Yesterday I presented “Resilience for Spiritual Caregivers,” a slideshow from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology (I attended their online webinar in May).  
 
It's so important for those of us caring for the souls of others to not neglect our own.  Yet it’s all-too-common for neglect to happen, especially during times of anxiety/trauma/crisis.  

One insight from The Seattle School’s Resilient Leaders’ Project was the differences between the coping behaviors of “Self-Comfort vs. Self-Care”---
 
Both are very much a part of our specific stories (what we turn to for comfort and care differ for each of us).
 
Both have their place. 
  
Self-Comfort behaviors are…
-short-term solutions which are often detrimental to our long-term health.
-often isolating, done in private.
 
Self-Care behaviors…
-support our long-term well-being.
-increase our sense of connection to self, others, & God.

Binging on Netflix all day may help me cope for a short while by forgetting my own story.  But losing myself in the stories of others while sitting on the couch is not what my mind, body, and soul are deeply craving.

It may be okay in the short-term; it’s not a good long-term solution.  In fact, self-comforting behaviors can turn into unhealthy patterns (addictions) if not recognized.
 
A pandemic and the current political climate will certainly bring out the need for self-comfort (which can be a cause for self-shaming)!  Rather than criticize ourselves, we can try being curious and compassionate instead.  We might ask questions like:   
 
-Why do I try to comfort myself with food (or where did I learn to comfort myself in this way)?
-What gets in the way of me doing what is healthy for myself?
 
Two self-comforting strategies that had turned into unhealthy distractions for me:  

• Facebook on my phone
• Falling asleep on the couch watching the news

 
The first I argued was a way to keep me connected to others but honestly, it had become more of a life-draining rather than life-giving habit. My 9-year-old encouraged me to remove it, so I did.  I’m reaching for my phone less and present to my kids more without the pressure to narrate my days with posts & photos.  
 
The second offered a way to zone out alongside my spouse once the kids were in bed but kept me riled up until the point of exhaustion!  So rather than the news, I’m now taking the hour before bed to read fiction and draw with color pencils...my whole being (& my family) is affirming this choice!  
 
I still need my time watching Masterpiece dramas as well as baking (& eating) fun desserts, but I recognize these are self-comforting strategies.  Binging on either day-after-day will have negative consequences!
 
Art, Zumba, Centering Prayer, poetry, juggling, delighting in healthy meals, dancing to 80s music with my kids, chats on the porch swing with my spouse, socially-distanced socializing with friends, talking with my Spiritual Director on the phone...when engaged in healthy and not legalistic ways, are self-caring behaviors that support me as I walk in the way that leads to Life.

May you be curious as to the ways you comfort and care for yourself.  Since everything is interconnected, the ways you care for yourself (or don't) will impact those in your care!
 
I’m happy to join you in discerning what will best support your journey (especially during this time of global anxiety).  Schedule a 30 minute or 1 hour session of Spiritual Direction &/or Dreamwork. 

Learn more about The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology's Certificate in Resilient Service (going online for the first time!).

Facebook's "what's on your mind?" prompt has been taunting me, so here's what's on my mind. It begins with a conversation...

“You know what’s strange? Most people I see who aren’t wearing masks are Christians,” a friend who was standing over 6 feet away said to me. We both shook our heads.

Interconnected. That’s what we are with everyone & everything.

In not recognizing it, we are what the prophets lamented, “foolish and senseless people who have eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear.” Which leads to little understanding of how God is present and at work in our world. After all, one way Jesus described the Kingdom of God is “like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough" (he also used the image of yeast to describe leaders’ hypocrisy).

The Reign of Love, like coronavirus, spreads in hidden ways.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my brother-in-law’s parents’ home this past year. They live less than 5 miles away. Both were diagnosed with COVID-19. His dad died this week. My husband’s grandma was diagnosed with COVID-19 this week, too. And we await the test results of a dear friend as to whether or not he has COVID-19.

The politicization of COVID-19 and seeing people not taking it seriously infuriates me.

I can’t help but think of words found in Deuteronomy 30, “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life that you and your descendants may live.”

The “you” being addressed is an entire nation of people. A nation is made of many individual “yous.” So the choice is both personal and communal, they’re interconnected. And they also impact not only those we see right here, right now, but generations to come (we’re seeing this truth with our nation’s racial injustice crying out to be healed).

Granted, the choice doesn’t always look or feel like life at the time. The path of/toward Life often does not.

In the middle of May, we decided that until the virus’ spread trended downward for 2 weeks or we could assure social-distancing measures, we needed to do our best (knowing we wouldn’t do it perfectly) to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” So we cancelled our vacation and we have not let Alex play on his travel baseball team (the latter decision harder than the former).

​Does it make any difference? We don’t know. But those are a couple of ways our family has and continues to choose Life. Given our awareness of our interconnectivity to everything and everyone else, including all of you, we can do no less.