Sometimes, I dislike people.
I am not defending or proud of this fact; I am simply confessing. Some people have a quality or affect, a sense of humor, a way of being that can grate on my nerves, ruffles my feathers, even makes me feel uncomfortable or annoyed.
Improv classes are a constant stream of new discovery and activity. A new warm up is taught to the group, we learn it and try it, we practice and stumble. Someone messes up in the warm-up exercise, a rhythm gets off, someone whooshes instead of pows, laughter ensues. After all, we are standing in a circle ready with playful, silly energy.
Read MoreListening is a key component to effective communication in improv, to the work of collaboratively making scenes up on the spot.
Read MoreIt scares me to go out on stage.
Read MoreYou already belong. Be who you are.
Read MoreImprovised comedy begins with “Yes, and.”
Yes.
I agree to the name you just gave me, the relationship you clarified, and to the situation you established.
And.
As a personal spiritual discipline of late, I have been taking improv comedy classes at the Dallas Comedy House. In improv class we begin with a few warm-ups. They move the body and get the blood flowing, they help lower our defenses and embrace the playfulness of the environment, they get us engaged. They help us practice saying yes, being present, and supporting one another.
Read MoreThe highest point on the island of Iona is a peak called Dùn I (I = “ee”). While this climb, and the accompanying 360 degree island view, is available to anyone, pilgrims climb it as part of their pilgrimage around the island. It serves as a celebration point, a mountaintop moment, for it can be difficult to scale, and even harder, sometimes, to then find your way back down.
Read MoreFor the space at the table
We celebrate and give thanks
For the stories that arrive
Important to be heard
For the bellies and hearts that come hungry
Hoping to be filled
To set the table is to commit to grace.
A set table implies a willingness to believe that our needs will be met.
At the table, the nutritional needs of the body will be supplied by the production of the earth.
Read MoreThe great promise of the table is that we are invited to join in holy community/communion with family.
Read MoreFor those who take the time to come to the table, both for ritual and for meal, the community of God is nourishing. It brings health. This is not always happiness. Just ask anyone who has ever come to the table hoping for cake and found cauliflower. Sometimes community requires patience, love, endurance, imagination, and courage. But, in return, Jesus promises nourishment.
Read MoreIn the sacrament of table and community, there lies the healing power of presence and the movement of the Spirit.
Read MoreThree ladies have prepared the food, two from Syria and one from Iran. They’ve been in The Mix Kitchen for the afternoon, preparing for this meal. A tasty assortment of rice, marvelously seasoned meat, fried kibbeh, and a light mix of greens; we are preparing to feast on this Tuesday afternoon.
Read More
Read MoreI am not a table setter. I want to be. I really like having a place set for me. I like the sense of sitting down with everything I might need within reach. I like the sense that there was one who went before me, anticipating those needs. I like the sense that I might meet the needs of those at my table.
Read MoreWhen I think of the things that consistently draw me into relationship with Jesus, and those things that have been anchor points for that relationship throughout my life, the notion of table fellowship is beyond doubt the most consistent theme throughout my life.
Read MoreThe lamp smoke smudged the walls. Jesus was standing in the corner, his forehead on the wall, peering out the window from the corner of his eye.
Read MoreWaiting can shape, sharpen, and make us more sensitive to that which sustains us.
Read MoreTake me to the water
Waves snuggle the shore
Teaching to breathe
Ashes represent a reduction, a simplification, an equivocation of all things. Garden rose and wayside weed both burn to calcium carbonate—the stuff of egg shells and pearls.
Read More
