Field Notes #7: Blessing for Ukraine, Good Enough Lent Guide, Exercises for Back Pain
Two beautiful creations from theologian and author Kate Bowler, plus a New York Times article on how to prevent back pain by regular, varied movement
Hello! Welcome to Field Notes #7 — collections from travels on the Odyssey of the Body, sharing favorite bits of life wisdom, nourishing recipes, movement, art, and other resources. Field Notes comes out Wednesdays, and a longer Odyssey piece comes out on Sundays. Have you run across a Field Note? I’d love to hear about it! Email brianne@daybreaknotes.com.
1} Blessing for Ukraine
Russia’s horrific and criminal onslaught against Ukraine continues. Among all the media stories, tweets, and commentary, I found little that speaks to all of us more directly as humans, until I saw a blessing for Ukraine by Kate Bowler.
Kate Bowler is a theologian, a Duke professor, and a bestselling author who “studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change.” She is intensely thoughtful, as you might imagine, and also funny, wry, observant. I can’t help but think she’d be a wonderful friend.
When she was 35, she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer, which she has been living with since (she’s 41 now). Among her books are Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). She also hosts a podcast, Everything Happens for a Reason, in which she talks with people about what they’ve learned in dark times.
Which is to say, she is a wise, frank voice in the chaos, one in which you might find comfort or companionship.
A few days ago, she posted on an Instagram a blessing for Ukraine, which I deeply appreciated. As I wrote last week, billions of humans bodies are feeling the terror and worry of this time, and coming together, even in small ways, like over shared blessings, helps.
A Blessing for Ukraine, by Kate Bowler
God, the unthinkable has happened.
Swiftly, relentlessly,
by stealth and through open destruction,
the peace and beauty of the ordinary,
has been shattered in a day.
O God of justice and might,
We call to you to come and bring this suffering to an end.
Comfort these trembling hearts.
Shield the vulnerable.
Strengthen those with the resources and the resolve
to protect what they love
in the face of such overwhelming force.
Grant wisdom to the nations of our world, to our leaders, and to us,
to grasp the unfathomable,
to see evil in its true light,
and come against it unflinchingly.
Dear Ukraine,
though we shudder to watch what is happening
We will not look away.
2} Good Enough Guide to Lent
Today is Ash Wednesday, which begins Lent. This Christian season of preparation before Easter encompasses 40 days of reflection, self-examination, fasting, moderation. Not all of you are Christians, but some of you are, and I imagine this is on your mind and stirring in your body today.
Modern healthcare often ignores religions and spirituality. But many of us find deep comfort in a specific faith, a sense of meaning, spirituality, or simply reflective, thoughtful, soulful living. It intertwines with our thoughts and therefore our health.
(Side note: I was raised in a Christian family, so I’m most familiar with Christian holidays and rhythm. I’d love to occasionally share resources too for readers who are Jewish, Muslim, Hindi, Buddhist, or other religions, or simply soulful resources in general, no religion attached. If you run across something helpful in your own odyssey of your body, please send to brianne@daybreaknotes.com. Thank you!)
This brings me to a second offering from Kate Bowler. She’s prepared a free reflection guide, A Good Enough Lent.
She writes:
“We live in a world that loves it when we are shiny. But, when you are like the rest of us—which is to say—fragile and dependent, then Lent is made for you. Lent is that moment in the Christian story where we get to tell the truth: the world is capable of incredible beauty, but it can also be filled with so much suffering.”
Kate’s Good Enough Lent guide designed to be read alongside her book Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection, so each day lists pages to read in Good Enough and passages to read from the Bible, plus prompts to reflect and a short prayer to end. (It can be read without her devotionals and I dare say, even if you aren’t a practicing Christian. We are all practicing humans.) You can use it on your own, with friends, or a church group.
Download Kate’s Good Enough Lent reflection guide.
1} Exercising to prevent lower back pain
Now to something more universal — back pain. The New York Times published an article this week that I bookmarked: How Simple Exercises May Save Your Lower Back (gift link from me to you, over the paywall).
According to the article:
Many, many of us have lower back pain — an estimated 80% will experience it at some point.
“The lower back is the center point of our whole body,” said Dr. Krishna Shah, an interventional pain specialist at Baylor College of Medicine.
The spine is the key here — it has to be able to bend and move. And that means regularly engaging the muscles around the spine, those famous core muscles.
Muscles that support our back and pelvis include the abdominal muscles, home of the six pack, but also back muscles, hip muscles, quadriceps, and hamstrings.
What helps? Exercises to strength your core, like those famous planks, squats, push-ups, and bridges. Pilates was another suggestion.
And a variety of movement. Even elite athletes can get back pain, because they are working the same muscles and neglecting others. One study found (to the researchers’ surprise) half of ordinary people and half of elite athletes in the study had back pain — there was no difference in the proportions.
Read the full article here.
The New York Times also offers clear instructions with videos on how to do these simple exercises.
It reminded me again to get up and move today, to stretch, to maybe even find a Pilates video on YouTube.
I hope you have days ahead of movement, reflection, and gratitude.
To our journeys and better health,
Brianne
Enjoyed both the spiritual and pragmatic spine reflections. Ironically, both having to do with the "core" of our embodied self.
I loved Kate Bowler's poem and it got me to thinking about how our prayers of supplication, imploring God's intervention, reveal our powerlessness and ask a third party's intervention, here the ultimate third party. There is no doubt about their deep reverence. They are themselves a form of worship of omnipotence and a re-recognition of our puniness. But I wonder also if they serve to let us off the hook. As if to say "God, that's awful what's happening over there to them people, just awful. Don't just sit there like some arrogant Zeus, do something!" And I've wondered for some time now if such prayers are a scape goat (recalling here pious offerings).
Imagine if we prayed "Here I am witnessing unfairness and brutality by and against my fellow man. It enrages and sickens me, and yet they are so powerful and I feel so weak. I ask, no, I invite, your divine presence within me to empower me to be present, to bear witness, to be directed to some action I can and should take, so that I with others so guided can make a difference in people's lives."
In a way, that prayer is to myself, a spiritual invitation to my higher self which is in dialog with the internal eternal, that I have the courage to open myself to divine guidance, to trust it and act on it.