Greeting the Sun

When Kari and I imagined Pilgrim Lost and what exactly this community would be about, we settled quickly and easily on the phrase:  “Life in Hopeful Motion.”

As the sun returns as a near-daily character in my story, I have been continuing to reimagine how my Hopeful Motion might be expressed.

Over these last days, my first morning moments have been as follows.  After I descend the stairs to the main floor (pausing briefly on each stair to remember each member of my immediate and extended family), I have chosen to take my motion immediately out the front door.

I face the rising sun, just above the housetops.  Feel the warmth on my face.  My bare feet absorbing into the cool of the earth.

I take inventory of my body.  I restack my vertebrae, one balanced on top of the next.  I bow my head and place my hands before my heart.  

Then the motion and deep breathing begin…

• Hands and eyes to the sky, receiving my place in the vastness (deep inhale.)

• Hands drop naturally to my side receiving my boundedness to the earth (exhale)

• Hands reach for the sun before me receiving the sun’s life and light (inhale)

• Hands drop (exhale)

• Hands and eyes to the sky (inhale)

• Drop (exhale)

• Hands return to my heart and my gaze to the hopeful horizon (inhale)

Then I repeat.

I repeat until I feel released into the hope of that day.

In intention, I have started my day.

(If you would like to have audio to lead a similar process, you can receive it for free on the myfitnesspal app under “workout routines.”)

Overcoming Suspicion

On our last pod, “Generosity of Spirit”, Kari and I lamented our discouragement with the increased chronic suspiciousness we witness (and feel ourselves) as we walk out into the world.  It seems so many of us humans walking about (amidst this pervasive quarantine) are losing their hope in the goodness of their fellow citizens.

I have been meditating on how to counter this when I daily walk out into the public sphere.

Note:  Intent and reality have a reciprocal relationship.  Do I “believe the best in the other” (non-suspicious) and then I behave like I do OR do I behave as if I “believe the best” and in response the sensation of truly believing follows.

The answer to that either-or question is of course YES.

So I am focusing on what I can control.  It is difficult to control beliefs, so I choose to control my behavior.  Now, one of the zeitgeist hurdles to conveying positive intention to my fellow citizen is my f---ing mask.  Why?  Because I can’t smile.  I hate it.  I can’t show anyone that I am smiling at them.  They can’t see my lips, my cheekbones, or even the subtle way my chin ever so slightly lifts and juts when I smile.

So, I have been choosing to be more aware of the intention others can see: my eyes, my eyebrows, the wrinkles in my forehead, and the rise of my rather large ears.  I have been practicing the slightest bowing of my head, the courteous wave, and even, when the circumstances allow, the sweep of the upraised palm like a character in a renaissance play.

There are many places to practice different forms of this hopeful motion, certainly along the boulevard and while passing in the grocery store aisle, but I have discovered that my favorite stage is the public doorway or any tight entrance.  What an opportunity to defer to my fellow citizen.  If we are approaching a doorway at similar times (even if I have the “right-of-way”), I try to stop.  I back away, insuring more than six feet of open passage is provided, and as a result, in response to the dramatic step back, it is hard not to make eye contact and practice my eye-eyebrow-forehead wrinkle-ear waggle-bowing “smile.”

Why?  Well, because.  Because I want to live as if I believe that the other person is worthy to defer to… and that they are good people… AND that they might just need someone to believe that about them.

And I believe my suspiciousness will continue to evaporate.

Because… Life in hopeful motion.