January 19, 2019

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." -Martin Luther King

Dear Aspen Chapel families,

    I think this quote is so powerful and can apply to any situation and any age group. Whether we're starting ski school, doing a school project, performing in a play, taking on new responsibilities, or even coping with trauma or change, stepping into it without knowing the outcome is where we find and grow our faith.
    This Sunday we'll be connecting ourselves with who and what we have faith in. As we grow up, we'll encounter so many people and situations that either strengthen our faith or weaken it. Some people cheer us on and mirror our strength and confidence. Others might do and say things that knock us off our path with discouraging comments or actions, which can create self-doubt. This starts right away in early childhood, as young as pre-school when children are learning to work alongside each other. Over the years I've tried to listen in on my kids' playdates, to make sure there's emotional and physical safety. I've observed friends who bring out the best in my kids, making them long for more time together. I've also seen and heard my kids get deflated by comments, which you can see in their face. These doubts can follow us as we grow, causing us to fear failure so much that we sometimes don't take the first step toward the top of the staircase.
     The idea is to foster our children's inner-faith. That they see themselves as divine beings with divine potential. Once they develop this inner faith in themselves, they can meet encounters with all people with confidence. We'll always have people in our lives who cheer us on. But there will also people people who project their own self-doubt onto us. The more connected we are to our divinity, the easier it becomes to keep stepping up toward the unknown.
     Our children might not fully understand this right now. It can take a lifetime to integrate these ideas, but my goal each Sunday is to plant seeds. I hope to see your children tomorrow!
     Also, I want to remind you that for Martin Luther King Day, the chapel is hosting a community dinner for the homeless. You and your children are invited to join us anytime between 3:30 and 6:00 to prepare the meals and tables. It is not necessary to come for the whole time, if you need to come a little later. Then at 6:00 we'll enjoy a community dinner together. It should be a heart-opening experience!

If you ever have any questions regarding our services or your children's needs, please email me at michelle@aspenchapel.org

In Peace and Blessings,
Michelle Skagen
Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator

January 12, 2019

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,

     I hope this first week of getting back into a routine has felt as wonderful to you as it has for our family! As lovely as the holidays are, I find that my own children are far happier when the days are predictable and when they have a sense of purpose and responsibility.
     I ended up getting sick at the tail end of the holiday break, and felt frustrated at first, and resentful of how far behind in my responsibilities I became. But through meditation (which was restored once the school bus arrived;)), I came to realize that sometimes it's okay to experience CONTRAST. When we are experiencing lack of productivity and motivation, or even depression or sluggishness, it provides an opportunity for us to fully appreciate the contrast once we get back on our feet. It's like recovering from a cold, and finally breathing through our nostrils without congestion. We promise ourselves that we'll never take that for granted again! This can be a great way to help kids move through their own frustrations. Conditions are never permanent, and sometimes CONTRAST or feeling the opposite of how we WANT to feel is our best teacher. 
     As I mentioned in a previous email, January can be a time to push the reset button. We'll spend the next three weeks examining Faith: what it is, how to find it, and how it can help us. In conjunction to that, we'll commit time to a guided meditation every Sunday this month. Below is a link to an article in Forbes magazine: Science shows meditation benefits children's brains and behavior. I find that in my own life, with pressures coming from so many directions, that meditation is where I find perspective and heart-centered answers. What a privilege to help kids learn this tool so early on! 
    I hope to see your children tomorrow and hope you're having a safe, relaxing, and joyful weekend. 

If you ever have any questions regarding
our services or your children's needs,
please email me at michelle@aspenchapel.org

In Peace and Blessings,
Michelle Skagen
Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2016/10/18/the-many-benefits-of-meditation-for-children/#172601eddbe3


     

January 5, 2019

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,      Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday break filled with good health, relaxation, fun, and cheer! The pace of the holidays can make us feel glad to start the new year with familiar routines and healthy habits.      If as parents we're modeling how to make resolutions or set goals for the New Year, our children are paying attention and perhaps thinking about their own goals for the year. However, even adults can get discouraged right off the bat when resolutions are broken in the first week due to illness, unpredictable stress at work or in the family, more festive obligations and gatherings, or just the obstacles we face in our daily round. It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the growing list of tasks we must do in order to meet our goals when we get met with setbacks. So if adults can feel discouraged, then kids can feel discouraged as well! They also experience setbacks with school work, illness, friends, siblings, and exhaustion from the holidays.      With this in mind, I'd like to start the New Year focusing on the theme of FAITH. It's so easy to start a negative thinking spiral when things don't go our way or when what we want doesn't happen when we want it, but when we have Faith, it builds resilience and the trust required to surrender to the process of life unfolding. We will spend the next few weeks discussing what faith is, what we have faith in, and how we can use our faith to guide us and encourage us when life throws us curve balls. In addition, we'll work on meditation and relaxation techniques as a tool children can use when it's necessary to listen to their inner guide.     "Take a leap of Faith and begin this wondrous year by believing. Believe in yourself. And believe that there is a loving Source - a Sower of Dreams -- just waiting to be asked to help you make your dreams come true." - Sarah Ban Breathnach    Hope to see you tomorrow! In Peace and Blessings, Michelle Skagen Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator If you ever have questions regarding our services or your children's needs, please email me at michelle@aspenchapel.org

December 29, 2018

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,

     I hope you had a wonderful week of holiday celebrations. We're so happy some of you could make it to our events for the 12 Days of Aspen: the Storytime and Ornament Making and Parents' Night Out. Hopefully you were able to attend one of our Christmas Eve services, too!  As we get closer to the new year, it's always a nice time to reflect on the year we've had and to see how far we've come in our internal and external lives. As our children rapidly change on the outside, it's interesting how we change on the inside in response to the ever-changing nature of parenthood. 
     This Sunday is the second to last day of 2018. It's a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the past year and think about the highs and lows we experienced. We'll start with an opening meditation to visualize events in this past year. Then we'll move into an art project that captures memories from 2018. We'll save some time at the end  to share before we close with our song and prayer for protection. 
      As we move into 2019, I'd like to offer more opportunities for youth to do activities through the chapel that work toward building community, experiencing personal transformation, and working for social and environmental justice. If you have any ideas or connections that could help us achieve this goal, please reach out anytime! I'm open to all your ideas and would be delighted to integrate them!
      I hope to see your child this Sunday at the chapel! If we don't see you, have a wonderful weekend! 

        If you ever have questions regarding our
         services or your children's needs, please email me at
         michelle@aspenchapel.org

In Peace and Blessings,
Michelle Skagen
Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator

December 22, 2018

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,

     I hope you all had a wonderful Winter Solstice yesterday. And I hope it marks the beginning of renewal, letting go of habits that don't serve you anymore, and welcoming new opportunities as more light shines on our winter days.
      If your experience this holiday season is anything like ours, perhaps Christmas has come too fast and you're not feeling prepared. There's so much more to do and not enough time. As I compose this, I'm taking long, deep breaths, trying not to panic. Trying to feel peace versus dread. Christmas can be everyday if we quiet our minds and breathe. The holiday festivities are opportunities to celebrate this idea of peace with friends and family. We can still feel peace if all the "shoulds" don't come together: a dusted mantle, clean bathrooms, packages with creative flair attached to the ribbons because there was time to do that! But if we don't feel peace despite the perfect display and having an abundance of time, then it doesn't matter. I am trying to remember this as my heart races with the running list in my head. Peace comes from within, not from outer conditions and circumstances. 
    On that note, tomorrow at Sunday School we'll be lighting our fourth Advent candle for Peace. We'll discuss these ideas, and try to get the children to see that peace is something they can access anytime, despite the hurricane that might be spinning around them. We'll do a meditation as we gaze at our four candles. And then we'll play a fun game to music and hopefully leave time for fun, light-hearted carols. 
    As most of you know, we're hosting an event at 2:00 for children and parents. We'll be reading stories that get to the Heart of Christmas (I hope I don't cry while reading them), then we'll make ornaments that go along with some of the stories. We hope you can join us! 
    I especially hope you can all join us for one of the Christmas Eve services on Monday evening. At 4:00 we'll be doing a children's service.
    Please be safe and try to enjoy the magic this season offers us. 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

Holiday Storytime & Ornaments
December 23rd from 2-4

Christmas Eve Service for Children
December 24th at 4

Parents' Night Out 
December 27th from 5:30-8:30

If you ever have questions concerning
our services
or your children's needs, please email
me at michelle@aspenchapel.org

In Peace and Blessings,
Michelle Skagen
Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator

December 15, 2018

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,      It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas! In many of our homes the tree is up, lights are strung, candlelight pierces the dark of early evenings, and there's even snow on the ground! It can feel so magical for our kids when rituals are repeated from years past and familiar ornaments are hung. But for parents, there can be other indicators of the season: full voicemail boxes, closets stuffed with bags of hopeful purchases and tape and more wrapping paper, unfolded laundry and full hampers, cars full of bags of old clothing we had hoped to give away weeks ago, and Thanksgiving leftovers in the refrigerator. Still.          As beautiful as this season is with the anticipation, the decorations, the music, and all the tree-lighting ceremonies and Santa visits, it can be very overwhelming and exhausting for parents. To do it perfectly. To have everything just right before they arrive or before going. The race against time in order to pull it all off interferes with good sleep, getting outside, and being present with ourselves and our families. We go through the motions, but we don't necessarily feel the spirit of Christmas.      Once in awhile throughout this season, it hits us. We come across an adorable letter for Santa or we witness our children performing music or dance or an athletic feat, and tears well up. When these fleeting moments move us, we are feeling the spirit of Christmas. We are feeling Spirit, which is available to us all year long when we pause in gratitude.      This coming Sunday, the 16th, we are all invited to the chapel to quiet the running commentary in our heads about how much more there is to do. Through "Lessons and Carols" we can remember the true meaning of Christmas and let ourselves be moved by the music and wisdom. All children are invited and encouraged to stay in the sanctuary with their parents to enjoy this beautiful celebration. We will have childcare available for those who need something more interactive, but we would love the children to join us upstairs for the whole service, if possible.      If we can, we'll gather all the children at the end of "Lessons and Carols" to light our candle for JOY downstairs. In this week of Advent, our theme in Sunday School is JOY. As individual families, perhaps we can carry this theme into the week by setting intentions around feeling joy. We can identify areas that bring us joy, and avoid activities or tasks that don't. And if we have to let many things go, like finding the perfect gift or dusting baseboards, in order to feel JOY, so be it. If our children witness us feeling JOY, these special rituals will imprint a positive memory and likely get continued when they're adults.     I look forward to seeing you all Sunday! UPCOMING EVENTS: Holiday Storytime & Ornaments December 23rd from 2-4 Christmas Eve Service for Children December 24th at 4:00 Parents' Night Out December 27th from 5:30-8:30 If you ever have questions concerning our services or your children's needs, please email me at michelle@aspenchapel.org In Peace and Blessings, Michelle Skagen Aspen Chapel Youth Coordinator

December 7, 2018

Dear Aspen Chapel Families,      It's the most wonderful time of the year! That is if we can take time for self care and to be present with our children between holiday parties, holiday performances, shopping, extended family, decorating, and doing all the last-minute errands required to create an ambiance for this most wonderful time.       As the youth coordinator for the Chapel, I feel so fortunate to be able to pause for 45 minutes with your children on Sundays to remember why we put so much work into the production of Christmas. When I'm making cookies at the last minute for a holiday sing-along with my child and hear myself impatiently sighing when the powdered sugar and vanilla spill all over her cream sweater, I have to remember to breathe. The purpose of this season is to find our inner light and peace amidst the chaos of the season. Slowing down, getting quiet, and breathing can acquaint us with our true selves, enabling us to take on only the tasks and obligations we can handle. If we stay within our limits, we can show up for our loved ones in peace.     This coming Sunday, we'll continue our exploration of Advent. The candle we'll light downstairs on our Advent wreath will represent LOVE. Older students will perform a skit illustrating the messages Mary and Joseph received from the angel, Gabriel, and how their pure love and faith made them the chosen ones for bringing Baby Jesus into the world. We'll also incorporate a short game to think about trust and faith. As we light the candle, we'll continue visiting the idea that when we become still and quiet, we're more likely to hear a voice inside that comes from Love, and when we learn to trust that voice, good things can happen in our lives.     If we have enough time, we'll read The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau. This has become a favorite story in our house, and is part of the holiday stack of books. It beautifully teaches us the joy of giving, and is so appropriate as we accumulate more and more over the holidays.     I'm looking forward to seeing you Sunday if you can come! UPCOMING EVENTS: Holiday Storytime & Ornaments December 23rd from 2-4 Christmas Eve Service for Children December 24th at 4:00 Parents' Night Out December 27th from 5:30-8:30