Reflections on 2020 - from Rachel Kobin

For what are you most grateful as you look back over the year and why? I'm grateful everyone in my immediate family, including my elderly mom and boyfriend, and my friends are still alive.

What did you take for granted this year? Nothing.

What did this reveal to you about yourself and your presence in the world? Having the ability to appreciate simple pleasures like a good cup of tea or a phone conversation with a friend who makes you laugh is an invaluable survival skill. 

What new hobby or old pastime did you take up or revive during the months of lockdown? I started painting with acrylics just for fun. With my paramour's help, I did several nesting projects, including using a sewing machine for the first time to make curtains, something I've meant to do since I bought my house in 2005. 

Was there an unexpected joy that you experienced during this time? Teaching via Zoom has added my commute time back to my life. I've enjoyed having that time to simply be.

What is the most important thing that the year of Covid 19 has taught you? Life is fragile; take nothing for granted.

Unexpected joys during 2020 - by Brittiney George

For what are you most grateful as you look back over the year and why? Laughter, space, and real connection. The things that were the shoulds held so much less weight. It felt like an opportunity to really question and choose where and what you put your energy into. 

What did you take for granted this year? How hard this has been for others that don't have the resources and support available to them.   

What did this reveal to you about yourself and your presence in the world? How strong joy and hope live within my body and that when things feel like they are falling apart, it is the beacon that I can share with the world. I can be present with pain because I respect it and know the other side of it so viscerally. 

What new hobby or old pastime did you take up or revive during the months of lockdown? Puzzling and wonder/wander walking-not to burn calories or to get somewhere but for the pure joy of noticing the world around me. 

Was there an unexpected joy that you experienced during this time? Looking up.  The wonders of trees, leaves, the sound of birds, meteors, and stars.  I found out my house is between the big dipper and Orion’s belt. How have I lived here for 10 years and never noticed that? 

What is the most important thing that the year of Covid 19 has taught you? When you go barreling through life you miss so many magical moments and that we have one job in this world, to take care of the hearts of those we are with. We don't have to get it right, but we do have to take care. 

 

Finding Joy

by John Muraco

Where do you find JOY?  How do you experience joy?  Perhaps you are savoring it right now as we shift out of the darkness and biting frost of winter and into spring and warming temperatures.  Perhaps for you, joy comes when you smell your favorite food, or think of a place where you feel cherished, invigorated and freshly alive?  Whenever it appears, it is my hope for you that joy finds a place in your heart. 

It is beautiful to see people find great joy out of trying new things in life – stretching beyond their comfort zones and into a space that lends ground to the unknown.  Seeing unfamiliar faces, trying new modes of self-expression, and existing in time and space in a new and radical way.  I recently had the joyous opportunity to launch a drum circle event at The Resiliency Center that honored all things unknown.  For me, leading a ‘formal’ drum circle was new and radical; I was definitely stepping into uncharted territory.   My main intention was and will continue to be to create a safe space where people can be themselves, claim their power, and drum to their hearts' content. 

You might imagine that putting 20-some people in a room and guiding them to make music together out of a combination of drums, loud shakers, sticks, rattles, cowbells, and tamborines, that the outcome would result in a chaotic jumble of sounds.  This could not be farther from the truth!  We continue to see the magic that happens in the undercurrent of improvisational sound and music creation between people.  Casting smiles at one another from across the circle, people who may have been uneasy in the first 10 minutes, open up and add THEIR ENERGY to the sound experience like its nobody’s business!!  The research is outstanding on how drumming and sound-making can reduce the effects of depression, PTSD, anxiety and social pressures.  Please stay tuned as we begin unfolding more information on this – I very much look forward to integrating this and other unique sound-making methods into my practice and groups.  And please, come and join us to Drum to Your Heart’s Desire [Insert link to: http://www.meetup.com/resiliencygatherings/events/221985302/]

Laughter

From I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joy by Daniel Ladinsky [Purchase online at: http://www.amazon.com/Heard-God-Laughing-Poems-Hope/dp/0143037811/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429632242&sr=1-1&keywords=i+heard+god+laughing ]

What is laughter? What is laughter?

It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!

It is the sun poking its sweet head out

From behind a cloud

You have been carrying too long,

Veiling your eyes and heart.

It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure

That is your Real body – called Truth.

It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight

To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

Laughter is the polestar

Held in the sky by our Beloved,

Who eternally says,

“Yes, dear ones, come this way,

Come this way toward Me and Love!

Come with your tender mouths moving

And your beautiful tongues conducting songs

And with your movements – your magic movements

Of hands and feet and glands and cells – Dancing!

Know that to God’s Eye,

All movement is a Wondrous Language,

And Music – such exquisite, wild Music!”

O what is laughter, Hafiz?

What is this precious love and laughter

Budding in our hearts?

It is the glorious sound

Of a soul waking up!