Wednesday, Aug. 11
Reports of gunshots: Redmond Police responded to a residential area, the 16200 block of Northeast 99th Street, after several people reported hearing multiple gunshots nearby. The neighborhood was canvassed, but no evidence of a crime was found.
Community members are invited to an Active Prayer Workshop from 4-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15 at St. Jude Catholic Church, 10526 166th Ave. NE in Redmond. The workshop is free, although donations are welcome.
Sybil MacBeth, author of “Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God” and “Praying in Color Kids’ Edition,” as well as “Blessed Movements” founder Roy DeLeon, who wrote “Praying with the Body: Bringing the Psalms to Life,” will demonstrate how visual art and gentle movement for all mobilities can be used for spiritual expression.
The workshop was inspired by the theory of multiple intelligences, proposed by Dr. Howard Gardner, a psychologist from Harvard University.
“People don’t all learn the same way — we have multiple intelligences or learning styles such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial and kinesthetic,” said Mary Kellison, pastoral assistant and director of adult faith formation programs at St. Jude, www.st-jude-redmond.org/AdultFF/AFTOC.htm.
“Just as we have a natural preference toward particular learning styles, we also have a natural preference for particular prayer styles,” Kellison explained.
PRAYING IN COLOR
MacBeth, a former math teacher, said the idea for “Praying in Color” came to her eight years ago when several friends and family members were battling cancer.
“When I tried to pray for them, I lost my words,” said MacBeth. “I kept saying the same things over and over and over again — “Heal them, Lord,’ “Let them feel your love,’ ‘Please let Sue live to see her children graduate from high school.’ My words felt like mush in my mouth.”
Although she wasn’t an artist, MacBeth loved to doodle with colored markers and pens.
“One day when I was doodling on my back porch, I drew a shape and added lines, dots, squiggles and color,” said MacBeth. “Then I unconsciously wrote the name ‘Sue’ in the middle of the doodle. I continued to draw and focus on my sister-in-law Sue’s name. After five or 10 minutes, I realized I was praying for her. I wasn’t using words but I was spending time with her and releasing her into God’s care. It felt like God, Sue and I were sitting together, holding each other.”
She realized she didn’t need just words to pray, MacBeth noted: “Creating the drawing and taking time was the prayer.”
She added more doodles with the names of other people who needed help.
“The drawing came back to my mind throughout the day and when it did, I could pray for each person again — either with words or just by offering them into God’s care.”
When she’s drawing, said MacBeth, “my mind wanders less and I stay focused. It also helps me to settle down so I might actually be able to listen to God rather than just talk.”
Children love this way of praying, but so do adults, said MacBeth.
“The adults who come to my workshops are very open to a new way to pray — especially those who are fidgety and world-weary. … Their minds wandered less than when they were trying to come up with words.”
To learn more about “Praying in Color,” visit http://www.prayingincolor.com/
PRAYING WITH THE BODY
DeLeon is a certified yoga teacher who has learned to combine body movement and prayer.
In 2005, as an Oblate of St. Benedict, he represented his monastery, St. Placid Priory in Lacey, Wash., at the first World Congress of Oblates of St. Benedict in Rome.
“That’s where I saw the statue of St. Benedict dying, with two monks helping him raise his arms as he prayed his last. … When I saw St. Benedict included the body in his prayer as he was dying … Blessed Movements was conceived,” said DeLeon.
“It’s become my ministry then to spread the joy of praying with the whole being, body, mind, heart and soul,” DeLeon continued.
Could this type of prayer be useful for people who don’t feel close to God or creation in church, but by being outdoors, perhaps engaging in sports or recreation?
“Big question,” DeLeon replied. “I read somewhere that one reason people quit going to church is that they don’t find God — read: love, peace, joy, patience, goodness, beauty, truthfulness in church.”
DeLeon added that some people feel more connected to their neighbors at sporting events, festivals or a shopping mall.
“We all want to feel happiness and contentment,” said DeLeon. “Some people feel God’s presence while being still and quiet. Some by singing, by painting, by knitting, by reading, by dancing. God is in all of these activities if — big IF — we acknowledge and we are aware of that presence,” said DeLeon. “The activeness of praying with the body is a way to gather ourselves to the center. We tend to spread ourselves thin, wear many different hats, assume many roles in our daily activities, torn apart by the demands of the marketplace we call the world.”
He said most movements in his workshop are “yoga-like” but he asks participants to “listen to their body and their heart and move according to what that still, small voice says. … Ultimately, it needs to come from the heart in order for the prayer to be authentic and real.”
To learn more about Blessed Movements and “Praying with the Body,” visit http://blessedmovements.com/default.aspx
Community members are invited to an Active Prayer Workshop from 4-7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 15 at St. Jude Catholic Church, 10526 166th Ave. NE in Redmond. The workshop is free, although donations are welcome.
Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) bridge crews will perform monthly maintenance on the State Route (SR) 520 Evergreen Point floating bridge early Thursday morning.
Maintenance openings of the bridge drawspan begin Thursday, Aug. 12 at 12:30 a.m. They will end at 5 a.m.
Puget Sound Energy encourages everyone to remember the date 8/11 (or Aug. 11), to serve as a useful reminder to contact the 811 “Call Before You Dig” hotline to schedule a free utility locator service to mark underground utility lines before beginning any work that involves digging, such as building a new fence or deck, planting trees and shrubs, or even pulling out a tree stump.
At its Aug. 9 meeting, the Lake Washington School District (LWSD) Board of Directors unanimously approved the district’s “no cuts, no adds” 2010-11 budget.
“There were no changes and no surprises,” stated Kathryn Reith, the LWSD director of communications.
As part of the City of Redmond’s effort to rewrite its zoning code, the city will host a drop-in Open Office Event from 4-6 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 24 in the Bytes Cafe on the first floor of Redmond City Hall, 15670 NE 85th St.
Volunteers are needed to work in Redmond parks, removing non-native invasive plants.
The next work party is from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday, Aug. 28 at Idylwood Park, 3650 West Lake Sammamish Parkway NE.
Heartfelt and generous fundraising efforts continue for Chanel Cogan, a recent Redmond High School (RHS) graduate who suffered numerous severe injuries after falling 100 feet from a cliff during a camping trip on July 31.
Organized by kids, for kids, TEDx Redmond, an independently organized TED event, is a conference to be held on Saturday, Sept. 18 on the Microsoft campus in Redmond.
After speaking at the main TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., 12-year-old Redmond resident Adora Svitak wanted to bring a similarly mind-opening experience to her peers in Washington state.
Swedish Medical Center hosted a luncheon at Redmond’s Hotel Sierra Aug. 5, highlighting the new Swedish Redmond campus, including an emergency room (ER), which will open in December 2010 at 18100 NE Union Hill Rd.
A new Overeaters Anonymous 12-step program group is holding meetings from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Monday nights in the Education Building at Redmond United Methodist Church, 16540 NE 80th St. For information, visit www.oa.org or call (425) 830-6851.
Jay Inslee does not “represent,” he tells you what he has decided. Is that who you want voting on your behalf?
This became clear to us when we attended his recent town hall meeting.
The police blotter feature is both a description of a small selection of police incidents and a statistical round-up of all calls to the Redmond Police Department that are dispatched to on-duty police officers. The Redmond Reporter Police Blotter is not intended to be representative of all police calls originating in Redmond, which gets more than 500 calls per week.
A wedding ring with an inscription was found at the Redmond Saturday Market on July 31.
A home run derby and car wash are planned to help pay medical expenses for Chanel Cogan, a recent Redmond High School graduate who was seriously injured when she fell 100 feet off a cliff in Kittitas County on the morning of Saturday, July 31.
A record number of Redmond residents celebrated the 27th Annual National Night Out Against Crime, a national crime prevention event, Tuesday evening. Neighbors had a chance to mingle with local politicians, public safety officials and community volunteers.
The Rotary Club of Redmond Rousers has launched a new social media campaign with a blog at www.redmondrousersrotary.org.
The King County Veterans Citizen Levy Oversight Board has agreed to provide funding to help finance a legal fellowship with the goal of providing important legal services to King County veterans. The AmeriCorps fellowship is with the Northwest Justice Project and will assist veterans in removing the barriers to housing, employment, and self-sufficiency.
King County residents can safely dispose of old car batteries, oil, paint thinner and many other household hazardous items at no cost when the King County Wastemobile comes to Sammamish, Aug. 13-15 and Redmond Aug. 20-22.
Students in need will shop with law enforcement officials, firefighters and other volunteers at 11 Target stores next week, thanks to $26,400 worth of gift cards provided to The Salvation Army.