Like Riding a Bicycle?

There's an old saying - "it's like riding a bicycle". Once you've learned how to ride a bike, you never forget and no matter how much time goes by, you can pick it up again very quickly. Well... I'm not so sure about the applicability of that maxim to other things. Like skating. On ice.

We have a community skating rink, an outdoor one. Actually two outdoor rinks. The one has hockey nets and boards with chain link "glass". Next to it, is a patch of ice, the same size, but without any boards. I've been thinking for a while that I could get a pair of skates and get some exercise that way. Well, the other day I went and bought a pair of skates and the next morning I drove to the rink, strapped on the skates and toddled my way to the ice sheet.

Did I mention that it's been 30 years since I strapped on a pair of skates? Thirty years is an awfully long time in the world of skating. And it's not quite like riding a bicycle! I windmilled my arms a fair bit and did very gentle corners. I didn't fall down. But some little kids were skating circles around me. I skated for about 20 minutes before my shins told me that enough-was-enough! I didn't know that there were so many muscles in the shins. All of them are now complaining at me. Sigh... I'll be going skating again tomorrow and my hope is that it's going to get easier and my "skating-legs" will come back. It'd be nice to be able to skate around corners rather than just gliding on wobbly legs.

Sometimes, it's good to tackle something, even if we're not much good at it. It might take a bit of practice, like meditation... but as they say, practice makes perfect. So we'll see what happens as I put this into practice!

A Wedding

A few days ago we went to the wedding of a couple of friends of ours. It was held in an art gallery downtown, a lovely setting. It was attended by about 80 friends and family of the couple. They have been together for about 15 years and finally decided to get married. The ceremony was presided over by a woman reverend and touched many in the group. She personalized it for the couple and stayed away from the old rote formulaic responses that are supposed to fit everyone. At the end... she said "I now pronounce you... legally married"! I wondered how she was going to handle that last line - "I now pronounce you man and wife". Not quite appropriate when it is two women getting married. So very well done.

It was also my first gay/lesbian wedding. We knew several of the guest couples and had a great time chatting with like-minded folk. It is a testament to this great country of ours that our friends were able to legalize their bond - to acknowledge it publicly before friends and family and the whole world. No more hiding. No more pretending. It made me want to get married!

In the Backpack - Meditation

Everything I've been reading says that if there is one thing to do in life it is this... meditate. That's it. For 30 seconds here and there, for 30 minutes, for 3 hours. The time doesn't really matter - what matters is that we do it. But meditation has a bad rap reputation... it's hard... it takes too long... it doesn't work for me... I can't do it... my mind keeps wandering... etc. etc.

I wonder if, as children, we said the same thing when we starrted to learn to crawl or walk or ride a bike... or skate or swim or read... or any of those things? Meditation is like those things... it takes practice. And there are many techniques. But somehow it still manages to slip off of my radar screen very quickly.

Part of the issue is that we really don't have a strong tradition of meditation in the Catholic Church. Yes, I know... I've heard of Centering Prayer and John Main and the Christian Mystics. And yet... how much of that is present in the run-of-the-mill parish? It wasn't around when I was growing up... or later even. Our focus is on the Mass, first and foremost. The Mass is the most important thing. But is it... really? We spend 1 hour a week at Mass. What do we do the rest of the time? How can we connect with the divine the rest of the time. Because if we're thinking 1 hour of Mass a week is going to do it... or even throw weekday Mass in for good measure... it ain't gonna cut it. Not in my experience.

And so... meditation... a way to still the mind... a way to slip into the gap between thoughts and words and breaths. A way to touch the silence that lives within each one of us. A way to just Be. But how does one do it? Well.... for Christmas, my partner gave me a subscription to a meditation series from the Chopra Centre. I've meditated with it several times now... and it is good. All you have to do is get comfortable and close your eyes and follow the instructions and let them worry about the length and the timing and that sort of stuff. It's simple... and it works.

A definite asset in my backpack.

Poor Abandoned Blog

Wow... time flies when you're not blogging! Skip a day here or a day there, and all of a sudden a month goes by with nothing. Which is not my intention, but somehow other things are always more important. Something is always more important than writing... which seems like madness... as writing is very important!

I could also convince myself easily that I have nothing to write about. Which isn't true either, but it's funny the lies that we tell ourselves and then believe. A New Year is fast approaching and it might be the time to take on another blogging project. It seemed like when I was reading and blogging the bible in a year, that this blog also managed to tag along for the ride. So perhaps that is the key. Get a project that requires me to write every day and see what comes.

I have been toying with the idea of reading the Gospels in a year. Which is very doable... maybe too doable. I'm not sure how many pages there are in the Gospels, but I don't think it's a lot. Which might mean I end up reading only a paragraph a day... which might not be a bad thing. It would be a chance to take a look at the Gospels in more detail, as I think I skimmed them a bit during the Bible Blog. Reading 3.5 pages of the Bible in a day means you get through Mark in about 4 or 5 days. Not really enough time to sink one's teeth into it.