From Our Co-Ministers

February 2008

Overnight store aisles went from snowmen and Santas to valentines and chocolates.

In this month of red roses, heart-shaped boxes, verses of humor, friendship, and passion, you can ask,

          What do I know in my heart?
          What is my heart's deepest longing?
          Where is my heart leading me?

In your depths, you remember moments of wonder, mystery, liveliness, wholeness, connection, oneness. What are some of these sacred memories in the album pages of your heart?

This is material consultant Larry Peers offered the district clergy in his workshop Sacred Shifts. We share it with you.

Take a breath, breathing in such a moment you have known, and breathe out your aspiration, your longing.

All the people in traffic, in the work corridor, on BART, at the store, in the busy atrium abuzz with conversation on Sundays are people who have had these moments too.

Start anything and everything from that sacred knowing.

Greet people knowing they have had and long, like you, for more wonder, aliveness, oneness.

To have such experiences, it helps to be open. Being open and relaxed, you are able to notice such moments.

If you want to be more relaxed and open, more joyful, more alive, imagine what that would feel like. We invite you to take some time with this.

Take various poses. Right now while you are reading this column, show how your face and body would look if you were tight and tense? What would your mood be? How would you sound?

Now how about if you were relaxed and open? Do your shoulders drop? Does your face soften? How do you feel? What stance do you take? How do you sound?

Now take on the mood, body, and language of fearful.

How do you feel, look and sound if you are joyful?

Enact weary and tired.

What if you embody in mood, body, and language the feeling of aliveness.

Draw on the moments you've known of feeling relaxed, joyful, alive. Embody the results your heart wants.

When you move out of your deepest knowing, your way of being is contagious.

When you embody the longings of your heart, life is more enjoyable for every body including yourself.

Let February valentines be invitations to live from your deep knowing and longing of your heart.

With Love,

Barbara and Bill

Revs. Barbara and Bill Hamilton-Holway, Co-Ministers