This week’s Speaking of Faith focuses on the practice of yoga and connecting spiritually during practice. I had heard this episode before and enjoyed listening to it again now that I am regularly taking yoga. Seane Corne described getting out of a life of drugs and alcohol in part by regularly working at this craft. She also discussed how her spirituality and yoga are like peas and carrots: you can push and prod all you want, but they develop with time and one day you’ll say, “Huh. Lookie there.”
The conversation group this week was smaller thanks to the holiday weekend, but lively. We talked about how we find ourselves close to God when enjoying different hobbies. I find myself in prayer when I’m on long runs or hikes. While I love Bikram, the teachers talk through the entire class. I need silence — to hear my heartbeat in my ears — to connect with God. (Don’t get me wrong, by the end of the hot class, I’m thanking God for surviving, but that’s it.)
This weekend I hiked a couple times, trying to enjoy the last bit of this insane heat. I know soon enough the heat will disappear and the parking lots will be waiting rooms. Right now, I’m one of only a few crazies willing to battle the weather to be out on the trails. On Sunday, I dragged my friend Alma with me.
Again, there wasn’t much silence, but there was a lot of heart-pounding, huffing and puffing and trying to manage not falling down while making our way up and down the desert hills. It was a couple hours of great friend therapy. We hadn’t talked in a very long time and by the end, I think even our ears were tired.
If you pray, do you find yourself more comfortable to do so during an activity? Do you need silence?
~K