The title is from an old song sung by Mitch Miller on his TV Show, "Sing Along With Mitch " ! 

Once, in my first Pastorate I had the pleasure of knowing and working with and yes, learning from a Methodist Minister named Bill Morris. I learned much from him, he touched my soul. He and his Wife were classically trained singers as well.  

Bill could get peoples dander up but he knew more about Pastoring / Ministering / Shepherding than all the others combined, and yet he was close to my age. As I have often said, when I left Seminary I had the answers, and for the most part everything was Black -n- White. Well after my first year in the Pastorate I found a lot of "GRAY". (or is it Grey ?) I also found it was more profitable to dwell with the questions...   Bill irked the other Pastors because he would go into the Bars and Taverns and visit with the people. It even blew my mind; until I realized that that was where the work was, the needs, the residing emptiness. I think Churches should be more like Taverns...accepting, belonging, friendly etc. (except for those ugly Vinyl windbreakers !)  

What exactly is Tao Yoga?

Tao Yoga originated in Ancient China as a way to prepare the mind and body for Taoist meditation. Tao Yoga focuses on developing and maintaining an awareness of the flow of breath and chi in the body - with this awareness the practitioner uses simple postures and breathing techniques to release blockages and strengthen the flow of chi in the body.

 UNFOLDING THE ROSE...

  A young, new Priest was walking with an older,  more seasoned Priest in the garden one day. Feeling a bit insecure about what God / The Creative and Sustaining Power of the Universe had for him to do, he was asking the Older Priest for some advice.
  
  The older Priest walked up to a rose bush and handed the young Priest a rosebud and told him to open it without tearing any of the petals...
  

In our last blog we talked about the importance of recognizing breaks in one's awareness during practice and we mentioned that the San Ti practice of Xing Yi is a great way of achieving this goal. There are two basic components to San Ti practice-the physical part and the awareness part.

In terms of the physical structure San Ti's focus is on developing a sense of "whole body" power where every part of the physical body feels as though it is directly connected to every other part of the body. The first stage of this is developing a sense of the "Six Harmonies," key alignments that put the body into its most optimal state of balance and resilience. There are three internal and three external harmonies. The three external harmonies are hips aligned with shoulders, knees aligned with elbows and hands aligned with feet. The three internal harmonies (which isn't part of this article) are the heart aligned with intent, intent aligned with chi, and chi aligned with spirit.

As I write this, it is the birthday of Paul Tillich, the German/American theologian (b. 1886 - d. October 22, 1965)

In his writing titled "The Courage to Be", Paul wrote "The courage to be is rooted in the God who appears when God has disappeared in the anxiety of doubt."