I stole the title from Mompriest, who has offered a wonderful little reflection here. I guess she lifted the title from her yoga video.
I do yoga, in the most elementary, awkward, and almost immobilized kind of way. (I couldn't touch my toes when I was ten; let's not even go there now.) So the first challenge is to get back to that peaceful and yet demanding connection to my body.
But what I really like here is the multiplicity of meanings associated with these words. Off the top of my head:
Grace: a free gift of God.
Grace: God's loving forgiveness.
Gracefulness: the capacity to move with fluidity and elegance. (In my case: metaphorically speaking.)
Gracefulness: the capacity to absorb with generosity and graciousness whatever comes our way.
Gravity: the force which binds us to our earthly existence.
Gravity: the pull which orients our being.
Gravitas: the weight of wisdom which emerges from experience.
Gravitas: the wisdom to reflect with generosity and graciousness whatever comes our way.
Yes, I do see a connection (fourth definitions).
I'm making a little retreat in another month -- a few days away, with some guidance from my spiritual director. I need some time to make some space for the process of discernment ahead. And I need some silence so that I can handle eight days of it this coming summer with more equanimity than I did last year, when the cloud of grief hanging over my head almost consumed me.
I think I have a name for my retreat now. Gravity and Grace. I like that.
If nothing else, I can pretend that the photograph above is of me. I'm good with the body, the flexibility, or the hair.
(Guess I might need to work on that gravitas thing. But seriously ~ I've pretty much had it with experience.)
I do yoga, in the most elementary, awkward, and almost immobilized kind of way. (I couldn't touch my toes when I was ten; let's not even go there now.) So the first challenge is to get back to that peaceful and yet demanding connection to my body.
But what I really like here is the multiplicity of meanings associated with these words. Off the top of my head:
Grace: a free gift of God.
Grace: God's loving forgiveness.
Gracefulness: the capacity to move with fluidity and elegance. (In my case: metaphorically speaking.)
Gracefulness: the capacity to absorb with generosity and graciousness whatever comes our way.
Gravity: the force which binds us to our earthly existence.
Gravity: the pull which orients our being.
Gravitas: the weight of wisdom which emerges from experience.
Gravitas: the wisdom to reflect with generosity and graciousness whatever comes our way.
Yes, I do see a connection (fourth definitions).
I'm making a little retreat in another month -- a few days away, with some guidance from my spiritual director. I need some time to make some space for the process of discernment ahead. And I need some silence so that I can handle eight days of it this coming summer with more equanimity than I did last year, when the cloud of grief hanging over my head almost consumed me.
I think I have a name for my retreat now. Gravity and Grace. I like that.
If nothing else, I can pretend that the photograph above is of me. I'm good with the body, the flexibility, or the hair.
(Guess I might need to work on that gravitas thing. But seriously ~ I've pretty much had it with experience.)
