Dear Yogis,

We are starting work again.  For the past 7 or 8 weeks we have trusted that all will be well. We didn’t decide to hide away, it was decided for us.  To remain positive, we have been working towards the next phase of our life with anticipation, but opening the door to “the everyday” is a dangerous step. The path as we know only too well, is fraught with temptations and frustrations.  Our life going forward will be very much more complex, and without spontaneous human contact for the foreseeable future.  When we move to hug, or shake hands, there will always be that nagging health question causing us to turn away, hang back and be suspicious.  We will be living close to the terrible for the sake of the wonderful.

When the restrictions are lifted, once again we will be able to feel that we are in control.  Once again people will seek us out, not because of who we are, but because of what we have.  As a young man, the travelling minister (and founder of what would become  the Wesleyan Missions), John Wesley calculated that twenty eight pounds a year was enough to take care of his needs.  Since prices generally remained the same in those times, he was able to keep more or less at that level of expenditure throughout his lifetime.  It seems unbelievable to us.  Later in his life he made fourteen hundred pounds a year from the sale of his books, but he still lived on the twenty eight pounds and gave the rest away.  Of course, he was a single man with no children so he didn’t have to deal with “domestica”, however the idea is a sound one.

Consider this.  You have come through a COVID time of economy, a time of less. Are there are ways that you could remain close to the amount you have been earning over this time.. Are there ways you could simplify your lifestyle so you could live, let’s say, on half what you would in good times ordinarily make?

The Grace of giving with all its difficulties is a a happy ministry.  When money is not in the picture and only the love of others motivates our service it changes everything.  So much good can be done, so many lives changed.

Until we can we learn to live in simplicity, we will find it hard to believe it is possible.  To begin, find creative ways to get in touch with the earth.  Listen to the wind and the birds, walk whenever you can, grow flowers or plant trees and discover once again “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof”. Learn to enjoy things without the need to own them. Learn to share and develop the habit of homemade celebrations. Invite the neighbours to join you.  Go gently when you do – how can you enjoy people if you are always trying to impress them.

In the “Covid Break” we have learned that there are things we can do together that we cannot do alone.  At our best we are dependent and responsive to one another.  We need each other’s help in order to know how to love God.  We need each other’s help in order to know how best to love our neighbour.  “Lone Ranger” community is a contradiction in terms.

See you at Yoga.

Live simply, Laugh and be happy.  NAMASTE JAHNE