January 2020: Stillness

12/11/2019

Our theme this month in Chapel is STILLNESS.

After all the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it's tempting to just RUSH right into the new year. We (and our children) can allow ourselves get caught up in the continuous noise and chaos and rushing all around us, and find ourselves exhausted and grouchy. Or we can choose to slow down, to quiet down, to allow our bodies, our voices, our minds to experience stillness. Whatever our age, the more we practice, the easier it becomes to choose stillness. From a place of stillness we discover that we can see, and hear, and understand, and feel, and choose, and act more clearly.

Song

This month we'll continue singing a song we introduced in Chapel earlier this school year. The melody is by John Bell. The words come from the Bible (Psalm 46:10): Be still and know that I am God.

Stories

In chapel this month we'll focus on four stories.

Peaceful Piggy Meditation by Kerry Lee MacLean

Quiet by Tomie dePaola.

Silence by Lemniscates.

The Godly Play Parable of the Leaven.
Download the Godly Play Parent Page for the Parable of the Leaven here.

The connections between this parable and this month's theme may not seem immediately apparent, but I sense some connection between the mysterious process of bread rising and the equally mysterious process of growth that takes place inside each one of us during times of stillness and apparent inactivity (rest, silence, meditation, prayer, etc.)

I wonder what connections you can find between this parable and the theme of "Stillness"?

Practice

Finding stillness takes practice...for all of us. Below are a series of videos I created a few years ago with my own children that offer a variety of very short meditative exercises to help you and your children practice finding stillness together. Try them out! And let me know which practice(s) you and your child find most helpful, too.