Meditation

UU Lent 2022 – Day 21 – Rest

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A Meditation of Release and Rest

Our bodies carry us through the day. We forget that our bodies are our home. 

A place to be ourselves. A place to release. A place to love. 

We are going to move our bodies. Feel free to move in the most comfortable way for your body. With each movement, feel the tension and worry leaving your body. 

Take a deep breath

Drop your head to your chest. Take another breath rolling your head in a circle over your shoulders. Take another breath and roll your head the other way. Return your head to center 

Take a deep breath bringing your shoulders as high as you can. Let them drop as you let go of the tensions of the day and release your breath. repeat

Stretch out your arms and wiggle them 

Wiggle your fingers

Bend your torso to the left, right, front, and back.

Make a circle with your hips. Move them in some way that brings them back to you so that they are yours alone. 

Wiggle your knees, unlock them if you are standing

Tense the muscles in your calves.

Pointe and flex your feet

Wiggle your toes

Let the movement of your body send the day away. 

Let the movement of your body bring you back to you.

“This is about more than naps. This is about more than naps. This is about more than naps. … This work is saving the lives of so many and saved my life. This work should be respected as a balm for all of humanity. Find ways to connect back to your body and mind. Find ways to intentionally slow down. Find ways to re-imagine and snatch rest right now. It is your divine and human right to do so. WE WILL REST!” – The Nap Bishop – Tricia Hersey – The Nap Ministry

Sunday, October 17, 2021

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“Herbie Hancock – Jazz musician and Buddhist – describes jazz as “a music of the moment”. Improvisation allows him to capture the essence of the present and express it; to provide for listeners an unmediated glimpse of the realm of the infinite.”

This Sunday, John Hall will lead a service on different types of meditation. This service is designed to be out of the box and to bring us together with different forms of spiritual practices.  

Please Join Us for Worship.

We are forgoing meeting in person during the coronavirus epidemic, meeting on Zoom. We share music, readings, and hymns on our usual presentation slides, have a story and a talk, and share joys and sorrows, as well as a virtual “coffee hour” discussion starting at 10:30, with the service at 11. If you prefer not to be seen, video is optional. If you would like to participate, please email westforkuu@gmail.com for details and a link, or for help with using ZOOM.

If you are a regular attendee, we have added you to our Google Group if we had an email address. If you have not gotten a group email already, please email westforkuu@gmail.com so that we can add you to the group, which we will be using for staying in touch with each other during this time. Public announcements will continue to be posted here on the website and on our Facebook page and Twitter account, as usual.

Email westforkuu@gmail.com or use our contact form for more information or write to us at PO Box 523, Clarksburg WV 26302

A Month of Becoming

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“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real…It doesn’t happen all at once. You become. It takes a long time.” – Margery Williams Bianco, The Velveteen Rabbit

This month we will be focusing on becoming in our services and our posts. We will have meditations about becoming posted on Wednesdays and articles/information about the spiritual practice of imagination on Saturdays. We hope you will join us on our becoming journey.

Here are some spiritual practices to consider –

The practice of discovering that inside you which wants to be born.

The practice of no longer hiding.
                                                 

The practice of continual growth.
 

A Month of Commitment

CZ

“The acorn becomes an oak by means of automatic growth; no commitment is necessary. The kitten similarly becomes a cat on the basis of instinct. Nature and being are identical in creatures like them. But a man or woman becomes fully human only by his or her choices and his or her commitment to them. People attain worth and dignity by the multitude of decisions they make from day by day. These decisions require courage.” – Rollo May, The Courage to Create

This month we will be focusing on commitment in our services and our posts. We will have meditations about commitment posted on Wednesdays and articles/information about the spiritual practice of commitment on Saturdays. We hope you will join us on our commitment journey.

Here are some spirtual practices to think about as we journey together to be a people of commitment.

 The practice of being loyal to something larger than yourself.  

The practice of loving even when it is hard.  

The practice of making, breaking and re-making our promises.

Inner Peace and Stillness

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Breathed into the World by Rev. Sandra Fees

Whoever you are, wherever you go,

May you know the stillness of winter

and the call to love.

May you see the moon

silvering the night sky

and let the dark of midnight

plunge you into your truest self

and fling you back out again

to a world in need of who you are.

May there be the familiar carols

you know by heart

and new melodies to set you free.

May there be feasting and frolicking,

kindness and wonderment.

And may there be wise people

to follow a star in the East

and a child to teach us to love

and enough magic

to let the imagination go wild,

to let Christmas arrive with its enchantments,

with its glitter, glow, and gold,

to let what wants to be born break through.

May the presence of the holy

crowd out fear, hate, and worry

and proclaim in this moment

that peace and goodwill might yet

be breathed into the world,

and avow that we too can give birth to love,

wherever we go, whoever we are.