Spring is here. During this season of emergence and growth, as we deepen our education for liberation and explore the spirituality of human action, let us pause to reflect on what it looks like and feels like to feel valued where you are growing.

Informed by the arts, prayer, meditation, and the healing practices of Laughter Yoga, and Afro Flow Yoga, Simone Monique Barnes is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, educator, and lay minister. She currently works part time in community ministry for a faith-based non-profit supporting elementary school age children and their families in East Austin. She also teaches Laughter Yoga, a body-mind practice that began more than twenty-five years ago in Mumbai, India, knowing that a smile is the shortest distance between two people, and that joy practices sustain us in hard times. Simone was born and raised in New York City, and has called Austin, Texas home for over ten years. She is a certified Laughter Yoga Teacher and Afro Flow Yoga teacher-in-training.

Children and Youth will be meeting in person in their classes after being present in the sanctuary for the first part of the service.