Shrinkage, Belief and a Selfie Stick in Everyday Ramblings

This shot of a tree growing out of an old mill building in the woods on Saturday appealed to me because of the light. As we move away from the solstice and towards the equinox (fall here) the light just gets better and better. :)

I bought this gorgeous pair of yoga tights months ago at Athleta. I get a major discount at the store here because I teach locally and they have good products that last a long time. They are full-length tights and they are way too long for me. I was talking to the store manager a couple of months ago about how I have to buy only crops now because I am short.

When I had my bone density scan last week I realized I was continuing to shrink. Sigh. Even with all the yoga, the effects of gravity are inexorable.

So the manager at the store said, no problem, bring the tights back and we will hem them up for you for free. (They want me to wear their clothes and have them look sharp.) I pinned them up to the proper length and took them in yesterday after church.

Which made me actually go to church to the service.

We had a guest minister, she spoke very powerfully last year and made quite an impression on me. She is the full time chaplain at the biggest women’s prison in Oregon. A tough tough job. She comes from a dysfunctional home environment herself and can understand so many of the deep causes of the systemic problems that create circumstances where crime becomes an option for these women. Or a perceived necessity.

She spoke yesterday in this wonderfully clear and direct way about the difference between spirituality and religion. A topic our Arbi has been pondering lately.

Basically, (and I am totally paraphrasing and condensing her message) she says spirituality is the internal capacity to find a sense of connection and meaning for oneself, and religion is the external structure that individuals participate in to get to that sense.

And that for many of us, (she used the word “broken”) for whatever reason we cannot navigate to that place of a calm peaceful center with a sense of connectedness and meaning by ourselves.

We need help and we need reminders and we need practices to point us there on a regular basis. She said she needs help, she needs ritual and prayer and song and routine, that a sense of contentment and ease and community is not an act of faith but the result of practice.

I heard a quote on a podcast this morning that said that humans are the only animals that have “the ability to believe in things only in our imagination…” like government and money and a particular religion.

This allows us to come together in a shared space and work collectively and that there is much to be said about how we have survived and become the dominant species on the planet because of this ability.

But I was also thinking it has much to do with explaining why a certain type of person would cast their vote for Donald Trump. Because of what they believe.

Of course while I was at the store I bought a cute new yoga outfit. I had planned that as I had the catalog and thought it through.

After Charis mentioned a selfie stick in her post a few weeks back and Prairie Winds as well I ordered one so I could take pictures for the various social media platforms. That is the genesis of the new profile picture of me on Facebook.

I am still experimenting to get a picture to share that I actually like but it will be easier now with this beautiful soft light.

Last updated August 23, 2017