Hunger Is Not a Disease

Another Year Has Begun Again

Another year has begun again.  (And, far too quickly, too.)

As I begin another year fighting hunger, God, my time with the pantry is in your hands.

Give me patience again, O God.  And let me remember that it’s my job to offer the best, most delicious, nutritious food I can find for the hungry.

It is not my job to end hunger.  Let me remember, God, that you have your own timetable.

As a year begins give me  wisdom and grace to serve the hungry with respect and honor…which they deserve.  Give me energy and strength to trust that those who have enough will continue to give so we will have the money to continue to feed the hungry as long as we need to.

Donations to the food bank have worked beautifully up to now, God.  Give me the strength to trust the system to work in the new year too.  Let me trust in the miracles of this system.

And, God, thank you for giving me comfort when I grow discouraged.  Forgive me for not being stronger.

Thank you for giving the money, volunteers, and resources the pantry needs to continue to feed the ever increasing number of people whose paychecks are not going up but their gasoline, rent, and food costs are rising.

Thank you for the miracles you give us daily.

I say these things in your name and with gratitude from the bottom of my heart, O God.

Amen

Thank you for reading this blog post!

Please refer this prayer to your favorite social media network.

This prayer is one of a series of entries I’m writing to go in a memoir about hunger.  It will be entitled “I Don’t Hang Out In Churches  Anymore – the story of hunger as told through prayer”.

Thurman Greco

Tara Sanders Teaches Trauma Sensitive Yoga

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Many people coming to a pantry or soup kitchen  have given up on their stories.  They’ve lost their voices.  With trauma-sensitive yoga classes, they have an opportunity to change the stories themselves.  They can add new chapters.

Tara Sanders, a Woodstock based yoga instructor, is the program director in the nonprofit Exhale to Inhale.

Exhale to Inhale yoga works to empower survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault to heal through yoga.  Exhale to Inhale yoga guides women through postures, breathing, and meditation.  Taught in trauma-sensitive style, practitioners are enabled to ground themselves in

their bodies

their strength

their stillness.

As this happens, they connect to themselves and work toward empowerment and worthiness.  This practice can be transformational for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence when they shed the cloak of victimhood.

This is extremely important for people working and shopping in pantries because many survivors of domestic and sexual violence are found in these communities. The influence of this trauma is great.  Add to this trauma another layer of

hunger,

unemployment,

underemployment,

homelessness,

serious illnesses to include mental illness

and you have a person who is finally voiceless.

Finally, the classes are free.  Many attending these classes have absolutely no money at all.

Healers and body workers have long known that when the body is traumatized, the event is stored in the muscles.

Tara teaches the classes without music.  She does not touch the students to correct a posture.  Lights remain on throughout the class.  These sessions offer survivors an opportunity to reclaim their lives through the healing and grounding of yoga.

Tara uses the yoga classes to help her students feel safe, strong, and in the present moment.  As she teaches, she is a conduit for healing, and healthful programs in our community.

Exhale to Inhale is a New York-based nonprofit offering free weekly yoga classes to survivors of domestic and sexual assault.  As an introduction to our area, Tara will teach free public yoga classes on Saturdays from 11 am to noon at the Center for Creative Education, 15 Railroad Ave, in Kingston.

After June 20, Exhale to Inhale yoga will be offered free of charge to women in area shelters.

http://www.exhaletoinhale.org

http://www.traumacenter.org

http://www.cce4me.org

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Thurman Greco