Creating Life

May 11, 2013 By Leave a Comment

Standing in the doorway between the ticket table and the concert last night, the music from the incredible jazz trio on the chancel washing over me, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. This is my life! Somewhere between scheduling the termite treatments and the ceiling repairs from a leaky roof, between taxes and budgets, between making [...]

Filed Under: Diversity, Gratitude, Parenting, Peace, Relationships, Social Justice, Spirituality, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, Values, Women's Issues, World Community Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment

Prayers for the Possible

May 4, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In 1854, Rev. Theodore Parker prayed: “Help us to grow stronger and nobler by this world’s varying good and ill, and while we enlarge the quantity of our being by continual life, may we improve its kind and quality not less, and become fairer, and tenderer, and heavenlier too, as we leave behind us the [...]

Filed Under: Environmental issues, Faith Development, Gratitude, Mortality, Peace, Prayer, Relationships, Religion, Social Justice, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, Worship Tagged With: Leave a Comment

For You Were a Stranger in Egypt

May 1, 2013 By 1 Comment

There are many biblical passages calling people to offer hospitality to the stranger. Here is one from the 19th chapter of the book of Leviticus: When strangers sojourn with you in your land, you shall do them no wrong, the strangers who sojourn with you shall be to you as natives among you, and you [...]

Filed Under: Hospitality, Politics, Religion, Scripture, Social Justice, Uncategorized, Universalist Tagged With: , , , 1 Comment

Not Avoiding Forests, Though They Have All Those Trees

April 26, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I sometimes (daily?) get overwhelmed by the minutiae of life. I often feel amazed at what others seem to accomplish while I feel like I’m drowning in dishes, dirty clothes, to-do lists, e-mail, and piles of papers. I’ve even been known to turn down a vacation because getting organized for all that just sounds like [...]

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SHINE

April 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

love is the voice under all silences; the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness; the truth more first than sun more last than star. ~ e.e. cummings Beloveds, today the sun is shining. Yesterday the sun was shining too, even though it was pouring rain here [...]

Filed Under: Faith Development, Grief, Healing, Mortality, Parenting, Peace, Politics, Prayer, Relationships, Religion, Social Justice, Spirituality, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, Values, World Community, Worship Tagged With: Leave a Comment

National Poem In Your Pocket Day #pocketpoem

April 18, 2013 By 1 Comment

It’s Poem In Your Pocket Day, and like a springtime bird still dazed by the snow, I dart, twisting my head, in unbelief at all the food. It’s Poem In Your Pocket Day, and everywhere is a poem. Twist your gaze, grab some unbelief: the snow is gone. Look. Look at the food. http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/406

Filed Under: Spirituality, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist Tagged With: , , , , 1 Comment

Help: We All Need Somebody, Sometime

April 12, 2013 By 1 Comment

I have learned a thing or two about asking for help these past two weeks. I’m not sure why I’ve long been hesitant to ask for help, but I’ve got my theories. Maybe I’ve wanted to prove to my parents or to myself how much I could accomplish “All By Myself” (hear that 6-year-old voice [...]

Filed Under: Gratitude, Healing, Parenting, Relationships, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

The People’s Work

April 6, 2013 By Leave a Comment

In The Prophetic Imperative: Social Gospel in Theory and Practice, Rev. Richard Gilbert lays out a Unitarian Universalist interpretation of worship. He wrote: The church is a worshipping community, a religious community that deliberately and regularly gathers together to celebrate life in all its dimensions. Worship understood as the celebration of life is the most [...]

Filed Under: Class, Evangelism, Faith Development, Gratitude, Hospitality, LGBT Issues, Peace, Prayer, Relationships, Religion, Senior citizens, Sermons, Social Justice, Spirituality, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, Values, World Community, Worship Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

A is for…Afebrile.

April 5, 2013 By Leave a Comment

I was braced for a strange and challenging week with my partner out-of-state for a work trip, but then our little babe was hospitalized for an infected (and previously undetected) cyst at her throat, and things really got surreal. Somewhere in the midst of the past five days (only five?!), we started making some fun [...]

Filed Under: Gratitude, Healing, health care, Parenting, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, World Community Tagged With: , , , , , , Leave a Comment

There Is No Failure But Not To Try

March 30, 2013 By Leave a Comment

We do not have to wait until we are perfect to practice our faith. While the perfection of Jesus is lifted up in many congregations on this holy weekend, it is humanity that has always drawn Unitarian Universalists towards his prophetic message of love and justice.  Our faith tells us that it is not perfection [...]

Filed Under: Class, Diversity, Evangelism, Faith Development, Healing, Hospitality, Relationships, Religion, Social Justice, Uncategorized, Unitarian, Universalist, Values, World Community Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment