dekhomai

Feet

I only made it to the festival on Saturday, but it was still an amazing experience. I lost count of how many people were brave enough to offer their feet for a massage, but each one reminded me how powerful and healing touch can be. I have always experienced massage as therapeutic for both the one receiving it and the one giving it. Touch seems to affirm the physical nature of who we are as human beings - and there is something about massaging feet which speaks in particular to our rootedness on the earth.

Massage makes a deep connection for me between the physical, emotional and spiritual sides of our being. Healing touch reminds me that we can, and do, experience the divine in our physical humanity – affirmed long ago by the divine human, Jesus. So, thank you to all who lent me their feet – I hope it helped to keep you going to the end of the festival.

world prayers

This site is a collection of world prayers from all kinds of different faith traditions. You can select a prayer completely at random by 'spinning the prayer wheel', or choose from Invocations, Celebrations, Adorations, and Meditations. There are some beautiful words here...after browsing for a while I was struck by how universal prayer is. www.worldprayers.org

Blessing

It was a privilege to speak God’s blessing over people at the festival. I used the ancient Jewish blessing: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace.’ God is attentive to us and to our lives; he sees us and hears us and looks on us with love.

I’m reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson at the moment. It’s a wonderful book, the kind of writing that makes you want to savour every word. It’s the story of the Reverend John Ames who, towards the end of his life, writes a letter to his young son. In it he talks about how, as a child, he and his friends baptised a litter of cats. He writes:

‘I still remember how those warm little brows felt under the palm of my hand. Everyone has petted a cat, but to touch one like that, with the pure intention of blessing it, is a very different thing. It stays in the mind.  For years we would wonder what, from a cosmic viewpoint, we had done to them. It still seems to me to be a real question. There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It doesn’t enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak. The sensation of really knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own mysterious life at the same time… Not that you have to be a minister to confer blessing. You are simply much more likely to find yourself in that position. It’s a thing people expect of you.’

photos from the festival

today is the last day of the london mind body spirit festival. if you're visiting the site because you came to the dekhomai stand, thanks. it was great meeting you. hope you experienced it as a welcoming place. we've added a photo album from the festival... - click on the link to it on the left hand side.

we're all pretty shattered but will be blogging thoughts and reflections here over the next few weeks and months.

A pain in the back

Last October I pulled a muscle in my back. All I did was reach for the shampoo in the shower. It was agony for a few days so I rested and then returned to exercising when it felt better. But by Christmas I was getting deferred pain in my leg when I ran. I’ve since seen a physio and osteopath and for a while had to give up all exercise. I had entered for the Windsor and London triathlons this year, and was hoping to improve my times, but I’ve had to pull out of both.

I feel like I’m on the mend now. My back feels stronger and I can now do a bit more exercise – I’m up to 20 minutes cycling in the gym! But I’ve found it so hard not being able to be active and it’s reminded me of the connection between mind, body and spirit. When I exercise I feel alive and strong; when I’m hobbling around with a bad back, I’ve felt low, spiralling down into comfort eating which then makes me feel worse. No doubt some of the good feeling is down to endorphins, but I think it’s also about a sense of well being at every part of yourself being in harmony and working like it should. I guess it’s most obvious when a part of your body gets damaged or out of shape. Do we pay as much attention to the well being of our spirits, or our minds?

desk stretches

If we are all heart, soul, mind AND body people, but like me, you're more often than not stuck behind a desk, looking at a monitor, on an inadequate chair, in a stuffy office all day (despite the sunshine calling!), try re-awakening your body and brain with these desk stretches.

We have them pinned on the wall at work and once in a while, when we're all a bit braindead and need to get the blood flowing again, the call of "Let's stretch!" goes up...

digital spirituality - lavalamp prayer

at the dekhomai stand at the london mind body spirit festival one of the things we have been running is a laptop computer with a few items of digital spirituality - we've called it iSpirituality. this may be a weird concept - i haven't seen any other stands doing anything quite like it. it took me by surprise the first time i cam across the idea of praying by lighting a virtual candle on a computer screen - i thought it would be naff but actually it really seemed to work - if all of life is endued with the presence of God then why not have a sacred moment at the computer?

i'll start a category on the dekhomai blog of digital spirituality to post up stuff we come across. first up one of the items on the stand - lavalamp prayer. i love this - it's so seventies! it's online and free just follow the link. when you click on a bubble a window opens in which you type your prayer. clicking amen then returns the bubble to the lamp where your prayer floats upwards until it's reunited with the oneness of the lava. you can also minimise the lamp so it is just there in the corner of your screen. cool eh?

creative thinking

mycoted is a site i have just discovered. this is the blurb...

Mycoted is dedicated to improving Creativity and Innovation for solving problems worldwide, with that in mind, we provide a central repository for Creativity and Innovation on the Internet as a summary of tools, techniques, mind exercises, puzzles, book reviews etc, that is open to all - and can be written by all.

there's a pretty impressive A-Z of creativity techniques, some of which i've seen before (random words, wishing, six hat thinking etc) and others i haven't. leave a comment if you have tried any that worked well.

if you like lateral thinking which is always good for stretching the mind there is also a section of puzzles . i find it amazing that even though i know there's a catch that's obvious in hindsight i often can't spot it!

hope

i love howies. whenever a new catalogue arrives it's a spiritual experience. their ethos/outlook on life and business is inspirational with their passion for treading lightly on the earth. yes their clothes are expensive but their sales are pretty regular. this summer's catalogue is no exception themed on hope. all the reflection pieces are in the think section of their web site. one of my favourites was a piece about business suits by jon matthews...

While we don't condone shoplifting, terrorising old ladies or generally making other people's lives a misery, the tabloids seem to be picking on the wrong people. Casual research suggests serious fraud, insider trading or acts of corporate manslaughter are unlikely to be carried out by people wearing hooded sweatshirts. Photographs of senior executives of British manufacturers of land mines, anti-personnel grenades and cluster bombs have shown no evidence of hoodie-wearers. Businessmen offering large amounts of cash in return for peerages, and the politicians who accept the cash, tend towards less casual items of clothing. When the decision was made to invade Iraq, no-one wore a hoodie. And the men who think Guantanamo Bay is still a good idea do not wear hoods themselves, though they have been known to offer them to guests. Sure, there's the odd villain who wants to conceal his face. But there's bigger villains around who have no such shame.

there's a great bunch of links to follow here and some more here. tell us if you find any gems in there...

and if you are feeling arty enter the art-think competition - deadline is june 30

london mind body spirit festival

the london mind body spirit festival is getting closer. it's the debut appearance for dekhomai. we are stand no 17. if you're going do come and visit us and say hi! the stand is only 2m x 2m so it's going to be nice and cosy. the write up on the exhibitors page says this about our stand:

Healing prayer, interactive meditations to try, space, meditation cd and cd rom, all from the Christian tradition.

we had our last planning meeting last night and are just about set...

the first dekhomai CD ROM has also arrived which is exciting. this is the online labyrinth that you can take and experience at home when you're not online. you can experience this on the stand on a laptop along with a couple of fun interactive pieces  of techno-spirituality. we also have a couple of leaflets that gareth has designed that are looking really good on the dekhomai theme - quotes from the mystics and so on - some of the images and quotes are in the mystical postcards photo album.

each day on the stand we'll be offering prayer for healing of mind body and spirit (or anything else) and that is free(!), there'll be space to sit and chat, and we'll have at least two interactive rituals to participate in at any one time - we'll rotate these around so that it keeps us and visitors to the stand fresh... these are currently iSpirituality; care bowl; prophecy table; christ we share; foot washing/massage. then we'll have a table with a few items for sale from the dekhomai shop... hope to see you there.