Embodying the Goddess (Goddess Within Ministry)
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Welcome, Autumn!

9/27/2017

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Fall is here--and with it, there are new events to look forward to!

First: there are new dates for meditation (An Hour of Om). I have set aside times for each month in the final quarter of the year.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Second: Knit-Ins are back! Knit-Ins are times when we make things together. It is never too early to get started on a project. Some of us knit, some crochet, some work on other crafts. All portable, easily-contained craft forms are welcome. If you would like to knit, but don't know how, there are many, many crafting videos available to watch on YouTube (at no charge), on Craftsy (for a fee), and on websites such as Ravelry. Lessons and supplies are available in person at many stores, such as Needlecraft Corner (specializing in cross-stitch; just over one block from my new location on Harford Road) or Lovely Yarns in Hamden.

If you are feeling shy about contacting a place for lessons, I would be glad to show you some knitting basics. If there is popular demand, then a number of us can gather. Let me know if you are interested in learning knitting basics. I am glad to share what I know. Full disclosure: I am a very basic knitter. I have known people who make elaborate and breathtakingly lovely projects; I am not, however, one of them.

 Also: as the Steve Miller Band told us in song so very long ago, time keeps on slippin' into the future. One of my very favorite projects, National Novel Writing Month, is quickly approaching! I am gauging interest in a planning workshop for the novel-writing spree. (I'm currently considering the 9th of October.) I can't wait to hear your opinion!

Finally: Now that Fall has arrived, I would like to hear your thoughts about taking a field trip and nature walk, to view the autumn leaves in all their glory. Send me a message to let me know what's on your mind.

And I do encourage you to keep in mind that you are always welcome to send prayer requests.

That is all I will mention for now, although I have any number of other projects brewing. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.


Wishing you peace!
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Won't You Be My Neighbor?

9/1/2017

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Mr. Rogers had some feelings about that whole neighbor thing.
 While I will freely admit that I loved the show to distraction--yes, the cardigan, the song, the trips to the Land of Make Believe, all of it--one of my favorite things about Mr. Rogers was that he made it clear that we are all neighbors; that each of us has intrinsic worth; and that one of our most important duties is to hold each other up.

One interpretation of the central concept of his teachings sounds like this: In some ways, because of our delightfully contradictory experience of humanity, we are simultaneously enacting different portions of one massive, interconnected divine experience. Despite all of the divisions we create that are focused on race, religion, political affiliation, levels of ability and the like, we generally go into a room that contains dozens of others, and despite the fact that we are standing shoulder to shoulder, we allow others the illusion that their fragile envelope of privacy remains unviolated. This can be an enactment of graciousness, in which we occupy the same space and allow others to have their heartbreak and elation; their pain and the worst news of all time--and we fully allow the pretense that, inches away from one another, we are neither seen nor heard. Sometimes this grace is protective, so that we are not required to intervene in other people's tiny disasters.

At other times, when disaster strikes, we rip away the veil of pretense and fully swoop in to save each other from imminent disaster. We also sometimes gift in the opposite direction. When disaster strikes, we suddenly make one another visible again, just long enough to set each other right, and then we go back to pretending that our space is not the same space; that time and distance offer separation and relief from the intimate experience.

What a gift we give one another; or make that a series of gifts. We offer the gifts of privacy and anonymity. We offer the gifts of visibility and being known.  We offer the gifts of assistance. We offer the gift of hope: that we need not remain how or where we are when we began.

I don't talk about this much, but I was raised in a very small town in the South. Most of my neighbors were related to me in one way or another, usually in a circuitous manner that required quite a bit of patience to untangle. (I was often just grateful if we could get past the halfway mark in the story without the speaker having a sudden realization about his or her parents being insufficiently distant on their family trees, or tree, singular.) Because of this intertwined community, I learned the value of neighborly behavior. Sure, you might have to lower your voice and make sure your windows were closed if you wanted to keep your night special, but you could also borrow a cup of sugar from anyone in a five-mile radius, or stop on any porch to get patched up with Band-Aids and a little isopropryl alcohol if you fell off your bike. (Frankly, I have always had a special relationship with gravity. I developed many, many baffling and creative injuries. Everyone was ready for me.) Being surrounded by family was simultaneously suffocating and intensely gratifying. Our togetherness wasn't quite a shield from the world, but in retrospect, it was a rich shelter that potentiated many types of introspection.

In the spirit of neighborly action, I encourage you to visit a new page on this website, in which we explore ways to enact our neighborly assistance. Here is the page, titled Help Your Neighbor. There are several opportunities to become more involved in your world communities. For the first time, I noted that a number of the agencies offer a way to volunteer from afar. That option may be best suited to those of us who struggle to feel comfortable out and about in the world.

Finally, I want to share with you the footage of Mr. Rogers receiving an Emmy award in 1997. I did not know that he had done so; as a matter of fact, I have only just learned several remarkable things about this humble, loving man. I will freely admit that I cried all the way through his speech. Prepare yourself.

You are part of the world community. You are special, unique and irreplaceable. Your contributions have value beyond measure. As you are able, rise (physically, metaphorically or both) and hie thee to a place to find your tribe.

Remember, there are many, many ways to Help Your Neighbor. We are one spirit, formed of the same ocean of possibilities; so sometimes your neighbor is across the ocean, sometimes your neighbor is on the next block...or sometimes your neighbor is you.

Sending love, and wishing you well.
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    Tanisia Smith is a writer, a cook, a bad knitter, and a psychic, among other things. She invites you to lean deeper into the mysteries of life, love, and the divine comic tragedy of your life, at her table.

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