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| On my morning walk around the pond, my new friend was communicating his frustration that I was in his habitat. |
We are Sacred
Temples…
Many times throughout the school year
when I review the upcoming deadlines for English assignments, a student, having already packed up her handy
dandy planner, will begin writing on her palm or wrist or arm or big toe… any
available skin. Inevitably, my
hypervigilant eye will spy this blasphemy, and I have been known to screech,
“Your body is the temple of the Lord.
Don’t deface YOUR temple.” This
morning in my daily readings, I read again this passage from Corinthians
3:9-11, 16-17, and it made me reflect.
Spending
my summer in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont reminds me of this scripture. As I work on the cabin to refresh the wear
and tear that it has endured over the past year of my absence, there is a
sacredness about our ritual. As I drive
down our lane and the pond comes into view, I greet the mountains and wait for
the welcoming call of the loons. I thank
God for my safe passage cross country and begin to set the deck furniture in
place after I have opened all of the windows, letting a cleansing, cool breeze
replace the stale air with the fresh. I
dust off all of the framed and fading pictures that grace the window sills. A fresh coat of paint does a body good too. This feels holy to me. Furthermore, throughout the summer, we travel
away from the Pond to other hallowed locales:
cemeteries where the bones of our ancestors are interred; houses we haunted as children; libraries and museums, chapels (http://www.chapeloftheholyfamily.com/)
and churches as we attend Bible studies, Masses, weddings or funerals. As I take these pilgrimages in my
temple-body, I am often struck by the passage of time and the realization that
like the cabin, I must embrace customs that nourish my wellness so that I can
radiate Christ’s Light and Love to the world while fulfilling my mission of
loving and serving all.
This spring
as the speech season was winding down, I decided to take my sister-in-law
Wendy’s “Nourish to Flourish” online nutrition class (http://www.renewwellness.net/). Inspired by my cousin Asa’s recovery from a
severe stroke, I wanted to indeed nourish my body, this vessel given to me by
God to do His work in the world. If in
fact, “the Spirit of God dwells in…” me, as I pray each day it does, I want to
live long and prosper. This class opened
my eyes as to how the elements that I invite into my body impact my health
physically, emotionally, spiritually, and even cognitively. If the first week of the course felt like my body was immersed
in a monsoon as it was striving to strike a balance and repudiate the nutritional
sins from my past, the second week brought sunny skies with clear thinking,
boundless energy and refreshing renewal.
By the end of the fourth week, I
had forged a new foundation for a legacy of healthy living.
I do
not have a solution to prevent students from writing on themselves, but I do
know what I want my body, in communion with this life, to communicate- respect,
joy and Love.
