All posts by Nancy Pfaltzgraf

Sometimes it pays to play!

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing!” My five year old grandson makes sure that won’t happen to me!

A few weeks ago as I was fixing breakfast and getting ready for the day I turned on the playlist on my iPhone that contains my favorite songs from the literally hundreds of songs I have downloaded from iTunes or uploaded from CD’s I had purchased -back when that was the primary way you got music! One of the first songs that played was titled Amazing Things by singer-songwriter Megan McDonough. The part of the song that jumped out at me was:

You don’t have to work it out,

Just stay in the here and now,

Let your mind rest for a little while,

Sometimes deepest answers come,

When you’re out there having fun,

So close your eyes, take a breath,

And smile.

Sometimes deepest answers come, When you’re out there having fun, …. I began to think about how many times I have had just such an experience while participating in or leading an InterPlay class. This is especially true in the Wisdom of the Body Deep Play classes which I teach. I think it is because these classes last longer and give more time and space to let go, let the mind rest and just focus on having fun; moving for the joy of moving; singing made-up songs for the delight of using your voice; talking about made-up words as if you are the authority, just because you can; ranting about something in a made up language without worrying what anybody thinks. These ways of playing, along with many, many more of the 26 InterPlay forms seem to create space for ideas to enter. They seem to allow for the openness that is necessary to discover my own deepest wisdom. They create the peace that is necessary for me to notice what is true for me.

But, let me be clear, these answers don’t always pop up in the midst of playing. And deciding to play, so that I will find an answer, usually short circuits the process. It’s when I play for the sheer joy and delight of playing; when I give myself over to the freedom to play and laugh and be silly in an environment where I feel safe and welcome and affirmed; it is then that I have opened the way for ideas and answers and wisdom to emerge.

There are certainly many ways to play and play -honest to goodness play- has so many positive affects on us body-mind-heart-spirit, that we need to find ways of having more play in our lives -no matter how old our young the calendar says that we are. Recent research has demonstrated that for adults as well as children play is important in relieving stress, improving brain function, stimulating creativity, improving relationships and increasing energy. As George Bernard Shaw once observed, “We don’t stop playing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop playing.”

So find some ways to play: InterPlay, Laughter Yoga, dancing, riding your bike, taking a hike, whatever it is that engages you body, mind, heart and spirit, fills you with joy and lets your mind rest for a little while! And maybe, just maybe you will discover that for you too, sometimes deepest answers come, when you’re out there having fun; so close your eyes, take a breath and smile.”

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The Three Foot Difference!

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The week following Easter, I accompanied my husband, Tom,  to Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, in part to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of his graduation from Eden and in part to attend the Spring Convocation. I was intrigued by the overall theme of the convocation Forward from Ferguson, but other than looking forward to presentations by Dr. Walter Brueggemann, I really had no idea what to expect or how powerful the event would be for me.

Dr. Brueggemann was brilliant, as always. His illumination of themes in the Hebrew Scriptures and the early followers of Jesus that have led to some of the painful circumstances that plague our world was powerful, but without digging out my notes I could not articulate much of what he said in nearly four hours of presentations on Tuesday.

But Wednesday was another story altogether. The day began with a powerful worship in which the sermon was a call to action on behalf of those in our society and world who are discounted, disenfranchised, dismissed and “diss-ed” in all sorts of ways because of the color of their skin, their religion, their sexual orientation, their gender identification, their age, etc. etc. etc. Then we moved on to the speaker of the day – Dr. Gregory Ellison II. Dr. Ellison is an Associate Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling at Candler School of Theology. His topic was: Screams from the Shadows – Whispers in the Dark: Healing and Hope from the Margins. 

As Dr. Ellison was being introduced with glowing words of praise, I was busy, fussing with my stuff (getting my iPad ready to take notes, taking a drink of water and who knows what else), when I was suddenly aware of silence, a long prolonged silence. So I looked up to see what was going on and my eyes met Dr. Ellison’s. He seemed to be staring right at me (after all we were sitting in the second row of the chapel). At first it was unnerving, but then he seemed to move on to another set of eyes and another and another and another as he slowly walked down the center aisle and back up to the front. Then he stood there for a moment longer just looking at us all. Just looking…..Looking…. and Seeing! Then he said, “It is good to finally see you! It is GOOD to Finally SEE you! It IS GOOD to FINALLY SEE YOU!”

Then he proceeded to  talk not only about the perils of people who feel muted and invisible -the unacknowledged people all around us- but then he invited us to consider this time a Laboratory of Discovery in which we would be invited to re-member times when we have been unseen and unheard; times when we have been unacknowledged and overlooked. For it is true that no matter the color of our skin, our age, our gender identification or sexual orientation, our martial status, our economic class, our ability, our mobility, or lack thereof, we all know deep in the core of our beings how it feels to be unseen and unheard. Some of us know it only for moments in time, some of us for most of our lifetime. But all of us know it. And what is even more important all of us, ALL OF US, ALL OF US, ALL OF US NEED to be seen with love, recognized with respect, acknowledged with appreciation.

As Dr. Ellison continued leading us through this Laboratory of Discovery with many powerful exercises, including what he called “the long loving look” -simply looking another person in the eye with appreciation for 30 seconds- I understood on a new level what InterPlay names the Five Daily Requirements for a Healthy Life and what our InterPlay Leaders of Color have named the Five Birthright Practices: movement, stillness, connection/contact, voice and story. I also had a new appreciation for the way that the Body Wisdom Tools and Forms of InterPlay help create an environment where all people can be seen and heard, recognized and acknowledged. Perhaps that is why InterPlay is so powerful for so many of us!

Near the end of his presentation, Dr. Ellison gave each of us a paper 3 foot tape measure and had us stretch it out in front, to the side and around us. Then he began telling us a story about a conversation he had with his grandmother -who seemed to be a source of great wisdom in his life. He said that he asked his grandmother how he could change the world and make it a better place for all people. She responded “Baby, I don’t know much about changing the world, but I do know you can change the three feet around you.” He didn’t say much after that. He just left us to ponder what that might mean in our lives.

  • What if we all changed the three feet around us, offering respect, really seeing, really hearing, really connecting with each and every person that comes across our path, hearing their stories, honoring their journey?
  • What if we made the three feet around us a safety zone for all people?
  • What if we filled the three feet around us with what Henri Nouwen calls Hospitality –Hospitality, … the creation of a free and open space where the stranger can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.

How might we and the world be changed if we all changed the three feet around us?

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The Transforming Power of Gratitude!

IMG_2424On February 6th, I had the privilege of leading an InterPlay workshop as part of the Midwest Women Spirit 2016 conference held in Chicago, IL. Since I wanted to make sure that I was onboard with the general theme of the conference, I arrived early enough to hear the keynote presentation given by Kate Braestrup. Kate is a UU Minister, a New York Times best-selling author and a Chaplain with the State of Maine Warden Service where she provides ministry to law enforcement officers and those they serve. Prior to becoming a UU minister Kate was married to a police officer who was killed in an on-duty accident leaving her with four children between the ages of 3 and 9 to raise on her own. Before his death her husband had been wrestling with a call to enter the ministry and their long conversations had evidently ignited a spark within her, because sometime after his death she entered seminary and was eventually ordained.

Since the theme of the conference was “Recognizing Our Calling” Kate had many powerful insights to share, from her own experiences and those of her children as they grew and matured. But the thing in her presentation that stood out the most for me was her challenge to us -especially those of us who feel some call to bring more peace, justice, hope, love, compassion and healing to the world- not to fall into the trap of despair and hopelessness regarding any of the many major problems we face. She shared some specific examples of the ways we as human beings have come together to avert almost certain disasters in the past, and her absolute confidence that we could do so again.

Then in the Q & A that followed her talk someone asked her about the environmental challenges we are currently facing and how she could have hope in the face of these. I don’t remember most of what she said in answer to that question, but I do remember the story she shared. To the best of my recollection it went something like this:

When I see a picture in the newspaper or magazine or watch a TV image of a disaster of some sort, in the midst of all the pain, suffering and devastation, I look for the helpers, those people who are there to offer comfort, medical assistance, food, shelter and the like. Helpers are always there! Sometimes I am one of those helpers and sometimes I just need the assurance that a helper will always come.

For some reason this image replayed itself again and again and eventually had me thinking about gratitude which led me to a book titled, Attitudes of Gratitude, that’s been on my shelf for many years.  As I thumbed through the pages of the book, I discovered  again many powerful testimonies from the author about the power of gratitude to transform us body, heart, mind and spirit.

One of the quotes the author shared from Susan Jeffers (“When we focus on abundance, our life feels abundant; when we focus on what we lack our life feels lacking. It’s truly a matter of what we focus on, ) seemed to link back to the story of the helpers in the midst of the disasters, so, I decided to focus my two online Dancing Our Prayers classes for the week on gratitude.

As we moved into each class I invited participants to focus on gratitude and then holding a tiny spark of gratitude in their hands to dance with it and allow it to grow and expand and carry them wherever it would. Each participant in both of the classes noticed the deep sense of joy, peace, ease and grace that seemed to take them over. It was like mixing a basic solution with an acidic one, gratitude neutralized the stress and tension many of them had been experiencing prior to the class.

I too felt this transformation.  I had awakened at 3am Monday morning to get ready to drive to the airport to fly back to Boston, so I would be there in time to teach the online class that night, only to discover that my flight had been canceled!  Now I really wanted to get back to Boston and I needed to be in a place with good internet in order to teach, so I let this stress me out. I was, therefore not even remotely close to being  in a place of calm, peace or gratitude when the class began. But little by little as I danced with the feeling of gratitude that at least I hadn’t been stuck at the airport or on a plane, gratitude began to work its magic. By the middle of the class I felt a deep sense of peace and joy. But that’s not the amazing part of the story!

The next morning I made it to the airport without incident and my plane took off pretty much on schedule. Once in the air, I did my usual bit of playing some games on my iPad and then reading one of my Kindle books. But then about an hour into the flight my eyes were tired (I had after all gotten up at 3am for the second morning in a row!) so I put on some meditative music and closed my eyes and just began breathing gratitude. With each breath my gratitude seemed to grow. With each breath my feelings of peace and joy deepened. With each breath my heart and mind seemed to expand. Then completely out of the blue came the absolute knowing that I needed to open a new document and begin working on the design for a new online class focusing on the wisdom contained in the book Move to Greatness: The Four Energies of a Whole and Balanced Leader. For the next 30 minutes the ideas came in a steady stream. (This seemed especially astonishing since creating this design had been on my “to do list” for more than a few months.)

Since that day, I have been taking between 5-10 minutes some time each day to breath gratitude, to dance gratitude, to sing gratitude. Sometimes I think of specific things for which I am grateful, but sometimes I just dip into the well of feelings and pull up gratitude. Sometimes it happens quickly, sometimes its a bit slower. But in every case the transformation that gratitude brings is northing short of a miracle!

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Small Things with GREAT LOVE!

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My mother died May 7, 1993, it was a difficult time. But it was also a time that began to awaken my spirit to the power of small things.

When my mother’s pastor -who was also a close friend and spiritual mentor to me- asked what part I wanted to play in my mother’s funeral, I sat with that question for some time. There were things I knew I wanted to say, ways I wanted to honor my mother’s life, but I also knew that as a daughter I needed to be comforted and I didn’t want to have to put on my “clergy face” and burry my feelings. So, finally I told him that I would write something that he or someone else could read.

Over the next day or so, as the family gathered and preparations were being made, I asked my brother, my sister-in-law, my nieces and nephews and my own children what they would remember most about Althea Jane Hettinger Pfaltzgraf.

As they shared stories and memories, as we laughed and cried together, I began to understand that the power in my mother’s love was her ability to let the light of Divine Love shine through her words and her deeds. And as I pondered this realization the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta rose from somewhere in the depths of my memory bank: “We cannot all do great things in life, but we can all do small things with great love.” Hence was born a litany that contained short story sentences that began “Jane was a woman who….” after which the congregation would respond: “We cannot all do great things in life, but we can all do small things with great love.”

This past week in the face the terrorist attacks around the world and the ramping up of world-wide grief, fear and anxiety, as well as pervasive grief in the congregation where my husband serves as Interim Transitional Pastor following the death of one of the saints of the congregation, I sat with my spiritual life coach musing about how we can stay grounded and centered in the midst of so much pain and fear. She said something about how practicing exformational activities to keep her bodyspirit clear and staying centered in her life’s purpose helped her. My response was “Yes, I understand the importance of that. I know that my life purpose has to do with opening the way for love and grace to be more present in people’s lives and the world. My challenge is to trust that the little bit I do along with the  little bits others do really can make a difference in the face of so much grief, fear, hatred and pain.”

We talked about this from many different in many different ways and we did some breathing and moving with it. Then  just before the end of our session she asked, “have you every thought about writing about the theology of small things?”

To which I responded “No,” not even sure what she meant by her question. But since it was the end of our time, we concluded our session and I began to play with what she might mean. I danced a bit with it and then set the question aside to tend to other things that I needed to do.

Later I picked up the book that the prayer group I attend is using and began reading the reflection we would be discussing the next morning. The reflection began with the scripture from Matthew 28 that ends with the words “insofar as you did this to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me” The rest of the meditation was focused on calling readers to do small things, using whatever gifts they have been given, to bring justice and love and grace to the world, one person, one act of kindness at a time. But most importantly an invitation to allow the spirit to soften us so that Divine Love might flow through all we do and say.

That’s when I remembered my mother and the quote from Mother Teresa: “We cannot all do great things in life, but we can all do small things with great love.”

Now I have to confess to you, that I have always felt deep in my bones that I am called to do something great to bring healing and love and hope to the world. And I have ALWAYS felt like I have failed miserably because I have not done any great things. The question I must now ponder, the truth I must now face is this, “Have I done small things with as much love as I can muster? Or perhaps more accurately, have I done small things with as much openness to the Source of Love as I can achieve in any given moment?”

I’m not sure if this is what my coach meant when she suggested I might write about the theology of small things, but the more I ponder her question and search my own body data, body knowledge and body wisdom, the more I am certain that all of life is made up of small things. Even those things that seem like great things -getting married, the birth of a child, the end of apartheid, the dismantling of the Berlin Wall, the passage of marriage equality laws in so many states, whatever you would call a great thing…. aren’t they all really made up of lots of small things fired and fueled by love? Now let me be clear, I’m talking about LOVE not sentimentality; love that sees the value and worth of each and every person, in fact of all of creation; love that desires the highest good for all; love that is an attitude; love that empowers us to care even about those we would call enemy; love that passes our human understanding; love that flows from the heart of the one I call God; the one others call Allah or Buddha, or Goddess or the Great Spirit or Creator or.…

Small things with great love! Maybe that will change the world! I hope so! It is my prayer! It is my promise to myself and others to keep asking the question and doing what i can do and trusting the One who loves us all to make it so!

Thank you for that example, Mom! Thank you for those words, Mother Teresa! Thank you to all those people who have filled my life with small things fueled by great love!

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Easy Focus is NOT Always Easy!

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Easy Focus is NOT always easy!   Man, did I discover that last night! It was the first night of our eight week Online InterPlay Body Wisdom Tools class. My co-teacher, Sharie was coming online from her home base an hour or so from Seattle and I was coming online from my second home base outside of Boston. Our 9 participants were joining us from 9 different locations -6 in various time zones in the USA, 2 from Australia and 1 from India! This was a first for almost all of us. But, because I was the one who had done a very small amount of online teaching, Cynthia (co-founder of InterPlay who had asked Sharie and I to teach the class) dubbed me as the “technical expert”! Hahahah. I think that’s where most of my distress -the opposite of easy focus-  originated.

Throughout our planning and preparation  process Sharie and I kept reminding one another to breathe deeply, sigh often and do lots of shaking of our arms, legs, bodies and voices (all good ways to foster easy focus!)! Even so, even a cursory scan of my body data told me that I was anxious. So, not only did I do my part in preparing to guide us through  the content  we would be covering, but I read documents and watched training videos so that I thought I knew every in and out of how to help our participants get signed on, use the meeting controls and have a positive experience.

I was not, however, prepared for what to do when every word almost any of us spoke reverberated with an echo traveling down a long tunnel! And what was the Body Wisdom Tool we were teaching? Easy Focus, of course. Easy Focus, that way of seeing the big picture and holding things lightly and playfully! Easy Focus, that encourages us to savor and enjoy our experiences. Easy Focus, that encourages us to relax our muscles, soften our attention and just be in the moment. But how how how  do do do you you you do do do that that that when when when every every every word word word echoes echoes echoes????

Well, we took lots of deep breaths with lots of sighs and lots of shaking. We danced. We played. We laughed. We practiced softening our focus in a guided meditation that Sharie led. And we noticed what all of that felt like in our bodies. Here are some of the things folks said they noticed:

I felt a progressive softening in my face and body…

I was more a part of everything

I was less tense

 I was more forgiving to myself.

I was allowing myself to float.

Easy focus increases my sense of connection to all and everyone that is

Amazing! By playing and practicing the things that help to bring easy focus….. we somehow found easy focus even in the midst of the echoing. And just as we moved from our exploration of the Body Wisdom Tool of Easy Focus to our exploration of the Body Wisdom Tool of Affirmation the echo stopped!!!! That’s right just as mysteriously as it began, it ended!

As I pondered all of this I began to think how life can imitate art… that is how when I remember to do what brings me to that place of playful ease called Easy Focus, even and especially when easy focus seems hard to achieve, then wa-lah there it is -Easy Focus! And with Easy Focus comes peace, ease, playfulness, creativity, and JOY!

Take a deep breath…. let it out with a big sigh…. shake out your right arm…. shake out your other right arm…. shake out your right leg…. shake out your other right leg…. shake out what you are sitting on…. shake out your voice…. repeat as needed!

 

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Yum, Yum…..

What an amazing seven days I have just experienced! It all began on Thursday September 24th as I drove to Litchfield CT for the InterPlay New England Untensive. Following the curves and hills of the landscape once I left the Interstate and made my way to Wisdom House was beautiful! And what a wonderful name for the place where InterPlayers would gather to play with the forms and tools that hold the promise and the potential of helping each of us unlock the wisdom of our own bodies!

Continue reading Yum, Yum….. →

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Joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart….

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I have been thinking a lot about joy, ever since I came across these words by Henri Nouwen, “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy, and keep choosing it.” So when I was driving home from my Zumba class this morning, feeling energized and silently asking my deepest self what steps toward my vision of teaching more InterPlay, developing Body Wisdom Groups and engaging more coaching clients and I happened to see this HUGE teddy bear on the lawn of a house I was passing, I simply had to drive around the block so I could stop and take a picture. All the while I was thinking “Gladys would love this!”

Now you need to know about Gladys. Gladys LOVES Teddy Bears. I mean she really, really loves Teddy bears; big bears, small bears, medium size bears, bears you can squeeze and cuddle, bears that adorn every nook and cranny of her home. She even has an artificial Christmas tree that has nothing but bears as ornaments. If you are thinking of buying Gladys a gift, it’s simple just go on a bear hunt!

While far too many of us have left our teddy bears and other child-like wonders behind, Gladys remains filled with the love, the wonder and the joy of a child as she shows you her bears. In fact I’d say that Gladys is filled with the love, wonder and joy of a child in everything she does and says. I think that’s why she had so many dear friends. To be in her presence is to be in the presence of JOY! Oh don’t get me wrong, she has handsome very tough times, times when I’m sure it was a struggle to continue to see the world with the wonder of a child. But even in those hard times it was clear to me that way down deep she chose each and every day to claim joy as er birth rite and share joy as her mission!

One of the ways she shares this joy is through her radiant smile. But the most wonderful way she shares it is through the most life-giving hugs you have ever experienced. In fact, when Gladys first came to the congregation I was serving in Brookfield, WI. she literally hugged us back to life. We had just gone through a very difficult time and I was personally questioning everything about my call to ministry, when in walked this woman with a smile that lit up the room, a hug that warmed you to your toes and a joy that was simply contagious. Plus she wanted to sing in the choir! It wasn’t long before we all smiled a little more and hugged a while lot more and started to feel the” joy, joy, joy joy down in our hearts!”

I think perhaps Gladys had so much joy to share because she choose to do those things that fed her spirit and kept the flame of joy burning in her heart. She loves to sing and so she joyfully shared her voice. She has a degree in Theater arts and so she joyfully shared her talents not only in the community theater, but by leading the children’s Christmas pageants at church. She loves to entertain and so she opened her home for meeting and parties and shared suppers. She loves people and so she goes out of her way to stay connected with people she has met along her life’s journey.

I doubt that Gladys would think of the things she does as consciously choosing joy. But because her voices come from her heart, I believe that her cup overflows with joy and the world is blessed!

Thank you Gladys for shinning the light of joy in my life!

 

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And a little child shall lead them…

Masters of Play!

One of my delights over the past 2 1/2 years has been living within driving distance of our first grandchild, Ben, who turned four this past May. One of the joys of being a grandparent is that you have time to simply observe your grandchildren at play. A couple of weeks ago  when I was at his house, Ben was so involved with what he was doing that I had an extended time to just sit and watch and learn from a master of play!

As I witnessed his adventure, I noticed his imagination and how every object held the possibility of being something new and completely different from what I understood it to be! I watched as he created stories, made up characters and occasionally gave me a part to play in his elaborate drama. I noticed how he slipped effortlessly and totally unselfconsciously from singing to a talking in a made up language and back to English with complete delight in just hearing the sound of his voice. It made little or no difference to him whether I understood what he was saying or singing; he did and that was all that mattered. I also noticed the joy he experienced as he moved about the room, making objects fly and dance and twirl. But I also noticed his delight in having me witness his play,  It seemed to matter that I saw him and watched him and delighted in him, because once or twice someone else came in the room and Ben was quick to call me back if I started to talk to someone else!

A few days after this amazing afternoon I was leading one of my InterPlay Classes and we were doing a back and forth form called “I Could Talk About…” One of the things I said was “I could talk about watching my grandson play…” Then later my partner invited me to do a DT3 about watching him play. (A DT3 is an InterPlay Form that involves moving/dancing then talking x3)  As I did I heard myself say how interesting it was that he did naturally all the things that we invite participants in an InterPlay class to do… he used his imagination, made up words, talked in a made up language, sang, moved, used his voice, told his story, connected with me and experienced joy and delight in simply being witnessed. How easy it was for him and how hard it is for us as adults! As my DT3 continued I came to a place of longing for all people -children and adults- to have the opportunity and the freedom of such creative, imaginative, play.

As I was noticing my body wisdom after I finished this form,  I remembered our recent InterPlay Leaders Gathering and the observation one of our leaders of color made that the things we do in InterPlay -movement, story-telling, having our voice, being still and connecting with others- these  things are birth-rite practices. They are part of what it means to be human, to be whole and I believe to be holy.  And I felt a deep sadness for those children who are denied any or all of these birth-rite practices. And I felt a deep desire to do what I could to create a world where all children and all adults can freely and joyfully move, have their voice, tell their story, find stillness, connect with others and be witnessed with joy and delight.

So if you have the good fortune to have children around, take some time and let these masters of play lead you back into the joy of your birth-rite practices and you just might discover the One who has been waiting to dance with you, sing with you, play with you, listen to you, delight in you and show you all that you might become. While you’re at it you might also check out the InterPlay website to see if there are interPlay classes happening near you or contact me to see about the possibility of playful on-line coaching that will empower you to lead joyfully and live playfully as you discover the wisdom of your own body!

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Finding Grace!

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While I have a friend named Grace, I haven’t lost her, so she is not who I am trying to find! (Although seeing her right now would be a Grace moment in more ways than one!) What I am talking about is something I learned from my practice of InterPlay®; finding, discovering, experiencing, waking up to grace in the here and now…one moment at a time!

For most of my life “grace” was something you said before you ate, a somewhat vague theological term or something I sang about in songs such as Amazing Grace! I never thought of grace as something I experienced in my body; something as close to me as the air I breathe or the blood coursing through my veins. But in fact grace can be or in fact is as close as that. And it is not something we have to work for or earn. It is the birthright of every person; maybe even the birthright of the whole of creation!

So where do we find grace?

How do we find grace?

I began to awaken to this new way of understanding grace when Phil Porter -one of the co-founders of the system of practice known as InterPlay® was leading a retreat called The Secrets of InterPlay, and he asked us how we experienced stress in our bodies. The group was quick to name a whole plethora of things like -tight chest, shallow breathing, clamped jaws, abdominal discomfort, headaches and the like. Then Phil said, “OK, now shake that out and think of the opposite of stress…. what does that feel like in your body?” Although it took a little longer, the list was eventually just as plentiful -softness in the face, openness in the chest, deep breathing, relaxed shoulders, ease throughout the body, a smile on your face and the like. “This,” Phil went on to say, “is what in InterPlay we call the Physicality of Grace.”

So the “Grace Key” (a name coined by InterPlay co-founder Cynthia Winton-Henry) that which allows us to find Grace, is to notice what elicits these “opposite of stress” sensations. Another way of saying that is to ask: “who or what are our grace-makers?” Then, when we have identified our grace-makers, we can choose to do more of those things. or have more of those experiences. Each of us has our own rich tapestry of grace-makers. Here are some of mine:

  • dancing -almost any kind, but especially the improvisational just letting my body move to a piece of music kind of dancing
  • sitting by a body of moving water
  • watching a sunset
  • playing with my grandson
  • being with my husband
  • smelling a rose
  • walking through a flower garden
  • a heart to heart talk with a friend
  • connecting with others in movement, song and story-telling (InterPlay®)
  • breathing slowly and deeply and then silently naming the blessings in my life
  • touching the deep wisdom of my own true nature
  • hearing a song that touches my heart
  • walking a Labyrinth
  • laughing at something truly funny

What are some of your grace-makers?

One of the things I deeply appreciate about a regular practice of InterPlay is that I am reminded of my grace-makers and have the opportunity to reconnect with the grace that permeates all of life and dwells in the core of my own being. And the more I find grace in the simple ordinary bits of my life the more I am able to lead joyfully and live playfully whether it is leading a group or my own life. If you have experienced InterPlay, you know what I mean. If you have not, I would encourage you to contact me or check out the InterPlay website to find out about upcoming events  or if there are regular InterPlay classes near you.

Our bodies were created for grace, in grace, with grace and we all need to find grace in the ebb and flow of our day to day lives!

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