Summer

About Summer

artist, minister, yoga therapist

Here We Are | Coronavirus and Grief

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Early Spring 2020 As you can imagine I had a whole set of sermons planned for the spring season. But this week, I decided to set them aside for the time being... We're in a moment we never could have planned for. We're having to pivot and shift. And so, I wrote a new sermon. It was hard to write. But in the end, it turned into something really beautiful. While I can't actually give you a physical hug right now, I hope this sermon will feel a bit like a ... (Continue Reading)

By |2022-07-18T14:55:14-07:00March 28th, 2020|Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|4 Comments

Spring Equinox in the Context of Covid-19

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons the Spring Equinox in the Context of Covid-19 This past Thursday was officially the equinox, and in the northern hemisphere we've moved into brighter, lighter days! The spring equinox is usually a celebration, but in this strange global moment celebration feels a bit odd. Still, we need to mark the moment because Mother Earth is reminding us that spring always follows winter. And this is a message we desperately need. The spring equinox is the festival of awakening, balance, and new life. And while we'll need to adapt our celebrations, I think ... (Continue Reading)

By |2020-03-21T09:41:32-07:00March 21st, 2020|Spring, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Late Winter Part 4: Love as an Inner Sanctuary

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Late Winter 2020 | MEDITATIONS ON LOVE I have an important question for you: How do you talk to yourself in the privacy of your own mind? This week’s sermon explores the topic of self-love. In it, I share a bit about my own experience of painful self-judgement. I share how I was able to lower the volume on some of my damaging thought patterns, and I offer you a simple practice to transform your own mental habits of self-criticism (whatever form they come in). Love as an Inner ... (Continue Reading)

By |2022-07-18T14:54:08-07:00March 1st, 2020|Imbolc, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Late Winter Part 3: Love as the Practice of Attention

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Late Winter 2020 | MEDITATIONS ON LOVE Can I be vulnerable and admit some embarrassing behavior? Last year—when I wrote the sermon I'm sharing with you today—I had to re-up my CPR certification. I was late to the class and sat down in the only available seat, quickly realizing I was next to the “strange” guy. It’d been the empty seat for a reason. My first reactions were judgement and envy. I was judging the man for being loud and missing the social cues of the moment. I was judging myself for ... (Continue Reading)

By |2022-07-18T14:53:30-07:00February 23rd, 2020|Imbolc, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|1 Comment

Late Winter Part 2: Love & Sacrifice

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Late Winter 2020 | MEDITATIONS ON LOVE Love is a word that means SO many different things in our culture. It can be utterly casual—almost to the point of meaninglessness. But it’s also a word powerful enough to change our lives. Sometimes it’s the word we deeply need to hear. Sometimes it’s the word we’re terrified to say. I know that we all need love. I know that we want to be loving people. And I think the vast majority of us are interested in learning how to expand our capacity to love. In order to ... (Continue Reading)

By |2022-07-18T14:52:42-07:00February 16th, 2020|Imbolc, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Late Winter Part 1: The Middle Ground Between Love & Contempt

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Late Winter 2020 | MEDITATIONS ON LOVE After listening to the very first Yoga Church Sunday sermon called “Who, or what, is God?”, a Quaker friend of mine shared this comment: “As soon as you asked what opposites I feel in my life I thought of the command to love everyone and yet I find myself disliking our country’s leaders. Without getting political, how do we feel love towards someone who we don’t respect? For me this is a constant push and pull struggle. How do I reflect God’s love in my ... (Continue Reading)

By |2022-07-18T14:51:49-07:00February 9th, 2020|Imbolc, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Spiritual Practices for Imbolc

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Spiritual Practices for Imbolc It's the beginning of February. Which, for those of us living in the northern hemisphere, means we've reached the middle of winter. And this means: SPRING IS COMING!! In the Celtic Wheel of the Year we call this moment Imbolc and celebrate the earth's awakening. The sun is returning and the days are growing longer. If you listen closely you might hear a bit more birdsong. And if you look for them, you might discover tiny buds on the bushes and trees.  This is a potent time, full ... (Continue Reading)

By |2020-02-01T22:22:53-08:00February 1st, 2020|Imbolc, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|2 Comments

Yoga Nidra

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Early Winter 2020 | Reflections on the Practice of Sabbath Every six weeks or so, we turn our attention toward sabbath. We explore the practice of rest. We all know that rest is 'important.' But that doesn't necessarily mean we value it or know how to do it. My husband is a long distance runner and his training regime is intense. He's been reading a coaching book and told me the author talks about 'deploying rest' just as you deploy effort. He says things like: "this would be a good day to ... (Continue Reading)

By |2020-03-13T11:30:37-07:00January 26th, 2020|Meditation, Sabbath, Winter, Yoga, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Early Winter Part 4: Connecting with Divine Mystery

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons JOIN US for the online Yoga Church Sunday Gathering. Click here for the details. I've got a great sermon for you this morning. It's the last one in our early winter series (I've loved this group of sermons). As you know we've been exploring Divine Mystery. We started with what it means to be a seeker, then we explored yearning, last week we dove into the practice of finding refuge, and this week we're talking about connection. Divine Mystery is, well, mysterious. But ... (Continue Reading)

By |2023-12-02T09:44:50-08:00January 19th, 2020|Winter, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments

Early Winter Part 3: Finding Refuge

Welcome to the Yoga Church Sunday Sermons Early Winter 2020 | Opening to Mystery Our sermon this week explores some common themes of the yoga church: How do we root our identity in something deeper than the always shifting nature of life? How do we find refuge and comfort in a world that can't offer absolute security? If you struggle at all with perfectionism or anxiety, please watch this sermon. It ends with a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke and I got this message from one of the women on our film crew: "I have to tell you, I WEPT ... (Continue Reading)

By |2020-11-13T15:25:27-08:00January 12th, 2020|Winter, Yoga Church Sunday Sermons|0 Comments
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