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Tag Archives: oregon
New Updates at the Switchboard
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged bend, Community, localization, oregon, switchboard bend
A couple videos from myc yoga
Here’s some recent happenings at myc yoga | bend | or.
Spiritual integration classes coming in March!
Partner yoga excitement!
Putting the idea of community to work
To use a one of my favorite bloggers intros…
Hello bloggers and bloggerettes,
So I am in the middle of this stretch on community of which you can find the intro here. I have been working on the ranch (my other job) a lot in the last week which has seriously narrowed down the amount of typing I have been able to do. With an injured wrist and forearm, all the writing, typing, hand shaking, and laptop carrying doesn’t give me that much rest. So blogging has suffered. Alas…
Community… this last week we talked about “Why is it that we as humans need community so much?” I have been trying to put more work into my preparation for our Sunday night gatherings… this often amounts, at least in my mind to thinking through and imagining the whole flow for how the night is going to go. Well, the point I was trying to make was that we as humans are created in God’s image which is inherently community (in the Trinity). Well, two out of the five people there made my point for me in the first ten minutes… so… so much for that.
We talked a lot about connection and creating a space where people can connect. The whole time in my own mind, I am trying to let go of my own agenda as different people begin talking for long periods of time. “Open up the space, Nate… open it up,” I kept telling myself. “People need to feel safe to be themselves. Breathe it open.” The real tough|freeing moment was when I was hoping to move into reading scripture and half the group wanted to talk feelings… “Egh… I thought, we have time for this… but not now,” I was thinking. But I let it go… we actually sat there in silence for about a minute as I tried to figure out what I was going to do. “You wanted empty space… WELL YOU’VE GOT IT!!… breathe.”
It felt OK… and in the end, I think we all felt this strong sense of functioning together. As someone prayed in the end, as we broke bread and served each other wine|juice, “Thank you God for a place that we really can be ourselves.“
Next Sunday will be around the question, “What makes for good community?”
Becoming community… journeying in hospitality and belonging
As our Sunday evening gathering begins its focus on community, my thoughts stray towards this essential component to our life as human beings and followers of Jesus. For the next few weeks, my posts will be centered primarily on some of the things that are circulating in my own head around this journey towards hospitality and belonging.
Never do I claim to have all the answers, or any final answers, for that matter… but I hope that my wonderings, questions, and reflections may in fact raise some thoughts in those reading here. Over the next few weeks, we will be wrestling with questions like:
- Why community? Why do we need it?
- What makes for good community? How might we be to each other?
- How do we build community? What does it mean to offer hospitality to those outside our walls?
- What is the enduring|greater|broader effect of smaller communities? What difference can our community make?
It is my hope to hold space for the questions… open for others to discover… Here, I will ask some questions… reflect on some of the things I am reading regarding community… provide fertilizer for the mind|heart|spirit.
Posted in Community, Out and About in Bend, Questions
Bend’s 2nd gathering of knuckleheads… shepherds too
Fellow Shepherds and knuckleheads,
Less than one week from today will be our second monthly gathering for any and all who wonder… who question… or who seek a place of the in-between.
Bend Brewing Company… 7pm… Monday, March 10.
Come soft… ready… expectant. May you find your self in the music and connected through story… we all have these selfs and stories and songs to share… to uncover. May Monday be the day that that might happen. At least for a short time may we find ourselves on the journey and not alone.
The question for the evening will not be released until we get there, as it is too easy for all of us to prepare our opinions and align our thoughts ahead of time. This is too hard for any shepherd or knucklehead. May mystery invite us.
Bring along a friend, spouse, sibling… stranger. The wonder, joy, and energy of our gathering together is entirely in your hands.
Bend Brewing Co… 7pm… Next Monday. March 10
See you there
