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2021-04-09
Religious Education: April 9, 2021
2021-04-08
Minister's Post, Fri Apr 9
ICYMI ("In Case You Missed It")
Here's the Apr 4 service, "Easter in These Times: Ordinary Easter"
Covid Watch
Worldwide.
The 7DMA (7-Day Moving Average) of New Cases per day has been increasing since Feb 20. It's up from 361,347 on Feb 20 to 613,659 on Apr 7. That's a 70 percent jump in 46 days.
The 7DMA of deaths per day, worldwide, peaked on Jan 26, and fell steadily until Mar 12 -- a decline of 42 percent over 45 days. After Mar 12, however, deaths began increasing. The 7DMA of deaths per day on Mar 31 was up 19 percent over Mar 12 -- but has been flat since Apr 1.
United States.
In the US, the 7DMA of new cases per day fell to just one-fourth of what it was at the Jan 11 peak. Through March and into April, though, new cases have stayed fairly flat at around 60,000 new cases per day.
The 7DMA of Covid deaths per day on Apr 7 is 771 -- the lowest since Oct 19. That's a 20 percent decline from a week ago (Mar 31), and a 78 percent decline from the Jan 26 peak.
Still, the rising incidence of the B.1.1.7 variant is concerning. So be careful!
Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith
Practice of the Week
Have Insight. We just mean noticing the way your mind constructs your reactions to things. Having insight isn’t so hard if you determine to do it.
Let's say you’ve had a frazzling day, and you went out. You get back, and your partner says, "Did you get eggs?" Eggs had not been discussed. You didn’t know there was any need for eggs. Irritation arises. Your body tenses. There’s a touch of sadness there. The stimulus was the casual, neutral question about eggs. But the stimulus has to mix with a lot of other causes: stress, sensitivity to criticism from growing up with a fault-finding parent, guilt about not paying more attention to household things. All those factors had to combine to produce the irritation, tension, and sadness you felt. Insight is seeing, in the moment, how your mind colored your perceptions and turbocharged your emotions.
Shift attention away from external causes -- like what someone said to you. Look for causes inside your own mind, such as how you interpret what was said, attribute intentions to the speaker, or feel especially prickly because of your history with that person. Ask yourself: Below the hard and defended stuff like anger or justifications, what am I really wanting, deep down? What material here is from a time when I was younger? What am I trying to control that's not controllable? How is my gender, temperament, culture, or personality shaping my reactions? With practice, insight improves and reactivity abates.
For the rest of why and how to have insight, see the post: Have Insight.
See also our SPIRITUAL PRACTICE DIRECTORY
Have Insight
Practice of the Week
Have Insight
Have Insight
adapted from Rick Hanson, Just One Thing
Her casual, neutral question about the eggs -- the stimulus -- led to a response of irritation, tension, and sadness due to several factors at work in my mind: stress, a sensitivity to possible criticism (that I had forgotten the eggs) from growing up with a fault-finding (although very loving) mother, and my guilt about not doing enough housework. If those factors disappeared, so would my upset.
Recall a moderately irritating or worrying situation of your own: what were your reactions to it, and why were you reacting that way? Consider stress, fatigue, your temperament, how you interpret certain events, your history with the others involved, and the impact of your childhood.
As with everybody else, your reactions come from causes inside your mind. Therefore, if you can change the causes, you can change your reactions for the better:
- Seeing, in the moment, how your mind has colored your perceptions and turbocharged your emotions can transform your reactions -- sometimes rapidly and dramatically, like waking up from a bad dream.
- Over time, you can gradually alter or get better control over the mental factors that wear on your well-being, relationships, and effectiveness.
How
Begin by shifting attention away from the external causes of your reactions -- like what someone said to you -- and toward the causes inside your own mind, such as how you interpret what was said, attribute intentions to the speaker, or feel especially prickly because of your history with that person.
The mind is like a great mansion, with cozy dens, dusty closets, and dank cellars. Insight explores it, opening closed doors and making sense of what it finds: sometimes a treasure chest, sometimes smelly old shoes -- though truly, it's usually treasure, including your natural goodness, sincere efforts, and lovingkindness.
Nonetheless, it can feel scary to look around (especially in those cellars); these suggestions could help you keep going:
- Remember the benefits of insight. For example, I'm very independent, so I remind myself that the main forces controlling me are actually inside my own head (e.g., beliefs left over from childhood); understanding them reduces their power over me.
- Bring to mind the feeling of being with someone who cares about you -- like a friend walking with you down a dark street. As they say in AA: "The mind is a dangerous neighborhood; don't go in alone."
- Regard what you find without making it good or bad. It's not you. It's only a sensation, feeling, thought, or want arising in a room in your mind. Try to be accepting rather than self-critical, compassionate rather than shaming. Everybody, me included, has wild stuff in the mind; it's a jungle in there!
- What is softer -- such as hurt, sadness, or fear -- below hard and defended stuff like anger or justifications? What am I really wanting, deep down? What are the good desires underlying bad behaviors? Such as the normal desire for safety at the root of anxious rumination.
- What material here is from a time when I was younger? (For example, because I was often excluded from groups in school, I still sometimes feel like an outsider in groups when I'm really not.)
- What am I getting stuck on? Like fixating on a position or goal -- or even a word. What am I trying to control that's not controllable (e.g., whether someone loves me)?
- How is my gender shaping my reactions? Or my temperament, cultural and ethnic background, or personality?
Whatever you find, try to relax and open to it. Helpful or unhelpful, it's just furniture in the mansion of your mind.
For Journaling
Write about a moment of reactivity that you had recently (irritation, annoyance, anger, frustration, blame). Describe what happened; describe the feeling and how it arose. Then explore your reaction by answering at least two of four questions listed above.
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For list of all weekly practices: "Spiritual Practices Directory"
2021-04-07
Music: Sun Apr 11
Tchaikovsky was commissioned by a St. Petersburg-based music journal Nouvelist to provide a piece for each month of the year. He called his piece for April "Snowdrops" after the flowers which bravely pierce through the still-snowy landscape at the start spring. The first edition carried this poetic epigraph:
The blue, pure snowdrop-flower,
and near it the last snowdrops.
The last tears over past griefs,
and first dreams of another happiness.
Elsewhere, this morning's musical selections celebrate courage through the work of composers whose careers required a fearless commitment to overcoming personal and societal obstacles. Beethoven's well-known hearing impairment had deprived him almost completely of his most cherished sense by the time he composed his 6 Bagatelles, Op. 126--his final works for piano. Clara Schumann managed to remain a vibrant creative force as a pianist and composer, while caring for her husband Robert Schumann through the throws of declining mental health and raising their eight children. African-American composer Margaret Bonds became a major figure in the world of classical music in the mid-20th century, when the profession was dominated by men of European descent, and Valerie Capers--a favorite musical guest at CUUC!--was the first visually impaired graduate of The Juilliard School. Read on for programming details, and stay tuned for live introductions.
Centering Music: Adam Kent, piano
April, Op. 37, No. 4
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Opening Music:
Mazurka in G Minor, Op. 6, No. 3
Clara Wieck Schumann
Musical Meditation:
Tangamerican
Margaret Bonds
Interlude:
Bagatelle in B Minor, Op. 126, No. 4
Ludwig van Beethoven
Parting Music:
"The Monk" from Portraits in Jazz
Valerie Capers
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