tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2440059854918312842024-03-05T12:40:08.121-08:00Living the JourneyReflections on living in the world, living from the soul.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger289125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-78949730275352192292024-01-18T08:38:00.000-08:002024-01-18T08:38:56.226-08:00A Legacy of Nonviolent Resistance<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcH3HPMOSFbZzvEvXU-15v049TUE63jJKYHlWdlO7PeLYxbw7dn5NEhtoU6KYDZstDtRqZZ8MxDT2C8Qgnzd2JJ0jrZlGIsvfgxr8EGES7B2wHTpkvmRvJ3o47qWHj4gtWfp3ciHY0EQX2V481HzN4UM54C2_T5ggRsyOoESVnupghsIortezrEVH9DaP/s800/MLK%20speaking%20crowd.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCcH3HPMOSFbZzvEvXU-15v049TUE63jJKYHlWdlO7PeLYxbw7dn5NEhtoU6KYDZstDtRqZZ8MxDT2C8Qgnzd2JJ0jrZlGIsvfgxr8EGES7B2wHTpkvmRvJ3o47qWHj4gtWfp3ciHY0EQX2V481HzN4UM54C2_T5ggRsyOoESVnupghsIortezrEVH9DaP/s320/MLK%20speaking%20crowd.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>photo provided by bswise flickr.com</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />I would encourage you, over the coming days, to find some time to read or listen to not just the memes and quotes of king, but a whole speech from beginning to end. His ideas were radical and challenging, and arrived at with thought and prayer and astute analysis. I had called this reflection “A Legacy of Peace” but when we hear the word peace, or even King's often quoted words “We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means“ from his speech protesting the war in Vietnam, it might lead us to inaction or acquiesce. We must remember that King had a very intentional and courageous alternative to violence- grounded in a challenging set of principles, and grounded in regular personal reflection and accountability. King’s primary legacy was non-violent resistance. This approach was radical in his time, and it is radical today. <br /><br />The King Center offers this summary of <a href="https://thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/the-king-philosophy/">6 principles</a> of Dr. King's work, noting that “Dr. King often said, he got his inspiration from Jesus Christ and his techniques from Mohandas K. Gandhi.” <br /><blockquote>PRINCIPLE ONE: Nonviolence Is a Way of Life for Courageous People. <br /> It is not a method for cowards; it does resist. <br /> It is active nonviolent resistance to evil. <br /> It is aggressive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. </blockquote>It’s easy to fall into the habit, and I notice the tendency in myself, of thinking that non-violence avoids conflict. But as Dr. King so eloquently expressed in his 1957 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmOwgkCZQHg&t=172s">interview</a>*, passive acquiescence to evil is not a moral stance. Instead King called for active “non-cooperation with evil” as a moral imperative. The kind of peace King sought could not be reached without resisting evil, resisting injustice actively. <br /><blockquote>PRINCIPLE TWO: Nonviolence Seeks to Win Friendship and Understanding. <br /> The outcome of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community. <br /> The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation </blockquote>This is in stark contrast to much of what we see in the world today. Whatever side of an issue you are on, it is so easy to get focused on “winning” but the goal of non-violent resistance was the creation of Beloved Community -- a just global community where resources were shared fairly, where conflicts (which are inevitable in community) were resolved peacefully, and reconciliation was desirable even between oppressed and oppressor at the conflict’s end. <br /><br /> <blockquote>PRINCIPLE THREE: Nonviolence Seeks to Defeat Injustice, or Evil, Not People. <br /> Nonviolence recognizes that evildoers are also victims and are not evil people. <br /> The nonviolent resister seeks to defeat evil not persons victimized by evil. </blockquote>There’s a theory we were taught in seminary- <a href="https://cntr4conghealth.wordpress.com/2011/09/01/levels-of-conflict-by-speed-leas/">the levels of conflict</a>. At the first level, we are all just trying to solve a problem together, as the conflict intensifies, we start to rigidify into who is right and who is wrong. We bring in the authorities and the rules to sort out who is right and who is wrong. As the conflict continues to intensify, it’s not enough for us to win, the other must be exiled, fired, must go. And at its most intense, the other must be destroyed, it’s not enough for them to leave our community, but only harm to the other will satisfy. <br /><br /> We can see this right now in all aspects of our political life. But if the end is for us all to be together in beloved community, we cannot exile those we disagree with, even those who have oppressed us. Destroying the other cannot be our goal. It is the injustice that must be defeated, must be overturned and transformed. <br /><blockquote>PRINCIPLE FOUR: Nonviolence Holds That Unearned, Voluntary Suffering for a Just Cause Can Educate and Transform People and Societies. <br /> Nonviolence is a willingness to accept suffering without retaliation; to accept blows without striking back. <br /> Nonviolence is a willingness to accept violence if necessary but never inflict it. </blockquote> Consider our <a href="https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/children/windows/session6/childrens-crusade">story this morning about the Children’s Crusade</a>. Recall the iconic images of the civil rights movement, of protestors being met with violence and responding peacefully. Another challenging ideal. Now we must be careful of how we interpret this principle. Too many people have stayed in families, in communities where they accepted suffering, accepted violence. But this principle says “when necessary.” Remember these justice seekers were already suffering, were already oppressed, and they were clear that it was necessary to resist that oppression. In no way is this asking us to accept any violence that might befall us. I think it’s important to remember that this is in the service of resistance- resisting oppression, resisting injustice. I think it is also important that we consent, that we are choiceful. Those young people who participated in the Children’s Crusade made a strong and courageous choice to be there, where they knew they might experience suffering and violence. And they did it because they believed it could help educated and transform. And surely many people who saw those images those acts of resistance and violence woke up to the reality of injustice because of it, and were called to action and transformation. <br /><blockquote>PRINCIPLE FIVE: Nonviolence Chooses Love Instead of Hate. <br /> Nonviolence resists violence of the spirit as well as the body. <br /> Nonviolent love is spontaneous, unselfish, and creative. </blockquote>I remember the first peace march I ever went to -- how much rage there was, how many speakers spoke from the stage with hatred about people who proposed and supported war. “This isn’t a peace march, it is an anti-war march” I realized, I had thought all peace marches would carry at their core this principle, that nonviolence chooses love instead of hate. <br /><br />King says elsewhere in that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmOwgkCZQHg&t=172s">interview</a> “The nonviolent resistor not only avoids external, physical violence, but he avoids internal violence of spirit. He not only refuses to shoot his opponent, but he refuses to hate him, and he stands with understanding goodwill at all times.” <br /><br />Another challenging principle. Perhaps, like me, you can easily bring to mind people or organizations who engage in acts of injustice or oppression -- how easy it is to vilify them, to hate them. This principle says it’s not enough to simply refrain from violence against them, we must strive to keep love at the center. The King Center tells us that part of this work is “personal commitment: Daily check and affirm your faith in the philosophy and methods of nonviolence. Eliminate hidden motives…” So working every day to make sure we are on track not only with our actions, but with our inner talk as well. <br /><blockquote>PRINCIPLE SIX: Nonviolence Believes That the Universe Is on the Side of Justice. </blockquote>How could you do it? How could you keep going towards justice when there was no sign that things would ever get better? King believed that God is a God of Justice or, for folks who don’t believe in god, that as he said “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”** King believed that we are not alone in our struggles, but that life itself prefers justice, works toward justice. I am moved and heartened by King’s faith, after all he had seen. He held this belief while he was deep in the struggle, and in the suffering of oppression , even then he believed that god is a god of justice. <br /><br />Today as we remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and all those who struggled alongside him and in the decades since – struggled for justice and for an end to racism, let us receive with gratitude his legacy to support our own struggles for justice, our own striving to achieve the beloved community. King wrote and spoke eloquently of the tactics of non-violent resistance, and showed us what living those principles might look like. They are ours to inherit if we choose. For to resist nonviolently is a choice, a courageous choice, that comes from deep discernment. May his faith, his courage and his principles give us courage as we meet the struggles in our times.<br /><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" />
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"></span></span></span></span></a><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">* Video-</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmOwgkCZQHg&t=172s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmOwgkCZQHg&t=172s</a> </span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Transcript- </span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/interview-martin-agronsky-look-here">https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/interview-martin-agronsky-look-here</a> </span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri", sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"> </span></span>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;">** <span class="small">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Remaining Awake
Through a Great Revolution.” Speech given at the National Cathedral,
March 31, 1968. </span></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-23520884415807103112024-01-09T08:03:00.000-08:002024-01-26T08:41:28.841-08:00The Stones We Lay Down and the Stones we Choose to Carry<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkxAhX_llm2SnAt0v1HrmL_gg02RNvEH3cosPVPNdpve9cf1OPhBnMrUtwA8vA1MeTyBDQhUGGXV2u3SEPNpCg1z8xG-tH-H82XvWy5rM1DLSQE7aPmMRcc7B9IKxpMw2_J-rQ1pdllXbsmGySN429JLM4cGYHhkdD-uhnadBcpviHJXDUPpVglWE7Xdu/s640/sodus%20rocks.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDkxAhX_llm2SnAt0v1HrmL_gg02RNvEH3cosPVPNdpve9cf1OPhBnMrUtwA8vA1MeTyBDQhUGGXV2u3SEPNpCg1z8xG-tH-H82XvWy5rM1DLSQE7aPmMRcc7B9IKxpMw2_J-rQ1pdllXbsmGySN429JLM4cGYHhkdD-uhnadBcpviHJXDUPpVglWE7Xdu/s320/sodus%20rocks.jpg" width="320" /></a><u> <br /></u></p><p><u>Laying Down Stones</u> <br /></p><p>Spring of 2020, my partner Eric and I found a new Happy Place on Lake Ontario. We noticed, walking the shore day after day, that our eyes were constantly drawn down- unlike walking the sandy shores of the ocean where the ground is smooth and flat, the waters edge by the lake was covered with round, smooth stones making a bumpy and uncertain footing. These smooth lake Ontario stones are (we learned when we went to ask Youtube after one walk) some of the most diverse rocks in the world. <br /><br />I have a lovely pipe of stones I picked up last summer, because they delighted me. I spent hours on end walking the shore, admiring, inspecting, choosing, discarding that unique diversity of rocks. I realized quickly there were just too many wonderful rocks, but I decided to give in to the impulse, Picking up anything that caught my eye, inspecting it, enjoying it, and making that choice- to set it down, or drop it in my pocket. <br /><br />These special pocket rocks made it back to the deck to became part of a growing pile of treasures on a patio table. I found myself often inspecting, noticing, reevaluating, arranging, sorting. Then on the last day, putting my favorites (still too many) into a tub to take home with me. <br /><br />Our spirits are like this, I think. We pick up all kinds of things in our daily lives. We pick up shiny sparkly things because they delight us, we bear the heavy weights of grief, of anger, or resentment. We can’t carry it all indefinitely, we need sometimes to pause and lay things down. <br /><br />I thought perhaps these rocks could help us work on letting go, on laying things down together. When I empty my pockets after a day of collecting- there is a lightness that has its own value, it’s own gifts. Today we consider together -- What might be worth letting go to feel a bit lighter? <br /><br />I invite now to gather a couple of objects, perhaps rocks, or marbles or whatever you have available to use for our ritual today. Sometimes it helps to get at the nebulous intangible things in life by having something solid, like a rock to focus our intention and attention. <br /><br />Once you’ve got your objects, which we’ll just call stones for simplicity’s sake, I invite you to inspect them, notice them, and silently begin to consider, as you hold your stones, what is heavy for you right now? What feels like it is weighing you down? <br /><br />Today we have shared stories and poems about <a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/words/responsive-reading/forgiveness-and-stones">betrayals</a> about <a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/words/reading/what-if-nobody-forgave">grudges</a>, about <a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/meditation-letting-go">worries</a> perhaps those speak to you. Or perhaps it’s something different you want to let go of- Old beliefs, habits, stories, patterns, practices? <br /><br />Or perhaps a goal, plan, or project you are ready to step away from? <br /><br />Maybe a disappointment? I know I was disappointed not to be able to share my lake rocks with you all in person this morning, due to the blizzard that kept us all at home, so I am trying to let go of that. <br /><br /> This will be the practice. Choose an object, and as you hold it, look at it, imagine that it represents the thing that you are considering laying down. Maybe choose an object that reminds you a bit of the thing. Once you decide what it represents, ask yourself if you are ready to lay it down. </p><p>Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. </p><p>You can hold it as long as you like. </p><p>Follow your own inner sense. </p><p>If you feel moved lay down something you can do that at any time. </p><p>I’ve noticed for my own inner journey, that deep things can take time to move, so Just take your own time. </p><p>Perhaps are there things you are not ready to lay down, that you would like to lay down someday, but the process is not yet complete? … Feel free to hang on to an object, maybe keep it in your pocket, or on a table you see daily, to represent those processes, to let them go in a week or a month or however many years it takes to be ready. <br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5T03BXoIyNSBJ0NQCZ66oo2DaTxCApfrkAea82TFR7k7IyTRZDQHhnpIFbKxJUen7eyPL0GEKdeOpkafNA9R6eUU8sAU2X7cg1o1yKjYMAr4FaTZZrGmVXKR3m6uiEqRSBtPkz9F34uLJRadyAyE3HtUP3Pk52WXcxHjODH5xXP6SC5pO8yscK3M86e8/s640/sodus%20rocks%20water.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq5T03BXoIyNSBJ0NQCZ66oo2DaTxCApfrkAea82TFR7k7IyTRZDQHhnpIFbKxJUen7eyPL0GEKdeOpkafNA9R6eUU8sAU2X7cg1o1yKjYMAr4FaTZZrGmVXKR3m6uiEqRSBtPkz9F34uLJRadyAyE3HtUP3Pk52WXcxHjODH5xXP6SC5pO8yscK3M86e8/s320/sodus%20rocks%20water.jpg" width="240" /></a><br /> <br /><u>The Stones We Choose To Carry </u><br /><br />I hope your metaphorical pockets feel a bit lighter now.<br /><br />I invite you into a final time of reflection - In the <a href="https://www.uuabookstore.org/Spilling-the-Light-P18511.aspx">words of Julian Soto</a> from their poem "A Rock in Our Pocket":<br /><br /> “There is always the possibility that<br /> we can treasure what is in our pockets,<br /> rather than the thing we have yet to attain.” <br /><br />As we enter this new year together, is there anything you already have that you would like to intentionally carry forward into the coming year- something that is part of you, or part of your life that you could choose to treasure, to carry with intention at this moment in your life?<br /><br />I invite you to choose an object perhaps one that is easy to carry in your pocket, to represent this intention. <br /><br />Each time you touch it in your pocket, or notice it in a place you will see it each day, let it remind you of this intention.</p><p><br /><u>What we Carry, and Why?</u><br /><br />This new year asks us, invites us to notice what we carry, and why. <br /><br />To consider what we will lay down on the threshold of the new year, <br /><br />To decide what we have carried long enough, and to lay it down <br /><br />This new year invites us to pause and notice all the gifts of our lives, smooth or sparkly, to consider what we chose to carry into this next chapter of our lives. <br /><br />Some choosing is easy and clear, but some decisions take time. Perhaps there is a question, a discernment, this new year that is worth holding and investigating until our hearts know whether they are ours to carry. <style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-28497924275513554022023-12-10T11:26:00.000-08:002024-01-26T08:40:23.056-08:00A Miracle of Lights<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhirFoxkdEXOirgUUMX9_pc7GC7vDhLleJTPdZhFsRWPop6YoNxzWyC7Qhjbf9tPqeEL3ReDXnIIaY01T7NQRmMdWNyoEGUNbIVyHV86LCwUtEDr8gdP7OrLI7zTsa9AoyuJJ9or3pVw1fv6VjDmIUmwhzaRU5S6AlJ3U1ptWQEDXGxChFTUyT_V9KeA50Z/s3024/Menorah%208%20candle.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="3024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhirFoxkdEXOirgUUMX9_pc7GC7vDhLleJTPdZhFsRWPop6YoNxzWyC7Qhjbf9tPqeEL3ReDXnIIaY01T7NQRmMdWNyoEGUNbIVyHV86LCwUtEDr8gdP7OrLI7zTsa9AoyuJJ9or3pVw1fv6VjDmIUmwhzaRU5S6AlJ3U1ptWQEDXGxChFTUyT_V9KeA50Z/s320/Menorah%208%20candle.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><p><br />This Tuesday is the dark of the moon. It is no accident that this falls right in the middle of Hanukkah- as the Jewish months follow the cycles of the moon, and so Hanukkah always begins in the last slivers of light of the moon, and lasts until the first slivers of moonlight return. Hanukkah always falls in the month of Kislev which in our hemisphere is also the darkest, coldest time of year. <br /><br />It makes sense to our spirits to kindle lights in dark times, but these little lights on the menorah are not for illumination, they are not to be used in any practical way, like reading a book, or lighting other candles (that is why we carefully separate the Shamash, the helper candle that is a working candle). These candles traditionally remind us of the divine, and of the miracle of lights. <br /><br />Often we talk about Hanukkah as an occasion to celebrate religious freedom, but there is another, old tradition that Rabi Waskow talks about in his book “<a href="https://jps.org/books/seasons-of-our-joy/">Seasons of our Joy</a>” -- the rabbis in the Talmud emphasize the spiritual meaning of the light that burned in the temple for 8 days. Waskow writes:</p><p></p><blockquote> “the single bottle of oil represents the last irreducible minimum of spiritual light and creativity within the Jewish people – still there even in its worst moments of apathy and idolatry. The ability of that single jar of oil to stay lit for eight days symbolized how with God’s help that tiny amount could unfold into an infinite supply of spiritual riches. Infinite, because the eighth day stood for infinity. Since the whole universe was created in seven days, eight since the whole universe was created in seven days, eight is a symbol of eternity and infinity” [p. 91-92] </blockquote>Perhaps this December your spirit is full of light and energy, overflowing with abundance. Or perhaps your spirit is burning low. These lights kindled on the menorah remind us in this the darkest time of year when we might need reminding, that the light, the fuel of the spirit is different than the fuel in our cars. That the light of our spirits can be renewed in unexpected ways, even when we cannot imagine our dim light ever being bright again. For theists, it is God that renews that fuel for the spirit. And for folks who are not sure about God, we remember the Spirt of Life, the web of life, the beloved community can surprise us with help to renew our spirit. So if you are full of energy and joy just now, perhaps you will be the source of the light for others. If you are feeling low, remember that miracle of lights, that relights our own spirit even in a season when light is scarce. <br /><br />As I was watching <a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/lab/how-light-menorah">Rev. Joanna’s video about lighting a menorah</a>, she explained that the lights “These candles are meant to be just ornamental, just to bring joy, not to be a functional source of light and illumination to a space.” I had never really understood that before. The more I thought about it, the more I could see the wisdom of it. <br /><br />This distinction reminds me of the care we have to take for our own spirits, and the light of our beloved community. It’s easy to use every last drop of ourselves in our work, and indeed the work is endless. We light these candles simply to remind us of that which is sacred. This year the lights of the Hanukkah menorah speak to me of the lights we preserve only to feed our spirits with beauty. They speak to me of the importance of things which exist in the world just to be enjoyed, not for their utility. That includes us -- each of us with our inherent worth and dignity. Though our work is important, our inner light, our life is sacred just simply being. <p></p><p><style>@font-face
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It is one of the stories that I still use as a touchstone today when trying to discern my path. <br /><br />When I was a little girl, I wanted more than anything to get a chance to be in a musical, like the young performers in “Annie” that was so popular at the time. Singing and dancing were sources of great joy to me. I spent hours singing or dancing along with the soundtracks to musicals, and later to pop songs and operas. I was part of the drama club in high school, and those experiences, that community provided many of my best friendships and favorite experiences. When it was time to go to college, I decided to go for it- to pursue my greatest joy. The program I chose was not what I expected -- 400 young singers all grinding through a factory- like obstacle course of a program. Only grad students, special ones at that, got to be part of the opera program that had appealed to me when I chose the school. <br /><br />I worked hard- really hard. My friends and I spent most of the day every day in our practice rooms. I was unhappy. I became depressed. But it was hard to know… perhaps this was just what it took to become a singer. Perhaps grinding it out and persevering would help me achieve my dreams. <br /><br />One bright spot my freshman year was a class called “Women in Ancient Israel – a feminist hermeneutic of the Hebrew scriptures.” This blew my mind. I had never been in a room full of other feminist before, and I had no idea feminism had anything to say about scriptures. The research we did was challenging and engaging. At the end of the semester the professor encouraged me to submit my paper to a competition- so affirming! I wrote in my journal” I wonder if it means anything that my favorite class is “Women in Ancient Israel” <br /><br />Where music had felt like a great flood of creativity and energy before, now it felt like one of those places where the creek finally fizzles out into a shallow dry place. I grew increasingly depressed, but still I persisted. I went on to graduate school, where I still never had the chance to sing any of the music I loved in the practice room, much less get on stage with the opera. Finally I had a big memory freeze during a voice jury. My advisor encouraged me to take a year off and rethink. It was devastating. But also… <br /><br />What a relief it would be to finally stop pushing against the wall, to stop dragging myself down this dry path, to stop practicing every day. There was a lightness when I thought of this decision. A cascade of decisions followed- not only would I leave school, but I would stop practicing. I would just see who I was without the disciple of practicing every day. For a year I was going to just be a normal young adult- get an office job, have fun on the weekends. It quickly became clear that this was the right choice. <br /><br />But after a couple years of working in office jobs, it was clear this wasn’t right either. I had gotten a decent entry level job at a company with principled values (even if I didn’t agree with all of them) and a path for advancement. I was okay at it, but my spirit was restless. I began a period of thoughtful discernment, and the light began to slowly dawn that I would like to try being a Unitarian Universalist minister. <br /><br />Here's what is important to me about that story- that experience of how it feels to be trudging down that dwindling dry path. To me, this is what it sounds like when the universe is saying “you can do that if you want, you are free to choose, but that’s not where the energy of creation is flowing.” <br /><br />Another touchstone moment is that voice jury where my memory failed. It was crushing, that outcome, that moment, but now I see it as one of those turning points that released me from something when I couldn’t release myself. <br /><br />I think of that restless feeling I had working in that office, that suggested something more was possible. <br /><br />I remember how the energy moved in me during my feminist hermeneutic class in college, I remember how it felt similar as I thought about going to seminary, how the way opened like a crack in stone through which water trickles, and opened out into a flowing stream as I moved along it. There was a sense of invitation, of a way opening as I traveled it. <br /><br />I kind of thought once I had made that big decision to enter the ministry, I was done with discernment. Here’s something else I learned; discernment is not just about the big choices, this career or that one, this place to live or that one. We make big and little decisions all the time in life, for as long as we live. Even though I feel so clear ministry is the right path for me, each day I must discern step by step the path I make by walking. <br /><br />I also learned that Discernment is not just about moving towards what feels good, or easy. For example, part of ministry is being with people who are struggling, being with our challenges as a community and as a world. But I notice a kind of way I feel when we know that something is the right thing to do, even when it is hard? For me there is a feeling of deep resonance, maybe it’s that voice of the genuine speaking. I sense that staying on the hard path will matter, that it will connect me to something sacred, to the deep parts of myself, to the person I most want to be. <br /><br />There are lots of ways to make decisions. You can write up a pro and con list, and total them up. You can follow the crowd, the path of least resistance. Ask for advice, or experiment. Some decisions can be made quickly, lightly. If you are getting takeout and decide to choose the restaurant with the fastest service, that’s a perfectly good choice, quickly made. But some choices deserve the time and attention it takes to hear the voice of our own soul. <br /><br />For me, that is a voice that is sometimes slow to speak- it requires quiet, and patience and deep listening. What do we mean by the soul? Hard to say. Perhaps it is the voice of the genuine, as Thurman suggests in his <a href="https://thurman.pitts.emory.edu/items/show/838 ">commencement address at Spelman College</a>. Perhaps it is the “deep wanna” that Sr. Dougherty mentions in her book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6288497-discernment?">Discernment: A Path to Spiritual Awakening</a>. I imagine the soul as a place where all of ourself comes together -- heart, mind, body—and where we connect with that which is greater than ourselves, be that the web of life, community, or the divine. These parts of ourselves don’t always agree. Like any group trying to make a decision together, you can go follow the loudest most insistent voice- I’m hungry let’s eat! But one way to think of discernment is taking the time to hear from each part of our self, and for those parts to come to some harmonious consensus. <br /><br />The danger in sharing my story, is that others will apply that model to themselves. For example, I have a friend who says she is “addicted to drama” and so for her, sometimes events sweep her up in a compelling way, even though when she can really check in with her soul, she notices these seemingly important events were just a distraction. That metaphor I use about the flow of energy that is helpful to me might send her down the wrong path. <br /><br />So let’s take a moment here and invite each of us to consider Thurman’s question “How does the sound of the genuine come through to you?” to discern, “when in my life have made a choice by listening to the deep wisdom of my own soul? As I remember such a time, what did it feel like, what has discernment looked like for me in my own story?” <br /><br />I wonder what questions are important to your soul right now? Some big questions that came up for me as I approached the 25th anniversary of my ordination, which we celebrated last night. I am no longer the 28 year old who was ordained back in California-- who am I now? Does what I do matter? How does it matter? <br /><br /> I’ve found that even finding the right question requires discernment. Sometimes being able to frame the question so it feels just right opens the door to an answer, to a new path. Sometimes the question starts out as a wordless restlessness in my spirit, I don’t know what it’s about, but I begin by asking “What do I want? What do I really want?” I ask and ask, until the inquiry feels complete. <br /><br />We are very theologically diverse here. Those of us who have a prayer practice, or who are prayer curious, we might invite the divine into our discernment, might bring the question into our prayer practice. <br /><br />For those of us who are atheists, or for whom that doesn’t feel authentic, we can pose our question to our own souls, or our own Psyche, our own deep wisdom <br /><br />I invite you to take another pause to ask ourselves “what is it my soul wants now?” or whatever question feels like your question of this moment. <br /><br />Discernment is not just a single choice once made, it is a way of involving our deepest self, or connecting to what is larger than ourselves, as we find our way through our life’s journey. If we want to have a soul-oriented life, it will necessarily involve taking time to listen to the soul. And like any rich deep practice it takes time to hone and develop. At this time when so much is changing, I encourage each of us to ask what it is our soul most wants, and to bring the quality of discernment to questions big and small along our journeys. <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-86920202268224055522023-11-22T09:45:00.000-08:002023-11-22T09:46:38.644-08:00Holding Hope<div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZt_YnMzED0VnmmTEmlaRRX_5CZnJSQJN3Jp2t2Y088HraIVlP7VyDkYxoNSMBmM7xEoYHgR3wZ5-x96pi5coGEyKFLuPa44-Gstv2a7mZ6CnqdBU3R6xKrepKCCt6deKFBPudyOIyvet8chvwXyh-mq3emvYekji8YFPgY49tOYQAwiu5iy9TjTIAF6E/s2048/autumn%20sunset%20lake.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihZt_YnMzED0VnmmTEmlaRRX_5CZnJSQJN3Jp2t2Y088HraIVlP7VyDkYxoNSMBmM7xEoYHgR3wZ5-x96pi5coGEyKFLuPa44-Gstv2a7mZ6CnqdBU3R6xKrepKCCt6deKFBPudyOIyvet8chvwXyh-mq3emvYekji8YFPgY49tOYQAwiu5iy9TjTIAF6E/s320/autumn%20sunset%20lake.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"></p><blockquote>"The young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them? Tell them at least what you say to yourself. "</blockquote></blockquote> What a powerful challenge Berry offers. He was only 73 when he wrote <a href="https://vimeo.com/75871831">that poem</a>, back in 2007. <br /><div><div><blockquote>"It is hard to have hope. It is harder as you grow old, <br />for hope must not depend on feeling good" </blockquote>And elders know deeply the reality that lives end, ours and those we love. <br /><br />And if we’ve learned nothing else, we’ve learned that you can’t count on the future being how you imagined it. <br /><br />When he wrote that poem, Berry was worried about a lot of the things that worry us- about war, about corruption, and especially about the earth: <br /><blockquote>“Because we have not made our lives to fit <br />our places, the forests are ruined, the fields eroded, <br />the streams polluted, the mountains overturned.” </blockquote>Ugh. And it’s not better now, 16 years later. <br />It’s hard to hope, he says, but “young ask the old to hope. What will you tell them?” <br /><br />I want to just pause for a moment, and let that question linger in the air to see if any answers bubble up in you before I offer some thoughts. <br /><br />I’ve been reading <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16254833-why-the-world-doesn-t-end?">Why the World Doesn’t End</a></i> by Michael Meade, (68 when he wrote it in 2012) who looks at the many times throughout history when it FELT like the world was ending -- apocalyptic times. Meade invites us return to the deep old wisdom that has always gotten us through times like these. “something ancient and enduring must be touched for things to be made anew and fashioned again. It is the ancient way of the world to make itself anew from the enduring threads that have been woven and rewoven many times before.” (p. 82) <br /><br />I find this reassuring, to know that humans have been through times that shook our foundations before, but somehow here we are now, despite and because of the past. Hopeful that we are connected by ancient, enduring threads to those other times of resilience and survival. These ancient enduring threads are often hidden among the weaving of daily life, but when things fall apart, we can see they have been there the whole time. <br /><br /> Meade feels, like Berry, that we who are older have an important role to play here. He writes: <br /><blockquote>“This world has always been at risk, and at times the only safety comes when the right risks are taken for the benefit of everyone. The traditional role of elders included remembering what was most important about life and how to hold ends and beginnings together when times become hard. … Having survived the troubles of their own lives and having grown deeper and wiser, they knew both how to survive and how to find genuine vision where others could only see disaster. Being "old enough to know better" they would know that life renews itself in surprising ways and that the greatest dilemmas can serve to awaken the deepest resources of the human soul. [p. 24 -25]” </blockquote>Like the grandmother in today’s story, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/133826069-my-grandmother-s-journey-by-john-cech?"><br /><i>My Grandmother's Journey</i></a>, all elders know that life can be hard, and how hard it can be, but they also have seen seasons come and go. They know what endures. Meade continues: <br /><blockquote>“There is a deep human instinct to turn to those who are older for guidance when faced with obstacles or danger. Yet part of the problem in modern cultures is that those who are older often feel as lost as young people just starting out on the roads of life. When a culture falls apart it happens in two places at once: where its youth are rejected and not fully invited into life and where its elders are forgotten and forget what is important about life. Modern cultures tend to produce a mass of "olders” who live longer and longer, but a lack of genuine elders who know what to live for. ... Everyone born grows older but elders are made, not born.” </blockquote>Wow, I feel that too. A lack of guidance for becoming an elder, a lack of societal recognition that elders are critically important to the health and hopefulness of society. And I was looking! This rang so true to me, that we all have a choice as we transition into the later stages of our lives, we can allow our culture to show us we are becoming invisible and powerless, . Or we can claim, and grow into this important role. I have been asking myself ever since I turned 50, “what is the meaning and purpose of this next chapter of my life”? So Meade’s idea was heartening to me. Perhaps I could help with “remembering what was most important about life and how to hold ends and beginnings together when times become hard.” <br /><br />Perhaps for ourselves we wouldn’t do it. But the other generations need us: <br /><blockquote>“The lack of meaningfu1 elders leaves youth less protected, more isolated, and more exposed to extreme conditions, tragic deaths and wasted lives than they would normally be. Youth are at greater risk when the "olders" fail to act as elders and neglect to risk fulling living their own stories.” </blockquote><p> And I have seen for myself the cynicism and lack of hope among Generation Z- my son’s generation. He tells me that it seems like the problems of our day only get worse: gun violence, climate change, racism, the growing wave of violence and restriction against our trans siblings. <br /><br />The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/13/health/teen-girls-sadness-suicide-violence.html">CDC report</a> earlier this year said that 60% of female and non binary high school students report “persistent sadness and hopelessness” in 2021. </p><p>The young ask the old to hope, and what will we tell them? <br /><br />A superficial hope will not do; [Meade p. 57] “there are those who are overly hopeful even when tragedies occur and loss demands a deeper response. ..there is an insistence on “positivity” an avoidance of supposedly negative feelings, and a lack of the gravitas natural to the human soul and to life on earth. Some insist that “every cloud has a silver lining,” even when some clouds are lined with acid rain” <br /><br />So where does real hope come from? The kind of hope that would help us get from one day to the next, the kind of hope that would help us do what had to be done? Berry suggest it comes from places, our places. And place to him means not a dot on the map, but the complex and sacred web of relationships that include the land, all the critters and beings who live on and with the land. <br /><br />When I was a young minister, we often had visioning sessions that started with a blank sheet of paper, if the sky was the limit what would we wish for. <br /><br />But in truth nothing starts with a blank sheet of paper -- every inch of our world is ancient and full of a unique community of life. We have so often damaged the web by imagining we can brush it aside to make space for our new vision. <br /><br />So Berry suggests a grounded hope, one that literally emerges from our relationship with the land, with our ecosystem and our web of relationships. From our direct, embodied knowledge of our neighborhood and our neighbors in it. This is a solid grounding for hope, a future made by the intimate collaboration of this soil, these plants, trees, rivers, birds neighbors. <br /></p><blockquote>“Found your hope, then, on the ground under your feet. <br />Your hope of Heaven, let it rest on the ground underfoot.” </blockquote>Greta Thunberg writes in No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference <br /><blockquote>“Adults keep saying: "We owe it to the young people to give them hope." <br />But I don't want your hope. …I want you to act as you would in a crisis. <br />I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.” </blockquote>Ouch! <br /><br />The hope we need for our times is grounded in action. Showing up, walking our talk, so it isn’t just pie in the sky. Perhaps we worry that we aren’t as strong as we used to be, can’t march or lift or push as we used to. But I remember how heartening it is to just have someone at your side, willing to roll up their sleeves and do what they can. It reminds us that we are not alone. To me, this is a great source of hope. The youngers need to know the olders haven’t abandoned them, are still showing up, still lending a hand however they can, and this is what our olders need too- to know that their lives have fresh meaning, are important in building our future together, <br /><br />Part of our work in learning to be Elders, the path to becoming elders is to listen. We must Listen to “the voices that rise up …from your own heart” We have to tend our own light, shine our own light, because “When the people make dark the light within them, the world darkens.” Then we must “…Be still and listen to the voices that belong / to the streambanks and the trees and the open fields.” When we listen deeply ourselves and to our places, we see how people in other places are like us in our place. And it shows us “invariably the need for care / toward other people, other creatures, in other places / as you would ask them for care toward your place and you.” <br /><br />The young ask the old to hope, and what will we tell them? <br /><br />Berry suggests we cultivate a local, practical hope, that if we listen, if we pay attention, if we share our own inner light, it will matter to this place, and this place matters. <br /><br />Meade holds out the ancient and enduring threads “that have been woven and rewoven many times before”, We who are older have a long view- we have seen things fall apart and come together, beginnings and endings. Our own stories have hope to offer, and the stories and wisdom of the ancestors. Generation after Generation, the teaching is the same -- we who are here in this time of great tension and change, must call forth in ourselves, we must grow the new thing that we are becoming, that our world is becoming, that our place is becoming, even this very moment, in this very place, in our hearts and minds and bodies. This is what gives me hope. <br /><br /> <br /><p></p><p><style>@font-face
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They referred again and again to the Two Row Wampum, a treaty between the Haudenosaunee ancestors and the white settler ancestors. They asked us that the spirit of our relationship begin with this treaty, a treaty which has been broken again and again by our US government, and by us settlers, and even by the churches,<a href="https://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/histories-new/timeline-of-unitarian-universalist-relationships-with-native-american-peoples-and-nations/"> even the Unitarian Universalist church</a>. Because the key to the treaty is sovereignty- that the ship and the canoe peacefully coexist along side one another. We settlers know some of the history of the violence, the genocide that was part of the way we broke the peace of that treaty, though the more the chiefs talked about our shared history, the more I understood how thin my knowledge was. <br /><br />The reason the two row was called again and again, was to affirm this agreement “The boats will travel side by side down the river of life. Each nation will respect the ways of each other and will not interfere with the other.” In part we remembered the Two Row because we had come together because of the active interference by the US Government Bureau of Indian affairs by choosing Clint Halftown as their representative, in violation of tradition and sovereignty. But we also remembered the 2 row so that it could guide how we were together. Many allies had gathered there that day because of the displacement and injustices in recent months, but the allies had a certain way of doing things, “Let’s hurry and fix this now” was the spirit of the allies. One of the clan mothers responded “this is urgent, so we must go slowly.” “Let’s call the press” said the settler allies. But the clan mothers asked that we respect their right to control their own narrative. They mentioned there were several Facebook pages, Kickstarters and websites that had been created by allies around the current struggle with Halftown, without consulting the clan mothers or the chiefs. They wanted the allies to be allies, to enter into relationship, to know one another, to ask for direction and confirmation before taking it upon ourselves to save or fix or “take charge.” <br /><br />So this week as many of us prepare to celebrate the American holiday of Thanksgiving, and a national day of mourning<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> <br /><br />I invite us to remember the Two Row Wampum treaty, the canoe and the ship side by side. And consider- how we might live into that treaty today: <br /></p><blockquote>“In one row is a ship with our White Brothers’ ways; in the other a canoe with our ways. Each will travel down the river of life side by side. Neither will attempt to steer the other’s vessel.” “Together we will travel in Friendship and in Peace Forever; as long as the grass is green, as long as the water runs downhill, as long as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, and as long as our Mother Earth will last.” </blockquote><br /><br /><i>*A summary of the treaty is <a href="https://www.onondaganation.org/culture/wampum/two-row-wampum-belt-guswenta/">here</a> from the Onondoga Nation </i><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47vvGQLzKXxaYHVV3nfW71fM-YYVtIy9RNBlyCTsOrCGdFL2KEapSQgun0B6IXR5i_VfJFW7P6Kqg2cDtq5rfseJsmM8wSlIgKXgIgLUGPhiTTNbe5thX-HUSq1gX9QL6Sjy-mk1qy7EbrAPyKBYtG1E0dUvcni45NS4bTQjqBDCbtRUnBXBE4bOmuE6z/s472/Dish%20with%20one%20spoon%20wampum.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="315" data-original-width="472" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi47vvGQLzKXxaYHVV3nfW71fM-YYVtIy9RNBlyCTsOrCGdFL2KEapSQgun0B6IXR5i_VfJFW7P6Kqg2cDtq5rfseJsmM8wSlIgKXgIgLUGPhiTTNbe5thX-HUSq1gX9QL6Sjy-mk1qy7EbrAPyKBYtG1E0dUvcni45NS4bTQjqBDCbtRUnBXBE4bOmuE6z/s320/Dish%20with%20one%20spoon%20wampum.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><u>The Dish With One Spoon**</u> <br /><p></p><p>I’m a huge fan of Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> who is a professor up at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, New York and founding Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment. She wrote that book Braiding Sweetgrass, that spoke right to my heart and spirit. As a botanist, she loves and notices and understands plants, and helps weave the connections between western science and traditional knowledge. I have often preached on things I learned from her writings and talks. So when I saw she was giving a talk at Cornell last month I was dropped everything to join by zoom. Most if this reflection today is an amplification of her words and ideas from that day.<a href="#_edn2">[ii]</a> <br /><br /> It was there that I learned about the treaty of the Dish With One Spoon. She taught us that the treaty, which binds together both her nation the Potawatomi, and those people on the lands here where we live - the Haudenoshonee, was a way we could imagine living together with the land- one land, one bowl shared by all of us, feeding all of us. <br /><br />She noticed that in our western thinking the land was a resource to be used, material to be extracted for commodities. She described another way of understanding the land, the way she grew up with- nature as relatives, as family. Land as the source of identity, as sustainer, as connection to our ancestors, as library, teacher, pharmacy, home… as moral responsibility. <br /><br />How we think about the land makes a big difference in the health of our ecosystems. We know and have often lamented here in worship the biodiversity that is being lost, the great extinction going on all over the world right now. Kimmerer mentioned that on land under the care of Indigenous people, biodiversity is not crashing. How we think matters, has real impact on our world. <br /><br />I had been wondering what the Two Row Wampum called me, in the ship, to do. And Kimmerer had some clear ideas- to work for justice, yes, but justice for who? Not just which group of 2 legged should have how much power, but justice for the land, for all the beings. Kimmerer invited us to be part of the rights of nature movement, growing in countries, cities and towns all over the world to extend legal protections to rivers, mountains, ecosystems acknowledging their right to “exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles.”<a href="#_edn3">[iii]</a> <br /><br /> The Two Row invites us to work together to make sure first nations peoples have places to practice their traditional ways, to honor their relationship to land, to care for and be grounded in their sacred places. The Two Row Wampum also calls us to gather in meaningful consultation about the great environmental problems and a vision of the future that concerns all of us in the canoe and on the ship. <br /><br /> Kimmerer suggested that what all of us can do is to change our minds- the slow work of changing how we see the land, how we see our siblings of all species, our other than human relatives. This harmonizes with our Unitarian Universalist 7th principle which challenges us to Respect “the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” It is one small thing we can do to honor the Two Row Wampum. <br /><br /> This Thanksgiving as we gather in gratitude for the bountiful Autumn harvest, let’s remember the bowl with one spoon, how the land feeds us all. And whether we celebrate with a big table of relatives, or a simple quiet meal, let us remember all the relations with whom we share this web of life. Let us live well in our place and love the land who is our relative. Let us receive her gifts in gratitude, and give back in reciprocity. <br /></p><p><i>** a helpful article about this treaty is <a href="https://tworowtimes.com/editorial/the-two-row-times-a-paper-serving-the-dish-with-one-spoon-territory-great-lakes-region/">here</a>: "The Two Row Times: A paper serving the dish with one spoon territory – Great Lakes Region. September 4, 2013 "</i></p><p><i> </i></p><div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;"><p class="MsoEndnoteText">End notes: <br /></p>
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://www.esf.edu/faculty/kimmerer/index.php</p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://cals.cornell.edu/land-justice-engaging-indigenous-knowledge-land-care</p>
</div>
<div id="edn3" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref3" name="_edn3" style="mso-endnote-id: edn3;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://www.garn.org/rights-of-nature/</p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://blog.nativehope.org/what-does-thanksgiving-mean-to-native-americans</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-15955248855052885392023-10-26T06:39:00.002-07:002023-10-26T06:41:09.006-07:00The Freedom Clause<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7SsFMhpUC3JpNj99RZSKsB2HmQJ9y3X08LHAtht5P3D0vXKbPbg5Uk-Ziot2zVnnDt8YYSmAqYA9SgLRfTnfyGWtwYdr6Bm8vMEtZzS2BwySZWdiU7HUQkCPLnC6G2NmwUWRbue3d7I97_8BfKi7azJ87HLgrH7VJC6mUT_Nm6BEOjphNlnNZ30Bxg1Pv/s799/lilly%20window.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="799" data-original-width="444" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7SsFMhpUC3JpNj99RZSKsB2HmQJ9y3X08LHAtht5P3D0vXKbPbg5Uk-Ziot2zVnnDt8YYSmAqYA9SgLRfTnfyGWtwYdr6Bm8vMEtZzS2BwySZWdiU7HUQkCPLnC6G2NmwUWRbue3d7I97_8BfKi7azJ87HLgrH7VJC6mUT_Nm6BEOjphNlnNZ30Bxg1Pv/s320/lilly%20window.jpg" width="178" /></a></i></div><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>We begin with a reading of the Winchester Profession, New England Convention of Universalists (1803) since the language is a bit old timey, we have provided a translation. <br /></i><br />Article I. We believe that the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments contain a revelation of the character of God, and of the duty, interest and final destination of mankind. <br /><br /><i>Translation: The Hebrew and Christian scriptures tell us something about the divine, and what it means to be human. </i><br /><br />Article II. We believe that there is one God, whose nature is Love, revealed in one Lord Jesus Christ, by one Holy Spirit of Grace, who will finally restore the whole family of mankind to holiness and happiness. <br /><br /><i>Translation: God is love, and eventually the whole human family will be restored to the happy holy starting place where they began the whole journey </i><br /><br />Article III. We believe that holiness and true happiness are inseparably connected, and that believers ought to be careful to maintain order and practise good works; for these things are good and profitable unto men. <br /><br /><i>Translation: Being happy and being holy are connected. Do good works, you’ll like it. </i><br /><br /> ...Yet while we, as an Association, adopt a general Profession of Belief and Plan of Church Government, we leave it to the several Churches and Societies, …within the limits of our General Association, to continue or adopt within themselves, such more particular articles of faith, or modes of discipline, as may appear to them best under their particular circumstances, provided they do not disagree with our general Profession and Plan. <br /><br /><i>Translation: we think this is a good statement, but if your congregation or cluster wants to come up with a different one, that’s fine, as long as it doesn’t directly contradict this one. </i><br /><br />And while we consider that every Church possesses within itself all the powers of self-government, we earnestly and affectionately recommend to every Church, Society, or particular Association, to exercise the spirit of Christian meekness and charity towards those who have different modes of faith or practice, that where the brethren cannot see alike, they may agree to differ; and let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. <br /><br /><i>Translation: Churches are free to be their own boss, but pretty please, be humble, kind and respectful when you run into folks who do or believe differently. please agree to disagree. Let everyone be true to their own inner wisdom. </i><br /><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>Reflection: </u><br />What do Unitarian Universalists believe? It’s a hard question to answer. <a href="https://douglastaylor.org/about/"> Rev. Douglas</a> and I spent some time compiling lists of the many statements of belief that have evolved over our UU history, and the <a href="https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/adults/river/workshop7/175906.shtml">long list</a> illustrates that that this has been hard to answer for a long time, and that the answer keeps changing. <br /><br />One thing that we often seem to agree about, is that folks have the capacity within them to discern what is true. We tend to agree that we want to be free to follow that inner compass. Over 450 years ago in Torda, now Romania, the first and only Unitarian monarch issued the <a href="https://www.uuworld.org/articles/450-edict-torda-landmark">Edict of Religious Toleration</a>, which included this line: “no one shall compel them for their souls would not be satisfied” <br /><br />I love that… “their souls would not be satisfied” it implies a certain belief about the soul, that it can be satisfied or dissatisfied, and that the soul is a trustworthy guide. <br /><br />There’s a corollary I heard in my spiritual director training; that one hint we are headed towards the sacred is that we feel we are growing in freedom. <br /><br />In his lovely book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/348850.Everything_Belongs?">Everything Belongs</a> Richard Rohr helps parse out a bit what we mean by freedom: <br /></span></span><blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">“We have defined freedom in the West as the freedom to choose between options and preferences. That’s not primal freedom. ... The primal freedom is the freedom to be the self, the freedom to live in the truth despite all circumstances.” </span></span></blockquote><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />The freedom to be the self. The freedom to live in truth- even when circumstances are hard. <br /><br /> Back in 1803, Universalists in the New England convention were asking themselves “what do Universalists believe?” when they wrote that Winchester profession of faith we heard a moment ago. First they made a list of things folks found important, a list I bet they spent quite some time arguing about and wordsmithing. But then they put in this “freedom clause” which tells us that that none of these principles are more important than each person being fully persuaded in their own mind. <br /><br />What do UUs believe? At least this- we believe in the freedom to be yourself, to be true to your own inner wisdom. <br /><br /></span></span> <span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><u>Reading:</u></span></span><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Things Common Believed Today Among Us, William Channing Gannett, Western Unitarian Conference, 1887 <i>(Translation by Darcey Laine and Douglas Taylor, 2023)</i><br /><br />The Western Conference has neither the wish nor the right to bind a single member by declarations concerning fellowship or doctrine. Yet it thinks some practical good may be done by setting forth in simple words the things most commonly believed among us—the Statement being always open to re-statement and to be regarded only as the thought of the majority. <br /><br /><i>Translation: Everyone in our group is free to disagree, but generally speaking – most of us believe something similar to what we wrote down here. </i><br /><br />Douglas: All names that divide "religion" are to us of little consequence compared with religion itself. Whoever loves Truth and lives the Good is, in a broad sense, of our religious fellowship; whoever loves the one or lives the other better than ourselves is our teacher, whatever church or age he may belong to. <br /><br /><i>Translation: If you love truth and are a good person, we feel you. If you do it better than us, we’d like to learn from you. </i><br /><br />The general faith is hinted well in such words as these: "Unitarianism is a religion of love to God and love to man." <br /><br /><i>Translation: A good meme for this would be “Love to God and love to Humanity”. </i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Because we have no "creed" which we impose as a condition of fellowship, specific statements of belief abound among us, always somewhat differing, always largely agreeing. One such we offer here: <br /><br /><i>Translation: there’s no statement of belief to be a UU, so we have lots of different ways of saying what we believe in common. here is one version: </i><br /><br />We believe that to love the Good and to live the Good is the supreme thing in religion; <br /><br /><i>Translation: Being a good person is more important than anything else; </i><br /><br />We hold reason and conscience to be final authorities in matters of religious belief; <br /><i><br />Translation: You are the boss of your own beliefs </i><br /><br />We honor the Bible and all inspiring scripture, old and new; We revere Jesus, and all holy souls that have taught men truth and righteousness and love, as prophets of religion. <br /><br /><i>Translation: Jesus and the Bible are among the inspiring resources available to us </i><br /><br />We believe in the growing nobility of Man; <br /><br /><i>Translation: We are growing into better people. </i><br /><br />We believe that this self-forgetting, loyal life awakes in man the sense of union here and now with things eternal—the sense of deathlessness; and this sense is to us an earnest of the life to come. <br /><i><br />Translation: Humbly working for the good of all will awaken in us a sense of connection with everything, a sense that we are all in this together. </i><br /><br />We worship One-in-All—that life whence suns and stars derive their orbits and the soul of man its Ought—that Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world, giving us power to become the sons of God,—that Love with which our souls commune. <br /><br /><i>Translation: We honor a sense of connection with our amazing universe; we are part of it. That same light in the sun and stars is in every person in the world. That is why we have the power to become amazing too. We are connected to the divine through the love in our souls. </i><br /><br /><u>Reflection</u><br />A few years back, I asked my congregation why people so rarely talked about what they believed. A few insightful folks said it was because they were afraid of disagreeing with one another. <br /><br />I think not talking about our deepest beliefs because we might disagree is a bad compromise for a church. Instead, I believe our job is to create a circumstance where each can speak their truth and feel heard and held even if and when they disagree. When we get together for <a href="https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/">Soul Matters</a>, or other discussion groups, we make a covenant about what it would take for us to do just that. Obviously, no insults, no telling people they’re wrong, not even giving each other advice. We each speak from our own heart and experience. And then each of us listens with an open mind and heart, as others speak from their life and their experience. It actually works pretty well. <br /><br />Throughout our UU history there has been this tension between wanting to get down on paper what we believe in common, and allowing each of us the freedom to know our own mind and heart and soul. The Winchester profession gives us some words to hold this tension. First of all, “we earnestly and affectionately recommend …[that we] exercise the spirit of Christian meekness and charity towards those who have different modes of faith or practice“. That word --“affectionately” --Love that. <br /><br />They earnestly and affectionately recommend that when we find ourselves disagreeing we approach one another with “Christian meekness and charity” Those wouldn’t be my words, so Douglas and I came up with “be humble, kind and respectful when you run into folks who do or believe differently. Please agree to disagree. Let everyone be true to their own inner wisdom.” <br /><br />There have been many times over our history when parts of the UU movement have disagreed vehemently with one another. There are great historical controversies when people cancelled each other and wrote insulting unkind things about their opponents in pamphlets and magazines and sermons. Really, once you’re using the word “opponent” you know you are way past affection, meekness, charity, humility. For many, this moment in UU history is one of those times. <br /><br />In the Western Conference statement, they point us towards actions rather than statements of belief: “Whoever loves Truth and lives the Good is, in a broad sense, of our religious fellowship” Perhaps this is good advice to us today, to encourage one another to love truth, to live the good, and to encounter our differences with humility and a generosity of spirit. Agree to disagree. <br /><br />Many of that long list of statements throughout our history include some word about love; it was important to both Unitarians and Universalists. IN many different ways they expressed that love was sacred, and part of the nature of the divine. Way back in 1790 at that first convention of Universalists in Philidelphia, before Binghamton, Athens or Cortland universalist churches even existed, they spoke of God as “infinite, adorable, incomprehensible and unchangeable love.” In 1935 the Universalist bond of fellowship used the phrase “God as Eternal and All-Conquering Love. In the western conference statement we just heard, they end with the phrase “that Love with which our souls commune.” And Unitarians and Universalists have often agreed that one of the most important things we could do to express our faith was to cultivate love with one another. <br /><br /> In Hosea Ballou’s long career as a Universalist minister I bet he knew something about theological differences that seem like they could tear our faith apart. perhaps that is why he said: “If we agree in love, there is no disagreement that can do us any injury, but if we do not, no other agreement can do us any good. Let us endeavor to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace. “ (<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/62684090-a-treatise-on-atonement">Treatise on Atonement</a> 1805) <br /><br /> And so I encourage us in times when our differences of opinion and belief seem ready to tear us apart, to remember that at our core is love. Let us practice a freedom of belief that does not tear down those who disagree, but frees us to return to our center which is love. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i style="font-family: arial;">Note: This service was prepared in collaboration with Rev. Taylor as part of the partnership between UUCAS, UUCC and <a href="https://uubinghamton.org/">UUCB</a>.</i><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-89133645790452934392023-09-12T06:54:00.000-07:002023-11-22T10:35:17.233-08:00Coming Home<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/index.html"></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/index.html"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEW5RapdWXVN0PX2JcD4iaJQyn718y1cQTs_w0IuYqYwes8STAwOeXooPumyFuF68mlpOBzsrdDEp7I3dx2kk2narT0o0GipcMu8LwHS-X7iifCSWcJ3OqIZ7rW2HTTayLeMpqLhPYOMV9Fn6DpZJbB6YLwZLNznn0cUBmpu9RjCeReinHcEQcXJfue88u/s800/831704341_45cce0c58d_c.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEW5RapdWXVN0PX2JcD4iaJQyn718y1cQTs_w0IuYqYwes8STAwOeXooPumyFuF68mlpOBzsrdDEp7I3dx2kk2narT0o0GipcMu8LwHS-X7iifCSWcJ3OqIZ7rW2HTTayLeMpqLhPYOMV9Fn6DpZJbB6YLwZLNznn0cUBmpu9RjCeReinHcEQcXJfue88u/s320/831704341_45cce0c58d_c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div></div><a href="https://www.carolynmcdademusic.com/index.html"><br />Carolyn McDade</a> wrote her song "Coming Home" for the November 1980 “Women and Religion” continental convocation of Unitarian Universalists.”<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> She <a href="https://www.uuwr.org/50-archives-1/253-coming-home">reflects</a> that she and the other organizers were searching for “new and inclusive symbols and rituals that speak to us of our connectedness to one another, to the totality of life, and to our place on this planet.” <br /><blockquote>We're coming home to the spirit in our soul, <br />We're coming home and the healing makes us whole; <br />Like rivers running to the Sea. <br />We're coming home, we're coming home. </blockquote>What does it mean to come home to the spirit in your soul? What does it mean to come home to yourself? <br /><br />In her book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10890.Traveling_Mercies?">Traveling Mercies</a>, Anne LaMott shares a story about a friend who got lost as a little girl. “The little girl ran up and down the streets of the big town where they lived, but she couldn’t find a single landmark. She was very frightened. Finally a policeman stopped to help her. He put her in the passenger seat of his car, and they drove around until she finally saw her church. She pointed it out to the policeman, and then she told him firmly, ‘You could let me out now. This is my church, and I can always find my way home from here.’” <br /><br />LaMott picks up on the metaphor and says, “That’s why I have stayed so close to mine – because no matter how bad I am feeling, how lost or lonely or frightened, when I see the faces of the people at my church, and hear their tawny voices, I can always find my way home.”<a href="#_edn2">[ii]</a> <br /><br /> I tell you, back in the spring of 2020 I felt like <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXg9UFUXFXU">that the words of that old spiritual</a> “a long way from home… a long way from home.” Even though I was, most of us were, stuck in my house pretty much all the time. It’s not just hardship that takes us away from our soul home, it also happens that we get distracted by the way of the world, by the needs of others, the expectations of our school, our job, even our church. So one of the jobs of religious community is to remind us to come home to ourselves. <br /><br />It's okay that we leave home- like how we leave our house to learn new things, to connect with others, to do our work, to have adventures. But it can feel so good to come back home- a place where we are accepted, a place where we are safe, a place where we are free to be our own wild selves. We go away, we come back. Clarisa Pinkola Estes has a beautiful description of this process of coming home to the soul, writing: "Every animal I know has a place or places like that – even migrating animals have places they come back to." [<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/241823.Women_Who_Run_With_the_Wolves?">Estes</a> p. 268] <br /><br /> But this song is also about the community- “we’re coming home” those women sang together, and we sing together. One of our most noble aspirations as a congregation is to be a place that feels like home, a place where we are accepted, where we are safe, where we are free to be our wild selves. And, I’ve noticed over the years that communities have their own spirit, their own heart. I was trying to explain to <a href="https://douglastaylor.org/">Rev. Douglas</a> the other day what the spirit of Athens feels like, and what the heart of Cortland feels like, because each has a unique spirit I have come to know and love. It was really hard when we started to meet together on zoom and we had trouble feeling that spirit, but over those weeks and months, we did begin to feel that spirit of community, even over the internet. <br /><br />And it was hard when we came back together in our buildings, and it didn’t feel like it did in the fall of 2019. But I have felt it since, our spirit, our heart. We are coming home. <br /><br />Like the lost princess in today's story*, we might forget our true self, we don’t know how to get home. This is why we gather in community, to listen for the sound that calls us home. “something stirs deep, deep within us, and we long to return to our true home, the home of the soul.” <br /><br />That feeling of soul home is elusive, when we are away from our soul home for too long our heart aches. We feel thirsty for it, dry, parched. But it is there inside us, like the well of living water. Let us set our hearts on that journey each to our own soul home deep inside us, and let us set our hearts on our collective journey, toward the heart and spirit of our community’s soul home, the living waters that quench spirit’s thirst deep inside. <div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" /><br /><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
<a href="https://www.uuwr.org/new-store/40-books/253-coming-home">https://www.uuwr.org/new-store/40-books/253-coming-home</a></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref2" name="_edn2" style="mso-endnote-id: edn2;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span></span></span></a> Paraphrase from <a href="https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/"> Soul Matters </a></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText">* Gordon-Zaslow, Debra “The Journey of a Lost Princess” Chosen Tales:
Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, an
Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. pp. 126–131. </p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"> </p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-5091974231557795492023-06-15T12:05:00.002-07:002023-06-15T12:22:47.503-07:00Meditation on a Flower<p><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSx2U1eRKjKc6xc-K8hyx2sJyrkfT8XBd-ibiIwmge2_Y4ULKACbhahfw84hBLpIJXh_omFhlNIRKVKLnU0q1nCnvZQv2hTZ8vr-xoQAqYWD0gg48vhigNBVMsngrJKtfxKRC0IQerriL0qVYs-5GDcNEWKtSaY-zfxN0-qZUO94f2WIyS6iweCqk7A/s2848/black%20eyed%20susan.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKSx2U1eRKjKc6xc-K8hyx2sJyrkfT8XBd-ibiIwmge2_Y4ULKACbhahfw84hBLpIJXh_omFhlNIRKVKLnU0q1nCnvZQv2hTZ8vr-xoQAqYWD0gg48vhigNBVMsngrJKtfxKRC0IQerriL0qVYs-5GDcNEWKtSaY-zfxN0-qZUO94f2WIyS6iweCqk7A/s320/black%20eyed%20susan.jpg" width="320" /></a></i></div><p><i>This meditation was offered at our annual <a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/holidays/flower-ceremony">Flower Ceremony</a>, but it can be done anytime you find yourself with a flower to enjoy deeply.</i><br /><br /> Take a moment now to appreciate the flower at hand.</p><p>Perhaps it is just a blossom, or perhaps you ave more than just a flower-- perhaps it has a stem with leaves or maybe a whole plant. <br /><br /> Is this a flower you’ve seen many times before, or is it new to you? <br /><br />What does it smell like? <br /><br /> If you like, gently touch the different parts, are they smooth, or rough? <br /><br />Do the parts feel different from one another? <br /><br />How many colors does it have? <br /><br />If you were going to paint it what colors would you choose? <br /><br />How many petals does the flower have? <br /><br />Can you figure out where the stamen are- the part that produces the pollen? <br /><br />Can you see any pollen there? <br /><br />Are any parts of the plant withered? <br /><br />Are there any buds that have yet to open? </p><p></p><p>Take another moment to mindfully enjoy and to gaze on this very flower with gratitude. </p>Blessed be<p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-90941292301954585422023-06-15T11:49:00.003-07:002023-06-15T11:49:52.115-07:00Laying Down Stones<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDVApIFHTmBpKRAegKrmH_aNG3Htd7VZMaJcqsbpDgnZW7PPvPF_0QkB_c8qDTipS68_Fu2UAITORovJD5bySzF9sPndg4YgkGp-m9yEpR88FqDWcNNJt2tUM-JIZWTHz4lrTGzVt41RitGQR6kNOhPz8qkMPUXYtMPZPD43fx6mS5_aX-5wLm3JcVA/s2194/rocks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1467" data-original-width="2194" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDDVApIFHTmBpKRAegKrmH_aNG3Htd7VZMaJcqsbpDgnZW7PPvPF_0QkB_c8qDTipS68_Fu2UAITORovJD5bySzF9sPndg4YgkGp-m9yEpR88FqDWcNNJt2tUM-JIZWTHz4lrTGzVt41RitGQR6kNOhPz8qkMPUXYtMPZPD43fx6mS5_aX-5wLm3JcVA/s320/rocks.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />When my son was little, he loved picking up stones everywhere he went. I remember the time he came out of the lake and all the pockets of his life vest were filled with stones. Or the time he walked out of the woods with his after school primitive pursuits club tired and sweaty. We offered to take his backpack- what’s in this? We asked- it was so heavy! Rocks. Some of them huge. Why did you pick up this one, we asked. Because it was so big! He answered. We had to create a special place on our porch, and then our garden, for all his special stones. <br /><br />Our sprits are like this, I think. We pick up all kinds of things in our daily lives. We pick up shiny sparkly things because they delight us, we bear the heavy weights of grief, of anger, or resentment. We can’t carry it all indefinitely, we need sometimes to pause and lay things down. <br /><br />These stones here are from once I picked up last summer at Lake Ontario, because they delighted me. I spent hours on end walking the shore, admiring, inspecting, choosing, discarding that unique diversity of rocks. Even after I returned and set down many others, these were so compelling I had to take them home with me. I thought perhaps they could help us work on letting go, on laying things down together. When I empty my pockets after a day of collecting- there is a lightness, What might be worth letting go to feel a bit lighter? <br /><br /> I invite you to come up take a handful to help us focus our time this morning. (or if you are at home, to gather some stones or other objects you’d like to use for our ritual today). Sometimes it helps to have an embodied way to focus our intention and attention. <br /><br />Once you’ve got your stones, I invite you to inspect them, notice them, and silently begin to consider, as you hold your stones, what is heavy for you right now? What feels like it is weighing you down? <br /><br />This will be the practice. Choose a rock, and as you hold it, look at it, imagine that it represents the thing that is heavy for you. Maybe choose a rock that reminds you a bit of the thing. Once you decide what it represents, ask yourself if you are ready to lay it down. Maybe you are, maybe you aren’t. You can hold it as long as you like. Follow your own inner sense. IF you feel moved come up to the altar and lay down something with or without speaking a word or phrase you can do that at any time. I will alternates questions and silences, the goal is not to find an answer to every question, but to notice what comes up for you. <br /><br />I’ve noticed for my own inner journey, that deep things can take time to move, so please don’t worry about matching your rock with my question. Just take your own time and come up whenever you are ready. Or not. <ul><li>First -- things that have served you well that you no longer need. Old beliefs, habits, stories, patterns, practices? </li><li>Next -- self judgement. Is there something you are too hard on yourself for? I, for example, over-pack when I travel. I’m a nervous traveler, and it helps me to feel ready for uncertainty. Is there some self judgement you’d like to lay down? </li><li>Forgiveness is another way of laying things down. Are there old hurts, old resentments you are carrying around? </li><li>Grief or sadness; is there some heaviness in your heart you are carrying? Whether or not you are ready to lay it down, it might be helpful to notice the weight of what you are carrying </li><li>Are there unfinished goals, projects, visions, wishes that you are wanting to release? </li><li>Is there anything you have completed and are ready to set down? Accomplishments, milestones, chores? </li><li>Last- are there things you are not ready to lay down, that you would like to lay down someday, but the process is not yet complete? … Feel free to hang on to, and take with you one or more stones to represent those processes, to let them go in a week or a month or however many years it takes to be ready. </li></ul> <br />As I stood at the edge of the lake looking at those stones sparkling I felt, somehow, responsible for seeing, tasting, enjoying and being grateful for it all. There is so much when you gaze on the world around us; some days it overwhelms me. It is too much for our human hearts- it is simply too immense. We cannot carry it all. <br /><br />When we come together in worship, we practice setting down what we need, even if it’s only for an hour. Perhaps in this beloved community, it feels safe to haul out, to release, to let go what we are ready to release, all at once, or a bit at a time. <br /><br /> I hope your metaphorical pockets feel a bit lighter now, and there is room for whatever you feel called to pick up or hold in the present moment.<p><style>@font-face
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Yet since that time our sense of hopelessness and grief about the challenges and changes to our earth have led not to the kinds of collective action needed to change course, but to a sense of hopelessness and helplessness. <br /><br />Robin Wall Kimmerer writes: <br /><blockquote>“One otherwise unremarkable morning I gave the students in my General Ecology class a survey. Among other things, they were asked to rate their understanding of the negative interactions between humans and the environment. Nearly every one of the two hundred students said confidently that humans and nature are a bad mix. These were third-year students who had selected a career in environmental protection, so the response was, in a way, not very surprising. They were well schooled in the mechanics of climate change, toxins in the land and water, and the crisis of habitat loss. Later in the survey, they were asked to rate their knowledge of positive interactions between people and land. The median response was “none.” <br /><br />I was stunned. How is it possible that in twenty years of education they cannot think of any beneficial relationships between people and the environment? Perhaps the negative examples they see every day— brownfields, factory farms, suburban sprawl—truncated their ability to see some good between humans and the earth. …. When we talked about this after class, I realized that they could not even imagine what beneficial relations between their species and others might look like. <br /><br />How can we begin to move toward ecological and cultural sustainability if we cannot even imagine what the path feels like?” [<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17465709-braiding-sweetgrass?">Braiding Sweetgrass</a> p. 6] <br /></blockquote>This Earth Day I want to disrupt the idea that nature is better left alone. The web of life holds all living beings, including us. We have always been connected to that web, we still are, and we always will be. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1JqjzHpoX2T_Z-cdzk36AlUA5gEo57nDFR9NCfVShCtidXs5fduIjhTFPect1ftZ1qfUMGEymrQ7mtKrJOyTnNGWe55RqnHcA78N7eb2ivJRJK1pBaF-hdU8JaqZCINOhLW9iFEaWJyWPf0J6lXtWgLWJCobtJUST_0dN7Oa9d9AFSBuzmGxou4c1Q/s3024/Cousins%20167.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="3024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn1JqjzHpoX2T_Z-cdzk36AlUA5gEo57nDFR9NCfVShCtidXs5fduIjhTFPect1ftZ1qfUMGEymrQ7mtKrJOyTnNGWe55RqnHcA78N7eb2ivJRJK1pBaF-hdU8JaqZCINOhLW9iFEaWJyWPf0J6lXtWgLWJCobtJUST_0dN7Oa9d9AFSBuzmGxou4c1Q/s320/Cousins%20167.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This Earth Day I want to encourage us to pay attention the delightful, interesting and curious parts of the web of life, because it is a rewarding and important practice for noticing and healing our relationships to our neighbors, and because it is just fun. When I hear Mary Oliver’s poem about the toad, <i><a href="https://www.toningtheom.com/life/look-again-a-poem-by-mary-oliver/">Look Again</a></i>, I imagine her raptured gazing at her neighboring critters, noticing those little delightful things she had never noticed before. <br /><br />Where we place our attention has power. Power to shape our own thoughts feelings and actions, power to nurture relationships, power to act effectively in the world. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgmgZcMROyJsYb3PmBXAQ89ADvVImfant64M0lD47lC0zXXsHei80wDQq-ogRfJkiezx9IAsse82DKaQ8zeKciEg_PhG4uXNrWBmdl3voTjNoLAWs3TX12PVL49s2tXeftPCK9KnLs87Z_a1cHnmgurDYZb0NVBbMa3c5pRUORaIgKZRtkgs-yIsO_Q/s2504/young%20squirrel.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1673" data-original-width="2504" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibgmgZcMROyJsYb3PmBXAQ89ADvVImfant64M0lD47lC0zXXsHei80wDQq-ogRfJkiezx9IAsse82DKaQ8zeKciEg_PhG4uXNrWBmdl3voTjNoLAWs3TX12PVL49s2tXeftPCK9KnLs87Z_a1cHnmgurDYZb0NVBbMa3c5pRUORaIgKZRtkgs-yIsO_Q/s320/young%20squirrel.jpg" width="320" /></a>My husband is always giving me updates about the construction projects he sees in downtown Ithaca on his walk to work. How did I not notice? I wondered as I made my own walk downtown to the library- and found my attention gravitating to the birds calling in the trees, and the new flowers planted by the city garden volunteers. Eric knows which cars our neighbors drive, I notice which trees the squirrels live in. Both of us discover good information about what’s happening in different aspects of our community. As a people who include among our UU <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles">Principles</a> “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” It’s good to pay attention to what’s happening in the non-human parts of the web as well as the human. <br /><br />Julie Good, wrote after participating in a program called “Sense of Place “All my life I’ve been an urban person. I learn where I am on the grid of sidewalks and freeways, and feel a bit lost if I am away from the grid. Through [Sense of Place] I’ve come to see how we inhabit and share a watershed. To think of my place, and to see the grid fading and the watershed standing out, has been an amazing shift in perspective for me.” [<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3117652-exploring-a-sense-of-place-how-to-create-your-own-local-program-for-rec?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=q75O53Q68M&rank=1">Exploring a Sense of Place</a></i> p. 48] <br /><br /> When we shift our attention, it can shift our perspective. Over the years I have been amazed that when I pay attention to just about any living thing it reveals itself, and its relationship to others, in surprising ways. So, I invite you to consider a practice of paying attention, noticing, wondering as a way to connect to the web of life, to spirit of life, and to yourself. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLI-YfWpoTYTiP2-3eT6GyZjw4H68oJeW9feBxtSRuqFwSYAK_CAfmzZdiZj1mjxCCb7KHJmJ2uueciipjBb-gILUm9n9J2qHNQsowc_iH87DgR852AMF0jAqnazKRCW_Y_jeIhGgvef6ZhIsr7lf5r2Yxz_nfbNaY008C9jLajfpwAruWjpxE1-HnQ/s1270/Chickadee.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="849" data-original-width="1270" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisLI-YfWpoTYTiP2-3eT6GyZjw4H68oJeW9feBxtSRuqFwSYAK_CAfmzZdiZj1mjxCCb7KHJmJ2uueciipjBb-gILUm9n9J2qHNQsowc_iH87DgR852AMF0jAqnazKRCW_Y_jeIhGgvef6ZhIsr7lf5r2Yxz_nfbNaY008C9jLajfpwAruWjpxE1-HnQ/s320/Chickadee.jpg" width="320" /></a>One tried and true practice is to find a “sit spot” – a place where you can just sit quietly for whatever time feels right to you- maybe just a few minutes, or maybe you could really settle in for 20 minutes or half an hour to let the birds and other critters relax and go back to their normal behavior. Some folks will do this out in nature, but I’ve found even on my front porch in downtown Ithaca I can learn a lot about trees and squirrels and birds and what it’s like for them to live in our little city. <br /><br />My friend Aileen had a similar practice- she took the same walk every day for years, and noticed the cycles of the seasons and the cycles of the years as she walked- how trees grew, how the peepers peeped. <br /><br /> Whether we chose a sit spot, or a regular walking route, we just open our awareness to the living things we see, and get to know them in their particularity. <br /><br />Earlier this year I told you about the trees on my block, and how I’ve grown to know them, to admire them and see the gift they are to the neighborhood, to humans, squirrels, birds and lichen of my little ecosystem. <br /><br />When I hear, then, about clear cutting of old growth forest, I sometimes feel sad and powerless. I can send a check or write a letter, now that my heart has been touched by my neighbor trees, but the problem feels too big for little me to fix. <br /><br />But when I turn my attention to the honey locust, the stately maple, the flowering plum who are my neighbors, I feel more empowered. When I pass a young tree that has outgrown the protective cage the city puts around a new planting, it’s easy and natural to snap a photo on my phone and send it to the City Forrester. How lovely to come back around later in the week to see the constrictive cage gone. Like how if you know which car your neighbor drives, you can text them if they accidentally leave their headlights on. <br /><br />Not everyone loves to geek out on trees- what interests you? <br /><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">Some of you garden, some of you fish. It’s hard not to love gazing at a lake or wading in a creek if you are lucky enough to have one handy. <br />Is it toads? Birds? Fireflies? <br />Clouds? Wind? Don’t get me started! <br />What interests you? What do you want to pay attention to this season? <br /></div> <br />Starhawk encourages us, while we are practicing paying attention to the web, “with your attention on what is around you, say to yourself, “I wonder…” <br /><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">I wonder what attracts that bug to that flower?” <br />I wonder why there are 2 different colors of rock in that streambank? <br /></div><br /><div>Starkhawk says “This is a great <a href="https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/practices/practices/view/27968/nine-ways-of-observing">exercise to use with kids</a>. You might ask then, “How many I wonders can you find in five minutes”’ [ <i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84243.The_Earth_Path">The Earth Path</a></i> p. 67] <br /><br />It can be nice to learn the names of things, or researching the answers to your wonders but it’s not required if that bogs you down. I often just use descriptive names for things- puffy clouds – the little purple flowers, little brown birds. And of course there are books and Facebook groups and YouTube videos on just about anything you could love, but the practice is always go back to the thing itself. As John James Audubon wrote “When the bird and the book disagree, believe the bird.” Remember, the goal here is not to become an expert, just to be a friendly neighbor. Ordinary people like us are forever learning new things about their niche in the web of life. For example in 1973, a fencing contractor in Australia spotted the bridled nail tail wallaby, which everyone had thought was extinct, and alerted authorities. “The Queensland Government bought the property to protect the few hundred wallabies that remained, and it became part of Taunton National Park.” <a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> Your neighborhood, your ecosystem is amazing and precious. The same way we keep an eye out for our human neighbors, it becomes natural to keep an eye out for all our neighbors in the web of life. <br /><br />Mary Oliver writes in her beloved poem “<a href="https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/poetry-180/all-poems/item/poetry-180-133/the-summer-day/">The Summer Day</a>” shares an encounter with a grasshopper: <br /><blockquote>“This grasshopper, I mean-- <br />the one who has flung herself out of the grass, <br />the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, <br />who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down -- <br />who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. <br />Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. <br />Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. <br />I don't know exactly what a prayer is. <br />I do know how to pay attention,…” </blockquote>This year as spring unfolds and turns into summer, I encourage you to pay attention to the web around you. To notice your non-human neighbors, and let them reveal themselves to you in all their unique beauty.<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><br clear="all" />
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<div id="edn1" style="mso-element: endnote;">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/wildlife/2018/04/meet-the-wallaby-that-was-saved-by-womans-day-magazine/</p>
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There was always an Easter sweater we had to put over our dresses- because Easter is colder than you think. After church it was plastic eggs filled with goodies, and hard-boiled eggs that were more fun to decorate than to eat. One year I got a plush bunny in my easter basket, and you can tell by the fact that I still have it that it was special to me. <br /></p><p>As an adult, a parent, and a minister, it became less and less clear to me what the Easter of Jesus had to do with bunnies and eggs. I learned that Easter comes from the name of an old Anglo Saxon Goddess, called Oestara, in an ancient German earth-centered tradition. Called Eostre in England, celebrated at the beginning of spring in those old pre-Christian traditions. <br /><br />It makes sense, if you live in our part of the world, to celebrate these days of growing sunlight, the return of life to the world. Every day I go outside and watch the ground near my house go from grey and frozen, to muddy and sprinkled with the first green shoots emerging. Some sunny days you can practically watch them grow! Last week the little purple crocuses in my yard that had come up through the snow were waiting, waiting, waiting in the cold and grey, until finally a sunny day came and they stretched their petals wide like they wanted to hug the sun, and the bees, which had been hiding wherever bees hide in the cold and grey, were humming from blossom to blossom. The birds are so noisy now when I get up early in the morning to walk my dogs. I hear new songs I haven’t heard all winter. They chase each other and I think many of them are trying to find a partner and a nest where they can have children like the rabbit in our story. <br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoU8Q4gPcbZd0WAFY8llr_kOGjkgXO5fuC_1bcaSaYF245ncQmq2y6rncEbjJ8uuld7srnktSKP1x0TDxmhIv5gcpMn75L4CzLAZgSherfLdlgoH12CMLjjcgjWYplouVkJWr-01AJhedGXZAPtvgKPI59pqWLL7kkIqRIx-3glPBP7oGaBRdzBn-KoA/s1047/bunny%20tulip.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="725" data-original-width="1047" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoU8Q4gPcbZd0WAFY8llr_kOGjkgXO5fuC_1bcaSaYF245ncQmq2y6rncEbjJ8uuld7srnktSKP1x0TDxmhIv5gcpMn75L4CzLAZgSherfLdlgoH12CMLjjcgjWYplouVkJWr-01AJhedGXZAPtvgKPI59pqWLL7kkIqRIx-3glPBP7oGaBRdzBn-KoA/s320/bunny%20tulip.jpg" width="320" /></a>One spring I did see a bunny in my backyard, but most years I don’t see any rabbits. Squirrels though we have in abundance. The Squirrels have spring fever for sure. Many UUs who celebrate Easter, are celebrating this season of growth and new life in nature- that moment when all the plants and critters in your ecosystem know in their bones and roots that the hardest part of winter is past, and as we will sing in a moment “nature wakes from seeming death” and the wheel of the year has turned, and now it feels like spring, and we can get on with the joyful and challenging work of growing. As we sung earlier “Herb and plant that, winter long, slumbered at their leisure, now bestirring green and strong, find in growth their pleasure” <br /><br />We know from our history books that when the Christian church was forming, they often put their new Christian holidays at times when people already had celebrations, and Easter is a good example of this. In the Christian tradition, Easter is the end of a long story, with many challenges along the way, the story of the life of Jesus, his teachings, and the brutality and sadness of his death. Because of course when Jesus died, everyone thought he was gone forever, that this big swell of energy he had built, all his teachings, all they had come together for, we gone, crushed by the Roman government. And so there was a sad desolate time of mourning after his death, until 3 days later when the tomb where Jesus had been laid was empty, and Jesus showed himself to his followers, alive again, miraculously resurrected. <br /><br />These two very different Easter celebrations, really have nothing to do with one another, except for that one thing they both say to our psyches, our hearts and spirits- that even when there are no signs of life, when there seems to be no reason to hope, perhaps there is still life waiting beneath the frozen ground, even in the tomb. For people who live in a climate like ours, the spirit naturally wants to celebrate this turning of the wheel, after the long cold bleak winter, the bursts of yellow and green and purple. Our psyches see the harmony between the Christian and earth-centered spring holidays of rebirth and resurrection. When we see proof of life returning, proof of rebirth and resurrection, it’s a relief and a joy. And it reminds us of something that happens in our hearts, in our spirits when we ourselves are surprised by new life. <br /><br /> One confusing bit is that Easter moves around the calendar- it’s held on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, the first full moon after the vernal equinox. (I was this old when I learned that.) Wednesday night was our full moon, so here we are, celebrating Easter. That also means some years Easter is earlier, and some years later. I remember one year I was preaching at the UU Fellowship of Big Flats one March Easter, and my son volunteered to hide all the eggs outside so they’d be ready for an egg hunt after the service. Well, all through the Easter service we watched the thick snow falling fast through the big windows. The sky was grey and dark. It snowed so hard no one could find the eggs when the service was over- they were all buried! I will tell you it was hard to hope that Easter, even though I was the one in the pulpit saying that spring always, always comes, even when it seems like it never will. Those are the times when stories of renewal and resurrection are especially important, to show our spirits that what feels like an ending, can be the start of something new. Clarissa Pinkola Estes writes: “Stories set the inner life into motion, and this is particularly important where the inner life is frightened, wedged or cornered. Story… shows us the way out, down, or up, and for our trouble, cuts for us fine wide doors in previously blank walls.” [<i><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/241823.Women_Who_Run_With_the_Wolves">Women Who Run with the Wolves</a></i> p. 20] <br /><br />That is why in the Christian tradition, Easter follows the long season of Lent, where observant Christians are encouraged to take the time to dive deep into their own spirits and into their relationship with the divine. There can be no resurrection without all the other pieces of the story. <br /><br />The same is true for the earth centered traditions who mark spring with celebration. The stunning gift of the yellow daffodil is that it emerges in the cold and grey when few things are yellow. The beauty of the crocus is that it risks blooming in the snow and frost, into the messy leaf litter of last year’s trees. <br /><br />Celebrating Easter means Listening into the season -- of our web of life, of our spirits. We pause today for a long loving look at this unique year that will never come again and has never been before. How is it with your spirit this Eastertime? <br /><br /> Although Christian churches all around the world are telling the same story this morning, celebrating the most important and holy day of their church year, there is no moment when all of spring happens all at once- the trees like to sleep in a bit after the crocus and daffodils wake up and start their year. From my office window I can see the little tree buds swelling, but I haven’t seen any leaves yet. <br /><br />So spring, if by spring we mean that moment when petals and leaves and wings unfurl and soak in the sun, it comes at different times to different plants, and different creatures. While a couple bees buzz in my crocus blooms now, some pollinators sleep in until May, which is sensible, because there’s only those 5 flowers in my yard right now, not enough pollen for everyone. <br /><br />I live down on the flat part of my town, but my friends live up in the hills. Just last week I saw cars driving down into the town with snow on them and I wonder at how differently the seasons unfold in different places. Sometimes it can be weeks before the same flowers bloom up on the hills, weeks before their snow melts. In our congregation this morning we have folks form all over- One family is joining us from south Carolina where it has been definitely spring for a while now. The sweet children's story "<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/613534.The_Bunny_Who_Found_Easter?">The Bunny Who Found Easter</a>" assures us that “At Eastertime there are always rabbits.” But it simply cannot be true that everywhere around the world there are rabbits at Eastertime. <br /><br /> This is all to say, that Easter is a movable feast. It does not come at the same time every year. It does not look the same for all of us. I also mean the Easter in our spirits-- the calendar of our spirits sometimes does and sometimes does not line up with the calendar of the banks or of sun and moon. It can be sad if everyone around you is celebrating “Now the dark, cold days are o’er, spring and gladness are before” and your spirit feels like it is still in the tomb, like it is that last tree with no leaves. <br /><br />There is a crooked Catalpa tree in our back yard that is always the last to leaf out. “I think that one’s dead” said my husband last year. But I remembered how it was with this tree, and sure enough when the time was right the tree burst out these gigantic heart shaped leaves giving shade to the whole back yard just in time for the hot sun of summer. <br /><br />How is it for you, right now, today? Does your heart feel like a daffodil in full bloom? Like a bird singing as it waits for sunrise? Like a bunny overrun with young ones? Like a bee bravely looking for the first flower? Or do you feel more like a flower bulb that is still waiting in the dark earth for the right time to emerge? Like the great Catalpa tree who wants more sun before it can leaf out? <br /><br />Easter is a season of the spirit and not of the calendar. Here, today in the twin tiers, it’s a great day to notice the first buds on the bare trees, the rain and the mud, the green shoots, and how the flowers change from day to day. All of these are spring, all of these are life. If your hearts are leaping with the spring, let them leap. And if your heart is still waiting in the chilly earth, let our Easter celebration remind your tender spirit that when the season is right for you, your spirit will unfurl and bloom. <br /><br /> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjb7LwgmpAjzOOZfYbv-kaW2jpCZUzf8eR02fUtdRvtAP8HMMLq0mQ_9HNaTk144_vwQCmmetFLY9dIxnQQzZJ1rbQbxrFJbf0uK6Sgjp_8MEnpLUE-AkmbHhsPGUEZzTBJQcI2G_x87SE4tfxitBy9FD02EMbmAmrBxQechPg3uBT9kjMas91l_DCQw/s2848/spring%20flowers%20013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjb7LwgmpAjzOOZfYbv-kaW2jpCZUzf8eR02fUtdRvtAP8HMMLq0mQ_9HNaTk144_vwQCmmetFLY9dIxnQQzZJ1rbQbxrFJbf0uK6Sgjp_8MEnpLUE-AkmbHhsPGUEZzTBJQcI2G_x87SE4tfxitBy9FD02EMbmAmrBxQechPg3uBT9kjMas91l_DCQw/s320/spring%20flowers%20013.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-50729907418007731752023-05-23T13:29:00.001-07:002023-05-23T13:29:26.696-07:00Co-Creativity<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwentzkLz-Dcb2fTBVmCjPN1WMgpZaKBuegBmHXqej6DAKoVwjyJEh_6tc_7_Ir6NRX61m_B7kytEqIY6L1OlJaTWDtvZrZPZF2sv5Ygc91y44gMlvhLh5Xah8bAUPTY03kBgP_34ISjGXwHEwp9f2fU7UTqHQK723kmjhH6qUgBt8mOUWPqFDHMLRQ/s2992/EPRH%20sunset%202020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2992" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlwentzkLz-Dcb2fTBVmCjPN1WMgpZaKBuegBmHXqej6DAKoVwjyJEh_6tc_7_Ir6NRX61m_B7kytEqIY6L1OlJaTWDtvZrZPZF2sv5Ygc91y44gMlvhLh5Xah8bAUPTY03kBgP_34ISjGXwHEwp9f2fU7UTqHQK723kmjhH6qUgBt8mOUWPqFDHMLRQ/s320/EPRH%20sunset%202020.jpg" width="320" /></a>A few years back, I was on my first retreat at Eastern Point, and the more I gazed at the ocean, the vibrant colors of sunrise, the shells on the beach, the rocks, the more I felt compelled to try to draw them. This was weird, because I don’t draw. But the colors and shapes were so beautiful I felt the need to somehow respond. I was so excited about this idea, but when I finally went to put colored pencil to paper, it was frustrating and discouraging. My friend the artist offered to help me get started. She put a drop cloth on her dining room table and filled it with supplies. “Just play” she said. I stopped trying to make something in particular, and just figure out how to make the brush work. I learned that afternoon that there were certain things each brush, and those acrylic paints were good at-- bright bold colors, layering, textures. None of it looked like anything, but some of the shapes and textures pleased me. I learned that day that if you are going to make something with paint, you are going to have to do it in partnership with the paint, and the brush, and the canvas or paper or whatever you are painting. <br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghopc_aLQMYvBqYZOZykdGL-p65NU_5O1WB3P2og45YL0F2wdVsbTNTWItA9-Kurw4fMTeO4Bq-AL3SDDaqapygdo46OsjwwI2gCJrr39ZO37xJIzefiXvmxDy5vGV-vOx6H9M5H7X7OGThIMn9WaU4uW4JoTkVNJLt_yEW5IiIb68esneoG9vPvRROw/s2992/EPRH%20water%20shells%202020.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2992" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghopc_aLQMYvBqYZOZykdGL-p65NU_5O1WB3P2og45YL0F2wdVsbTNTWItA9-Kurw4fMTeO4Bq-AL3SDDaqapygdo46OsjwwI2gCJrr39ZO37xJIzefiXvmxDy5vGV-vOx6H9M5H7X7OGThIMn9WaU4uW4JoTkVNJLt_yEW5IiIb68esneoG9vPvRROw/s320/EPRH%20water%20shells%202020.jpg" width="320" /></a>This is true no matter what we are creating, no matter what medium we are using, whether we are making dinner, or a worship service, or a raised bed garden. When we bring any idea into the world, it is made out of matter that has its own nature, its own capacities and limitations. Even the most faithful reproduction is a new creation. <br /><br />We too, the makers, have our own capacities and limitations. I was listening to an interview with singer songwriter <a href="https://dianecluck.info/">Diane Cluck</a> one time, and she asked the interviewer to name something he disliked about his own voice. He had a wobble, he said, that he never felt good about. They talked about how such a characteristic of the individual voice was part of what made your voice distinct, could be a foundation of personal style. <br /><br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjya_aPi-1rRTb0kEeILWa706L5n8Xv8LbJJHdyn8ywq3IgYvtetfm-QZ2PhhjvxG8igXATO-L8hhf-U-Tsn6yhsWsPuzOS13PvolJKGg67PmhNuzDcimAxgEZ6gGePrpaLTcvPP5XHR1f-Y9AfwggPQ0c9BNtehAcop8_asP571PUUQg0hWBrqJY_btQ/s4032/EPRH%20shells%202020.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjya_aPi-1rRTb0kEeILWa706L5n8Xv8LbJJHdyn8ywq3IgYvtetfm-QZ2PhhjvxG8igXATO-L8hhf-U-Tsn6yhsWsPuzOS13PvolJKGg67PmhNuzDcimAxgEZ6gGePrpaLTcvPP5XHR1f-Y9AfwggPQ0c9BNtehAcop8_asP571PUUQg0hWBrqJY_btQ/s320/EPRH%20shells%202020.jpg" width="240" /></a>It occurs to me that whenever we create something, we are never creating something out of nothing, we always begin with what is already there. Even when we make a cake “from scratch” we mostly don’t mill our own flour, or grow our own wheat. In fact, wheat only evolved about 10,000 years ago, before that it was something else. Our unique bodies and selves shape what we are creating, even without our conscious choice. And everything happens in a community of living and non-living beings in a landscape that has been shaped long before we began. <br /><br />And much as we try to make things that last unchanged, creation continues working on what we have created almost immediately once we have finished making the thing. Consider how a cake changes once out of the oven, over hours and days. The raised bed for our garden, how the natural forces work on the wood over time. Life itself is ceaselessly creating, as it has been for millennia. In truth, whenever we create something, we are actually co creating. <br /><br /> Consider, for example the creativity of the tree that became the wood for the raised bed. As William McDonough & Michael Braungart write in their essay "<a href="https://mcdonough.com/writings/the-extravagant-gesture/">The Extravagant Gesture</a>" <blockquote>“Four billion years of natural design, forged in the cradle of evolution, has yielded such a profusion of forms we can barely grasp the vigor and diversity of life on Earth. ... “ </blockquote>and how the creativity of one species shapes the response of other species: <br /><blockquote>“Responding to unique local conditions, ants have evolved into nearly 10,000 species, several hundred of which can be found in the crown of a single Amazonian tree..” </blockquote>And you yourself are no less unique, and your unique way of creating is vital and full of life, whether it is extravagant or simple, practical or whimsical. Whether what we create is exactly what we had in our minds, or full of mistakes and missteps that we never imagined or wanted. <br /><br />As we do our creative work, whatever that may be, it becomes a spiritual practice as we consider how it is working on us, connecting our own spirit and self to the work. How does it feel as it moves through us? Is it fresh and vital? Does it touch something new and inspiring? Is it steady and patient, does it calm us and those around us. One of the things I like about the hug shawls is that I use a simple pattern, and so not only do I create a shawl I hope will be soothing and comforting to another, but the repetitive act with the soft yarn in the pleasing color is soothing and comforting to me as well. As Matthew Fox has said “…the most beautiful thing a potter produces is... the potter.” As we are drawing or singing or building or cooking, we make not only the cake but we make ourselves. I will tell you that one of the reasons I like being a minister for these congregations, and can see myself continuing into the future, is because I like the self that is created as I do this work. <br /><br />Our creative work also connects us directly to one another and to the web of life. My raised bed garden is co-created with and impacts thousands of species seen and unseen. The cake I bake has in it the contributions the farmers who grew the wheat, the ecosystem where the wheat was grown, and in turn helps form the bodies of those who will eat the cake when it is finished. <br /><br />This is a time when great creativity, in the sense of innovation, is needed. We have enough things, too many things, the great industrial machine creating great quantities of things must be replaced by a calling to create of the right things, for ourselves, for our world. We have an opportunity to co-create our world in a way that will impact our communities and our ecosystems and generations to come. Paying attention, noticing, and responding is important in our acts of creation. <br /><br />Consider a common way we have of constructing, say, a new development or shopping center. Step one is to bulldoze everything, to create what we imagine is a blank slate on which to build our human vision. But of course even once a field is leveled down to bare soil, still we build in a watershed that rains and floods and is shaped by weather beyond our control, we build for people with growing evolving needs, we build in an ecosystem with the beings who have always lived in that place, whose displacement impacts other communities and ecosystems. <br /><br />Perhaps it is time to think creatively about creation. If we understood creation as not the heroic act of an individual, but as an inherently collaborative act, a communal act, we might stop as Wendell Berry said in his essay “<a href="http://www.transductiontechnologies.com/uploads/2/7/5/4/27547719/berry_solving_for_pattern.pdf">Solving for Pattern</a>” creating “Solutions that cause a ramifying set of new problems” <br /><blockquote> “A bad solution is bad, then, because it acts destructively upon the larger patterns in which it is contained ... most likely, because it is formed in ignorance or disregard of them. A bad solution solves for a single purpose or goal, such as increased production. And it is typical of such solutions that they achieve stupendous increases in production at exorbitant biological and social costs. <br /><br />"A good solution is good because it is in harmony with those larger patterns ... the way a healthy organ acts within the body.” ... “A good solution causes a ramifying series of solutions.” </blockquote>A collaborative style of creation that is in harmony with larger patterns is all part of what I mean when I say “Co-creation.” Co-creation is an idea that works well with our Unitarian Universalist theology- that we are forever collaborating with the Spirit of Life and all other living beings in the continuous creation of the world we live in, of all we are and all we see. In our story that creative force is called God -- a personified being with a voice. Many UUs struggle with a personified God, but there’s a school of thought called “Process theology” which is a better fit for many UUs. It was founded by a mathematician in the 20th century who describes a God that could be found in nature, and harmonized with reason and the evidence of senses. Imagine if what we called God was a process working within and among all processes. To <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1372880.The_Source_of_Human_Good?">Henry Nelson Weiman</a> “God is a part of nature, the part that brings forth the increase in good…. In short, God is creative transformation, the growth of meaning and value in the world.” It’s an interesting way to look at the world- that God is more like a process than a being, that this process God is inseparable from transformation, from the ongoing reality of creation, which we are all involved in together. <br /><br /> Consider taking this as a spiritual practice- as you are creating whatever it is you create, notice those sacred intersections of your own creative efforts with those of our community, our web of life, and the mysterious spirit of life that works with us and through us. Notice the ways we create together what one individual cannot create in isolation. <br /><br />Music producer Rick Rubin writes in his new book “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60965426-the-creative-act?">The Creative Act: a Way of Being</a>”: <br /><blockquote>"Every manifestation of this unfolding is doing its own work on behalf of the universe, each in its own way, true to its own creative impulse. <br /><br />"Just as trees grow flowers and fruits, humanity creates works of art. The Golden Gate Bridge, the White Album, …, the Sphinx, the space shuttle, the Autobahn, … the Roman Colosseum, the Phillips screwdriver, the iPad, Philadelphia cheesesteak. <br /><br />"… Each of these is humanity being true to itself, as a hummingbird is true to itself by building a nest, a peach tree by bearing fruit, and a nimbus cloud by producing rain. "</blockquote>I encourage you in the coming days, to notice how you are participating in the creation of our world, how you are co-creating with the creative force some call divine, how you are co-creating with your community and with the web of life. Listen to and collaborate with all who co-create with you, and in so doing, observe how you are co-creating your self- your great masterwork.<br /><br /><br /> <br /><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-88599512571502095782023-05-18T07:35:00.001-07:002023-05-18T07:35:14.969-07:00Mother's Day- the Ideal and the Real<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDkZEl3D_qV8W6bkko3Py4sbp2JJ0LRTZR-FIny6ceZ2LbGDYkmmXEjeifvucxxLm6VCGv8KXjD1DEPpSTGgYgO2K-Dn5wjEJN0wAtpNpHJbsspAvvjpYUAYNoc_GPgysE2bl1vzmvjL8HwLvaViEkYj9EBibpsJOCX2ViCo2zvy_w2NOyv4NcIFfFlQ/s1955/Robin%20and%20Darcey%20with%20Bottle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1846" data-original-width="1955" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDkZEl3D_qV8W6bkko3Py4sbp2JJ0LRTZR-FIny6ceZ2LbGDYkmmXEjeifvucxxLm6VCGv8KXjD1DEPpSTGgYgO2K-Dn5wjEJN0wAtpNpHJbsspAvvjpYUAYNoc_GPgysE2bl1vzmvjL8HwLvaViEkYj9EBibpsJOCX2ViCo2zvy_w2NOyv4NcIFfFlQ/s320/Robin%20and%20Darcey%20with%20Bottle.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Me and Mom, home from the hospital</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>I’ll be honest with you- I don’t love Mother’s Day, especially since I’ve become a mother myself. There’s nothing like a holiday to remind you of that gap between stories and expectations and the reality of our human lives. From the Mother’s Day where everyone got a stomach bug just in time for the Mother’s Day brunch at the fancy restaurant where we had long anticipated reservations, the Mother's Day everyone forgot, the Mother's Day where the ruined pancakes made everyone grumpy, the 2020 mother’s day when we waited 3 hours in a parking lot for mother’s day take out...I could go on, but suffice it to say I would gladly replace Mother’s day with a normal ordinary Sunday with no expectations. Maybe I just have some sort of Mother’s Day curse, but I think there’s something more. I think that like most consumption driven occasions, it draws our attention to the gap between who we really are, what life really is, and the ideals we hold -- a gap commercials tell us can be filled with things like jewelry and flowers and fancy meals. <br /><br />The impossible thing about parenting, is that all parents are ordinary humans, with needs and weaknesses and faults and habits and desires and preferences. The child is also an ordinary human with needs and weaknesses and faults and habits and desires and preferences. There will be times when the two will come together in harmony, and other times when the parent, being the full grown one, will sublimate our own needs to support the needs of the growing child. And there will be times when the parent is dealing with their own mess and is not actually give the child what they needed most, or maybe can’t meet the child’s needs at all. <br /><br />When we are little parents have such power in our lives- they are our whole world. Then as we grow up and begin to individuate, we notice the ways in which our parents couldn’t or wouldn’t meet our true needs, and we grieve that gap. We begin to imagine how we might have parented ourselves better than our actual parents did. I’ll just speak from my own experience, because I know every family is different, but my parents were generally decent human beings who tried to do the best by me they were able, given their own gifts and challenges, and brokenness and world view. And I tried to be generally the best child I was able, given my own gifts and challenges, and brokenness and world view. After I left home I spent some time in therapy figuring out who I am and what I need, and here I am, a functioning adult, Phew! Even my parenting still shapes me, and impacts me, for better and for worse. <br /> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUn7xJuXWSo6rvXVJriXCDabb3ThTRzzNCNJhWbWkOMpyDF4gMa7-lrroGkzY-aS7H4UzYAcC6-edgaT3lzHdMDN8mTCFijLqmpTZWkpQZIdfxxp6AZvYWffddSuOYoCrHrseljpMMrOn1iyn6Mns1EzB_5enhDo9QeTj6Yw3sdz71mL9IEZ9hyCJMlg/s1280/Mommy%20and%20Boy.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUn7xJuXWSo6rvXVJriXCDabb3ThTRzzNCNJhWbWkOMpyDF4gMa7-lrroGkzY-aS7H4UzYAcC6-edgaT3lzHdMDN8mTCFijLqmpTZWkpQZIdfxxp6AZvYWffddSuOYoCrHrseljpMMrOn1iyn6Mns1EzB_5enhDo9QeTj6Yw3sdz71mL9IEZ9hyCJMlg/s320/Mommy%20and%20Boy.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Me and my son</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Now, as a parent myself, I have seen the impossibility of being the perfect parent of any child. I grieve the ways I was not the parent my son needed. Nick is now 21 and on the brink of graduating from college- As I look back I can see that sometimes I was a good parent to him, sometimes I missed the mark because I was a human having a bad day and was not the parent he needed me to be. I can also see mistakes I made because I parented my son as I might have needed, and not as a totally unique person who experiences the world differently. <br /><br /> One thing that this whole Covid period has changed for me and my family, is I let go and let go and let go of what I should be, what we should be, and I feel like it is quite a lot to just support one another in our humanness. It is quite a blessing to find a few other humans you trust enough to share your true self, and support one another just as we are. To support one another imperfectly because to be human is to be imperfect. <br /><br /> I must acknowledge that some families have great tragedies in them, of neglect, of trauma, of loss and grief. Some folks in our beloved community did not have “good enough” parents. The responsibility for nurturing you into the beautiful people you all are today was not met by your parents, so perhaps you had to nurture yourself beyond what any child should have to take on their own shoulders. Perhaps there were other people outside your family that supported you and nurtured you. I honor and make space for your reality today- whatever that may be. Your reality matters here. <br /><br />Part of the reason that even talking about mother’s day is challenging, is because the idea of a mother is both amorphous and complex. It’s a concept shaped by stories and myths and commercials and Instagram. I wonder what that looks like in your imagination? What picture do you see in your mind when we use that word “mother” <br /><br />Jungian folks make a distinction about the individual, the collective and the archetypal. And mothers are all 3. Each of us has our own person with a womb who brought us into this world, each of us had people who nurtured us as we grew. Maybe there was a person called “mom” that we think of on mother’s day, or maybe there wasn’t, and we feel that absence on Mother’s day. This modern cultural holiday can remind us acutely of those absences, those gaps, so it’s up to us as a faith community to support that complexity of our human experience. <br /><br />Ideas in our Collective consciousness are those ways of thinking and understanding that bind us together as a culture, as a community. The collective consciousness shapes our thinking about the word mother. Every mom character on TV, every Instagram post, commercials, yes even Mother’s Day sermons shape our thinking about what a mom is, what is normal, what should be. We know this changes:</p><p>When some of us were growing up, (or so I get the impression from what I see on TV) the cultural idea of a perfect mom wore a tailored dress and petticoats, loved her new vacuum, and kept her suburban home and children clean and orderly for when her husband got home from work. My mom’s generation often had a full time job in addition to mothering, and wore navy blue power suits, and were supposed to be like the woman in the perfume commercial “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan.” <br /><br />When I was a young mom, I knew a good mother practiced attachment parenting, and something called “positive discipline.” We had paid work outside the home (because what family could live on one salary?), was infinitely patient could leave her work-for-pay job at the drop of a hat to take her kids to their many activities, and somehow had time for yoga and a mom’s group. <br /><br />Today’s parents are having fewer children and having them later. The ideal parent has achieved work life balance, were juggling their jobs and parenting and their own mental health needs during a pandemic, and still was supposed to time to post on Instagram how good they looked doing it. <br /><br />Though the image of a perfect parent changes, each we all feel pressure to conform with the collective vision, and find ourselves, or our own families wanting. <br /><br />Then there is the archetypal level. And mother is a powerful archetype of creating and nurturing life. Archetypes are the deep symbolic images that are not only shared by our culture, but are shared by many generations over the millennia. As long as there have been humans, there have been mothers. There’s not just one single “mother” archetype, but many facets and faces of the great mother. My symbol dictionary says She is “the origin of all flie, the containing principle; she symbolizes all phases of cosmic life, uniting all the elements, both celestial and chthonic. She is the queen of heaven, mother of god, opening of the way, keeper of the keys of fertility and the gates of birth, death and rebirth. …All great Mothers are weavers and spinners, weaving the web and pattern of life with the thread of destiny, she has the dual nature of the creator and destroyer, and is both nourisher, protector, provider of warmth and shelter, and the terrible forces of dissolution, devouring and death dealing. She is the creator and nourisher of all life and its grave.” [p. 108] Wow. <br /><br />In the Christian religious tradition, the one mother archetype out of all of that which is revered is Mary, mother of Jesus, peaceful and compassionate. But there are so many other images of the Great archetypal mother. The symbol dictionary again says “In Buddhism and Taoism she is the passive, static principle, wisdom, realization and beatitude, with the lotus and open book of wisdom as her attribute. In her beneficent, nourishing, creative aspect she is … Isis, Hathor, Cybele Ishtar, Lakshmi, Parvati, Tara, Kwan-yin, Demeter, Sophia, Mary…as ensnaring and death dealing she is Astarte, Kali, Durga, Lilith, Hecate, Circe…[she] has serpent-hair or is of frightful appearance” [<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/211588.An_Illustrated_Encyclopaedia_of_Traditional_Symbols">J.C. Cooper</a> p. 109] <br /><br />Because we are human, we can’t be all that, we can only be who we are. Some tiny piece of the great mother. <br /><br />But because we are human, we need that great mother, our spirits need one larger than our little selves to be there before it all began, and to accompany us all through the end. We need the deep calm of the peaceful passive moon mother, and we need the fiery defender – the great bear defending her cubs. We need the mother earth who nourishes and feeds us, and my spirit longs for the great archetypal lap into which we can crawl, when I need to feel small, and comforted. <br /><br />I saw on a friend’s fridge a photo of Michelle Obama with her daughters on her lap, but my friend and her buddy had photo-shopped their heads onto the photo. They thought Michelle Obama would be an ideal mom, and were inspired by this as they re-parented themselves. I love that idea- it’s so empowered. WE can finally be the parents to ourselves that we always needed. But I bet even Michelle Obama has bad days, even the Obama kids are going to have to re-parent themselves at some point as they grow into who they are, and know what they really need. <br /><br />I’d like to invite you to consider: what images of mother are surfacing for you this year at Mother’s Day? What support do you need as you notice those gaps between what you long for and the reality of what is? <br /><br />Let's close in the spirit of meditation/ prayer:<br /><br />We call to mind with gratitude all who gave us life and nurtured us. <br /><br />We acknowledge all our human parents could not be for us, even though we needed it deeply <br /><br />We empower ourselves to be the parents we needed, to fill those gaps as we are able, and to ask for help supporting and nurturing ourselves in our human imperfection and frailty <br /><br />We are called to birth, to hold, to comfort, to support, to nurture life as we are able in our own unique and imperfect human capacities <br /><br />Finally we imagine the great archetypal mother who is so timeless, so huge, that even we full grown adults could rest into their love, feel supported by the life giving forces larger than ourselves, and held by the nurturing web of life <br /><br /> Amen</p><p><style>@font-face
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The <a href="https://www.uua.org/re/tapestry/youth/wholeness/workshop2/167598.shtml">heart of John Murray</a>, the <a href="https://revlaine.blogspot.com/2023/04/how-it-all-began.html">heart of Moses Park</a>, the heart of our congregation. Back in the early days universalism spread through debates of scripture and doctrine, inviting a new and yet also very old way of looking at the core teaching of Christianity -- that all were forgiven, all were saved because of the fact of Jesus’ life and death. <br /><br />This was a radical teaching -- Surely not everyone… Surely not those imperfect people, those others who believe differently than me… Surely most people are too imperfect, especially in their faith, to be saved. <br /><br />Yes, said the Universalists. Everyone. None of us are perfect, not in our actions, not in our faith. But each and every person must be included. <br /><br />Way back when I was little, the school kids were so relentless in dividing their classmates into those who were in and those who were out; those who were cool and those who had cooties. (Probably you learned too learned at some point in your life what it is like to be on the outside looking in) I think it might have been then that my heart knew it was Universalist- that I just couldn’t feel satisfied, couldn’t feel safe even if I made it into the inner circle, knowing that other folks were left out of the circle. <br /><br />By the time I was growing up UU in the 1970s and 80s, our Universalism had expanded beyond Christianity to include the wisdom of the world’s religions, but when we talked about Jesus, he was spoken of as a great ethical teacher and community organizer. And that Jesus, the Jesus of the gospels, he always seemed to be with the outsiders. He told the story of the shepherd who leaves the 99 to find the one lost sheep. That spoke to me- I sure wanted to feel like someone would come find me if I was lost, as frankly, I get lost a lot. <br /><br />This kind of universal love is hard. Whenever we talk about our <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles">first principle</a> “The inherent worth and dignity of every person” we notice how hard it is. Seriously, I can’t even stay in the room when some politicians are on TV. Our human capacity to love is imperfect and partial- that’s just a fact of being human. <br /><br />It reminds me of a song I’ve had stuck in my head - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF6RA5RJiC4">Free by Sylvan Esso</a>: <br /><blockquote>Oh, people always ask me <br />What it's like to love everybody <br />What it's like to love everybody <br />They ask me <br />I tell them, “Don't be crazy <br />There's too many people around me <br />If I loved them all, <br />they'd break me, you see” </blockquote>But Universalists have always believe that the divine has a capacity to love, to include that is bigger than my human capacity. The God I believe in can hold it all. And whether or not you believe in God, because today’s UUs are diverse in their beliefs, we know that we are part of something larger than ourselves- the web of life. The Spirit of Life dwells in every living thing. Moss and trees and squirrels, yes, but also slime mold and vampire bats and fungus. All of it is sacred. <br /><br />Today, day long theological debates are out of style. We can barely understand the big fancy words, or the logic of the old arguments. But it is clear to me that this moment in history is a moment where our message is needed. As our culture grows more and more divisive, reinforcing divisions by party and religion and all the things. As if more, better dividing will finally make life flourish. No, our way forward, the way we help heal the world will not be theological debate but through love. Not the theological points made by that young women that so disturbed John Murray, but perhaps we can emulate her graciousness. <br /><br />Think of those examples our historian Katie Replogle offered of the way Universalists in this Valley have always lived their values, <a href="https://www.uucas.org/?p=1635">taught Universalism through a bag of corn</a>, or standing up for the oppressed. Through acts of connecting and caring, stretching ourselves to grow our hearts wider, to see the beloved, the sacred in all the nooks and crannies in our world we find new ways to embody our Universalist faith. Believing, as our ancestors did, that there is something bigger than all our divisions, which even now holds us all.<br /><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-73956262960081153432023-04-06T13:14:00.003-07:002023-04-06T13:14:26.584-07:00How it all Began<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z-U3LkUhXLMPARCVaiohx1oJ6FFhDbX2Bebr_auLKzuXsqJp6pC-oFjsPbrvlE9xbeWE8JkGSbJCEhmuiiHn7rySUXF0WMIi4XFwmdAC2EF96Rw1W6vjrsdUyB6HkEi6lwRGOqHS8ZRjSta6vOB3sMuNifcn901T4AHHUSm7s-caw87dtYhqfw0R5Q/s3407/Sheshequin%20meeting%20house%20drawing.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3407" data-original-width="2571" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9Z-U3LkUhXLMPARCVaiohx1oJ6FFhDbX2Bebr_auLKzuXsqJp6pC-oFjsPbrvlE9xbeWE8JkGSbJCEhmuiiHn7rySUXF0WMIi4XFwmdAC2EF96Rw1W6vjrsdUyB6HkEi6lwRGOqHS8ZRjSta6vOB3sMuNifcn901T4AHHUSm7s-caw87dtYhqfw0R5Q/s320/Sheshequin%20meeting%20house%20drawing.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><i>I wanted to share with you the story of the very beginnings of our congregation, the way it was told in the record book of the Sheshequin society (probably written by George W. Kinney). But sometimes that old language is hard to understand, so we’ve also provided a translation. <br /></i><br />Reader: <br /><br />The Universalist Society of Sheshequin, from the most reliable information to be obtained, was moulded into form about A.D. 1808. Up to that time, the scattered people of this valley, including “Old Sheshequin,” generally worshipped according to the Baptist faith, Rev. Moses Park, mainly, ministering to their spiritual necessities. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />Most people here in the valley were Baptist, and Rev. Moses Park was their minister. <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />In the year previous, a Mr. Noah Murray, who had settled in the vicinity of Tioga Point, was known as disseminating the heretical doctrine of the Universal Salvation of the human race from the bondage of sin and corruption. He was scattering firebrands within the walls of Zion, and it was decided that these innovations must be no longer tolerated. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />Rev. Muray was new to town, and was preaching Universalism. The neighbors freaked out. <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />For the purpose of silencing this pretender, Moses Park and Joseph Kinney were deputed to fight this Goliath and demolish his strongholds. They were thought to be well adapted to accomplish this laudable purpose: the former, possessing the Christian virtues in an eminent degree, and the latter adding a shrewdness, ingenuity and soundness in argument hard to withstand. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />The neighbors sent Moses Park and Joseph Kinney to convince Murray he was wrong. They were chosen because they were devout and smart and good at arguing <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />Armed with their own well-thumbed Bible, they proceeded to the residence of Murray and made known their mission. They were very courteously and kindly received, and their challenge accepted; and for the space of about three days they fought the good fight. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />They went to Mr. and Mrs. Murray’s house. They were let in politely and for 3 days they argued about it. <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />The doctrine of the Endless Suffering of the wicked, together with Baptism as a saving ordinance, were relied on by the one party as indispensable to a right understanding of the Scriptures, and a necessity of the divine government. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />Park and Kinney kept talking about how “only baptized people are saved from hell.” <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />But the deeper they went into the investigation the weaker became their defense, until one after another, they saw their own strongholds demolished and the Sun of Righteousness melting the icebergs of Calvanism [sic]. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />Their arguments didn’t hold up and eventually even they couldn’t believe what they were saying themselves. <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />In short, they “went woolgathering and came home shorn.” They were defeated. They acknowledged it, and finally rejoiced over it. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />They realized they were wrong, and were okay with it. <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />In conclusion, they agreed to adopt the doctrine of Murray, and Mr. Park was to present the sentiments to his audiences, and study their effects before making any formal declaration of the name. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />Mr. Park was afraid to tell his congregation he was a universalist now, so he kind of snuck universalism into his sermons <br /><br />Reader: <br /><br />His Congregation had been known to approve of the new preaching, and wonder at the improvements in spirituality and wisdom of the preacher; and one bright morning in June A.D. 1808, Mr. Park, after speaking as by inspiration, informed his hearers that, for some time past he had been uttering and believing with his whole soul, the doctrine of the Universal Salvation of the human race; the line of demarcation was drawn. <br /><br />Translator: <br /><br />It went okay so in June 1808 he outed himself as a Universalist, and told them “Surprise!” he had been preaching Universalism for some time. <br /><br />Reader: <p></p><p>A few denounced, but a large majority stood by him, and, with various changes and discouragements, have remained steadfast in the doctrine to this day. <br /><br />Translator: </p><p>Some folks left the congregation, but the rest became the Unitarian Universalist congregation we are today.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><u><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"></span></b></u></span>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-52185295772933203162023-03-28T11:40:00.000-07:002023-05-18T11:54:42.803-07:00The Story of Us<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_yp_NNSkDf4XbD1tJLTwZGen0ieR7jfYvd2Wq4yUaogpQbp7kIX4szdDO5nwIhWPRNQOXzyyzYo_byXiE-0oD0vQLYfibX6rOGmfzr1qGHi51D53UWub9DUhaYtdaFzagMmb10xRWAQ4OOYGV29nOhkxpjTr5FmZaYIRQQykVDH9ayPJETVpG-4x4A/s2848/10389490354_8b9420c38a_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2848" data-original-width="2136" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4_yp_NNSkDf4XbD1tJLTwZGen0ieR7jfYvd2Wq4yUaogpQbp7kIX4szdDO5nwIhWPRNQOXzyyzYo_byXiE-0oD0vQLYfibX6rOGmfzr1qGHi51D53UWub9DUhaYtdaFzagMmb10xRWAQ4OOYGV29nOhkxpjTr5FmZaYIRQQykVDH9ayPJETVpG-4x4A/s320/10389490354_8b9420c38a_o.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Brian McDonald rings the bell at 2013 celebration</span></i> <br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Last Sunday a group of us carpooled over to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universalist_Meeting_House_of_Sheshequin">Sheshequin meeting house</a> to give thanks and blessings to the sacred space where our congregation met for almost 200 years. All who wanted rang the bell and we told stories of weddings and memorials, of what it was like to be a child in the Sunday school there, of the special feeling of gathering in that sanctuary which drew many of us to this congregation. <br /><br />We also remembered the challenges of that building and how we ended up here. As Nell Allen had told me in an email: <br /><blockquote>“We moved to the area in summer 1980 and began attending then. At that time it was well established that services ran thru the summer but were on hiatus from Christmas until Easter…. (That did not benefit any struggling RE program, though. ) .. Sunday services from Thanksgiving thru Christmas were held in the afternoon so the church would have all day to “warm up.” ..[members] who tended the stoves would go down early spending all morning and afternoon there. ... No one felt safe starting the fires and leaving the building.” </blockquote><p>On Wednesday we gathered again to tell our own stories about the congregation. We first gathered in 2014, and still have the notes from that gathering hung over on the windows there, with updates when we gathered again in 2018, and this week. </p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSrIWVnOXMA5zOZxzq2CCGWQOT36PHodlHTrOw91dtlGBPiPELrMWTUfjDZIIunqUAGABNG3TYcRrffOKTPbS6wzIAcnj4ElQhvStuMDQzlbvQpAt-VjlONgfbNEi1wC_Vb-J8VAcQUP-wCZoaUqNlEKA_ovO90SnAAofHzzwBMtpLWIPgPHvFxx0tQ/s2848/10389439554_f052f10c9a_o.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSrIWVnOXMA5zOZxzq2CCGWQOT36PHodlHTrOw91dtlGBPiPELrMWTUfjDZIIunqUAGABNG3TYcRrffOKTPbS6wzIAcnj4ElQhvStuMDQzlbvQpAt-VjlONgfbNEi1wC_Vb-J8VAcQUP-wCZoaUqNlEKA_ovO90SnAAofHzzwBMtpLWIPgPHvFxx0tQ/s320/10389439554_f052f10c9a_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Destiny and Barry remember their wedding at the Sheshequin meeting house</span></i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It was at that first gathering that Sigrid remembered that in the 1970s we were a small congregation of mostly elders, 16 at the most, so when the Allen family joined in 1985 with their 4 children, it was the beginning of a new era and a jumpstart to the Sunday school. That’s when Jill and Karen and their kids joined the congregation. <br /><br />Nell also mentioned in that email:</p><p></p><blockquote> “… at some point (perhaps very late 1980s) the insurance company let us know that they would not be able to insure the building should we continue use of the stoves.” The ad hoc team who had been looking for a new location with heat and running water settled found this building in Athens, which was being sold by the Christian Scientists. Jill tells us the team didn’t realize it had been previously owned by the Unitarians who built the building decades before until they did the title search. The building was purchased on March 15, 1991, 32 years ago this month.<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a></blockquote><a href="#_edn1"></a> <blockquote>A Service of Rededication was held on Saturday, September 14, 1991. The Annual report tells us that “Members of the congregation gave happily of their time and talents to clean, decorate and bake for the big event. Chrysanthemums and luminaries graced the entrance to the church; large arrangements of fresh flowers flanked the pulpit. The service, while incorporating greetings from former ministers and various denominational groups, was primarily based on the seven principles of the UUA. The Rev. Harry Thor (The minister at that time who had served as the minister of the Binghamton Church (1963-1980), and came to serve the Sheshequin church part time in his retirement<a href="#_edn2">[ii]</a> ) led the service. After he spoke briefly about a principle, a trumpet sounded and a banner of the principle was brought forward by the youth of the church as the congregation sang a song appropriate to the principle. The service was simple yet moving. An open house followed.” </blockquote><p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzf25HBDzAvo_12KvB_D_430ElQN_-rXUAu2qqcFx7c5rV02oGagApldrxpnmZeQQTVuZQkMRzYdnhsWAQtX15scFr6-nmdBuKfHBPisYJQ5JSoFQPnVb1M-R2HX4ssADnvKb3Y_cd3mICcFFUFigwS8e961CJR22OKcx-qWUX2tnS9RXqFKdXiP2E2A/s3264/48963945452_d61406308a_o.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3264" data-original-width="2448" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzf25HBDzAvo_12KvB_D_430ElQN_-rXUAu2qqcFx7c5rV02oGagApldrxpnmZeQQTVuZQkMRzYdnhsWAQtX15scFr6-nmdBuKfHBPisYJQ5JSoFQPnVb1M-R2HX4ssADnvKb3Y_cd3mICcFFUFigwS8e961CJR22OKcx-qWUX2tnS9RXqFKdXiP2E2A/s320/48963945452_d61406308a_o.jpg" width="240" /></a>Bob Allen was president of the congregation for 15 years, and brought us into leadership of the Trustees of the Pennsylvania Universalist Convention. Bob and John McDonald build the chalice stain glass window using tiles from an old window. Don Riker commissioned the plaque below it. Perhaps you’ve noticed a crack in one pane. Bob said it was a “crack of humility.” <br /><br />Bob was also a pilot, and when the plane he was flying crashed, killing him, the whole community was crushed. Memorial services were held at Redeemer and at UUCAS. It was that service that first brought Katie to visit our church- Chris had been visiting for a short time already. When Katie heard Rev. Thor speak, she was moved by his message and has been here ever since. <br /><br />After Harry Thor’s retirement a student minister, Janelle Curlin-Taylor came to be our intern. This was a tumultuous time for the church, and when Janelle left the church was in a time of conflict. <br /><br />We entered a period with no paid minister, and strong lay leaders emerged. Nell Allen served as president and church administrator for many years until just before I arrived. In 1999 we started the “Earth Day Fair” in our parking lot to bring the values of sustainability to the larger community, which became an annual event. <br /><br />Lee Richards, a student minister, served this congregation from 1999 to 2002. During this time our nursery was a lively, welcome place, Lee mentioned once from the pulpit “the sound of a happy child” in the nursery. Ginna wrote about this time: “Lee Richards came in like a breath of joy while we are in mourning. He brought in the Unitarian part of UU, not just Universalism. He brought in a kaleidoscope [and displayed it in the sanctuary]. In 2002 Lee declined to renew his contract after his third year. Conflicts lingered in the congregation. <br /><br />During all these ups and downs we have had the incredible good luck of having dedicated, talented keyboard players at this church. Even when ministers came and went, we had a familiar face at the keyboard leading us in music. Marion Jones played from 1973 until 2002 when Katie Replogle took over, and Katie has been our church pianist ever since. <br /><br /> In January 2003 we hired Rev. (Jace) Kahn, a trained Interim minister, who brought a great deal of healing to the church. Our ties to the district and to the UUA were strengthened. We became a fair share congregation and a leading giver to the UUSC. (Just this past year we were acknowledged 25+ Honor Congregation <br /><br />For Participation in the Annual Program Fund)<a href="#_edn3">[iii]</a> In 2003 we made Rev. John Trowbridge (who served this church for 21 years! from 1964-1985) our Minister Emeritus. By the time Jace completed his 2 year interim ministry, we were in a much stronger, healthier place. <br /><br />In 2004, when the Towanda church closed (for the first time), Alice Hardenberg joined our congregation. Alice was passionately outspoken about transgender rights, an activist and an educator everywhere she went. In 2005 the church was delighted to call The Rev. Ann Marie Alderman to be our first settled minister since Harry Thor. She encouraged us become a “Welcoming Congregation” -- to do the inner and outer work necessary to truly welcome the GLBT community. For a couple of our members this was too much of a challenge, and a few folks left, but for the majority who stayed, this was a powerful transformation and “welcoming congregation” became an important part of our sense of identity. <br /><br />When Ann Marie told us she had accepted a full time position at another church, there was great sadness. The time after her departure called on all the strength of our lay leaders. It was Genevieve and Marion who started calling this the “little church that could” and posted this moto in the social hall. <br /><br />During that year of lay leadership, I had been invited to preach once a month while you were in your search. When the church was not able to find a match through the search process, they asked me if I would come preach for another year, or maybe be a consulting minister. I said what I really wanted was to be your minister, to be called and settled. So even though I’d been preaching here for a year, we diligently followed the official process from start to finish with interviews and packets and finally a congregational vote to call me as your minister in spring 2008. <br /><br /> When I arrived you had a very strong lay worship leader program, which lasted right up through Covid- though the minister preached 20 services, the other 22 were led by the lay team, even in the summer. I’d be curious when this began, but I know in part it was due to the intrepid leadership of Chris Eng who chaired the team for over 15 years, and perhaps the strong involvement of church members in the toastmaster’s program that supported a group of experienced speakers. <br /><br />When Nick and I first came to visit your halls were once again full of the noise of children, so full that we had to create a policy about children in church. These conversations led us to apply for and receive a Chalice Lighter’s grant, with which we hired our first professional religious educator, Josh Wilbur, who was followed by Aileen Fitzke, Lindsey Smith and Maggie Belokur. </p><p><br /></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofpU6i1W5WQM-9dJ-GGromOiEU3WM-deyC4KDOy4zw6OCLslj225Th8MJjGlFAunnNCV7sJiLsrGzCRRbTz_47MofF_D2EtW61KcwlaH6iog0XlEJJPas-TJtIkXJxgsluVQx5tZWZjFykdDGIsaTPUOT5Bc60R4Pc-Ju9ynftdv6ziK78Mvp-0VhDg/s3024/23274749041_a313faf7bc_o.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="3024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgofpU6i1W5WQM-9dJ-GGromOiEU3WM-deyC4KDOy4zw6OCLslj225Th8MJjGlFAunnNCV7sJiLsrGzCRRbTz_47MofF_D2EtW61KcwlaH6iog0XlEJJPas-TJtIkXJxgsluVQx5tZWZjFykdDGIsaTPUOT5Bc60R4Pc-Ju9ynftdv6ziK78Mvp-0VhDg/s320/23274749041_a313faf7bc_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>2015 Coming of Age Retreat</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table> In my first months as your minister, Mike Sarno approached me about a coming of age program for his daughter and other teens. I had led coming of age programs for many years back in California, so we worked to create the first COA program here back in 2008. The Athens planning team had wistfully wondered about offering a joint coming of age program, but it was a teen from Big Flats, Lydia, who noticed the Coming of Age event in our order of service and bravely asked if she and her friend from Big Flats could participate, and we have offered joint programs ever since - just as the North Branch congregations had one “union youth group” back in the 1950s and 60s. Many small churches can’t offer a program for their teens, but with our congregations together, we were able to create something powerful and real. So far we have offered a total of 4 COA programs, including a joint program with Cortland and Ithaca 2019-20 -- the first one to have a zoom component, which turned out to be central in the spring of 2020 when everything changed. <br /><br />That 2008-9 year was a busy year for us- full of plans and seeds being planted. After a yearlong congregation-wide process to discern how we would serve the larger community, we decided on “Feed a Friend” where we would grow our own fresh organic produce to donate to local food banks. When Project Grow launched in 2011 under the leadership of Destiny Kinal, it was clear that the missions of the two initiatives were closely aligned, and we ended Feed a Friend, and put our energy into collaborating with and supporting Project Grow. <br /><br />2009 was a big recession, and we weren’t sure how we could ask people to contribute to our pledge drive with such economic uncertainty<a href="#_edn4">[iv]</a>. So we came up with a pledge celebration that honored our diverse gifts- thus began the potluck and open mic tradition that lasted for over a decade. For many years the open mic, the Christmas service and many Sundays include the always sometimes silly, sometimes soulful choir, lead by Karen Ream and then the Uke Group lead by Katie Replogle. <br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwL3HYWx6ktsSGlfnigbtkZbK83VNZvlngkZzCzQ5-amrMG0SjBTIZy-Da-zXJQTb_roEoakFWgKklJiQDeqnsg1PnujTsAAY1TcGhkbV7yKk7U-cjx9yKl6oufI72FWsjglu0qF01Ef1OFYuY9vJ3KPWNDJLapmrojLktAcPPuyBaI3UZCUllHdcpQ/s2848/4533324198_f93f10d800_o.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvwL3HYWx6ktsSGlfnigbtkZbK83VNZvlngkZzCzQ5-amrMG0SjBTIZy-Da-zXJQTb_roEoakFWgKklJiQDeqnsg1PnujTsAAY1TcGhkbV7yKk7U-cjx9yKl6oufI72FWsjglu0qF01Ef1OFYuY9vJ3KPWNDJLapmrojLktAcPPuyBaI3UZCUllHdcpQ/s320/4533324198_f93f10d800_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>John Dosher speaks at a CSN event</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>When we first learned about Hydro-Fracking many of us were confused and puzzled by it, especially those of us who were being offered mineral leases. “You might want to talk to Mike Lovegreen” someone suggested and once I did I knew this would be an important ministry of our congregation. We held our first community forum on the topic which grew into the “Community Shale Network” hosting about a dozen forums over 4 years. Elaine and Mike were a critical part of that work, which was a true community team reaching far beyond our congregation. We were proud to provide factual information to the community about this controversial topic without any rancor. (started 2008-9) <br /><br />In the fall of 2010 during a conversation about global warming we decided to charter a Green Sanctuary Team. Our work with CSN and Project Grow were part of a plan that included a full assessment of the energy efficiency of this building, and a series of improvements thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of Jane Land. Our plan included classes and workshops and sermons, and a covenant of sustainable purchasing and use. The Doschers were an important part of this work. We quickly blew past all our goals, but it took some time to sit down and write up all we had done. Finally we submitted<br /> our write up, and in the summer of 2017 we were recognized as a Green Sanctuary Congregation.<a href="#_edn5">[v]</a> <br /><br />In 2011 a flood immobilized the Valley. The rains came down hard on Thursday, and by the time the streets were clear on Saturday we had to pass through a National Guard checkpoint on the way to the church to assess and repair the damage. Volunteers filled the parking lot sanitizing and drying the contents of our basement. Sunday we worshiped without power, without potable water. At coffee hour, Diane and Maggie wondered how we could be of more help to our neighbors. We held an emergency board meeting, and decided to open our building to folks who just needed to use a restroom, or a clean place to rest. The next day we began serving a hot lunch and all were welcome to join us in the social hall. Other volunteers delivered sandwiches to people who didn’t want to leave their work salvaging their homes or businesses. For weeks we fed and cared for our neighbors until the crowds died down, and our work helping repair the damage of the flood continued in other ways. <br /><br />In 2014 our newest members, Mike and Judy, proposed the idea of hosting a trivia night at the church as a benefit to community organizations. The first Trivia night was held fall of 2014, and was a big success, offered monthly right up through 2020, raising needed funds for the Bradford County Humane society and other community organizations. <br /><br />In 2014 you offered the first sabbatical this congregation had ever given a minister. During that time you showed you were still the “little church that could.” You taught a class on Ethics. You brought in a trainer from Dickenson College to teach you how do water testing to monitor our local creeks. And it was during this time that it became legal in Pennsylvania for same gender couples to marry. The very week I came back from sabbatical, Our members received the 1st and 3rd licenses in the county, and we celebrated these unions with great joy. <br /><br />It might have been 2018 when we first hosted a community meal at Athens Methodist Church. I had been looking for ways we could partner with our neighbors, and reported what I found to the board. When Judy Moore heard about the opportunity to feed hungry people, her energy and enthusiasm were a force of nature. She got so many folks out to help with our first meal we could barely all fit in the kitchen. Just this month we did our most recent meal, and the community knows us now by our aprons and our delicious dinners. <br /><br />In 2016 under the leadership of Marcia Kesten, the board decided to respond to the UUA national call for support of the BLM movement by creating and hanging an BLM banner. Though members of this congregation had <a href="#_edn6">[vi]</a> been committed to racial justice since 2009-10 the controversy about the banner created a sense of urgency and brought the conversation about how we should respond to systemic racism to the center of our congregation. The primary resistance was knowing that we lived in a conservative valley, and fearing that there could be real risk to our building, or to our safety. Jill remembered a time when the KKK burned crosses on the land adjacent to hers- these were not hypothetical worries. For over a year we engaged in difficult and powerful conversations, and formed the Anti Racism team. One of our favorite projects of this time was partnering in hosting a world café here in our sanctuary with the amazing activists and community organizers form Mother’s helping Mothers in Elmira. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLpaFU4lrAakA5UVIgvUCOBSUXk7_dqcmvmppeDbO002k_SZYirEnDJWa20I7V4wA7neMQhgXoG8cWdR61qv7UeUMFqf4khwL7Mn4cGX22BNtaqFHRCcmQOq1NFrxETcMXTnCFF5jCj7l3hACz5nSRCcKODIpre6WafFNXYTCx6yArIcoiwAT7sJ3Bw/s2048/BLM%20vigil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMLpaFU4lrAakA5UVIgvUCOBSUXk7_dqcmvmppeDbO002k_SZYirEnDJWa20I7V4wA7neMQhgXoG8cWdR61qv7UeUMFqf4khwL7Mn4cGX22BNtaqFHRCcmQOq1NFrxETcMXTnCFF5jCj7l3hACz5nSRCcKODIpre6WafFNXYTCx6yArIcoiwAT7sJ3Bw/s320/BLM%20vigil.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>In spring of 2020 the death of George Floyd was a renewed call to action. Though we were still meeting only on zoom, many of us gathered at the vigil in Riverside park, where we first talked of creating a community interfaith study group which in turn lead to first anti-racism community group in the Valley. <br /><br /> In July of 2021 we received the Eugene O Picket award from the UUA for our work in the community- our fundraising, our service, our anti-oppression work, and for “being a beacon of justice” in our conservative rural area. Our award letter says “Small rural congregations like yours save lives in places where it matters. Please know that you are seen and appreciated by the wider UUA. With deep gratitude for your faithful ministry.” <br /><br />When we gathered here Wednesday to tell the story of us, we filled 2 hours and many easel pages and ran out of time. Over these past 200 years hundreds, hundreds of people have been part of this church, have been part of our story. The story is too big to tell it all in one morning, but I want you to know that each and every one of you is an important part of this story. Even as the story continues, it is important to look back over our journey together, to begin to tell the story of who we are as a congregation. To celebrate all that we have been to one another, to our community and to the UU world. <br /><br /> <br /> <br /><u><i><br /></i><br />End Notes:</u><br /><a href="#_ednref1">[i]</a> A Service of Re-dedication was held on Saturday, September 14, 1991 at 7:30 p.m. <br /><br /> <a href="#_ednref2">[ii]</a> He served our congregation for 7 years from 1989-1996. <br /> <br /><a href="#_ednref3">[iii]</a> Su tells us we are 1 of 133 congregations in the country and one of 8 in PA, with this designation! <br /> <br /><a href="#_ednref4">[iv]</a> From the 2009 pledge letter “First, the Board has agreed to offer this guarantee to all who pledge; if you lose your job during the coming year, we will refund all the contributions you have made to that point in the 2009-10 pledge year. This is one way that we as a community can reduce anxiety and uncertainty as we plan for the future.” <br /> <br /><br /><a href="#_ednref5">[v]</a> This was proposed at the 11/2/10 Global Warming Action meeting. Attendees: Darcey, Doug, JC, John, Aurelio, Carol, Katie, Jack, Chris, Aileen. The minutes say: ‘Tonight’s group agreed to propose to the Board that we charter a Green Sanctuary team.” <br />First GS team meeting was held 12/5/10 <br />Letter from UUA accepting candidacy dated 11/13/12 <br />Submitted 2017, approved over the summer 2017 <br /><br /><a href="#_ednref6">[vi]</a> 2011-12 annual report “As part of becoming a truly welcoming congregation I promised to continue learning about anti-racism/anti-oppression and to consider how to tie this work into UUCAS and our institutional structure” <br /><br />2009-10 annual report:<br />"I Invite our congregation to consider how they might become an anti-oppressive institution...<br />Participants from the “Weaving the Fabric” class presented recommendations to the Board of Trustees. The board has adopted a couple of future steps, and referred other actions to the worship team and YRE committee. This will require some consistent attention to make sure we continue to make steady progress on this issue. The Board has asked the Committee on Ministry to also give ongoing attention to this area.” <br /><br /> <p></p><p><style>@font-face
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-75853972677336081282023-02-28T11:03:00.001-08:002023-02-28T11:05:31.801-08:00When Doubting is an Act of Faith<p>
</p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG00LSIpPSkWDEnLpCJOwfeOHtjECSrUFRoTWj2RSgoXqmXbnUElnKCk-uBkLmO6ip4Pty3zuZkamZfidx8dqtyIvHkVX9E0sH-Vo_wWZwyIrcADEcZm3DvoS_1GkTV99QbfSAhvJ4hZU_1sNI8ZCEnAdaxTYARcYTEff8Fejqlbkbrv32bNKYDPgpNQ/s960/Creek%20Walk%202.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG00LSIpPSkWDEnLpCJOwfeOHtjECSrUFRoTWj2RSgoXqmXbnUElnKCk-uBkLmO6ip4Pty3zuZkamZfidx8dqtyIvHkVX9E0sH-Vo_wWZwyIrcADEcZm3DvoS_1GkTV99QbfSAhvJ4hZU_1sNI8ZCEnAdaxTYARcYTEff8Fejqlbkbrv32bNKYDPgpNQ/s320/Creek%20Walk%202.jpg" width="240" /></a>Reading: "Cherish Your Doubts "By Robert T Weston <br /><blockquote>Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth. <br />Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. <br />A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. <br />Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false. <br />Let no one fear the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief. <br />The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing: <br />For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure. <br />Those that would silence doubt are filled with fear; their houses are built on shifting sands. <br />But those who fear not doubt, and know its use, are founded on rock. <br />They shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of their hands shall endure. <br />Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help: <br />It is to be the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the attendant of truth. </blockquote><p>Reflection: </p><p>That reading is one I remember from the Unitarian Universalist church of my childhood. In that congregation many had come from other faith traditions where they had doubted and questioned what was taught, and perhaps had been told explicitly or implicitly that doubt was not okay. How wonderful to find a UU church where we were encouraged to “cherish our doubts” and believed that truth could stand up to doubt, could stand up to testing. This theme, this willingness to doubt goes all the way back to the beginning of the Unitarian tradition- Consider <a href="https://uudb.org/articles/michaelservetus.html">Michael Servetus</a>, a 16th century physician and early thinker of Unitarianism who wrote a book questioning the trinitarian dogma of the church called “<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25226713-on-the-errors-of-the-trinity?">On Errors of the Trinity</a>” which got him in a lot of trouble for questioning church doctrine. If you’ve got doubts, you are in the right place. <br /><br />In my childhood home we had a creek in our backyard and the neighborhood kids loved to walk from rock to rock across the creek. You learn after a few stumbles to test each rock as you go- how solid and stable is it? I think growing up UU gives me a sort of confidence, a faith that it’s worth testing and sorting through what we assume to be true -- like walking across the stones in the creek. It’s in our 4th principle: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. I came across this perfect exchange in my novel this week- 2 scientists talking about what they are learning form their research: <br /></p><blockquote>One says --“We knew that, though.” <br />The other replies -- “We suspected it.” <br />“Do we know it now?” <br />“We suspect it harder,” “We’re scientists We only know things until someone shows us we’re wrong.” [<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28335699-leviathan-falls">Leviathan Falls</a> p. 151] </blockquote><p>I confess to you that the events of the past few years have got me doubting a lot of things that I thought were settled truth in my own mind. It’s not comfortable to see the bedrock beliefs you were standing on suddenly seem shaky and cracked, “why-- if that’s not true, what else isn’t true?” As unsettling as this time has been, continues to be, that testing becomes more and more important- what is real, now even after all that change. What can we count on? And what has changed, and what did we get wrong? <br /></p><p>The wisdom story we shared this morning, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/611335.Kindness?">The Scared Little Rabbit</a> from the Buddhist tradition, reminds us that it really is important to inquire and investigate the assumptions that drive our actions. “never be led by hearsay, test all things for yourself.” <br /></p><p>But doubt is a double-edged sword. We see in our culture today a knee jerk or reflexive doubting that is not “a servant of discovery” but a blunt weapon. One person I know battled Covid for weeks in the hospital and when he was finally sent home told his circle “I don’t believe I really ever had Covid” I know a lot of us have had similar experiences- friends, neighbors and family who believe what they read on social media over what their own doctors tell them, over the evidence of their own bodies. <br /><br />Or consider how destabilizing it is for our democracy for the results of every election is doubted even after independent investigations, and close scrutiny of data and facts show that the results are sound. <br /><br />In h <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40383078-the-tibetan-book-of-living-and-dying?">The Tibetan book of Living and Dyin</a>g Sogyal Rimpoche writes, </p><p></p><blockquote>“our society promotes cleverness instead of wisdom, and celebrates the most superficial, harsh and least useful aspects of our intelligence. We have become so falsely “sophisticated” and neurotic that we take doubt itself for truth, and the doubt that is nothing more than ego’s desperate attempt to defend itself from wisdom is deified as the goal and fruit of true knowledge. … not the open-souled and generous doubt that Buddha assured us was necessary for testing and probing the worth of the teachings, but a destructive form of doubt that leaves us nothing to believe in, nothing to hope for, and nothing to live by.” [p. 123]</blockquote>This calls to mind our 5th source is -- “Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.” I think part of what Sogyal Rimpoche is saying is that doubt itself can become an idolatry. <br /><p></p><p>“<a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/words/reading/cherish-your-doubts">Doubt</a> is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false.” To extend that metaphor, acid eats away a lot of things, some of which are quite important to us. <br /><br /> Consider democracy: Clearly our system of government privileges some voices over others. If democracy is going to live up to our values, we must use our questioning, doubting minds to create a more equal government for all. At the same time- who knew democracy was so fragile? Who knew that it relied so heavily on all of us agreeing that it was important, that we wanted it to succeed, that if we all agreed on the rules of the game and followed those same rules we could trust the outcome? <br /><br />Consider relationships: how constant doubting the loyalty, affection, friendship of the other can corrode the trust between you. It’s the plot of just about every Rom-com that one protagonist doubts, and so the other doubts. I think most people at one time or another have defended their tender hearts by doubting everyone, keeping at bay connections that might have been supportive and compassionate. This is the kind of heavy-handed doubt Sogyal Rinpoche is talking about. But this is the very nature of friendship, of love -- to risk putting weight on the relationship like reaching out your toe to that rock in the stream. We risk opening our heart, and hope the other does too. When we meet all people with skepticism, we limit and put at risk our relationships. We give each other the benefit of the doubt, (interesting phrase that) relationship becomes possible. <br /><br />Consider our sense of self, our own worthiness. Teacher and Poet <a href="https://sites.utexas.edu/humanitiesinstitute/2020/04/06/john-odonohues-this-is-the-time-to-be-slow/">John O’Donohue writes:</a> <br /></p><blockquote>Try, as best you can, not to let <br />The wire brush of doubt <br />Scrape from your heart <br />All sense of yourself <br />And your hesitant light. </blockquote><p>I can’t offer you any proof that each person has <a href="https://www.uua.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/principles">inherent worth and dignity</a>, and I’ll get real with you for a moment here, there are definitely times when I wonder- what is my worth? But if I try to head off my fears using doubt as a defense mechanism, I could easily dim that “hesitant light”. Instead we can try a more subtle use of doubt, like an experiment. If we have an old voice of judgement in our minds, that says “you’re no good” can we bring our skillful doubt to that, and ask “really? How do I know that? Where does that question come from? What other conclusions are possible given the facts of this moment?” What if we lived our lives as if we had inherent worth and dignity, investigating and exploring questions about what the worth of our lives have been to myself and to our community. Such an experiment could help us grow in self knowledge and wisdom. <br /><br />Sogyal Rinpoche tells us: </p><p></p><blockquote>“The Buddha summons us to another kind of doubt, ‘like analyzing gold, scorching, cutting and rubbing it to tests its purity.’ ... In the place of our contemporary nihilistic form of doubt, then, I would ask you to put what I call a “noble doubt” the kind of doubt that is an integral part of the path toward enlightenment” [p. 124] </blockquote>Consider Community: Because of our human capacity to <a href="https://www.nichq.org/insight/childrens-social-and-emotional-development-starts-co-regulation">co-regulate</a>, to effect each others nervous systems unconsciously, both anxiety and resilience are sort of infectious. Feeling trust and safety or feeling distrust and fear are both contagious. Our distrust can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In a way we make our community trustworthy by deciding together, as a collective that it is trustworthy. I have seen this beloved community month after month, year after year, discuss heavy and challenging things together, and when we start from that gracious assumption of good intent the discussions are deep and meaningful. I’ve also seen meetings where there is a deep distrust in one another, a suspicion that infects the relationship. I’ve seen communities rooted in distrust tear themselves apart. There’s a paradox there- trust has to be earned, but it can’t be earned if we don’t risk. Also, trust is a subtle and complex thing, just as doubt is. Trust is specific and personal. For example, I had a friend who was often 45 minutes late for our get-togethers. I could have painted with a broad stroke, assumed “she untrustworthy” but if I used a finer stroke I noticed the many ways she was trustworthy, and in fact she was quite reliable about always being late. I decided I would always meet her at my place or hers and bring a book in case she was running behind. Like the fine brushes of an archeologist, we brush away the dust until what is true and solid emerges. <br /><br />As I was looking for hymns this week, I sung through #293 “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4f8iAhE9w4">O Star of Truth</a>”. The tune is nice but it ends with the phrase “though I be lone and weary” and I thought, that’s not the kind of doubt I want to encourage today- doubt that isolates us and makes us weary. I am talking about the kind of doubt that can happen within beloved community – our community can help us be accountable, challenge us. We aspire to be that kind of community that can say “I have a different point of view” <br /><br />And of course when we have evidence to the contrary- for example the wrong link is in the newsletter, the preacher uses the wrong word for something -- we try to again assume good intent behind the mistake, and also to make course corrections as we go. We know for a fact our leaders, or members, our tradition is fallible. Rev. Rebecca Parker once said what she admired most about UUs was that we understood something about what it is to be human. We know that we make mistakes, and we know that we learn and grow. We come together in community as fallible, growing, evolving humans, and part of the reason I love this congregation is because I trust that if I make a mistake, you will ask me about it in a gentle loving way- “the 28th is a Tuesday, did you mean worship would be on a Tuesday, or that it will be on Sunday the 26th?” <br /> <br />Sogyal Rinpoche writes: <p></p><p></p><p></p><blockquote>“Don’t let us take doubts with exaggerated seriousness, or let them grow out of proportion, or become black-and-white or fanatical about them. What we need to learn is how slowly to change our culturally conditioned and passionate involvement with doubt into a free humorous and compassionate one. This means giving doubts time, and giving ourselves time to find answers to our questions that are not merely intellectual or “philosophical” but living and real and genuine and workable. Doubts cannot resolve themselves immediately; but if we are patient a space can be created within us, in which doubts can be carefully and objectively examined, unraveled, dissolved and healed.” </blockquote>On the spiritual path we will experience doubt, I know I do. Our task then is the subtle discernment of what is trustworthy -- in our religious tradition, in our community, in ourselves. It’s an easy habit to let our doubts convince us that nothing is trustworthy, to let our cynicism coat everything with a single shade of paint. Could we instead engage with doubt in a way that is “ free, humorous and compassionate?” Could we hold our doubts like an artist’s paintbrush with subtlety and skill to reveal a living and complex reality? Your doubts are welcome here- let us support one another as we test the stones beneath our feet, and trust that which we find to be trustworthy.<br /><p></p><br /><p><style>@font-face
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You could get a little ball for a quarter, and a bigger one for 2 quarters. We ended up with quite a collection over the years, which I dug out for this sermon. You never know which balls are going to be the best bouncers until you got one out of the machine and toss it at the ground. Some balls bounce so high, others would hit the ground with a thud and roll disappointingly away. Bouncy balls are all about resilience- that moment when your rubber ball hits the floor, or the wall, and kind of smushes down, deforms, and then snaps back to its regular round ball shape. Resilience makes bouncy balls bouncy.<br /></p><p>Everything is more or less resilient. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=205T2eBzdts">Youtube</a> and TikTok are full of people throwing objects at the floor or wall and noticing what bounces, what splats and what shatters into a million bits. <br /><br />When we are talking about humans, we use the word “resilience” in kind of a poetic way for what helps us “bounce back” body mind and spirit from the ordinary and major pressures of life. I know I’ve had moments where I feel kind of brittle and fragile, times when I land on the floor with a splat and just stay there and other times when I feel totally up to bouncing back from what life hands me. All mammals, like us, need to have a range of how “aroused” we are. For sitting in church, for example, we need to be pretty still, be able to sit quietly-ish. More quietly than, for example, playing a game of tennis. In the normal week or day we go up and down all day long. <br /><br />But sometimes something happens in our lives that is so important that we have evolved the ability to shut down some of our basic maintenance functions like resting, digesting, healing, connecting with family and friends. This part of your brain notices the car that came out of nowhere and jams on the breaks before your thinking mind is even paying attention. Like in a Star Trek episode, when the captain commands “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSRiaDvLXrs">divert all power</a> to shields”, or engines, or wherever it is needed for the current existential crisis. Sometimes it shuts us down and us be so still and quiet the danger passes us by- that’s the freeze response. Rev. Soto described that so evocatively in our reading: “when the world is heavy, like wet laundry, dragging from Your arms.” <br /><br />Those are amazing adaptations that has helped us and other animals survive for millennia, but pretty quickly when the threat has passed we need to divert power back to life support. Most of the challenges we meet in our daily lives can be done without that, and in fact, we do most things better when our nervous system is in the Goldilocks zone, or what adults usually call it “the resilience zone.” <br /><br />Resmaa Menakem says in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34146782-my-grandmother-s-hands?">My Grandmother’s Hands</a> (which he wrote back in 2017) that one kind of event likely to cause trauma in most people is a pandemic – so we all know something about trauma in some way. If we’ve learned nothing else these past 3 years, it’s that sometimes things happen that make us feel like we “can’t even” what neuro science is helping us understand is that … you’re right. Your ability to “even” is just not available sometimes, this is because you are out of your “resilience zone” <br /><br />There have been great advances in our understanding of what trauma does to the nervous system, particularly through the research at the VA about soldiers with PTSD, and the studies of adverse childhood experiences. (An important overview of this work can be found in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693771-the-body-keeps-the-score">The Body Keeps the Score</a>.) People who have lived through many kinds of traumas get stuck in survival mode, and have a very narrow resilience zone, it doesn’t take much to make them feel like they are in danger. <br /><br />The good news is that researchers are finding is that healing happens best when we can grow our resilience zone. That even folks like you and me who are not neuroscientists or clinicians, we can grow our resiliency zone for ourselves and we can help grow the resilience of our communities. The <a href="https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/">Trauma Resource Institute</a> developed something called the “<a href="https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/crm">Community Resiliency Model</a>” (CRM) based on the ideas that “People are resilient. Any person can learn self regulation skills based on science. The skills of well-being can reduce suffering.” And that each of us learn what works for us. <br /><br />When in the Resilient Zone one is able to handle the stresses of life; You can be annoyed or even angry but do not feel like you will lose your head. You can feel sad without feeling like you can’t get out of bed. And because of neuroplasticity (the lifelong capacity of the brain to change and rewire itself in response to the stimulation of learning and experience) we can grow that resilience zone. <br /><br />So today we focus on resilience, offering just a couple of the practices taught by the CRM and backed by science that help you get back to that ordinary middle- the resilience zone. A what I’m sharing with you today comes from Trauma Resource institute, which has gone all around the world training communities which have faced trauma. It’s a way normal people can support themselves and each others even when there is no expert around. Ordinary things you could do anywhere. <br /><br /> I’m not going to try to explain the science of WHY this works, but you might look at the work of <a href="https://www.ccjm.org/content/76/4_suppl_2/S86.long">Steven Porges</a> and the <a href="https://ct.counseling.org/2016/06/polyvagal-theory-practice/">Polyvagal theory</a> if you are curious. [Here's another <a href="https://melissainstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/THE-EMERGING-NEUROBIOLOGY-OF-RESILIENCE-June-2015.pdf">helpful summary</a>] We already did 3: <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://insighttimer.com/blog/54321-grounding-technique/">Coming to our senses</a> </li><li>Comforting Gesture (<a href="https://emdrfoundation.org/toolkit/butterfly-hug.pdf">The butterfly hug is a good one</a>) </li><li><a href="https://www.uua.org/worship/words/meditation/our-roots-resilience">Grounding</a></li></ul><p>But the most important starting place is that everything is optional. This goes well with our UU belief that you have an inner wisdom that is the ultimate source of authority about how it is to be you, so if I or someone else suggests anything that doesn’t feel right, feel free to skip it, or do something else that does feel right. Everyone has a different nervous system, we’ve all faced different challenges. <br /><br />So the first thing is just to check in with yourself, to notice how you feel right now. Content? Anxious? Sleepy? Just notice how it feels to be you right now. <br /><br />Notice someplace in your body that feels good or neutral (I'm noticing the side of my leg feels pretty neutral) and remember you can always can bring attention to that place. <br /><br />The final practice I want to offer you now is called “resourcing” [this practice comes from <a href="https://www.traumaresourceinstitute.com/crm">CRM</a>] this just means “bringing to mind Something that makes you feel calm, joyful, or contented....or confident, strong, and alive It could be.... a person, a place, an activity you enjoy, an internal strength, an external support. <br /></p><p>Take a moment and call to mind some things that are resources for you <br /> Now pick one and think of 3 details about your resource. <br />You can write them down, or draw them, or share them with a friend. <br />As you listen to your companion, or read over what you've written, or look at your drawing, notice what happens on the inside. <br /><br />If that doesn’t sound like the right practice for you right now, I invite you to go back to a different practice that seems right to you. </p><p>This takes practice- when we trying to grow that resilience zone, it’s like exercising a muscle. And so especially at first it’s good to practice when you are doing okay – justice notice what’s happening on the inside, offer yourself a practice that feels right to you for the situation you are in. Call to mind a resource, notice what you can seen, hear, touch, just as a reminder to our nervous system about our resilience. When we practice widening our resilience zone, then we increase our capacity to stay present with one another and stay awake to the concerns that need our attention. <br /><br /> The resilience zone is where learning happens, growth happens, creativity, relationship building. Resting, digesting. That’s why we gather together for memorial services, for example, so that we can help each other grieve and “be sad but not feel like you will be washed away by the river of sorrows.” Actually, many aspects of the way we do church probably evolved to help us arrive in the resilience zone. Take a moment to look around you at the beautiful tapestry of people gathered together- in person, on zoom. Remember the sounds of the beautiful music we heard earlier in the service. Resourcing is something we do a lot in church - remembering together the things that give us strength and hope. That’s part of why we share our joys and sorrows. Even social hour- eating and drinking together helps grow that resilience zone, if you having an interesting conversation, you know you’re in the zone, and if you can’t even, that’s okay too. We support one another as we learn and grow in our resilience.</p><p><style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style> </p><p><u>Reflection: Ho</u><u>pe, Change and Evolution</u></p><p></p><p>Why do we celebrate <a href="https://www.theclergyletterproject.org/rel_evolution_weekend_2022.html">Evolution Weekend</a>? It’s partly because our UU sources encourage us to “heed the guidance of reason and the results of science,” and indeed our faith grew up alongside science when it was a brand new way of looking at the world. Darwin himself was raised by a Unitarian mother and went with her to her Unitarian chapel. Says the <a href="https://ncse.ngo/evolution-weekend">National Center of Science Education</a> “One goal of [evolution weekend] is to … demonstrate that religious people from many different denominations and faith traditions understand that evolution is sound science, and that, properly understood as science, it poses no problem for their faith.”<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> I would go one step further and say that when we take a long loving look at the world around us, it can be a source of our faith. The body of the earth, and our bodies, and the history we all share can be a kind of scripture, to which we turn when we are troubled and need wisdom and hope. <br /><br />We take part in Evolution weekend to practice that long loving look at the real, with science as our magnifying glass. We tell the story of the history of how our universe, how our ecosystems evolved through millennia because the story gives us hope, which is something we all need very much. When we look at the many real troubles of our world and feel powerless, as individual humans, and even as a people together - I know there are times when I wonder “are we up to this challenge?” In such moments we need a source of hope that is larger than our human selves. Because we are theologically diverse here, we are atheists, theists and agnostics, when we need a source of hope outside ourselves, when we feel like even all of humanity together is not enough, I am reassured to remember that life itself has been solving overwhelming problems since long before there were humans. <br /><br />Because most of us are not scientists, and sometimes our eyes glaze over when we hear the word “Cytochrome-c” storytellers are trying to turn the raw facts of peer reviewed science into stories ordinary people can understand and remember and turn to for hope. <br /><br />Our Universe story is full of moments when life solved overwhelming problems through the process of evolution; just one example of this is the problem of what we are going to eat. Those first living cells feasted on the chemical nutrients which were abundant until they ate them all up. This crisis was met with the stunning evolution of an ancestor who evolved to photosynthesize 3.9 million years ago, to capture photons and turn them into energy. When this new process of using the suns rays for energy, eating the light for food, produced a deadly gas --overpowering clouds of oxygen which was toxic to all life forms then on our earth. the first single celled organisms to use oxygen for fuel spontaneously adapted in response to this huge crisis. <br /><br />In our story this morning, we talked about how we inherited the capacity to disassemble grains and transform them into the building blocks of our own lives. One of the tools we inherited that allows us to do this is Cytochrome-c-- an enzyme<a href="#_edn2">[ii]</a> in our cells that is important in the breakdown of food molecules. It is found in large, complicated organisms like trees, alligators, and us, and also found in little one celled bacteria. It has existed for a very long time, but not always. The primal single-cell organisms first put together this very useful enzyme billions of years ago. And it was so useful that it has been handed down ever since. <br /><br />But life can’t hand down a molecule the way my grandmother handed down a recipes; molecules don’t last forever. Instead the same pattern of nucleotides used by the first organisms to make Cytochrome-c was passed on to us and our bodies use that pattern today to make brand new Cytochrome-c proteins which help turn grains and bread into flesh and blood. For as long as there have been cells, even those very first primal Prokaryote cells, they have had this capacity to reproduce patterns. These patterns are tucked into our DNA<a href="#_edn3">[iii]</a>, and the very first pattern they had to learn was how to re-create life. Without those patterns life on earth would have been a momentary blip. <br /><br />But how did our ancestors back over 2 billion years ago “learn” to turn food into useful stuff? The way scientists believe this works is that as DNA is passed on mother to child, sometimes by chance little changes happen (and what we are learning now is that not all of those changes happen by chance- some changes are sort of lying dormant in the DNA and are triggered by the environment). These slight differences in the patterns of the nucleotides lead to differences in the proteins within the cell. Huge numbers, possibly millions of such “slightly different” proteins are made this way before one of these slightly-changed patterns holds within it a unique gift that helps that cell to survive, and this genetic pattern for –say - cytochrome c, is passed on to its children and following generations until, if it is a very useful gene, it is spread throughout the population. <br /><br />Much as one baby learns to eat food through trial and error, thousands of generations of living beings “learn” through living out different patterns, some successful, some unsuccessful, which patterns allow life to flourish and thrive. But unlike the baby learning to eat solid food, it is not any one individual who learns, instead it is life’s long process of adapting through trial and error, and then remembering through these patterns and so passing on what is learned to future generations. <br /><br />Brian Swimme is a professor and writer that has spent his career trying to take all that complex science information about our past and turn it into a story those of us who haven’t had a science class since high school can remember. As Swimme and Tucker say in their book The Journey of the Universe “It is life as a whole that learned to digest its various foods.” In this way, Swimme and Tucker write: <br /></p><blockquote>“Though life’s creativity is a groping and sometimes chaotic process it is also a learning process. The connotation in modern English of the verb “to learn” is that of an individual acquiring a new skill, but with the discovery of biological evolution, we have a new insight into the way the ancient process of evolution can be understood as a higher-level form of “learning” we can begin with a simple question “Who has learned to transform food into flesh?” We humans certainly had nothing to do with the construction of the physiological processes involved. Nor can we think of the early bacteria that first generated the cytochrome c protein as having any idea of what their invention might one day be used for. No, it was not any individual who learned this. It was rather life’s whole process of adaption and memory that was responsible for this new ability. It is life as a whole that learned to digest its various foods. [<a href="https://www.journeyoftheuniverse.org/">Journey of the Universe</a> p. 60-61]</blockquote><a href="#_edn4"></a> It’s really quite amazing – the stunning intelligence of the forms life takes, from the nuclei of a single cell, to the amazing complexity of a leopard or a human body. For a long time creationists took the point of view that this beauty and complexity proved a divine entity was at work. Science took the mechanistic view that life was more like a machine, randomly creating mutations until we hit the lottery and through endless combination came up with something amazing, like photosynthesis. Today some scientists are starting to wonder- is it possible that life’s yearning, life’s striving, life’s urgent need could in some way guide our evolution? In the same way that I know I am existentially different from a toaster, could life itself have in its growing and learning and evolving something beyond the nihilism of meaningless chance? <br /><br />But I digress. For things like breaking down grains into the more useful proteins that are the building blocks of our bodies, we rely on a legacy going back billions of years in our DNA. This happens entirely outside our consciousness. Not only does this story give me evidence for the hope that life can overcome great obstacles, but also that within each one of us, within our very cells is a great library of information from our ancestors. Now not every being gets a copy of every pattern. Flying, for example, is a piece of the pattern you and I did not get. Breathing air and photosynthesizing are both amazing skills critical to our balanced biosphere, but we got one and plants got the other. No one set of DNA has the learning of all our ancestors, so in a way life’s learning is a community activity. We need all this great diversity of genetic patterns present in all the living things to preserve the tremendous knowledge needed to sustain life on earth. <br /><br />Humanity, life on earth, we in this congregation face challenges we’ve never faced before. So what do we do? In her book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84243.The_Earth_Path?">Earth Path</a> Starhawk finds hope in how our non-human ancestors have faced the great challenges. “Those simple, one-celled beings were already experimenting with different forms. Some were long and skinny and wriggled and swam. Some were round and fat. Some adapted to hot and some to cold. And always they were trading genes, shifting forms, changing and transforming.” Like our earliest ancestors we experiment, we try stuff. All the great advances in life came from trying all kinds of things, being creative, experimenting. <br /><br />Then, we learn from our experiments- we notice what worked, what didn’t work. Fortunately it’s not just our brains that do the learning, it’s our bodies too, it’s the bodies of every living thing on the planet trying to solve the problem of how life can thrive. And just as our families pass on to us the knowledge of how to bake bread, our genes pass on to our descendants how to digest it. <br /><br /> As much as I long to know the answers to life’s pressing problems, sometimes our job is just to experiment and try stuff, in community with all the incredibly diverse forms of life on our biosphere. <br /><br />This story fills me up with gratitude and wonder for the legacy we carry in our very cells filled with the wisdom of 4 billion years of life on this earth. Our human lives are only a small chapter in this epic adventure, but life is evolving through us, and new chapters are still being written. <br /><br />As people who honor the evolution of life on this planet, we know that massive change is possible, and that life strives, clings, fights for life. <a href="https://www.joannamacy.net/">Joanna Macy</a>, Buddhist teacher and activist once, remarked “Evolutionary pressures want us to survive.” Evolution is the transformation of species and eco-system to increase the odds that life in all its abundance and variety will survive. Sometimes this comes through radical change, change as radical as the first plants who photosynthesized light into food, as radical as learning to breathe air, as radical as holding the first tool. The survival of life counts on our capacity to change, to evolve as the world itself changes and evolves.Swimme and Tucker write:<p></p><blockquote><p> “When we today remember that the energy of our lives comes from the original flaring forth of the universe, and that the atoms of our bodies come from the explosion of ancient stars, and that the patterns of our lives come from many ancestors over billions of years, we begin to appreciate the intricate manner in which life remembers the past and brings it into fresh form today. Life adapts. Life remembers. Life Learns.” (p. 61) </p></blockquote><p>We have not reached the end of our evolution as a biosphere, nor have we reached the end of our evolution as a species. I offer this as a very nerdy and concrete source of hope -- when hope is hard to find, remember that life itself wants us to succeed, to survive, to creatively overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges as we have since the dawn of life. <br />
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-39096988065670126942023-02-07T08:32:00.001-08:002023-02-07T08:32:57.139-08:00Legacy Trees<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1STUTux6fl6RUqEwWadGo0PN0OhofFecFtUiLrM2ZPUo2TkDjK8sVA7T86HeomKlfplJty2n_LlA85LCMYGb4ghyswz4z2_MDViGZHUMKxyLdjh-tdfq8BnSws6VQNsFNlg2DeAsy281zRYNAcKJuWOjL8ixYOPYGkBQk-rjChJA3KC268oYfWpYZQ/s1985/squirrel.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1327" data-original-width="1985" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge1STUTux6fl6RUqEwWadGo0PN0OhofFecFtUiLrM2ZPUo2TkDjK8sVA7T86HeomKlfplJty2n_LlA85LCMYGb4ghyswz4z2_MDViGZHUMKxyLdjh-tdfq8BnSws6VQNsFNlg2DeAsy281zRYNAcKJuWOjL8ixYOPYGkBQk-rjChJA3KC268oYfWpYZQ/s320/squirrel.jpg" width="320" /></a>The trees I see best from my front porch in downtown Ithaca are the Ginkos and honey locusts across the street on that strip of land planted by the City between sidewalk and street. They are taller by a story or 2 than the homes around them, and right now, with the branches bare of leaves, you can see large nests of several species. I know I’ve seen squirrels and Jays go in and out of those nests- and some of those nests have been there longer than I’ve lived in my house- so the nests themselves pass generation to generation. The squirrels use the canopy, a continuity of trees to travel safely out of the way of cats and cars to food and water. Last summer I watched the young squirrels first venture out of their nest in the honey locust <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIfB26XY0EXbRkyq5zbxyshjNeh0KrEHRgVvJFicYcoiUjkPlN9eI4XMznubTKzVEbLQKriGCHi6G3I3TpVtBF7DraUl_wBIcJpmd-GZaHr3EM7wy1641DPuNFagArCYHfzj6eFpOqSZ6mLMpeBPM2u9WYaQ9HD6kmsk2CU2GXosIuEUU0EpBP9JsHA/s2320/nest.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="2320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiIfB26XY0EXbRkyq5zbxyshjNeh0KrEHRgVvJFicYcoiUjkPlN9eI4XMznubTKzVEbLQKriGCHi6G3I3TpVtBF7DraUl_wBIcJpmd-GZaHr3EM7wy1641DPuNFagArCYHfzj6eFpOqSZ6mLMpeBPM2u9WYaQ9HD6kmsk2CU2GXosIuEUU0EpBP9JsHA/s320/nest.JPG" width="320" /></a>climb out and learn travel across the street to my little Japanese Lilac, younger and smaller, where my bird feeder hangs. I watched, over the course of just a week or 2 as they grew bolder and braver and more skillful. Something about just sitting and watching the trees and all the activity of those who call them home is deeply and easily healing to my spirit. <br /><br />For many of us paying attention to nature is an important spiritual practice. In her book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/84260.Circle_Round?"><i>Circle Round: Raising Children In The Goddess Traditions</i></a> Diane Baker writes “One of my primary goals as a parent is to help my children revere earth, and discover the powerful correlation between loving nature and living the Goddess.” She shares her personal motto, “Studying nature is learning divinity.” … [392] So when you are staring out your window watching a squirrel scamper, we might not realize we are learning divinity. It’s a lovely spiritual practice, and one place to start paying attention to and knowing the trees around you- In that same book Starhawk writes “No Thealogy, no ritual can do as much to teach children to love nature as a friendship with a real tree. A fruit tree in your backyard, a favorite climbing tree, a host to a bird’s nest or a newly planted sapling can become a source of joy and connection for your child. I still remember the tree my friend Barry and I most loved to climb when I was nine years old. I still mourn the magnificent sycamore I could see from our kitchen window that our neighbors cut down years ago.” [p. 386] <br /><br />I wonder, sometimes, as I sit there on the porch, what would happen to all those birds and squirrels, not to mention the moss and lichen and all the unseen critters and plants who depend on those trees, if that Honey Locust tree was cut down. <br /><br />It is part of the job of the <a href="https://www.cityofithaca.org/245/Parks-Forestry">Ithaca City Forester</a> makes the hard decisions about which trees need to be removed. She has to weigh things like what branches could be a danger to passing pedestrians, cars and buildings. She also has to take a long view about the urban forest as a whole- for example if you replace all the trees at one time, then the new generation will be set up to die off around the same time. I watch as they choose a couple trees in each neighborhood to cut down each summer, and replace them with young trees. By young, we probably mean at least 10 years old, taller than me. On one property where they took down the biggest oldest tree on the block, an ancient maple it would have taken at least 2 people to get their arms around in a hug, which had been dropping branches and was starting to decay in places, they carefully replaced it with a young fruit tree. Obviously this is not an even swap. Not even the smallest bird or squirrel can live in the young tree. It’s certainly not providing the same carbon sink of a big tree, or helping clean the air like a big tree. And remember much of a tree extends below where the soil, where it is an important part of the community of underground life as well. On my daily walks during this transition I could see the huge hole left by the roots of this great tree, and the comparatively tiny root ball of the new one. <br /><br />The new tree provides no shade, but on the up side I think my neighbor likes all the sunshine, and you can see the rapid influx of sun loving plants that are sprouting up under the tiny fruit tree that never could have lived under that old Maple. <br /><br />As hard as it is to see one old tree go down in a neighborhood full of wonderful trees in all stages of life, I appreciate that commitment to sustaining a multi-generational urban forest. When the city of Ithaca did that major reconstruction on the commons, they thought long and hard about the trees there. Ultimately they had to take out many trees to do the renovations, since their root system was right where the plumbing needed to be, they left a couple of older trees in bank alley and designed the new walkway to flow around them, preserving some of the only natural shade and habitat on the commons. You can also see the new trees, older than saplings but still shorter than the buildings around them, that are part of this multigenerational plan. <br /><br />As a culture we seem to cut down trees easily. My friend Aileen lives in a part of the world where with surprising regularity she sees whole wooded areas gone in a matter of days, replaced by server farms, big industrial buildings. Even in housing developments it is common to see old trees cut down for the ease of developers who then plant saplings in the fill dirt as if this was a replacement. The new buildings go up quickly in a matter of months, but the contractors who cut down the old trees will probably not live to see the replacements grow to maturity. I tell you it breaks my heart to see an old tree taken down without thought to what really is lost. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOLdfZb1cmpiDqBtGFNMcaksO4LOUJ8JZuBUHNQMJZxSEyu_UOYIRSkcr-Bzbhh4YhE4HE9boMAH4kL0WRdIZ1LhXE8zEAVZ6KMan32RDyw_BFd5XCR_UOWbq94uplLgYTJ6nLyHXENsq5X7X2d-wg85hkVL5yH68XUS4lLgLWuhnlJXIGR-Ci94OvpA/s4032/one%20billion%20trees%20planted.JPG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOLdfZb1cmpiDqBtGFNMcaksO4LOUJ8JZuBUHNQMJZxSEyu_UOYIRSkcr-Bzbhh4YhE4HE9boMAH4kL0WRdIZ1LhXE8zEAVZ6KMan32RDyw_BFd5XCR_UOWbq94uplLgYTJ6nLyHXENsq5X7X2d-wg85hkVL5yH68XUS4lLgLWuhnlJXIGR-Ci94OvpA/s320/one%20billion%20trees%20planted.JPG" width="240" /></a>When I walk through my local grocery store I don’t feel assuaged by their promise of “one billion trees planted”- the young tree and the mature tree are not equivalent. Planting new trees is wonderful, but without a community of elders, most fail to survive. Not cutting down a tree- protecting it and preserving it -- is much less glamorous than planting a new one but is a powerful and important contribution. <br /><br />The trees invite us to think of the value of things that grow slowly, and how that slow stable steady growth can ground a whole community. I think trees can be important teachers if we let them. We don’t have many truly ancient trees nearby, all those primeval forests were cut down by the early settlers, but even the city trees, the ones old enough to shelter squirrels and birds, are older than us. They are patient and slow, and so it’s easy to overlook the decades or centuries of growth it takes to build a structure that serves not only their own species, but the whole ecosystem where they live and grow. <br /><br />Perhaps those heritage trees can be role models for our own lives, can provide a different perspectives for our traditions and institutions in our community. We are a culture that rewards novelty and startups. I’m told there are many more grants, for example for nonprofits who are kickstarting new initiatives than grants to support older programs with deep roots in the community. As someone with pretty radical progressive views I know I have often taken a “tear it all down” attitude towards the institutions that clearly do not serve all people. <br /><br />Sometimes, as I approach the anniversary of 25 years in the ministry, as we as a congregation celebrate 215 and 186 years since our founding, and over 250 years of universalism, I often wonder, how would I know when it was time to step aside and let some younger minister, some newer organization take the sunshine, space and resources I use right now? <br /><br />Susan V. Bosak of the <a href="https://www.legacyproject.org/guides/whatislegacy.html">Legacy Project</a> writes: <br /></div><blockquote>“Where do you think it's best to plant a young tree: a clearing in an old-growth forest or an open field? Ecologists tell us that a young tree grows better when it's planted in an area with older trees. The reason, it seems, is that the roots of the young tree are able to follow the pathways created by former trees and implant themselves more deeply. Over time, the roots of many trees may actually graft themselves to one another, creating an intricate, interdependent foundation hidden under the ground. In this way, stronger trees share resources with weaker ones so that the whole forest becomes healthier. That's legacy: an interconnection across time, with a need for those who have come before us and a responsibility to those who come after us.” </blockquote><div>Let’s consider that for a moment- how we as a congregation need those who came before us, and our responsibility to those who come after. Consider, for example, how challenging our commitment to multi-platform worship has been. We are building new pathways in real time, or as some say building the plane while flying it. It makes me more appreciative of the pathways we inherited, those built for us by all the volunteers who came before in our churches. I stand right now in the Athens sanctuary where the curve of the pulpit area was constructed to send sound out into the sanctuary, how the light of the southern stained glass window lights us on sunny days. Little things like the fact that there is already an outlet under the pulpit, a door that closes between the pulpit and the back door, which even has a coatrack for the worship team’s coats, and a mirror in case you panic at the last moment about whether your hair is sticking up funny. If you wanted to go in the social hall right now and make coffee for yourself, for 10 people, for 100 people, everything you need is right there including written instructions. Hundreds of ways big and small that members of our congregations smoothed the way for us now. And we too building pathways now that we hope will serve in time to come – like the addition we are building to our sanctuary in Zoom space for all those who want to be with us but can’t join us in person. <br /><br />Just as our city Forester must decide which trees are steady and strong, which trees need to be pruned, and when it is time for an old tree to come down and make space for the next generation, so we are called to discern. It’s easy, when you are young, to see all that needs to be changed, matched by all the fresh energy and inspiration ready to manifest. It can take the long view of older folks to see the role these older sometimes unseen institutions and traditions play in undergirding and supporting anything that will be built today. It’s not just age, of course, but perspective- if an old tree or old institution has been blocking the sun from shining on you, you can easily see the importance of taking it down. If you were supported in some nurturing way by, say a UU church, it’s easier to imagine how that church could serve those who come after. <br /><br />Right now the Athens congregation is working through the sale of our Sheshequin meeting house. A beautiful old tree if ever there was one- on the national registry of historic places as a great example of federalist architecture, and a place of great meaning for many in our church and larger community. Fortunately, the fellow who is buying the place is one of those for whom the building has meaning. A new squirrel in an old nest perhaps. <br /><br />Just as we might take for granted the gifts of the great old legacy trees, it’s easy to take for granted these great old traditions, like Universalism, like democracy. In honor of the new year of the tress, I invite you to bring to mind with gratitude great old heritage trees (literal and metaphoric) in your community. These old trees, old traditions, yes even us older people have something important to offer to the generations who are new, and those yet to come. It’s not always clear what that is, since the future is so uncertain, but maybe it would be fun as we are noticing our trees to ask “in what way am I like that old maple? Or like that little fruit tree? How does my being and growing and living support others in the web of life, and what big old trees that I did not plant support and shelter and make way for me? <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NwzhQjrgrbX1D0Be1jjbvSIJXPl04n8W0k7vW7UCjqOLDVw2mtM-2wQFy7x9qh7Tye4KX9HVaM0p92OA51UjyJjNQm-GTOwZo3cyVFxImGc6US9VMgdK7vTgU4OLOEVjLTk-cftCYtv1k1CXIfYIDBkI43MiLhZJY_j8fQzeJbifOlAmZuFsgf8thg/s3024/winter%20tree%202008.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="3024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_NwzhQjrgrbX1D0Be1jjbvSIJXPl04n8W0k7vW7UCjqOLDVw2mtM-2wQFy7x9qh7Tye4KX9HVaM0p92OA51UjyJjNQm-GTOwZo3cyVFxImGc6US9VMgdK7vTgU4OLOEVjLTk-cftCYtv1k1CXIfYIDBkI43MiLhZJY_j8fQzeJbifOlAmZuFsgf8thg/s320/winter%20tree%202008.jpg" width="320" /></a>In honor of the new year for trees, we pay attention to the trees which support and shade and provide oxygen for our own lives, with respect and gratitude. This time of year right now is a great time to see the branching frame of the tree, each one different, it’s also a great time to see nests and the critters who live in trees. Soon the buds will set and leaves will start to grow almost overnight; we’re heading into a very rewarding time to pay attention to a tree in your neighborhood. In honor of the New Year for Trees, we also keep planting seeds and sheltering the young ones. This is one of the blessings of inter-generational community- the community of trees, of beings, and our little gathered community planted long before any of us were born, and growing still. <br /> <br /> <style>@font-face
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-90343834164687980852023-01-24T13:13:00.002-08:002023-01-24T13:13:22.339-08:00Caring for One Another<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWwIR_QlPRxT1pCdt9SOV3aC4yDf4s7xjf5rf1v53DEcEkjnJfFixPOA6dS_UZeYB1gZjBRF-oc6mZCBR3Ai-19toCzvsokL-_mh0IS5pbeUUiJ6lodLBlV6DppKXdPDLoBj9vDVsWZ_vM6esK4VFa66_uBnthu0ePtGQMswc0wgz1O_yjRfSOlrfcw/s2048/THanksgiving%202005%20nick%20matt%20ted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDWwIR_QlPRxT1pCdt9SOV3aC4yDf4s7xjf5rf1v53DEcEkjnJfFixPOA6dS_UZeYB1gZjBRF-oc6mZCBR3Ai-19toCzvsokL-_mh0IS5pbeUUiJ6lodLBlV6DppKXdPDLoBj9vDVsWZ_vM6esK4VFa66_uBnthu0ePtGQMswc0wgz1O_yjRfSOlrfcw/s320/THanksgiving%202005%20nick%20matt%20ted.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Grampa leads the youngest cooks in making Cranberry Sauce</i></span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />I have this clear memory from when I was maybe 11 years old, of being at my friend’s house just before mealtime and everyone was pitching in- setting the table and all those things you do as mealtime draws near. I knew I should be helping -- my parents often rolled their eyes at me over the years saying “why are you just standing there and not helping” -- but I just had no clear idea what needed to be done and how I could help, or even where the plates were kept in this strange kitchen. I carried that feeling with me for many years, that “helping” was something everyone had figured out except me. <br /><br />As I watched my son growing up, I’ve seen him get better and better at helping – how to hold a door open, how to set the table. This year at Thanksgiving he knew without anyone telling him that you have to make the cranberry sauce early in the day before the kitchen gets too busy and he asked when we were aiming to serve dinner so the Mashed potatoes would be warm. It was such a gift to know those parts of the meal were taken care of, and I cherish the sweet memories of 15 Thanksgivings of mentoring with the cooking team it took to get there. <br /><br />I understand as a middle-aged person what my 11 year old self didn’t, that learning how to lend a hand takes time and experience. As last month’s potluck seemed to magically assemble itself, folks having arrived early to set up tables and gather food, we chatted about how the skills of potlucking transfer from one congregation to another. How even if you’ve never potlucked with a particular community before, and don’t know where they keep their fold up tables or how to run the dishwasher, you know everything needs to go back to the kitchen at the end, and someone’s going to have to get the crumbs off the floor. <br /><br />Likewise, once you have been a parent, or cared for a baby, you glance at a fussy baby and exhausted parent and realize it might be helpful to offer “would you like me to take the baby for a bit?” And then feel confident parent hands the child to you. I was a religious educator for 3 years before I had my son nick, but after attending church with a little one in tow I suddenly saw with new eyes how we could be more supportive to parents of young children, noticing obvious oversites like the total lack of highchairs, or failing to consider bedtimes when scheduling meetings to name a couple. <br /><br />Helping is a skill that evolves and gets better with time and experience. One of the silver linings of our own struggles is that we know what helped us when we needed help. I was able to help a friend jump start his car because my friend’s dad had taught me back when I was a teenager driving an ancient car with a tired old battery. There are things you know, each of you, because of what you’ve been through. You know what helped you, or the help you needed but didn’t get, or the supposedly helpful things people tried that were no help at all. <br /><br />Even if you don’t have any idea how to set up for a potluck, or visit a friend in the hospital, I would like this congregation to a place where we learn from one another about what helps. I chose today’s story because it says something important about what we, as a church community, can offer one another. It’s hard when we can’t fix what’s broken -- it hurts us so much to see a friend in need, but as the little girl in the story told her friends, what she most wanted from them was help with her loneliness. We should try not to let our inexperience and fear of getting it wrong keep us from doing the most important thing we can do- which is extending our care to one another. <br /><br />Even in the everyday work of the church, I am always touched when someone asks “can I give you a hand with that?” there is something so reassuring, even if you say “no thanks, I’ve got it” to know that you are part of a web of support. In his book <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18693771-the-body-keeps-the-score">The Body Keeps The Score</a> Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk explains that social support makes a surprising difference in how we recover from the hard moments of our lives. “Whenever we feel threatened, we instinctively turn to …, social engagement. We call out for help, support and comfort from the people around us. But if no one comes to our aid, or we’re in immediate danger, the organism reverts to a more primitive way to survive, fight or flight.” [p. 82] ”When something distressing happens, we automatically signal our upset in our facial expressions and tone of voice, changes meant to beckon others to come to our assistance. However, if no one responds to our call for help, the threat increases, and the older limbic brain jumps in… mobilizing muscles, heart and lungs for fight or flight.” [p. 84]” <br /><br />This is wired deep within us- when we feel connected to social support, our nervous systems can relax and go about the work or the healing that needs to be done. If we feel disconnected from social support, our nervous system cranks it up a notch, we end up in a fight or flight response. <br /><br />As a congregation that serves lovingly, we try to strengthen that interconnected web of social support that connects us all. Like in today’s story, certain suffering is beyond our capacity to fix or resolve, but we do the things we can do to help one another feel supported, feel connected. My friends were in marriage counseling a few years back and when one would do something for the other their therapist would ask “and did you receive that as love?” When someone offers to feed your cats while you are in the hospital or on vacation, it’s not just a practical help, it is a reminder of the love that holds us all. <br /><br />A couple of concrete tips for showing our care for one another. It is always lovely to ask “can I give you a hand with that?” By asking, the other person can consent, can receive it or decline. Sometimes when we are not doing well, we just don’t even know what we need, so it’s often good practice to offer specific things- Can I give you a ride to the doctor? Do you need me to pick up some groceries for you? The other nice thing about making a concrete offer is that then we can be clear about what we are able to give. Because of course there is no limit to the help the world needs, so we must discern inside ourselves what we are able to give, what we specifically feel called to give. <br /><br />In the Athens congregation at least 10 years ago we started something called the “caring circle”- it’s really just an email list of folks who want to know when other members are going through something hard or might need some help. When a beloved member had a stroke years ago, it was through this caring circle that we were able to let each other know she was in the hospital, and concrete things like room number, how she was doing, when visitors were allowed, and who had visited when (we were noticing that many of our hospitalized members got a slew of visitors after church Sunday, more visitors than a sick person should really have, and then no visitors during the week). Those who had more experience with hospital visits and strokes were able to offer concrete suggestions to those of us who weren’t quite sure what we could do. Being part of the caring circle doesn’t obligate anyone to do anything, we invite each person to discern for themselves what they are willing and able to give, as part of the wider web of community. <br /><br />We came up with a little handout, a little script for when you reach out to someone for the first time: <br /></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How are you, what’s going on? </li><li>Is it okay if I tell the minister? </li><li>Is it okay if I tell the caring circle? </li><li>Can I share it at Joys and concerns? </li><li>Would you like: </li><ul><li>Calls? </li><li>Visits? </li><li>Meals? </li><li>Rides? </li></ul><li>Any other way we could help? </li><li>Does your partner or family need any support? If so what is their name and contact information? </li></ul><p>A few years back, we had a conversation after church “how can I help” and we talked about what was helpful and not helpful. One member offered that what she most liked when she was in the hospital was to receive a nice plant to cheer her room. We went around the circle, and soon one person shared “If I am in the hospital, please don’t bring me a plant.” We had a good laugh. Some folks feel better knowing their congregation is aware they have a big surgery coming up, other folks are very private, and prefer not to share until the worst is past. One person shared that she liked to hear people’s messages on her voice mail, but also appreciated one who said “you don’t have to call me back” because she was feeling the weight of having to keep up with all the people reaching out. <br /><br />What has been helpful to you? What do you wish your helpers had known? <br /><br />One of the things I have always loved about both our churches is the way people pitch in and help. When our beloved Jason died this summer, the Cortland congregation jumped into action and put on memorials and a lunch without even being asked. We knew people would need a place to gather and support one another, we knew the healing properties of both worship and food. Consider the Goodie Bags we delivered during the times of Covid Isolation- these clearly provide no concrete help but folks tell us when they received our goodie bags, that gesture of connection helped them feel loved and connected. <br /><br />There are many times in our lives when we could use a hand- When you are sick at home, or in the hospital. When a loved one has died. When you are moving. When your car breaks down. When you are between jobs. When you just have too many things in your hands and need help opening a door. As a congregation committed to “serving lovingly” we keep an eye out for these moments when folks could use a hand. Our goal is not to meet every need- it’s humanly impossible. We help one another so that we remember we are not alone, that we are supported by a web of community and of life. Giving or receiving a helping hand reminds us we are part of something larger than ourselves, a love that holds us all. <br /><br /> <br /></p><p><style>@font-face
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{margin-bottom:0in;}</style></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-29241948868376783332023-01-17T14:31:00.000-08:002023-01-17T14:31:04.393-08:00The Wisdom of Howard Thurman<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6AVPP8UPqIeLv_Vxxdw4m5m5VzFBmt4dMsHSBMh5EkrXYtppQB7-dST-ehmI3PwQ_nb01-lQTE9M4idfszl0Xem3wkmlqjyLwxO1yBbR5i_2xTDaiaLA8E1EJN6oET7-s6vQXeVInbZljtJMevALYcEjMebqrCSH675l1AuMLZRA_al-ksS01rKEUhQ/s377/howardthurman-01_0.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="304" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6AVPP8UPqIeLv_Vxxdw4m5m5VzFBmt4dMsHSBMh5EkrXYtppQB7-dST-ehmI3PwQ_nb01-lQTE9M4idfszl0Xem3wkmlqjyLwxO1yBbR5i_2xTDaiaLA8E1EJN6oET7-s6vQXeVInbZljtJMevALYcEjMebqrCSH675l1AuMLZRA_al-ksS01rKEUhQ/s320/howardthurman-01_0.jpg" width="258" /></a></span></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Source: Boston University Archives<br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><h2 style="text-align: left;"> The Wisdom of Grandmother Nancy<br /></h2><p>Howard Thurman’s grandmother, Nancy Ambrose, was a very important person in his life. She had been born into slavery on a large plantation in South Carolina. She was a midwife in Daytona Florida, and people called her “Lady Nancy<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a>” <br /><br />As Thurman was growing up just at the start of the 20th century, he lived with her and his mom, (his dad died when he was 7) and called her the “anchor person in our family.” <br /><br />One of Thurman’s responsibilities growing up was to read to his grandmother from the bible each day. She told him that “Whenever her owner’s wife saw her little daughter trying to teach … grandmother the alphabet or one, two, three, she would chastise the child and send her to bed without supper.” grandmother said: “I saw there must be some magic in knowing how to read and write." <br /><br />Remembering her, Thurman recalled the stories she would tell occasionally about her time as an enslaved person, about how “sometimes the plantation owner’s minister would be permitted to hold a religious service for the slaves, and he always preached from the same text: ‘Slaves, be obedient to your masters, for this is right in the Lord.’ … grandmother said that she made up her mind then and there that if she ever learned to read or if freedom ever came she would never read that part of the Bible.” …”. So all the years that I was growing and had the job of reading to her every day, I could never read any of the Pauline letters, except now and then the 13th chapter of I Corinthians.<a href="#_edn2">[ii]</a> <br /><br />Thurman told a reporter many year’s later, in his own words:“My grandmother’s second story is even more important to me, but in a different way. She would talk about the times when a slaver preacher was permitted to hold services for the slaves of her master’s and all the neighboring plantations. <br /><br />I don’t remember how often this happened, but that that it happened at all was tremendously important. And then my sister and I would be every still, because we knew what she was going to tell us – this: “It didn’t matter what the text was, the minister always ended up at the same place.”... Then she would say: “he would stand up, start very quietly and then look around to all of us in the room and then he would say, ‘You are not slaves, you are not n____ – you are God’s children’. . .” And you know, when my grandmother said that she would unconsciously straighten up, head high and chest out, and a faraway look would come on her face.” <a href="#_edn3">[iii]</a> <br /><br />That phrase “you are God’s children” and that strength he saw in his grandmother inspired much of his writing and work. The same writing which inspired Martin Luther King and many others who made a huge difference in our country. <br /><br /></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MZ1GkmTpkwuyvhPS6iFUuc5gTmfetu9HaLIuiiOefFoifyLSowKMRqyrCgU1tNnfSgiOhKSDf61B3qrSQ4B7AAq-5NyFe4T3gO_TGJJSEqOqjzBz0godA7TNELIJ72NyMu_mFjEY5N6SoZohjLlSIggJozBfSjlSLbsc7B26bo9miswOuKhFSbtVnQ/s780/Howard-Thurman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="508" data-original-width="780" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1MZ1GkmTpkwuyvhPS6iFUuc5gTmfetu9HaLIuiiOefFoifyLSowKMRqyrCgU1tNnfSgiOhKSDf61B3qrSQ4B7AAq-5NyFe4T3gO_TGJJSEqOqjzBz0godA7TNELIJ72NyMu_mFjEY5N6SoZohjLlSIggJozBfSjlSLbsc7B26bo9miswOuKhFSbtVnQ/s320/Howard-Thurman.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Source: Journey Films</span><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>The Wisdom of Howard Thurman</h2><p> </p><p>Rev. Howard Thurman was a minister, a professor, a writer. He was raised Baptist, and preached and taught in the Baptist tradition, but also helped found the<a href="https://www.fellowshipsf.org/"> Church of the Fellowship of All Peoples</a> in San Francisco -- the first, interracial, intercultural chapel in the united states. This is how I was introduced to Thurman’s work during seminary, as their current minister Dorsey Blake was a professor at my school. Blake told us that many white seminary students were drawn to Thurman for his mysticism, but he wanted us to understand the racial context our of which they grew. For Thurman mysticism and the work for social change flowed naturally from one another. <br /><br />Thurman had visited Mahatma Ghandi with a delegation to India in 1935, which was formative in his life and thought, and was part of the connection between the American civil rights movement and the philosophy of non-violent resistance. <br /><br />It is said that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King kept a “well thumbed copy” of “Jesus and the disinherited” in his pocket during the days of the Montgomery bus boycotts. <a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> which Thurman wrote in 1949, so today I’d like to share some readings from that important work with you. To share the beauty and care of his words with you today. Thurman begins: <br /></p><blockquote> “Many and varied are the interpretations dealing with the teachings and the life of Jesus of Nazareth. But few of these interpretations deal with what the teachings and the life of Jesus have to say to those who stand, at a moment in human history, with their backs against the wall.” <br /><br />To those who need profound succor and strength to enable them to live in the present with dignity and creativity, Christianity often has been sterile and of little avail. The Conventional Christian word is muffled, confused, and vague. Too often the price exacted by society for security and respectability is that the Christian movement in its formal expression must be on the side of the strong against the weak. This is a matter of tremendous significance, for it reveals to what extent a religion that was born of a people acquainted with persecution and suffering has become the cornerstone of a civilization and of nations whose very position in modern life has too often been secured by a ruthless use of power applied to weak and defenseless peoples… "<br /><br />"It is not a singular thing to hear a sermon that defines what should be the attitude of the Christian toward people who are less fortunate than himself. Again and again our missionary appeal is on the basis of the Christian responsibility to the needy, the ignorant, and the so-called backward peoples of the earth. There is a certain grandeur and nobility in administering to another’s need out of one’s fullness and plenty. . . . It is certainly to the glory of Christianity that it has been most insistent on the point of responsibility to others whose only claim upon one is the height and depth of their need. This impulse at the heart of Christianity is the human will to share with others what one has found meaningful to oneself elevated to the height of a moral imperative. But there is a lurking danger in this very emphasis. It is exceedingly difficult to hold oneself free from a certain contempt for those whose predicament makes moral appeal for defense and succor. It is the sin of pride and arrogance that has tended to vitiate the missionary impulse and to make of it an instrument of self-righteousness on the one hand and racial superiority on the other.” <br /></blockquote>Thurman is noticing that much of what the church offered folks “with their back against the wall” is a call for the more fortunate to help them in their need. Unfortunately, Thurman notices, this can give the folks helping a sense of pride and superiority to those one his helping.<div><blockquote>“…It has long been a matter of serious moment that for decades we have studied the various peoples of the world and those who live as our neighbors as objects of missionary endeavor and enterprise without being at all willing to treat them either as brothers or as human beings. I say this without rancor, because it is not an issue in which vicious human beings are involved. But it is one of the subtle perils of a religion which calls attention—to the point of overemphasis, sometimes—to one’s obligation to administer to human need. <br /><br />“I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times that I have heard a sermon on the meaning of religion, of Christianity, to the man who stands with his back against the wall. It is urgent that my meaning be crystal clear. The masses of men live with their backs constantly against the wall. They are the poor, the disinherited, the dispossessed. What does our religion say to them?”[in <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/421008.For_the_Inward_Journey"><i>For the Inward Journey </i></a>p. 121-123]<br /></blockquote>This message that is over 70 years old dovetails exactly with our own growing edge as a movement. For so long UU has focused on how we could support those less fortunate than ourselves, but t<a href="https://www.uua.org/uuagovernance/committees/cic/widening/theology">he COIC has asked</a> us instead to take up Howard Thurman’s question- what good is our faith to those who live with their backs against the wall? We are asked now, at this moment in history, to devote ourselves to deepening a theology of liberation, to speak to those of us who are disinherited, the dispossessed. If we are going to live our dream of becoming an anti oppressive faith, this is at the core of our work. <br /><br />In Jesus and the disinherited Thurman suggests that :</div><div><blockquote>“Fear is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited” [p. 138]. “Always back of the threat is the rumor or the fact that somewhere, under some similar circumstances, violence was used. That is all that is necessary. The threat becomes the effective instrument” [p. 140] “Through bitter experience they have learned how to exercise extreme care, how to behave so as to reduce the threat of immediate danger from their environment.” …” The threat of violence within a framework of well-nigh limitless power is a weapon by which the weak are held in check. Artificial limitations are placed upon them, restricting freedom of movement, of employment, and of participation in the common life. These limitations are given formal or informal expression in general or specific policies of separateness or segregation. These policies tend to freeze the social status of the insecure. <br /><br />The threat of violence may be implemented not only by constituted authority but also by anyone acting oin behalf of the established order. Every member of the controllers’ group is in a sense a special deputy, authorized by the mores to enforce the pattern. This fact tends to create fear, which works on behalf of the proscriptions and guarantees them. The anticipation of possible violence makes it very difficult for any escape from the pattern to be effective. [p. 141-142] </blockquote><p style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;"> “Even recourse to the arbitration of the law tends to be avoided because of the fear that the interpretation of law will be biased on the side of the dominant group.” [p. 144] <br /></p>How familiar does this sound in 2023 - the threat of violence from police, from social systems, that crushes the soul, and circumscribes the lives of many in our time as it did in Thurman’s and in King’s time. <br /><br />Again Thurman asks: “The crucial question, then, is this: Is there any help to be found in the religion of Jesus that can be of value here? It is utterly beside the point to examine here what the religion of Jesus suggests to those who would be helpful to the disinherited…No man wants to be the object of his fellow’s pity. Obviously, if the strong put forth a great redemptive effort to change the social, political, and economic arrangements in which they seem to find their basic security, the whole picture would be altered. But his is apart from my thesis. Again the crucial question: Is there any help to be found for the disinherited in the religion of Jesus?” [p. 145] <br /><br />Though Thurman speaks with more explicitly Christian language than we generally used in our churches today, the good news he offers is our good news too. Thurman was a universalist (small u) which he learned from his grandmother. Who learned it from that preacher on the plantations of her childhood- that each of us is a “child of God” <br /><br />Thurman’s proposes: </div><div><blockquote>“The core of the analysis of Jesus is that man is a child of God, the God of life that sustains all of nature and guarantees all the intricacies of the life-process itself. Jesus suggests that it is quite unreasonable to assume that God, whose creative activity is expressed even in such details as the hairs of a man’s head, would exclude from his concern the life, the vital spirit, of the man himself. This idea—that God is mindful of the individual—is of tremendous import in dealing with fear as a disease. In this world the socially disadvantaged man is constantly given a negative answer to the most important personal questions upon which mental health depends: “Who am I? What am I?” <br /><br />The first question has to do with a basic self-estimate, a profound sense of belonging, of counting If a man feels that he does not belong in the way in which it is perfectly normal for other people to belong, then he develops a deep sense of insecurity. When this happens to a person, it provides the basic material for what the psychologist calls an inferiority complex. It is quite possible for a man to have no sense of personal inferiority as such, but at the same time to be dogged by a sense of social inferiority. The awareness of being a child of God tends to stabilize the ego and results in a new courage, fearlessness, and power. I have seen it happen again and again.” </blockquote>(I hear in Thurman’s wisdom, the stirring words of the preacher who assured them “you are not slaves. You are God’s children.” ) <br /><br />Thurman continues “This established for them the ground of personal dignity, so that a profound sense of personal worth could absorb the fear reaction. This alone is not enough, but without it, nothing else is of value. <br /><br />The first task is to get the self immunized against the most radical results of the threat of violence. When this is accomplished, relaxation takes the place of the churning fear. The individual now feels that he counts, that he belongs. He senses the confirmation of his roots, and even death becomes a little thing.” <br /><br />When we UUs speak today about a love which holds us all, our love must be big enough to hold this. When Thurman encouraged us to “keep open the doors of our hearts” in today’s reading, it is not about a charity to the less fortunate, but the power of the individual and our relationship to the divine, to choose love instead of hate. We must know so deeply that we count, that we belong, that it confirms us like a tree rooted in a place of belonging, even in the midst of oppression and fear. When our backs are to the wall, our work for justice begins in our own soul – our integrity, our authentic voice. These allow one to be strong and live a life of meaning, and intimacy with the sacred that return power and agency to those of us who have been disinherited. <br /><br />When we look at God’s universal love, or as the principles say “the inherent worth and dignity” with this in mind, we see how deep and important this theological anchor is to the work of justice and the meaning of our lives. “No easy sentimentality” as Thurman writes, but a blueprint for the future of our faith.<div style="mso-element: endnote-list;"><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><u>Notes: </u><br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The Story of Nancy AMbrose:</span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="#_ednref1">[i]</a> https://sojo.net/magazine/november-2020/story-howard-thurman-kept-telling-about-race <br /><br /><a href="#_ednref2">[ii]</a> For a quick perspective on the impact of this story, and alternate views on Paul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhPXBSESGVQ <br /> <br /><a href="#_ednref3">[iii]</a> https://genius.com/Mary-e-goodwin-racial-roots-and-religion-an-interview-with-howard-thurman-annotated </span><br /></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The Wisdom of Howard Thurman:<br /></span></span></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/this-theologian-helped-mlk-see-value-nonviolence-180967821/</span></p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> I am using the edition included in For the Inward Journey: The Writing s fo Howard Hutmrn, but a PDF of hte whole book can be found <a href="https://epiphany-md.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Jesus-and-the-Disinherited-.pdf">here</a>. <br /></span></p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-54050515808470500582023-01-10T11:52:00.000-08:002023-01-10T11:52:35.488-08:00Finding Center<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzI4VOtPI4mCt4aW943cErqKZgDsQO71mxDVDLmKm0PAT9ZLx8Y4-DwVFbJuhPmyAwQpzFPDBWkyUQ4TxPi4TKPPZdYRIPmWGkRigqXsKH96bVvUpC0bzmy5Omj7B0CahZxlAJFAO5u3C96_TedsHXV8BUeiapiTDu-ax8WEfhgDM5T-NyydgCcuzRQ/s4032/Genesis%20Labyrinth.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPzI4VOtPI4mCt4aW943cErqKZgDsQO71mxDVDLmKm0PAT9ZLx8Y4-DwVFbJuhPmyAwQpzFPDBWkyUQ4TxPi4TKPPZdYRIPmWGkRigqXsKH96bVvUpC0bzmy5Omj7B0CahZxlAJFAO5u3C96_TedsHXV8BUeiapiTDu-ax8WEfhgDM5T-NyydgCcuzRQ/s320/Genesis%20Labyrinth.jpg" width="320" /></a>This time of year, after the winter holidays, when days are short, and even the squirrels spend much of the day hunkering down in their shelter, there is a possibility of drawing inward, of being moved by the stillness and relative quiet of midwinter. For some of us this is a welcome opportunity for contemplation, for others it is just bleak. <br /><br /> Today I want to offer some concrete guidance for this contemplative time, specifically focused on “finding center”. Many contemplative and psychological traditions speak of the value of centering, which is actually something pretty ordinary we all can do. To me finding my center feels like disentangling all the loose threads of my life, the projects, the relationships, the drama, even the input of sound and sight, like pulling all the tendrils of my attention back in toward myself. “here I am!” It might feel simple, or peaceful, or solid, or balanced. I like the metaphor of “coming home” to oneself. <br /><br /> And like when we come home after a day of work, or our travels, what we find when we arrive there is highly personal and individual. Perhaps some of us this morning feel rested and full after the holiday time. I confess to you, however, that after a couple of weeks of preparation, and services, and visitors and traveling, I am a bit wiped out, and somewhat off my game. When we arrived home on Monday, after visiting my sister in Boston, we were so ready to be home, but we were also exhausted and spent, and while grateful to be back, all of us noticed this week that reentry was a challenge. Just so, when we return to our metaphorical center, we might feel the relief or arriving back where we belong, the peace of letting go of all those threads, or a post-holiday jumble needing our attention. <br /><br />If there are no guarantees of peace or bliss when we find our center, why bother? The world is big and complex. We can’t even experience it all, let alone fix it all. When we find our own center, we can tell what is ours, and what is ours to do. Our center is a good place to be for discernment -- there is a truth and a clarity available when we center ourselves. When we are off adventuring in mind or body, it’s easy to say to our concerns “not now” but when I come home to myself I often feel grumpy- that doesn’t mean I’m doing it wrong, because I don’t feel peace, it means that this is the truth of what is real for me in the moment- I ate too many cookies, didn’t get enough sleep, and I still have all the holiday decorations and supplies to put away before I can get back to normal. When I centered myself this week, it was clear to me that I’m depleted and out of sorts, and grounded in that truth I could make choices. The center s the place where I know myself, this is where I must return to know the truth that only I can know. <br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHl2ICdPZu9QbSMJ3Y4OhSqai8dVfYCA-ob_QM7fJsri18x7T2iYuCF4abK2syHO-KrFpyub7iWaP9QxXo2cyjfA6T-LAoySYV2nfGQFd_8W6RnWppBUm041wRbyZGAvtZ9X9Qxzxa4TbyZERduIGDqWR3jXswoWFccTg5bRAfxJcXuNTojSE38bJkQ/s2320/nest.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1740" data-original-width="2320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKHl2ICdPZu9QbSMJ3Y4OhSqai8dVfYCA-ob_QM7fJsri18x7T2iYuCF4abK2syHO-KrFpyub7iWaP9QxXo2cyjfA6T-LAoySYV2nfGQFd_8W6RnWppBUm041wRbyZGAvtZ9X9Qxzxa4TbyZERduIGDqWR3jXswoWFccTg5bRAfxJcXuNTojSE38bJkQ/s320/nest.jpg" width="320" /></a>Our center is also where we are the strongest. When we center, we bring all our energy, our attention to where we are located in this time and place. Think of a squirrel skittering around a big old tree – that trunk can hold so much weight, it doesn’t even notice the squirrel. But as the squirrel gets closer and closer to the end of the branch, it sways and buckles and sometimes breaks. This week I had the delight of watching a juvenile squirrel learning how far out a branch he could safely travel, and how much branch he needed to support him. The squirrels know, when the branches sway, to scramble back to the center. The center is where they build their nests. <br /><br /> This is why it can be useful to find your center in tumultuous times. To bring your sense of self, your attention, your energy to the core of who you are, as you understand it. In the same way that during a hurricane, people are encouraged to go to the center of their home -- a small downstairs room in the interior. Imagine a part of yourself like that- a small interior space where you are ready for whatever storms may come. Perhaps you have experienced this, a time of trouble when you felt centered and ready, you were able to set aside all the distractions, and just focus on the important thing in the moment. <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Finding center is not a place we reach once and for all, but a place from which we come and go. As we return again and again to our center, we can cultivate our capacity to center ourselves. For me, rolling out the yoga mat and practicing asana is quite reliable in helping me center myself. My yoga matt becomes like a tiny home base no matter where I travel on my outward or inward journeys. More ordinary things are useful too- like taking a walk, or sitting and having a cup of coffee. Boy there is something about just holding my favorite coffee cup in my hands warm with coffee that helps me settle into myself, into my day. I wonder what it is for you? [pause] Because each of us is absolutely unique, so is what we experience, and so there are many tools and practices that we can use to find center. <br /></div><br />I’d like to try a couple of experiments with you now. Please listen to your inner wisdom about these practices, and notice what feels interesting, and especially if you hear feedback “this is not for me right now.” Everything is optional. <br /><br />First let’s start by finding any place in your body that feels good or neutral-- boring, ordinary even... If any of these experiments don’t work for you, just return to that spot. How nice to have someplace ordinary and neutral to return to. <br /><br />Next, let’s try another one, notice your breath just however it is naturally, and bring your attention to the tip of your nose, just where the air comes in and out, just notice that for a few breaths. .. <br /><br />If your attention wanders, just gently invite it back, each time like a fresh homecoming... <br /><br />When you’re ready you can let that go, or stick with it if you are enjoying that. <br /><br />Now try bringing your attention and sense of self into your feet, or whatever your weight is resting on. Let your attention pool and settle there...<br /><br />Last, I invite you to bring your attention into the center of your chest, the place we associate with the heart. Allow your attention to fill up the whole volume of your chest and just notice the way the chest rises and falls with the breath... <br /><br />Now expand your attention to your whole self. What do you notice? How do you feel? There are no wrong answers... <br /><br />There is a truism in astrophysics that “Any spot in the Universe can be considered the center, with equal validity.”<a href="#_edn1">[i]</a> In a way we are like that, we can chose where to center our attention as we just did. For me when I focus on my nose, it has a clear precise quality when I settle into it. When I focus on my feet or legs or wherever my weight is resting, I feel very grounded, strong like a mountain. Usually when I meditate, I choose the center of my chest, which helps me get in touch with my own feelings, and with my compassion and connection for others. But if I am sad or worried, I prefer to settle into my feet, or some other strong, stable place. <br /><br />Many traditions teach a variety of paths to finding center, but it is not the only state of mind taught by the spiritual traditions. Sometimes when people talk about a religious experience, they talk about transcending the ordinary and the everyday, or losing their sense of self, about dissolving into the hugeness of something larger. Sometimes we cultivate a diffuse sense of awareness, where we are listening to everything around us, or just trying to fall asleep. Often when I sit on my porch in the spring I bring this kind of diffuse receptive awareness, which I find to be the best mindset to learn things about what’s happening in my ecosystem. <br /><br />The point of being alive is not just to be perfectly centered at all times. One very important part of our work as UUs is learning how to de-center ourselves. If we always think of ourselves as the center of the universe, we can’t grow in compassion and our viewpoint will be limited. That’s part of what’s challenging and wonderful about building community- learning to be open to one another’s point of view, to do things in the service of others. When we visit a loved one in the hospital, for example, it’s good to leave our own concerns at the door, and be attentive to what they need in the moment. At the same time, folks who are used to being other-centered, will find it a real challenge to find and speak from their own center. I have a friend who always answers the question “how are you” by telling me how her family is. And so we practice finding our own center, and we also practice centering others. Whenever I hear myself saying “so and so is making me feel a certain way” this is a clue I’m off center. I can’t change so and so, but from the point of view of my own center, I can determine what is mine to do, and how I want to respond. If we practice returning to the center, asking ourselves “what do you need in this situation, what do you want, what do you feel?” eventually it helps disentangle from the situation just enough so that we can discern a path forward with integrity to themselves and autonomy of the other. <br /><br />This is especially true when it comes to anti-oppressive work; folks who have the privilege of having their point of view centered and normalized, can practice stepping out of the center and inviting in the voices of those who have traditionally been on the margins. At the same time, folks who are used to being decentered, we invite to courageously speak from their own center. <br /><br /> My invitation to you this week is a playful one. Just notice, from time to time, whether you feel centered, and when you feel something else- decentered, expansive, diffuse, scattered. All of these ways of being have a use, and it’s nice to be able to choose to return to center when that would be helpful. I invite you to experiment- how do you know when you have found center? what helps you find your center? What takes you out of our center? Are there things you can do to help yourself return to center? Just notice and explore, experiment and play. Let us offer one another support and blessings for our return journey home, again and again and again. <br /><p style="margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="#_ednref1" name="_edn1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span></span></span></a>
https://bigthink.com/hard-science/center-of-the-universe/</p>
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{page:WordSection1;}</style></p><br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-244005985491831284.post-61957910238946756372022-12-21T09:59:00.003-08:002022-12-21T10:41:49.649-08:00Latkes and the Foods that Connect<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKH657xgmL9R6cy3XT4FlKMKC6Laqlgg1XSeuh_UNWZs9WS_IyF5-Q6I2q96ZJq_Mh5o5GIXIRyMsH5jUG3jYDfsG2snrWBpaZBkkTelzzKrps8DEueQVjIUjxKMav_Cr-nXyZr78Jg6wAqWx1dgkDcCt7f7IM9B4X58u7B8NhvADJyctYXjvpPjqC3w/s1024/Latkes.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="681" data-original-width="1024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKH657xgmL9R6cy3XT4FlKMKC6Laqlgg1XSeuh_UNWZs9WS_IyF5-Q6I2q96ZJq_Mh5o5GIXIRyMsH5jUG3jYDfsG2snrWBpaZBkkTelzzKrps8DEueQVjIUjxKMav_Cr-nXyZr78Jg6wAqWx1dgkDcCt7f7IM9B4X58u7B8NhvADJyctYXjvpPjqC3w/s320/Latkes.jpeg" width="320" /></a>Latkes are such a simple food- potato, onion, a bit of egg, and oil. All ordinary ingredients from a winter pantry in our part of the world. It takes some know-how, though, to make good ones, made easier if you had a grandparent or parent who could help you get the knack of it. Loved by generations, the thought of potato pancakes sets mouths watering, and memories of years past swirling to mind. </p>In my husband’s family one of the key recipes is Paprikash. This perfect comfort food, a traditional Croatian soup with dumplings, is another of those <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kPGK9XmZM4tlUJVShxxU160WJWkTiZgWPmGp0FR4wzMqX9KVHhNa7nJKspqGZhmW0qnoHGW0pSJeIn9jCMm_crP0oqJK12yhu1N6_RBQubiSFXot2R_lFFbb3AWlUbdNSU4w4H_W2-4W96In7crrKPNL3gqKYLicTyLujMB83j9dkmFsVx0DBbuunw/s3024/Paprikash.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2016" data-original-width="3024" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4kPGK9XmZM4tlUJVShxxU160WJWkTiZgWPmGp0FR4wzMqX9KVHhNa7nJKspqGZhmW0qnoHGW0pSJeIn9jCMm_crP0oqJK12yhu1N6_RBQubiSFXot2R_lFFbb3AWlUbdNSU4w4H_W2-4W96In7crrKPNL3gqKYLicTyLujMB83j9dkmFsVx0DBbuunw/s320/Paprikash.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Paprikash</i><br /></td></tr></tbody></table>recipes that is simple, with ordinary ingredients, but no recipe can help you get those dumplings just right; you need to stand next to one who is practiced to get the knack of it. This soup is so evocative, that my eyes get a bit moist just thinking of times past sharing it with family. <br /><br />All the great traditional foods were born out of necessity, the ingredients on hand in season, perhaps foods that can be made inexpensively in large batches for holiday gatherings of the extended family. Joaquin told the story aft er church last week about the tamales his family traditionally ate during the holidays, and the whole family put to work beforehand -- all hands on deck to form and wrap enough tamales to feed the family through the holidays. He described the holiday stew made from the only foods available to working people. The warm cinnamon chocolate drink his grandmother served with tamales when they came to see her for the Christmas holiday. <br /> <br />Reading a poem by Mary Wellemeyer the phrase “preparing the ceremonial dishes of my tribe” caught my imagination and has been resonating in my mind and heart. What are the ceremonial dishes of your tribe? Perhaps it is latkes, or Christmas cookies or tamales, or maybe there’s not an easy answer for that question. One of the reason the holidays can be hard is because so many of us have lost touch with our ancestral tribes. I know my grandfather was raised Jewish, but when he came to America he wanted to assimilate, as many immigrants do, and did not pass on any of his ancestral traditions. So much has been lost, or taken from us, like those of us whose ancestors were enslaved, or indigenous peoples whose culture was made illegal by their colonizers. <br />In her poem "<a href="https://uuja.org/holidays/ess-ref/essay_rottenberg-chanukkah.html">The Shamash is the Tall One</a>", Lori Rottenberg encourages us: <br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px; text-align: left;">But even if you have no memories <br />of beloved elders chanting a guttural holy tongue <br />while holding the shamash aloft at dusk, <br />the menorah compels us all to consider <br />how centuries change stories, <br />how celebrations reflect as much as preserve, <br />and how we shape consecration of our own rituals. <br /></div><br /><div>So if you had no elder to pass on recipes and stories, to show you how to form the dumplings, I invite you to shape your own rituals, your own legacy. All those great traditional dishes were made first by someone, from whatever was in the pantry, for whomever needed to be fed. Think of the great sourdough starter wave of 2020 that grew out of an abundance of time at home and a shortage of yeast. I wonder if children who were little in 2020 will make sourdough for their families? Will the smell of yeast call back memories of a hard time we got through together with small comforts? <br /><br />This fall our <a href="https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/">Soul Matters</a> group spent an evening with this assignment: “The invitation is to think of a food or recipe that takes us back to a memory of deep belonging.. Most of the foods people shared were quite simple, those ordinary foods that light up the eyes of those who know and love them, kindling memories of meals past. My memory was of Gramma’s Chex mix. She used to make tins of it for <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfv5Ck0-cEBlZX3op8kzbZYH67xRDcjN7bRKhyOtxTo87dhuN5RGa0Ym7twAfKTRpNWATq__M_EulBppM7u_vpr_mKTkxYskpQVQq30mpltAeTv166jZLgnOe1kznkny_sS2MOjukyTb-MZGSNM0PRx5WimKlm8zyUUG7Q7cZ7xNec1BQV88eMVEcaAA/s4032/IMG_7952.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfv5Ck0-cEBlZX3op8kzbZYH67xRDcjN7bRKhyOtxTo87dhuN5RGa0Ym7twAfKTRpNWATq__M_EulBppM7u_vpr_mKTkxYskpQVQq30mpltAeTv166jZLgnOe1kznkny_sS2MOjukyTb-MZGSNM0PRx5WimKlm8zyUUG7Q7cZ7xNec1BQV88eMVEcaAA/s320/IMG_7952.JPG" width="320" /></a>Christmas, it was one of those recipes from the back of a cereal box designed to sell more product, as simple mix of 3 kinds of check, butter, Worcestershire sauce, and seasoning. I think it is the only holiday food our whole family enjoys. My mom, who makes it the classical way my gramma made, showed up one Christmas with tins of it for gifts, and was a bit deflated to see that my husband had made it as well, his own simpler and ever-evolving recipe, - “there can never be too much Chex mix!” he reassured her. Unlike the latkes and Paprikash, this recipe only goes back 3 generations, and has no special tie to the sacred stories, nor to a distant homeland, -- I’ll never know what foods Gramma Marie loved during the winter holidays when she was little, what dishes her tribe taught her. So Chex mix is what we have, and it reminds us of Gramma, and of each other—those who grew up eating gramma’s treats, those we married, and great grandchildren who never met her. Even so, that’s a story, isn’t it? It’s our story, our tribe. <br /><br />That phrase “a memory of deep belonging” evokes many kinds of belonging, not just for our family of origin. Here's another story- a new one. A few years back Chalice Circle was going to be held on my Birthday. Well Lois wanted to have a little something special, and knew I don’t eat dairy. Another member of the group couldn’t eat gluten, so Lois learned a brand-new chocolate chip cookie recipe with almond meal. They were delicious, and more than that, I was so touched to be the recipient of hand made food custom made for our time together. It was, no question, a memory of deep belonging. <br /><br />What are the foods that connect you to your tribe? To memories of warmth and connection? What food tastes like belonging to you? <br /><br />We don’t often think of these ordinary holiday traditions as important rituals, but I believe they are important because they are so ordinary, because they involve all our senses, and are woven into the fabric of ordinary life. <br /><br /> Sharon Parks, writes in her Essay “T<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2829110-sacred-dimensions-of-women-s-experience?">he Meaning of Eating and the Home as Ritual Space</a>” “These meals celebrate the connections among things They symbolize bonds that transcend geography and generations. They mark the affirmation of a shared way of life – shared commitments and vocation. Each affirms ongoing continuity even in the midst of discontinuity and change.” [p. 184] “ A home where people share meals together easily becomes a ritual space. A home is the context in which food, meals and feasts repeatedly order the life of our everyday and transmit the stories and expectations of our lives across generations. We do not have to reflect very long upon the power of food to begin to see why it has such symbolic ritual power and why meals, whether ordinary or special, can function as complex symbols, keys to whole patterns of relationship between ourselves and other elements of our lives- persons , things and the source of all food, the earth itself.” [p. 185] </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5thUA21nHredvYsIPFk30-xehkQoeW2jVBOOGFwtO0aMgKpW2YVLpiDWa6nAkYC12VroXzXuiZ0AyIHCzLS1Ay-ZUfywdHwZKi-VhIT7Z7GnrBpTb2_hbExTkDWG2YsJx8u5VajxMBzMwUwwI52HH40rHvyIYoB9SP4DY-FsW39FNoGGUKyQD5M7r-A/s2848/Moms%20pumpkin%20pie.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2136" data-original-width="2848" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5thUA21nHredvYsIPFk30-xehkQoeW2jVBOOGFwtO0aMgKpW2YVLpiDWa6nAkYC12VroXzXuiZ0AyIHCzLS1Ay-ZUfywdHwZKi-VhIT7Z7GnrBpTb2_hbExTkDWG2YsJx8u5VajxMBzMwUwwI52HH40rHvyIYoB9SP4DY-FsW39FNoGGUKyQD5M7r-A/s320/Moms%20pumpkin%20pie.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mom's Pumpkin Pie</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br />My mom’s family was for some reason cut off from their roots -- there is little knowledge of ancestors, few heirlooms or traditions or recipes past from one generation to the rest, a gap my mom felt very keenly. So one year my mom made me a binder of the recipes she used for the holidays we celebrate, an intentional legacy. What recipes would you pass on through your web of connection? What legacy would you share from the celebratory meals of your tribe, from moments of belonging? These stories are ours to share, and our gift to one another. <br /><br />Perhaps this could be a spiritual practice for the coming holidays -- whether you are celebrating Hanukkah, Solstice or Christmas or just need some comfort food to get through the cold grey winter -- to remember and share the foods that feel like belonging to you. I invite you to practice weaving those threads of connection- generation to generation and heart to heart. Make the food if you can and share it, and the stories that go with it. Perhaps they remind you of the holiday miracles, like in today’s story, or perhaps the simple but no less precious miracle of people connecting and nourishing one another -- heart, body and spirit.</div><div> </div><div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XDpimyzcDfLTHTjacgaoKwkLrkZ5QWz-EqKza1ZH1XVTy9XSkqDg-KrNcDE1SVSeVKP9mUMNykSEugvSfiV8j3NdCp7tSsOgmPl6XS3DdYWBNiuxAX4VcwTOMRn1-TPMTLBYfJOfk6K7iogs1g4ZH8mXP41MZdSEYCiVNP5Q7R8K3oGmx5OKtTDybg/s2015/Nut%20Roll.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1134" data-original-width="2015" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5XDpimyzcDfLTHTjacgaoKwkLrkZ5QWz-EqKza1ZH1XVTy9XSkqDg-KrNcDE1SVSeVKP9mUMNykSEugvSfiV8j3NdCp7tSsOgmPl6XS3DdYWBNiuxAX4VcwTOMRn1-TPMTLBYfJOfk6K7iogs1g4ZH8mXP41MZdSEYCiVNP5Q7R8K3oGmx5OKtTDybg/s320/Nut%20Roll.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Nonnie's Nut Roll</i></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0