Tags
Autumn Equinox, awareness, body of Christ, Corinthians, insight, intuitions, one body, patterns, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, weather
There’s been a subtle but predictable shift in weather patterns over the past week here in upstate New York. Coming close to the Autumn Equinox usually brings warm days with cool nights – and sometimes, if we’re lucky, glorious blue skies and lovely fresh air. We have been that kind of lucky for the past two days but there has also been some heavy morning fog and muggy stickiness to deal with on other mornings. I’m starting to feel my age as my knees and some of my fingers begin to react to these conditions, singing to me as I type and then stand up from my morning tasks. I have been lucky to stave off these signs of aging for as long as I have and I am still grateful that they do not cause any real limitation even now.
As I read 1COR 12:12, this morning’s very familiar beginning of two often quoted chapters from St. Paul, I had the flash of a new insight, one more new way of looking at Paul’s words that as a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. I have always seen that as a great analogy of our diversity as well as our connections to one another. This morning, however, I was aware of my knees as a vehicle of awareness – a way to remember and pray for those people in the world who have trouble walking or who cannot walk at all. It’s difficult to ignore the small intuitions of the onset of arthritis but recognizing the solidarity that can flow from that recognition could be beneficial to others in the same or a more serious condition.
I’m always grateful for my legs and feet that serve me so well each day. This morning I am even more grateful for this new way to pay attention in a positive way to their speaking, for the good of the whole body of Christ.