Scripture
“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
John 14:23 NRSV
Spiritual Focus
“It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you.” F. Scott Fitzgerald
Devotion
All Saints Day is a church holiday that people across the world observe in a variety of interesting ways, from floating candles in a moonlit pond to the simple act of laying a wreath at a grave. But no matter the practice, the intention is to remember those saints who have gone before us to the next realm. For people who have lost a cherished someone, hearing the name of their loved one spoken aloud in church, in memorial, is like coming home to their own faith story.
Yet coming home can also be difficult, despite the many holiday TV commercials that would suggest otherwise. Sometimes coming home reminds us too painfully of why we left in the first place. Sometimes coming home causes feelings of loss to resurface—grief for those we have loved and lost or even a wistful yearning for the way things “used to be.”
In yoga we come home to our bodies by practicing Presence. We pay attention to how our body feels in each pose. We appreciate what our body can—in distinction from what it cannot, or can no longer—do. We look for the Presence of God that surrounds us—in times of ease and difficulty, joy and sorrow. Our faith and yoga practices show us that it is sufficient to simply be present to the One who loves us enough to make a home in our heart.
Breath Prayer
Inhale I Have Arrived
Exhale I Am Home
Focus Pose: Sthira and Sukha, steadiness and ease, are basic tenets of yoga practice. We bring Presence to our practice and give our busy “monkey” minds something to do by assessing each pose. Is my breath even and deep? Is my body steady and comfortable? Is my attention on my pose? This week bring sthira and sukha to your practice: come home to your body without judgment, arrive in the pose with breath, fully present. BE.
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