posture
October 10, 2012 Redux in 2016
Oct. 10 ~ An opportunity of civility: you just might learn something when not screaming. #civility
Admittedly, this one is a little lighter today and I hope someone gets a chuckles from it. But at the same time, it’s a good one to remember.
In fact, it’s a good one to remember when speaking in political discourse, religious discourse, or just trying to figure out whose day it is to make coffee at the office. This one will hold true when we talk to our kids and when we walk up on the Meter Attendant slipping the parking ticket under our wiper blade.
Today’s post is about “posture” as much as volume. Am I postured for civil discourse? Does my body language, my reflex and habit, my volume, communicate that I’m ready to learn?
Some Afternoon Body Prayer
“I lift my hands to your commands, which I love,
and meditate on your decrees.” Psalm 119:48
I’m practicing some body prayer at my desk this afternoon as I read my Midday Psalms. You’re invited to do this with me. My prayer is: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Sitting at my desk I straighten my back (though it can be done standing) and cross my arms on my chest, hands open and flat against each shoulder. Throwing my head slowly back I look up and raise my hands into the air, gradually bringing them apart in a circular sweep outward until both rest at my sides. I do this several times praying, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
And I am awakened.
So much better than drinking another cup of caffeine, my afternoon changes as my joints pop and I feel my back loosen a bit. My prayer is no longer just whispered or thought, but now it seeps into my body in newly opened places.
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