{"id":16613,"date":"2018-04-04T09:52:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T13:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16613"},"modified":"2018-04-04T10:00:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T14:00:02","slug":"bodily-knowing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/?p=16613","title":{"rendered":"Bodily Knowing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5WiAv9Eghvw\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Bodily Knowing<br \/>\nWednesday, April 4, 2018<br \/>\n(50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.)<\/p>\n<p>If you lose hope, somehow you lose that vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of all. And so today I still have a dream. \u2014Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) [1]<br \/>\nDeep knowing and presence do not happen with our thinking minds. To truly know something, our whole being must be open, awake, and present. We intuitively knew how to be present as babies. Psychologists now say there is no such thing as an infant. There\u2019s only an infant\/caregiver. In the first several months, from the infant\u2019s view, they are one and the same. Infants see themselves entirely mirrored in their family\u2019s eyes; they soon believe and become this vision. Contemplative prayer offers a similar kind of mirroring, as we learn to receive and return the divine gaze.<\/p>\n<p>In his book Coming to Our Senses, historian Morris Berman makes the point that our first experience of life is not merely a visual or audio one of knowing ourselves through other people\u2019s facial and verbal responses; it is primarily felt in the body. He calls this feeling kinesthetic knowing. We know ourselves in the security of those who hold us, skin to skin. This early knowing is not so much heard, seen, or thought. It\u2019s felt. [2]<\/p>\n<p>Psychologists say that when we first begin to doubt and move outside of that kinesthetic knowing, we hold onto things like teddy bears and dolls. My little sister, Alana, had the classic security blanket as a baby. She dragged it everywhere until it was dirty and ragged, but we could not take it away from her.  Children do such things to reassure themselves that they are still connected and one. But we all begin to doubt this primal union as the subject\/object split of a divided world slowly takes over, usually by age seven. Body\/mind\/world\/self all start getting split apart; we begin to see the basic fault lines in the world\u2014and the rest of life will be spent trying to put it all back together again.<\/p>\n<p>It seems we all must leave the Garden of Eden, the state of innocence and blissful, unconscious union. We can\u2019t stay there, letting mother gaze at us forever. Unfortunately, if that primal knowing never happened at all, immense doubt arises about whether there even is a garden (\u201cGod\u201d) where all things are one and good. When family systems disintegrate, people live with doubt and uncertainty. I am sure God fully understands. It is surely why Jesus says, \u201cIt would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble\u201d (Luke 17:2).<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, our parents\u2019 early gaze told us we were foundationally beloved. But when we inevitably begin to see ourselves through eyes that compare, judge, and dismiss, then we need spirituality to help heal the brokenness of our identity and our world. True spirituality is always bringing us back to the original bodily knowing that is unitive experience, which is why you cannot do it all in the head!<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Upper Room <\/p>\n<p><strong>Let us not become weary in doing good, \u2028for at the proper time we will reap \u2028a harvest if we do not give up. &#8211; Galatians 6:9 (NIV)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am a divorced woman with no children. You might think I have a lot of free time, but I have been taking care of my sister for 41 years. She has an illness called schizoaffective disorder, which requires medication in order to stabilize her mood.<br \/>\nOver the years, I have struggled alongside my sister as she battles her illness. When she has recurrences of mania or depression, I have to seek help from her psychiatrist to make sure her medication is appropriate. When her temper flares, I have to bear with her \u2014 secretly praying for her to calm down. Although I often do not enjoy this work, my sister has brought me closer to the Lord because of my constant prayers for help.<br \/>\nHere in Thailand, there are no institutions where people living with mental illness can be cared for indefinitely. So I have asked God, \u201cDo I have the responsibility to take care of my sister for the rest of my life?\u201d God\u2019s answer has been that I am to patiently care for my sister for as long as I can. Therefore, if God puts me in this place and calls me to help my sister, I will gladly do so.<\/p>\n<p>TODAY&#8217;S PRAYER<br \/>\nHelper of the weak, thank you for giving us the wisdom and patience to care for our loved ones. May we become your strength and peace for their lives. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bodily Knowing Wednesday, April 4, 2018 (50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.) If you lose hope, somehow you lose that vitality that keeps life moving, you lose that courage to be, that quality that helps you go on in spite of all. And so today I still have a dream. \u2014Martin [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16613"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16613"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16616,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16613\/revisions\/16616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}