Namaste

Yesterday I traveled to Rockaway New Jersey to attend a staff retreat with our Development, admin, and facilities teams from Newark. Where is Rockaway? West of Newark..."over there"...It took me about 3 hours to get there with the traffic and snow. The retreat was held in a church that has about 3,000 members. There were mountains. It snowed on and off throughout the day.  It was a nice setting in which to be a part.

We had been told ahead of time to wear comfortable clothing because we would be doing yoga.  When I was younger, I was afraid of yoga and meditation, thinking it was evil and from the devil.  It "belonged" to another religion, I thought, and so had no place in my life.  As I've grown older, I have realized the benefits of breathing, stretching, holding poses, etc. without succumbing to some of the mystical practices associated with it. So I wasn't too upset or skeptical that we would be participating in this as part of our retreat.  I was only adamant that I would not go barefoot and did not want to be next to someone with bare feet.

Our old/new executive director recently "got into yoga" and became an instructor.  He's been leading sessions with the kids at the shelter, which I think is awesome--time spent in quiet, concentrated centeredness, breathing, stretching, focusing...all good for kids whose lives are chaotic.

So as a team we stretched, we arched, we were lead through a mediation with some beach noise in the background.  At one point we simply sat while our exec talked about self-care and being our best self so we can in turn be our best selves to our kids and each other.

Namaste.  I've known yoga instructors that sign off with this in emails.  If you visit any yoga studio you are sure to find this word/saying hanging somewhere.  I never knew what it meant until yesterday. In Hinduism, it means, "I bow to the divine in you". Another interpretation is, "The divine in me honors the divine in you". 

This caught my attention because it's how we train our staff to care for our kids...to look past all the pain and barriers and anger and crap they carry in and find that divine place, that spirit that God has placed in each person an reflect it back to them.  Not always easy to do but it's what we aim for.

I'm not quite sure I subscribe to the theory that some people are born "evil". Granted, we are all born sinners in need of God's grace but when I've heard references to notable folks (Manson, Hitler, Bundy, etc.) thought to be born "pure evil" I'm not sure I buy it.  In studying some of these people and working with street kids I'm bent more towards the nurture rule than nature.  God can change anyone--the hardest of criminals, the most heinous of characters.  I do believe there is a divine place in everyone and although I'm not going to go around bowing and saying, "Namaste" to random people, I do keep this in mind when I'm dealing with particularly difficult folks.  Maybe it's a donor, a grouchy salesperson, a guy that cuts me off in his car, or the rude people that sit behind me in church and yapyapyap throughout the entire service.  Can I/will I recognize the divine in them in those moments? When the news reports of awful acts of violence or terrorism, can I look at the mug shots or videos and say with confidence, "There is a divine spirit within them..."  Tough...

But doesn't God do that with us? Although washed in the blood, at one point my sin made me just as dirty and filthy as anyone else...yet the divine was there.  God longs for all to come to salvation. Everyone on the planet is purposed to be here. HE breathed life into everyone.  So who am I to not recognize and respect and honor that in everyone I meet and have contact with?

"The divine in me honors the divine in you"...