The Softening Breath of Something Greater
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.
Think about the last time you remember feeling the wind – was it powerful? Was it gentle? How did it move you?
Gmorning.
Relax your shoulders
Gah, you didn’t realize they were all tensed up,
did you?
Me neither!
Okay, let's go!
Gnight
Relax those shoulders.
The day makes ‘em seize up on all of us.
Oof, get some rest.
Okay, sleep easy.
- Excerpt from Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin Manuel Miranda
Acts 2:1-4
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit enabled them.
Food for Thought
The Pentecost story begins with the disciples hearing the sound of a violent wind.
Did it feel like a violent wind?
Were sand and ground cover torn up?
Was dust in the disciples’ eyes?
At this point in the story of the Christian faith, the loss of Jesus is still very fresh. It’s the seventh Sunday after Easter and one chapter earlier, the disciples cast lots to pick a new disciple to replace Judas, who has just betrayed them in the most conniving of ways. I imagine they are weary, wary, and probably haven’t slept much.
It makes total sense to me that on the heels of such a key event, the disciples heard the wind and braced themselves. They clenched their teeth and tensed their muscles. They anticipated the wind to be violent. But instead, the wind that blew into that space un-did their brace. It unclenched their teeth, relaxed their shoulders, and loosened their grip.
It was at that moment, that the wind allowed them to connect with others around them – speaking languages they didn’t even know. They were bewildered, amazed, and astonished. They were freed from their own braced and limited perceptions of what connection looked like.
In Ancient Greece, people also believed nature whispered wisdom. In ancient mythology, nature is often personified. This is not just a literary device, but a reflection of their culture’s reverence for nature and something greater that governs those cycles. The anemoi were wind, Nyx is night, and Lethe, the river of forgetfulness, flowed throughout the underworld.
I love this imagery and the Oneness it echoes of humanity’s relationship to creation. I’ve always been drawn to nature, and I think nature has a gravity that pulls us toward each other and to ourselves.
Likewise, I love this moment in the book of Acts, because the Holy Spirit – nature, the wind – softens something in the disciples enough that they are able to experience connection with those around them. As the disciples and others in the room braced themselves for uncertainty, nature whispered relief and renewal and relationship into their very bodies.
Thoreau calls this the “tonic of wildness”. We are one with Creation’s unending and eternal rhythm. He writes how the natural world invites us to resist urgency and yield to nature’s movement. The familiar whippoorwill call on a summer night is not apart from us, but rather with us in Creation. A conversation shared with a friend in Chautauqua Park is not lost on nature, but held by the Flatirons. The pause in conversation on the beach to let a wave crash is not an interruption, but rather nature’s dialogue.
I wonder what it would be like if we surrendered ourselves to the softening breath of something greater? On the day of Pentecost, I believe the disciples and others in the room were changed by the divine breath. I believe it allowed them to experience a type of community they had not felt before.
What would happen if we, too, let the divine breath flow through us, and let the love or connection or forgiveness or hope or joy that is offered into our lives? What if, instead of bracing for impact, we allowed ourselves to soften so that we might experience release and freedom? I am thankful for the ways our sacred texts call us to enter in a more full life with, and not separate from, the natural world around us. May we be open to receive the connection between others and our world that is already there.
Go outside, if for only five minutes. Close your eyes or soften your gaze and listen closely – with your eyes, your ears, your skin, your heart. What do you hear? What do you sense?
Perhaps call up a friend and go out and enjoy nature together! Go for a walk, sit in a park, or find an open field, a body of water, or a sunset to appreciate together. Tune into how nature can deepen our connection with one another.
For a printable version of today's reflection Click Here!
Blessing
Loving God,
Help us to be open to the ways in which you are nudging us toward connection with others and with you. Help us to be mindful of the whispers that come from nature, whether it be in the form of wind, a blanket full of stars, a burning bush, or even the lilies. Let them soften our hearts.
Amen.
A little Table Talk for your table...
Talk together about the different ways you see God at work in and through nature.
If you feel comfortable, share one way that you have personally felt connected to God when in nature, and how it made you feel. Did it put you at ease? Did you feel anxious? Did you feel empowered?
We can seek connection with God in many ways – in nature, within our hearts, and especially with one another. Talk together about ways we can allow our experiences of divine connection to soften our hearts toward a deeper connection with one another.
Try taking it to the Kids Table...
Talk with your kiddos about the wind. Ask them what they think about it and how the wind feels to them.
Take a walk together and talk about what they see or feel around them that makes them happy. Is it the wind? Is it the flowers? Is it the stars? Ask them why.
Prompt your kiddos to think of a friend or family member who makes their heart happy, too. Ask them if there is something in nature that reminds them of that person – maybe they could draw a picture and share it with that person, or share something special about that person with you or another friend.
Meet our Welcoming Voice!
Blair Ramsey is a high school math teacher in Durham, North Carolina. She earned both her B.A. in Religious Studies and M.A.T in Secondary Math Education from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While not teaching factoring or trying to keep up with her students on the track team, she enjoys playing the piano, upcycling, and laughing with her friends.
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