On the Move!
Table Talk
Setting the Table
You are welcome here. Come just as you are, bringing whatever is on your heart today. Take a few moments and allow yourself to just be. Take a couple deep breaths, grab yourself a cup of coffee, light a candle, do something that brings you comfort. Allow yourself to be present in this moment.
Consider how moving, both in ways that bring you joy and in ways that challenge you, creates change within yourself and in the world around you.
“All that is important is this one moment in movement. Make the moment important, vital, and worth living. Do not let it slip away unnoticed and unused.”
― Martha Graham
"The glory of God is humankind fully alive."
― Ireneaus
Matthew 5:13
You are the salt of the earth...you are the light of the world.
Food for Thought
I believe it was my second week as a first-year seminary student that I realized I had to move more, and how little I had been doing it. Sitting for 3-hour classes in chairs that had supported the bodies of generations of students before me was leaving its mark on my muscles and bones - I ached every time I stood up. My brain felt heavy with so much knowledge, my shoulders and neck were stiff from hunching forward over my computer, and my legs needed a few more moments to straighten up and get me moving on to the next class - where I'd sit, take out my computer, and do it all over again.
Something had to change.
And funny enough, sitting in a 3-hour class called "Practices of Faith," I discovered the framework that would lead me to embrace movement as a spiritual practice. The professor made a comment suggesting that the activities that get us up in the morning - that add to our well of energy and focus, and bring us joy - are real ways of practicing our faith.
In that moment, the proverbial lightbulb went off in my mind.
What brought me joy was the power I felt in the weight room, lifting weights and moving my body in ways that built strength, released stress, and helped me to literally "work out" all the tension that had built up throughout the day. I realized that moving and getting sweaty was not just a thing I did separate and apart from my faith formation, it was actually a gloriously embodied testimony to God, who intends for all creation to be fully alive.
Through this lens of movement as a spiritual practice or discipline, we can recognize movement all throughout Scripture: God walked in the garden, strolling along, delighting in everything green; Sarah laughed until her belly hurt and tears sprang from her eyes; Miriam and David danced with freedom and wild abandon; Elijah ran a marathon, outpacing a storm; Jesus went hiking with friends to refocus his energy, and that of his disciples, on the work of God in the world; Peter swam when his emotions became too much to handle; Mary Magdalene paced out her nervous energy and had a good cry in the garden when she realized death was not the end of her beloved friend's story.
We have inherited an embodied faith from our ancestors who were people constantly on the move, and who also knew when to be still and center down as bodies created for work and rest.
Jesus taught (after hiking up a mountain) that we are "salt for the earth". We don't need to figure out ways to be salt, we already are. We were created with two ways of being salt: our tears and our sweat. Both emerge through our movement.
What moves you to tears? They could be tears of joy, sadness, or even rage. For what and for whom are you willing to break a sweat?
Salt is a known preservative and component used in cleaning wounds in order to promote healing. How might these ways of being salt preserve the corner of the world you live in, helping to cleanse and heal the spaces where you show up so that others can join you in becoming fully alive? How might you see movement not just as something extra to do if you have time in the day, but as an integral part of your walk of faith?
Over this season of Lent, I invite you to consider the ways that moving your body and paying attention to your body might connect you more intimately to God. Whether you are walking, rocking, dancing, wheeling, stomping, running, stretching, etc - notice how this movement enlivens you and opens you to what is happening within and around you.
Our “On the Move!” Journaling Page provides seven daily thoughts of reflection and journaling prompts that tie back into this week’s story! You can print it, forward it to a friend, use it as inspiration for your own journaling practice (or group conversations), or maybe just use it as food for thought in your own quiet time!
To help us all move a little more in this season, Mary invites you to join her in a 40-day Lenten practice of movement as a spiritual discipline. It is part of a larger project launching called "Sacred Salt: Workouts With the Church Year." Her goal is to help people find a new connection to their faith through physical fitness. If you'd like to learn more, please check out her website, www.maryapicellafitness.com, and click the tab for "Sacred Salt.”
Blessing
Jesus who lived and moved and took on our being,
thank you for the opportunities to become fully alive each day.
Help us to move in and through the world as you did -
present, active; fully salt, fully light.
Because you did this, we know there is hope for us.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
What are some practices or exercises of mind or body that remind you of your potential as a creation of God, fully alive?
What are some ways you have been encouraged or challenged to move recently? How has the experience been difficult? How has that experience brought joy?
Name one way someone has offered healing to you through their actions.
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Is it hard for you to be still? When is it most difficult for you?
All living things move - even if it is just breathing. Can you think of different ways that animals and plants move? Can you act them out?
Why is it important for our bodies to move? What are some ways that we can be helpful by moving our bodies in the world?
Meet Our Welcoming Voice!
Mary Apicella is a Certified Personal Trainer (CPT) through the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), a PRONatal Fitness Specialist, Virtual Fitness Specialist, and is working on her Corrective Exercise Specialization certification. She is also an ordained American Baptist pastor, who previously served churches in Brooklyn, CT and Hendersonville, NC. She received her MDiv from Boston University School of Theology, and studied religion and psychology at Wake Forest University. Mary lives in Hendersonville, NC with her husband, Jason, daughter Lydia, and the best basset-beagle dog, Myla.
To hear more from Mary throughout the week, follow along on our Instagram!
If you have a story that you would like to be included as a Reader's Write feature, we would love for you to send it our way! You can email us directly at thewelcometableco@gmail.com.
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