Draft test Nov 25

​This is the time of year when we focus on family, on giving, on helping.  We use the holidays as a time to reflect and practice thankfulness.

Gratitude and contentment don’t come naturally to many of us, including me.

They often get lost in the business of life, in striving to find our places in the world. And so they must be practiced, cultivated.

I am a big fan of yoga practice. (Mostly because I despise running, though it also helps me stay capable of reaching my shoelaces as I age.)

Through years of yoga, I have not become incredibly mindful or even very good at being still. (Also, I still cannot do a headstand.)  But I have picked up a few Sanskrit terms. I love the layers of meaning expressed in this ancient language.

One word I have learned is Bhavana. It means to cultivate – as a farmer cultivates the soil, by adding and taking away to make it as fertile as it can be to produce the best harvest.

But Bhavana means spiritual cultivation.

As we come to the holiday season and take stock of our lives, we also need to take time to cultivate the “soil” of our minds, tilling up and discarding that which keeps us from pursuing what is true, right and good. Adding in the life-giving things, like love, generosity and contentment.  

And just as the farmer must continue to cultivate and maintain his land month after month, year after year, so we must do that with our minds and our lives. We – and the world – are constantly changing. A commitment to keeping our spirits cultivated can help us have clarity to pursue the changes that are the most meaningful, that lead to life, equality and the common good.

At the yoga class I currently attend, the teacher ends each week by having us – with our hands in prayer position – touch our foreheads, lips and heart. While we do this she admonishes us to, “shine your light through all you think, say and do.”

With a mind, voice and heart in which bhavana has been practiced, we are more ready to practice gratitude, serve our fellow man and live open-handedly.
More ready to shine our lights through the unique offerings  we each bring to the world. ​

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