Water, water, everywhere

This week, we are using water as a way to use and focus our attention on the world around us. Choosing a common event or experience as a trigger for our attention develops our ability to be present in the moment. It is a way to wake up our consciousness and sharpen our senses. This is a good spiritual practice for experiencing a sense of connection to the greater whole.

As we depend on water to nourish us, grow our food, clean our houses, and so much more, we meet water many times a day. Taking a shower, drinking from a water fountain, walking past a puddle, filling up the coffee pot are just a few examples. Using water as a trigger to awareness and presence offers an opportunity to slow down for a moment.

The directions are simple:  Pause, Notice, Open.

Pause:  When you use a water source, pause and breath slowly and deeply. Check in with yourself, stretch and relax. Shake out your body. Re-direct your thoughts to the present. How are you feeling? Take a few moments to sit with what ever emotion you might be experiencing.

Notice:  Come into awareness of the water. What are you using the water for? Where are you? What does the water sound like? Smell like? Taste like?  What is the temperature of the water? Thank the water for sustaining you (it may sound silly, but try it: gratitude is good for you!)

Open:  After focusing on yourself and the water, expand your attention. What else is around you? What is attracting your attention? Try to keep your eyes “soft”, don’t stare or focus too intently, let your eyes roam and gaze at what captures them. Open yourself to the environment surrounding you. Then take one more slow, deep breath and return to your activity.

Try it for a week:  Pause, Notice, Open every time you come into contact with water.

Shall we gather at the river?

This week we will focus on running water, developing sensory awareness as a spiritual practice. Sensory awareness or “reverential contemplation” is a Unitarian Universalist way to access our first and sixth sources. Reverential contemplation can lead us to experiences of mystery and wonder and help us connect to the rhythms of nature. Neo-pagans, taoists. naturalists and martial artists may also  develop their sensory awareness as part of their learning process. Through deep breathing, grounding the self, and paying attention, we can increase our connection to the world around us, reminding us we are part of a “great conversation” among all life on earth.

Flowing Water

Find a source of running water, seek out a trickling stream or rushing river or go sit by Lake Ontario. If you can’t get outside, use a water fountain (I found one at a second hand store for a few dollars), or stand by the sink as you are filling it to do the dishes.

Breathe deeply. Feel your feet firmly, yet loosely, planted on the ground. Let your worries and stresses sink down into your feet and into the ground. Listen to the sounds of life around you. Breathe deeply.

Focus your eyes and ears on the water. Watch its movement and form. Notice the shapes and patterns that it makes, where it runs fast and where it slows down. Look at how it pools and puddles. Breathe in. What does the water smell like?

If outside, notice the way the patterns of movement form and reflect the shapes the land. The visible motion is only the surface layer, there is more complex motion below.  What can the surface tell you about the depths? Notice how the light plays off the water, changing as the water changes.

If you are inside, be aware of the sounds the water makes at different depths, as it touches different materials like metal or ceramic. Change the pressure, notice what happens to the motion of water as the flow increases or decreases.

After five minutes, breathe deeply and look away from the water.  Take a minute to reflect on your experience of flowing water.

Water in Motion exercise adapted from Starhawk’s The Earth Path

Spiritual Practice: The Element of Water

Water is truly the elixir of life. Life on earth would not exist had water not come into being billions of years ago.  Our true creation story begins in the distant oceans – the source of all life arose from ancient deeps – our salty blood reminds us of our marine evolution. As Unitarian Universalists we honour this life force as an essential aspect of the interdependent web of life.

For UUs water represents the healing nature of our common life, the welcoming pool that accepts us all, as we are. Our water in-gathering ceremony reflects this symbolic understanding as we bring water from our summer experiences to blend into our water chalice on the Sunday after Labour Day.  As water is the focus of our “beginning again together” ritual, it feels right to use water as the theme to begin this year of spiritual practice.

This month is a month of turning our awareness and attention towards water, grateful for its life creating properties. In paying attention to water, we remind ourselves of our deep connections to all life on earth.  We expand our awareness to the larger whole through the lens of water.  Water also connects us to the larger Unitarian Universalist community, reminding us of its support and care.

Water:  First Practice:  Joys and Sorrows

The sharing of joys and sorrows is, along with quiet meditation, one of the most common spiritual practices for UUs.  Most worship services include both in some form or another.  For many congregations, joys and sorrows are expressed through lighting candles.  Some, like the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Durham, use glass pebbles and water.  Each week when we gather, we take the time to place pebbles in our water chalice, sharing the ups and downs of living.  As we drop in a stone, we know the ripples extend beyond ourselves, letting our joys increase and helping our sorrows to dissipate. This simple act reminds us that we are not alone, others have experienced the same losses and concerns, and that happiness returns in time.

This week, our spiritual practice is to simply take “joys and sorrows” into our homes as a reminder that we are part of this chalice community wherever we are.

Individual Practice

Fill a bowl with water.  Collect some pebbles, glass stones, buttons, or pennies and place beside the bowl.

Each day, take five minutes to sit with the water chalice. Take a minute to simply sit and be, looking at the water. As you look at the water, reflect on your day.  What are you struggling with?  What are you worried about?  What is hurting you? Pick up a pebble, name your struggle aloud. Release it into the water. Continue to sit looking into the water. What was the best part of your day?  Where did you find delight? Pick up a pebble, name your joy aloud.  Release it into the water.  Sit quietly as long as you need to. To end, you might wish to say “Living with joys and sorrows, I am whole and part of the whole.”

Couples or Families

For families or couples, practice this at bedtime or at the end of dinner, whenever you are all together and have a few minutes to focus. Gather the family around the water chalice. Begin with quiet, just looking at the water. Then ask each person to share something significant from their day. After everyone has spoken, or after each person speaks, you might say  “we listen in love”.  To end, you might say “Together we face our sorrows and celebrate our joys. May it be so.”

 

Tips: If your children (or you!) have trouble settling, begin by ringing a bell or striking a chime or drum. Clear some space around the chalice so there are few visual distractions. Use words that work for you. What matters most is taking the time to sit, look at the water, and reflect on the ups and downs of the day.

Here we go…

This year at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Durham we are beginning a year of spiritual practice.  Each month we will follow a particular practice or explore a theme.  Each week on Tuesday a new exercise will be posted.

Try to plan a regular time each day, or just once a week, to try out the practice.  When you first wake up, or just before bed time.  Take 15 minutes at lunch time.  Try it out Sunday mornings before you leave for our 10:30 service  (but leave enough time to get to UUCD!).  Once you have tried out a practice, leave a comment and let us know about your experience.

Our September theme is Water in honour of our annual Water In-Gathering Ceremony held the Sunday after Labour Day.  The first exercise will posted next Tuesday.

Follow the blog to get the exercises directly.  You’ll also find a link on the UUCD website as well as through our Facebook page.