Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
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Balancing Act
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
I could hardly wait for my package to arrive from Amazon.
“Yoga for the 50+ Woman” caught my
eye a few nights earlier.
This program promised flexibility and balance for gals my age.
I have been
struggling on and off for a few years with bouts of vertigo and thought this video would help.
I envisioned
myself barefoot and dressed in flowy, white, comfy yoga clothing.
I could almost feel the cool morning
breeze and first rays of warm sun on my face as I opened the windows to greet the day.
Curtains fluttering
in the breeze.
Birds singing.
My movement and breath in sync to the calming yoga music … ( you get the
picture).
Fast forward.
This is what it really looked like.
I hit the snooze that first morning for an extra 45 minutes.
Once
awake, I shuffled to the coffee pot.
(I was certain the yoga instructor started her day as well with two cups
of java.)
I went to the front window and pushed the curtains aside to be greeted by a dark, dismal rainy
day.
No birds.
No breeze.
No sunbeams.
“No problem,” I thought to myself.
I love the sound of rain and
opened the windows anyway.
I went to the couch for a bit with the coffee and thought about my next
move.
My new, sticky yoga mat was in the corner waiting for me.
I picked up the DVD from the table and
stared at the woman smiling back at me.
Tina was toned and tan.
She didn’t look a day over 25.
Pearly
white teeth.
Blonde hair in a perfect, long, sleek ponytail.
And, yes, dressed head to toe in (you guessed
it…) white, flowy yoga clothes.
I have to admit, I was a bit excited.
I got up and headed to my closet and drawers to pick out my
yoga attire.
After what seemed like an eternity, I settled on the perfect outfit.
My favorite comfy
sweatpants, pink tank top that reads “cozy camper” (let’s throw in as well, a little dog hair) and a headband.
I looked in the mirror.
“Gotta start somewhere,” I remember thinking to myself.
I unrolled my yoga mat.
Hit play on the DVD player and started.
I can tell you it wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be.
It was evident I was not going to master this
in one session.
When you stand on one leg with the other at a 45-degree angle with that foot tucked nicely
next to the knee of the other leg… it's not just the legs that do the work.
The balance comes from every
other body part working together to compensate for any imbalance.
If arms are outstretched, they will
move in a direction to maintain balance.
Then add folded prayer hands chest level and oh, yes…don’t
forget to close the eyes!
Tanned, toned Tina on my DVD cover was sporting this pose (when I tried this,
my vertigo kicked in and I felt nauseous, stumbled and then fell over).
Eyes open was a bit better.
But
beware–looking down makes it worse.
One must look straight ahead to maintain balance in this manner.
(Which got me thinking…) What do ballerinas, ice skaters and gymnasts all have in common?
They never
look down!
A gymnast on the balance beam never looks down.
Even soccer players are told to look at the
field and not at their feet!
There was something else I noticed.
For total balance something else had to
happen.
Core muscles provide the real stability.
I had to engage my core.
I found this to be true when I hit the floor to try a 30-second plank pose.
This is tough!
Keeping
everything still while on hands and toes assuming a push-up position.
It looks easy enough but it doesn’t
take long for the core to start to tremble trying to maintain the position.
Simply changing position of the
other body parts makes no difference.
It’s the center of the body that is doing the work.
One needs to work
on the core muscles to hold this position for any amount of time.
How is it done?
Awareness and continued
engagement of the core daily in all areas of activity.
One dictionary definition of core reads as follows,”the
central or most important part of something.”
One definition I found for “balance” states “to bring into
harmony or proportion.”
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