Slowness, In the beginning, It is Good

10/4 8am Power w/Caitlyn 

Slowness.  Today, Caitlyn led us through a practice of pauses. It was intentional, steady, sure, secure, and yes, slow. You don't have to go fast: yoga, like life, is not a race. I rested in the hot room. I felt at ease, and all hour, I remembered: 

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promises as some would count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. 2 Peter 3:10 

Slowness has a purpose. It's to wake us up and make us aware of the glory of God that surrounds us, right now. 

Here's to listening to our questions, sitting in the darkness, and letting our experiences do their deep work within us. Here's to a long, deep breath. And here's to not letting our slowness boss us. Embrace it and learn from it, but don't let it force perfection. Let slow do what slow does best: nourish, strengthen, and hold. Here's to deep roots, strong ties and slow art. Emily Freeman, Simply Tuesday 

10/4 5:15pm Power w/Josh 

In the beginning. I couldn't stop thinking about the Creator God today. Our pastor preached Genesis 1:1-5 this morning, and challenged us to really think about things like God creating light, and time. It's something else when you stop and think about it. He created the very air with which I breathe, and through which I move. He created absolutely everything. Including my life, with which I am now gifted to enjoy all that God called good. There's a touch of the miraculous in everything, because with Jesus not one thing was made. The Christ, the resurrected Christ, is everywhere. Doesn't that make you smile? Dance? Sing? 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening, and there was morning, the first day. Genesis 1:1-5 

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it. John 1:1-5 

It really is crazy to think about a world without light. There wasn't even a way to conceptualize God as light because He was before light. Creation literally happened by His presence. And then He called light into existence. And then He made time. What was the world like without time? God had to mkae it out of nothing? I've been thinking about eternity and what it is and means. God is so far outside time - a thousand years can be a day, and vice versa. He's not slow or fast, He just is. The kingdom is now, and it is not yet. But the King has always been and will ever be. It's stuff like this that gets be so jazzed to meet Jesus because then we'll finally start to understand what we've been seeing and experiencing all along. Me, reflecting on the Sunday sermon (Genesis 1:1-2:3) 

This picture doesn't do my walk justice. But mountains and sunlight make me swoon. The Creator on display.

10/4 The class I skipped. 

I usually go to yin (aka adult nap time) on Sunday nights after power. But tonight, I was so full of life and energy and movement that I wanted to keep playing. I went home and did some core and arm balances and played around with the funky forearm stand (see below - I'll get there). I love yin, and I do see value in slowing down and unwinding, but I also believe that I honor my body when I move when it wants to move. I'm free to play. 

we were made for motion, for arching up toward God with all the energy and passion of a thunderstorm, lightning slicing through a sleepy world to remind us that we serve a fast-dancing God, a God who set this world whirling and crashing through space so that we could live from our toes and drum out the pulse of a billion veins carrying lifeblood to a billion hearts, temples to a God that got his hands dirty making us from dust. Let's get dirty, in his name. Let's sizzle and pop in his name. Let's dance and shimmer and scrawl out our stories across the sky, like he taught us to. Let's echo his words, and let our lives speak those words: it is good. 

Shauna Niequist, Cold Tangerines