Hope In Every Size
Friday, March 11, 2022
Lily Fulop
INVOCATION
Spirit, help us to feel something good.
EPIPHANY
I keep a feelings wheel on the desktop of my computer. I downloaded it and placed it there after hearing an interview on Hear to Slay with cookbook writer Julia Turshen. She said, “Fat is not a feeling.” Suddenly, I realized that this truth could have saved me years of self-inflicted verbal abuse.
Now when I’m tempted to attribute a negative feeling to something that is absolutely not an emotion, I click open my feelings wheel and pinpoint an emotion.
For example: I’m not feeling fat, I’m feeling insecure about not being a straight size because I’m afraid of being judged.
The truth is, at that moment, I can’t do anything about my size. So why make it the target? It’s not really the source of the problem – my insecurity and fear are. And there are many things I can do to feel more secure in my being and less afraid of being judged.
Today, I opened the feelings wheel just to look at where “hopeful" landed. While hope isn’t an emotion, the practice of hope births the feeling of hopefulness. The good news is that feeling hopeful is connected to a great many other happy emotions. Here’s a link for you to take a closer look and see for yourself.
INTERCESSION
God, we ask for blessings for all who are assigning an emotion to their being or circumstance. May we be able to source the true emotion beneath the surface of our outer exteriors and situations.
Amen
CHANT
I breathe, therefore I am.
I feel, therefore I am known.
BENEDICTION
from the Women of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland
In beauty may I walk
All day long may I walk
Through the returning seasons may I walk
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk
With grasshoppers about my feet may I walk
With dew about my feet may I walk
With beauty may I walk
With beauty before me, may I walk
With beauty behind me, may I walk
With beauty above me, may I walk
With beauty below me, may I walk
With beauty all around me, may I walk
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively may I walk
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, my I walk
It is finished in beauty
It is finished in beauty.written by the Women of the Episcopal Church in Navajoland
As almost always happens, your words speak to a need in my soul. And on a practical note, thank you for the direct link to the feelings wheel. I have viewed before but like the idea of having a link directly on my desktop.
“It is finished in beauty.”