Archive for the ‘Meditation’ Category
Future of Meditation Singing Bowl Market Analyzed in a New Study – Market Reports Observer
Posted: December 24, 2019 at 2:47 pm
Meditation Singing Bowl Market Insights 2018, is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the global Meditation Singing Bowl industry with a focus on the Global market. The report provides key statistics on the market status of the Meditation Singing Bowl manufacturers and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the industry. Overall, the report provides an in-depth insight of 2018-2025 global Meditation Singing Bowl market covering all important parameters.
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The key points of the Meditation Singing Bowl Market report:
The report provides a basic overview of the Meditation Singing Bowl industry including its definition, applications and manufacturing technology.
The report explores the international and Chinese major industry players in detail. In this part, the report presents the company profile, product specifications, capacity, production value, and 2018-2025 market shares for each company.
Through the statistical analysis, the report depicts the global total market of Meditation Singing Bowl industry including capacity, production, production value, cost/profit, supply/demand and Chinese import/export.
The total market is further divided by company, by country, and by application/type for the competitive landscape analysis.
The report then estimates 2018-2025 market development trends of Meditation Singing Bowl industry. Analysis of upstream raw materials, downstream demand, and current market dynamics is also carried out.
The report makes some important proposals for a new project of Meditation Singing Bowl Industry before evaluating its feasibility.
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There are 3 key segments covered in this report: competitor segment, product type segment, end use/application segment.
For competitor segment, the report includes global key players of Meditation Singing Bowl are included:
Yak Therapy Wu Wei Products The Silent Mind The Ohm Store ShalinIndia Dharma Store Dharmaobjects Rovtop TOPFUND
Segment by Regions North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia India
Segment by Type Metal Crystal Others
Segment by Application Yoga and Meditation Studios Religious Centers Souvenier Stores Households Others
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Reasons to Purchase this Report:
* Estimates 2018-2025 Meditation Singing Bowl market development trends with the recent trends and SWOT analysis
* Market dynamics scenario, along with growth opportunities of the market in the years to come
* Market segmentation analysis including qualitative and quantitative research incorporating the impact of economic and policy aspects
* Regional and country level analysis integrating the demand and supply forces that are influencing the growth of the market.
* Competitive landscape involving the market share of major players, along with the new projects and strategies adopted by players in the past five years
* Comprehensive company profiles covering the product offerings, key financial information, recent developments, SWOT analysis, and strategies employed by the major market players
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Future of Meditation Singing Bowl Market Analyzed in a New Study - Market Reports Observer
Global Meditation Cushion Market Forecasts to 2024 by Types, Applications & by Region Shared in a Latest Research – Internet Shots
Posted: at 2:47 pm
Global Meditation Cushion industry market professional research 2014-2024, is a report which provides the details about industry overview, industry chain, market size (sales, revenue, and growth rate), gross margin, major manufacturers, development trends and forecast. Key companies covered in this report are Satori Wholesale, Trevida, Peace Yoga, Seat Of Your Soul, Waterglider International, Bean Productsand more in terms of company profile, product pictures, specification, capacity, sales, price, cost, gross revenue details and contact information.
Access more details about this report at: https://www.themarketreports.com/report/global-meditation-cushion-market-professional-survey-by-manufacturers-regions-countries-types-and-applications-forecast
The report can answer the following questions:
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Market segmentation, by product types:
Market segmentation, by applications:
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Detroit Zen Center Hopes to Make Hamtramck the Green Roof Capital of Michigan – Living Architecture Monitor magazine
Posted: at 2:47 pm
Sourced from the Detroit Free Press
You might imagine a Buddhist monastery in the mountains of Korea, surrounded by nature and silence.
But located near the heart of Hamtramck, a working-class neighborhood home to more than 30 ethnic groups, an east-meets-west Buddhist monastery stands proudly as an essential piece of the city.
The Detroit Zen Center was founded in 1990 as a spiritual organization with a mission to teach meditation and sustainability, according to vice-Abbot and director Myungju. The center's motto is to shine one corner of the world.
After 29 years of operation and serving thousands of visitors and residents in the art of Buddhist meditation and manual work, the Detroit Zen Center has taken the next step in sustainability and installed a green roof on top of the meditation hall, which will open in Spring 2020.
"We have in Hamtramck a serious issue with storm water management," said Myungju. "As a result of flooding, these buildings were abandoned for years."
Due to this issue, when the Detroit Zen Center took over the buildings it's priority was to figure out a way to solve the storm water management problem.
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How to Stop Thinking About Work at 3am – Harvard Business Review
Posted: at 2:47 pm
Executive Summary
Work stress is inevitable, but it doesnt have to get in the way of a good nights sleep. To avoid thinking about work in the middle of the night, the author offers five strategies: 1) Make a to-do list.The act of writing down uncompleted tasks decreases cognitive arousal, rumination, and worry. 2) Keep a journal. Writing down your thoughts and feelings, rather than just thinking about them, has been shown to help process emotions and reduce stress and anxiety 3) Exercise self-compassion.Practicing self-compassion allows you to break the cycle of negative thoughts that come with rumination, which is linked to insomnia. 4) Engage in physical activity.Research shows that a single instance of moderately intense exercise can decrease rumination 5) Practice meditation. Researchers in the Netherlands found that even small amounts of mindful meditation (10 minutes before and after work for two work weeks) helped calm racing minds, improve sleep quality, and sleep duration.
Many of us think about work outside of the office thats where some of our best ideas emerge. However, thinking about work often means stressing about work, which can keep us up at night or have us waking up feeling anxious, hours before the alarm clock sounds. According to a Korn Ferry study, stress caused sleep deprivation for 66% of American workers in 2018. Moreover, sleep deprivation can exacerbate our work stress, by negatively impacting cognitive functions such as judgment, critical thinking, problem solving, planning, and organization.
To avoid thinking about work in the middle of the night, try the following strategies:
Make a to-do list. There is always more work to be done. Research by Baylor University and Emory University shows that making a to-do list for the following day before bed helps you to fall asleep faster by virtually as much as taking a sleep aid as well as helps you to wake up fewer times during the night. Unfinished tasks cycling through your mind stay at a heightened level of cognitive activation, explains Michael Scullin, the lead author of the study. This isessentially what is causing you to stay up at night. The act of writing down these uncompleted tasks decreases cognitive arousal, rumination, and worry. And if you do wake up in the middle of the night, suddenly remembering a pressing task, keep a piece of paper and pen on your nightstand to capture it so you can let it go from your mind and go back to sleep.
Keep a journal. Toby, a client of mine at a professional services firm, was experiencing significant work stress due to friction with a difficult colleague. After a particularly distressing incident, he wrote an email to me describing what had happened and what made him so upset about it. While his initial purpose was to update me and to give me a heads up of what he wanted to talk about in our next meeting, he shared that by writing about his experience and how it made him feel, he was able to offload it and sleep peacefully that evening. Journaling or writing down your thoughts and feelings, rather than just thinking about them, has been shown to help process emotions and reduce stress and anxiety, as it requires a greater level of psychological processing. Also including more positive events and what you are grateful for in your writing can help in getting longer, more refreshing sleep. In a study of college students who suffered from worrying at bedtime, the group of students who were randomly assigned to journal every night for a week before bed, experienced reduced bedtime stress and worry, in addition to improved sleep duration and quality.
Exercise self-compassion. Sara was head of strategy at a tech company whose stock was struggling. She presented their M&A strategy to the board and got pummeled with tough questions that she didnt anticipate or answer as well as she could have. She choked. Instead of looking at this as a learning experience, albeit a painful one, for future board meetings, she played it back in her mind over and over again, beating herself up, and lost sleep over it for weeks. Kristin Neff, author of Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, describes self-compassion as showing yourself the same kindness, care and concern you would show a good friend. Practicing self-compassion and recognizing that we are all imperfect human beings allows you to break the cycle of negative thoughts and self-judgment that come with rumination, which is linked to several negative effects, including insomnia. Additional research from Texas State University and Sun-yat Sen University reinforced findings that self-compassion reduces stress-related poor sleep.
Engage in physical activity. Research shows that a single instance of moderately intense exercise can decrease the rumination that keeps us up at night. There is also strong evidence that, in general, as little as 30 minutes of aerobic exercise can help us fall asleep faster, and improves sleep quality. Not only does exercise increase the amount of deep sleep we get, it decompresses the mind, which Charlene Gamaldo, Medical Director for the Johns Hopkins Center for Sleep, calls a cognitive process that is important for naturally transitioning to sleep. For some people, however, exercising too close to bedtime can interfere with sleep. If you are one of these people, it is recommended to exercise at least one to two hours before bedtime.
Practice meditation. Similar to self-compassion, mindfulness the practice of being fully present and focusing your attention on thoughts, feelings and bodily sensations without judgment is also an antidote to the rumination that can keep you up at night. By being fully present in the moment, you are not rehashing past events or worrying about future events. There is ample research on the positive effects of meditation on anxiety and stress. Further, researchers in the Netherlands found that even small amounts of mindful meditation (10 minutes before and after work for two work weeks) helped calm racing minds, improve sleep quality, and sleep duration.
Work stress is inevitable, but it doesnt have to get in the way of a good nights sleep. By employing the strategies above, you can increase your ability to wake up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the workday.
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How to Stop Thinking About Work at 3am - Harvard Business Review
All you need to know about third eye meditation – Times of India
Posted: December 11, 2019 at 4:42 am
Our bodies are made up of seven chakras and the most important one among them is the sixth one, the third eye. Also known as the 'Ajna chakra', our third eye is considered to be extremely powerful because it is a potent source of intuitive wisdom which can guide you towards creative pursuits, do away with negativity, provide knowledgeable insight and perhaps lead you to the highest form of intelligence helping open your eyes towards what needs attention. When acting in full force, the third eye can help you see clearly, clear mental blockages and also improve mental flexibilities. In fact, the third eye has been hailed as the most important form of sense in many cultures and activating it is considered to be the most crucial. What if we told you, there is a certain form of meditation which can open up your powerful sixth sense and get you in touch with your inner self? While the third eye carries the benefit of connecting us to our gut feelings and work one step ahead of our basic five senses, it mostly stays dormant or closed. That's where the benefits of meditation come into play. According to healers, meditation is the simplest and the best way to awaken, vitalize and activate your third eye.
Meditation helps clear out the negative toxins from the body, channelize your energies and help you concentrate better. Forms of meditation can also help you be self-aware, active your Ajna chakra, shift your state of consciousness to higher states with every session, thereby taking away anxiety and worries from the root and transcend into the innermost thought processes and make it work at the fullest capacity. Doing so can also put back focus on your mind, improve concentration and boost clarity.
The best way of opening up your third eye
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All you need to know about third eye meditation - Times of India
Meditation class series in Carson City begins this January – Carson Now
Posted: at 4:42 am
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Repeats every week until Thu Feb 13 2020 .
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By Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community
Presented by Dharma Zephyr Insight Meditation Community, a meditation class series begins this January 2020 in Carson City. The 6-week class will introduce attendees to the practice of sitting, walking, and eating meditation, and teach participants how to bring mindfulness to everyday life.
Kathy and Tom will draw on what theyve learned about meditation over years of evolving practice.
Beginners and experienced meditators alike are welcome. There will be ample time for Q & A to begin or refine your practice. Core Buddhist concepts will also be explored. Some classes will include mindful movement. Preregistration is encouraged.
Go here for more information.
Tom Gray brings more than 15 years of practice to this class. He comes from a scientific perspective which is both a blessing and an obstacle; the practice has helped him to address anger and self-judgement issues. Kathy Schwerin began her practice almost 30 years ago. Everyday mindfulness has been her focus; her meditation practice has changed over the years and she is eager to share the many tools that have been helpful.
Both of them have a deep love of the Buddhist dharma because it works! There is no charge; donations gratefully accepted.
For more information or to preregister, please contact Tom@dharmazephyr.org.
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Meditation class series in Carson City begins this January - Carson Now
Happening in Plum and Oakmont this week: meditation, movies and more – TribLIVE
Posted: at 4:42 am
Tuesday, December 10, 2019 | 11:52 AM
Michael DiVittorio | Tribune-Review
Michael DiVittorio | Tribune-Review
Michael DiVittorio | Tribune-Review
Looking for something to do in Plum or Oakmont this week?
Here are some suggestions:
Meditation with a Monk is set for 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Oakmont library. Join the monks from Natrona Heights Pittsburgh Buddhist Center for an hour of relaxing meditation. The program is offered every Tuesday evening.
Somatics classes with personal trainer Tom Capriotti will be offered from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. Thursday at the Oakmont library.
Somatics is a series of soft movements that can help alleviate lower back, neck and shoulder pain. Oakmont library programs are free. Call 412-828-9532 or go to oakmontlibrary.org for more information.
STEAM Story Time is set for 1 to 1:40 p.m. Tuesday at the Plum library. Activities are designed for 4- and 5-year-olds with their parents/caregivers and will be related to science, technology, engineering, arts and math. Registration is required.
Plum library hosts a movie matinee from 1 to 4 p.m. Thursday. This weeks feature is Murder Under the Mistletoe, a Miss Fisher mystery. Popcorn will be provided. No registration is necessary. Go to plumlibrary.org for more information on Plum library programs.
The Oaks Theater will host a special screening of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at 310 Allegheny River Blvd.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Tickets to the all-ages event are $8. Burks BBQ in Oakmont will have dinners available at the event for $10. More information is available online at the oakstheater.com or by calling 888-718-4253.
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Happening in Plum and Oakmont this week: meditation, movies and more - TribLIVE
The Only Resource You Need for Calm-like Meditation App Development – Appinventiv
Posted: at 4:41 am
He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe.
-Marcus Aurelius
WhatsApp deactivated.
Facebook Uninstalled.
Airplane Mode On.
For a long time, smartphone users have followed this approach to focus or simply live a stress-free life. They have cursed mobile applications for the distraction and anxiety they face in their daily lives.
But, this perspective changed drastically the moment mindfulness apps came into existence.
Mobile applications like Calm begun helping users meditate and live a peaceful live even when keeping their phone aside. A result of which is that the mindfulness meditation app market, which was valued at $959M as of 2015 and $1.21B in 2017, is expected to grow to $2.08B by 2022, with an annual average revenue growth of 11.4%.
This not only made users enjoy a peaceful life without leaving the digital world, but also proved that its a good decision to step into this market with the assistance of top app development companies.
But, before you or anyone think in this direction and invest in calm like meditation app development, it is advised to be familiar with the reason behind this popularity. Or better say, having the knowledge of key driving factors of calm like mediation app market size. A glimpse of which we will cover in the next section of the article.
In the present days, around 75% 90% of people in the United States visits doctors for stress-related issues and around 13% of kids are showing the symptoms of anxiety disorder because of stress.
Because of this, more and more people are becoming conscious about the ill effects of stress and mediation as a way to improve their mental health. Something that is giving a push to the mindfulness app development market.
With an increase in the number of smartwatches and smart screens, people are getting an opportunity to keep a real-time record of their mental health and well-being. This is again favoring the flourishing market for meditation apps.
Now while you know the reasons that ignite the zeal to develop mindfulness app like Calm or HeadSpace, lets move to the best mindfulness meditation apps in the market.
All these best mindfulness meditation apps right from Headspace to Happier, Buddhify, Insight Timer, Smiling Mind, and The Mindfulness App are doing an amazing job in the marketplace. But, the one we will focus entirely in this article is Calm application.
Introduced back in 2012 as a meditation tool, Calm has now gained a huge momentum in the marketplace as a guide for proper sleep and relaxation. The application, till date, has over 60M downloads and 80,000 new daily users. It has also received the title of the Top grossing Health and Fitness Application and the 20th Top App on the App Store. A credit of which can be given to the simple working mechanism of this application.
Whats more, the application has recently raised a funding of $88M, valuing it at $1B and collaborated with various popular products like Soundproof Phone Booth ROOM.
This altogether has made every business enthusiast interested in calm like meditation app development. It has raised a hype to getting comprehend with the technicalities of the application and build a clone with the help of top Android or iOS app development company.
Assuming that you are also one of those who wish to try their luck in this field, lets cover the technical aspects of Calm-like application here starting with taking a look into the top meditation app features.
When it comes to Calm-clone app development, the foremost feature you need to focus on is Profile Creation.
This feature, as depicted from the name, enable users to create their own profiles on the application where they can see/store all the information related to them or the activities they have participated in.
Under this category, users opt in for the best of the stories that relaxes their body and mind and help them sleep nicely.
The Calm Masterclasses feature of the app lets users avail exclusive classes from worlds best mindfulness experts across the globe.
This app feature enables users to change the scenic view that would be the background of the application.
From the morning stretch to warm up, this feature of Calm mobile app helps users come across the best ways to relax your body.
With this feature, you can set the duration of breathing exercises and exhale all of your worries without allocating a special time for meditation.
Under this category, the Calm mobile app sends different kinds of reminders to users for living a stress-free life. This includes reminders to practice mindfulness, to sleep, and to check-in the app.
These meditation app features have shown given peace of mind to users. But, what has given a new definition to calmness is the unique user experience strategy this application has worked with.
So, taking the same into consideration, lets take a sneak peek of the Calm meditation app design strategy.
Right from the icons to the typography, colors, and visual elements used in the Calm mobile application, everything gives a feeling of warmth and tranquility. A major focus has been kept on making intense topics like Stress, Anxiety, Relationships, and Self-care seem balanced and a bit more comfortable.
Calm application has also followed the concept of minimal app design thoroughly. The app has introduced the least required features and elements on the screens to give a soothing experience to users. An evidence of which is the Breathing Exercise app screen.
Calm mobile application uses the power of Push notifications to remind users about their scores, next activity schedules, and more. This is not solely helping users enjoy higher benefits of this mindfulness app, but is also making it imperative for other business enthusiasts to build a push notification strategy that boosts conversions.
The Calm app smartly categories content under different labels that eases the process of finding the right content. Also, it avails content in the voice form that lures users to pick this mindfulness meditation app over others.
The Calm-like mobile app has also invested in App Localization. Meaning, the app content is available in six different languages including English, German, and Spanish. These gives users an option to grab the content in their local languages, which increases the possibilities of acquiring more users.
With this covered, lets climb to the next level of the ladder and see what mindfulness technology stack back these functionalities.
As weve already shared in our blog on picking the best technology stack for your app, the programming languages, frameworks, and tools we consider leaves a great impact on the outcomes. While the right technology stack results in proper working of your app and enhances the results, the wrong one can ruin your apps image.
So, understanding the intensity of knowing the right tech stack, lets check for what comes under the label of mindfulness app tech stack.
Now as you know the basics technicalities, it is likely that you would be expecting discussion around the cost to develop mindfulness app like calm in the next section.
But, wait.
Before we switch to calm like meditation app development cost, it is necessary for you to be familiar with the challenges your hired app development company would face while building the app, alongside the market-related issues you would come across.
So, lets check for the challenges you might come across while building an app like Calm.
The headmost challenge your hired team app developers would face is maintaining simplicity and higher loading speed while adding ample options into the application.
When talking about app localization, there are various key challenges associated with developing multilingual apps. Mitigating those challenges and delivering the app on pre-decided timeline would again be a challenge for your hired app partners.
In the present scenario, there are various mindfulness meditation apps available in the market. However, only a few of them are backed by solid research. This has made consumers sceptical about which app to prefer and which not. And thereafter, made it challenging for business enthusiasts to win the trust of these customers and keep them hooked to their platform.
Something that is possible if you introduce the right amount of transparency into your app working.
Users, when concentrating completely on mindfulness market, are majorly not in favor of paying subscription fee for the apps. Likewise, the companies in this domain are extensively focusing on implementing effective price benchmarking to get better outcomes.
So again, higher subscription rate can be a stumbling block in the path of Entrepreneurs planning to invest in calm like meditation app development.
With this, lets wait no further and tear down the cost to build a mobile app like Calm.
The cost to make an app, as described in detail in our mobile app development cost guide, is not fixed. It varies depending on various factors such as:-
In such a scenario, the optimal way to get an exact cost of developing an app like Calm is to contact the best app experts.
Now, while this would have shared insights around how much you need to invest into the Calm-like meditation app development, lets turn towards how to earn back the money. Or simply say, lets learn about the business and revenue model of Calm mobile application.
Calm and other such mindfulness meditation apps highly rely upon subscription model. That implies, a meditation app monetization model where users pay a fixed subscription fee for unlocking the advanced features of the app on a monthly or yearly basis.
Under this label, mobile apps like Calm and HeadSpace provides users an opportunity to pay for purchasing some services/products related to meditation from the platform itself.
By embracing this Calm app business and revenue model, you would be able to generate revenue nearly equal to that of Calm application. But, to outshine the mindfulness app market, you would have to put some extra efforts.
Wondering what those extra efforts would be? What ways can you accelerate the pace of gaining the Calm-like meditation app development cost back? Lets wrap up this article covering the same.
Though the Calm app has efficiently categorized the content to deliver better search experience, a search option on the app screen can elevate the outcomes. So, look ahead to introduce a search filter option into your meditation and mindfulness app like Calm.
AR/VR technology can take users to a virtual environment which can trigger their fears and anxieties in a better manner. And this way, speed up their process of relaxing and improving their mental health.
So, discussing the integration of such cutting-edge technologies while planning Calm-like app development process is also an effective way to raise the outcomes.
While building a Calm-clone application is a profitable business, it is again a good decision to start with a MVP first. The Minimal Viable Product (MVP) will help you to enter the market with less resources, time, and budget, and improve your application depending on the changing user behavior and needs.
Since both the applications are popular in the market and offer certain value to the users, it is unwise to conclude one being better than the other without comparing. So, we advise you to go through this blog alongside that on Headspace to get an optimal answer.
When talking about developing a meditation app like Calm, the process is not as easier as it seems. You would have to focus on multiple things both from development and business front. So, we recommend you consult with top healthcare app development company for getting a relevant answer.
Some features of Calm app are free to use. But, to unlock more features and explore the world of mindfulness, you would have to pay a monthly/yearly subscription fee.
Shrikant Srivastava
VP Technology
In search for strategic sessions?.
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The Only Resource You Need for Calm-like Meditation App Development - Appinventiv
MEDITATION: Joseph shows what it means to study Bible – Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
Posted: at 4:41 am
No one had to introduce Joseph to Mary. He had known her his whole life. No dating services in those days, unless you count arranged marriages. Who knows? Perhaps a yente did the honors of officially connecting them and their families. The perfect match, she might say. Its the way things used to work, the way things still work in some places. You westerners, said a student from the Far East, fall in love and get married. We get married and fall in love.
Tradition calls Joseph a carpenter, but the word tekton (Isnt this the carpenters son?) actually can mean stone mason, which means the man had superior technical skills. Joseph the builder living in the Galilean backwoods probably earned his keep and honed his craft in cities like Capernaum and Sepphoris. It may not have earned him a kings ransom, but a man with gifted hands usually does pretty well. Any idea what plumbers make these days?
Joseph enjoyed at least one other skill not often praised in Christmas-loving circles. He paid close attention to his Bible. An engagement interrupted by a pregnancy could get a woman killed in those days. A Bible reader could easily justify it. How did Joseph, reading the same Bible, decide to divorce her quietly and so protect young Mary? What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly? (Micah 6:8). Thats how. He did the best he could, until he knew better. What would have happened if Mary had been engaged to a mean man?
The old, odd pronoun trouble of the KJV, male-stacked genealogies, verses yanked way out of context all serve as flimsy proofs of the Bibles sexism. But as the Gospel unfolds, and through the leaves of history, Joseph takes a back seat to mother Mary. Joseph may be the patron saint of happy death, since he died in the arms of Mary and Jesus. But he could easily be the patron of all those unnoticed, forgotten holy ones. Those who keep this world spinning with their uncommon kindnesses.
The Rev. Eugene Stockstill is pastor of Ebenezer United Methodist Church and Myrtle United Methodist Church in Union County.
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MEDITATION: Joseph shows what it means to study Bible - Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal
QUIET MEDITATIONS: Patrick Carr set to play solo show at Ted’s ILM’s Alternative Weekly Voice – encore Online
Posted: at 4:41 am
Patrick Carr will debut songs from upcoming 2020 album at Teds on December 13. Photo by Kat Lancaster
When the Road Darkens is an apt title for singer-songwriter Patrick Carrs 2017 EP. While not a sad collection, per se, theres a soberness to his folksy storytelling and instrumentals.
An English major and self-described book nerd, Carrs songs are filled with literary references. One will recognize the nod to the green light from The Great Gatsby in Dont Let It Break Your Heart.
I adapted the title of the EP from a line found in The Lord of the Rings, Carr explains, which originally read, [f]aithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. So far, only one person has been able to guess where the title comes from.
Though he initially organized the five tracks so they would flow musically, coincidentally, they also take listeners down a road that continues to darken around themes of hope, longing, past loves and depression. It starts with Sibylle in an Orange Hue. An introduction, lightly constructed with whimsical wind chimes, draws in listeners to an almost quiet meditation.
I find music tends to send your minds eye to a certain place or time, Carr says, so adding the wind chimes and birds in the opening was to kind of set the stage for the beginning of the EPs journey.
Inspired by a German singer-songwriter named Sibylle Baier, Carr stumbled upon a photo of her labeled Sibylle in an Orange Hue. He used some of the words from the photos title as lyrics.
In my mind, the song describes someone who is suffering from depression, and as the narrator, Im trying to convince her that everything will be alright in the end, he explains.
While Carr often involves his friends, William Glover (piano) and Sean McClain (drums), in his music, he, too, is quite a multi-instrumentalist. Mostly a self-taught guitarist playing along to Led Zeppelin records, his fingerstyle playing is heavily influenced by singer-songwriter and guitarist Nick Drake.
I pretty much spent months trying to nail that kind of fingerstyle playing and now its an integral part of my music, he notes. Ive always been interested in guitar growing up, but never really had the right reason or motivation to start playing. Once I heard Black Dog on my dads copy of the fourth Led Zeppelin record, I really wanted to learn so I could play that song.
Carr also plays bass, organ, ukulele, mandolin, glockenspiel (similar to a xylophone), and an Indian drone instrument called a shruti box. According to Carr, bass isnt hard when starting with a foundation in guitar, but it needs to be approached differently than the guitar.
Paying attention to bassists like Carol Kaye from the Wrecking Crew kind of gave me that light bulb moment, he continues. I started playing ukulele when I was a junior in high school after a friend brought his along on a field trip. Mandolin is a new instrument for me and Ive really only played it seriously for about two or three years now. I just kind of love stringed instruments, so I end up collecting and playing them. . . . but Im not the best mandolin player so sitting in a bluegrass jam would be catastrophic.
Carrs upcoming show at Teds will include performances of tunes from When the Road Darkens. He will play a few new songs as well, indicative of his influences from Nick Drake to Ryley Walker to Bon Iver. Lyrically, they are even more introspective, often dealing with feeling lost and trying to navigate life. What remains consistent is his penchant for literature, as heard in The Jaws of Hell. I took the title from a Radiohead lyric and the song makes a very loose connection to Dantes Inferno, Carr says.
In October, Carr recorded a few tracks featuring a flute and saxophone player, and Glover back on piano. The plan is to have two new records in 2020: an instrumental EP called Vox Humana and a full-length album.
So far I havent settled on a title for the full-length record yet, he notes. Ive got a few different titles that Im kicking around right now, but Im kind of waiting for the entire record to be finished before I decide on the title that feels right.
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