We’re delighted to announce that the beloved Coming of Age program is back in 2024!
This is a program that asks our youth to explore what it means to become an adult in a Unitarian Universalist context. A lot of cultures have this kind of event in the life of their congregation or community. Close to home, our Jewish neighbors have bat and bar mitzvahs where young people are asked to learn a language and be able to reflect on a text. In other cultures there are walkabouts, solo experiences in the wilderness, or even rounds of combat. In each of these examples, the community is expressing what is important to it. In Judaism, the importance is put on being religiously literate in the language of the Torah. Walkabouts emphasize the importance of survival in nature, while hand to hand combat points toward the importance of defending the group or surviving a conflict.
In our faith, we ask our teenagers to reflect deeply on who they are as spiritual people, to be able to think metaphorically, and to express themselves as soulful, connected beings, capable of experiencing a spiritual passion and transforming that passion into service and dedication to a common good. These are the attributes we seek in our adults, and therefore the ones that we assist our youth in developing.
Because of the programming losses we experienced during the pandemic years, this year’s Coming of Age will be open to all youth in grades 7-12. Space is limited, so don’t delay in registering.
For the safety of our youth, additional information about dates and times is available by request only. Please contact Skyla King-Christison at dre@uucorvallis.org if you’d like more details.
Many at the UU Fellowship are very aware that they are getting older and would welcome the chance to consider issues related to aging. In addition, it would be helpful to have opportunities to compare ideas and experiences with one another.
The purpose of the group would be to develop community and assuage concerns related to aging. This may call for monthly gatherings on a variety of topics. Guest speakers could be called in to inform and to help the group sort through the many possibilities.
If you’re facing this stage of your life and would be interested in contributing to the efforts of a new Adult RE Team, please contact: Janet Farrell at JanetFar@comcast.net. We now have three committed members and need a couple more to qualify in order for this new program to get started. Please consider this invitation to join us!
The solution to our problems is notmore correction — fixing oneself and others over and over. The solution is experiencing ourselves differently—in connection. What does it mean to really experience connection primarily?
Facilitated by UU member and author/trainer JF Benoist.
Suggested donation for the UUFC $50
Or whatever you can pay ~
No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Everyone is welcome!
Mark your calendars because Camp Blue Boat is back for middle and high school youth!
Save the Date: June 30 – July 5, 2024
Location: Camp N-Sid-Sen in Harrison, ID*
Campers experience community, spirituality, justice & equality with UU youth from throughout the region and have TONS OF FUN on the shores of gorgeous Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Camper registration will open in February!! We will share the registration link here when it becomes available.
People of almost all faith traditions practice some form of meditation. Why? Meditation is a super power!
Light Watkins, says, “Common side effects of daily meditation are increased energy and feelings of contentedness and inner happiness.”
Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to sit silently and empty your brain to meditate. Meditation can include any number of practices that help you strip away distraction and encounter your innermost being. This can start with something as simple as focusing your eyes for a period of time on some object like a bird or a flame, and when your thoughts start to wander, notice, and then return your attention to your focal point. You may be wondering how on earth that helps you encounter your inmost self, but do this enough and you’ll start to identify patterns in what’s tugging at your attention. When we hurry and scurry, distract and scroll, it’s possible for us to live any number of days without encountering ourselves. Meditation is a way to reconnect to what is present within us.
Start with Guided Meditation!
Guided meditation is a great starting point for children and new meditators alike. You don’t have to be an expert, or have studied some ancient practice. All you have to do is close your eyes and visualize what you’re hearing.
When my children were younger, we started every day with a guided meditation, often the one linked on the left. Those are my two older kids, about fifteen years ago when we had family meditation time every morning. It was a great way to settle and center before getting into the work of the day.
Try joining your kids for a guided meditation, and discussing the experience over breakfast!
Make a Calm Down Jar
Calm-down jars are a mesmerizing way to help our brains step out of a stressful moment and settle like glitter.
Supplies:
1/2 C hot water
1/2 C corn syrup
1 Tbsp glitter
1-4 drops dish soap
jar
Mix water and corn syrup in the jar. Add glitter and shake. Dish soap will help the glitter clump less, but will also make it settle faster, so add a drop at a time and test before adding more.
Next time you’re stressed, give it a shake, and envision your feelings settling with the glitter.
Meditation Spaces Around the Valley
You can meditate absolutely anywhere but the Willamette Valley is rich with excellent places to help you flex your meditation muscles.
If the great outdoors is your thing, Starker Arts Park is a lovely place to sit for a nature meditation beside the pond and focus your attention on a dragonfly or the surface of the water. If you prefer gazing across the distance, Fitton Green is a delightfully short hike out to a bench that’s just perfect for observing the horizon and tracing the line where the sky meets the mountains.
Maybe insulated silence is more your jam. If so, check out the Grotto’s cliffside meditation chapel next time you’re in Portland. Pictured in the higher image on the left, it’s open to the public during operating hours and is a beautiful space for quiet contemplation in a warm and protected silence.
A little closer to home, you can enjoy a walking meditation in the Episcopal Church of the Good Samaritan’s courtyard labyrinth, shown in the lower image to the left. This space is always open to the public, though during office hours, you’re likely to have an audience of church administrators. And while I haven’t seen it myself, I’m told there’s a second labyrinth that’s open to the public behind the cancer center near the hospital.
Homework for Caregivers
Just being with ourselves is getting harder and harder as the world fills with digital distractions and opportunities for immediate gratification. It’s easy to want better for our children than we demand for ourselves, but role models are the best teachers. If you’ve been particularly stressed, or self-medicating with social scrolling, try setting aside a mere five minutes a day to try on of the techniques above. Notice how you feel in your body before and after your five minutes. Once you’ve tried it yourself a few times, consider inviting your kids to join you. Tell them why you wanted to try meditating, and how it’s going, and see if they’d like to try with you.
Meditation might seem weird to your children at first, but many children feel a sense of inner control that is comforting to them after a very short amount of time developing their meditation muscles. When so much outside of ourselves seems big and scary, knowing that we can turn inward and trust ourselves can be a huge source of security for the smallest members of our families.
The members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis ceremonially welcome babies and older children into this world, and into the community which holds them, offering our lifelong commitment to the nurture of each child. This dedication is a joyful ritual which affirms that each young soul is a gift, and which celebrates the covenant of family and community.
Contact Skyla by December 21st if you would like for your child to be dedicated during the morning service on Christmas Eve.
The Religious Exploration Staff is aware that our children, youth, and young adults are facing an unprecedented mental health crisis and we acknowledge the lack of mental health resources available to families in our community. As such, we are elevating our commitment to educating ourselves and expanding our program’s capacity to hold space for children, parents, and caregivers to connect with one another in mutual support.
One of the first offerings we present in this a screening of What I Wish My Parents Knew, a film by Tell My Story, designed as a mental wellness tool to help parents better understand how to support the mental health of their children.
The event will be a two-part, 90-minute experience with a group viewing followed by a discussion facilitated by a licensed mental health professional. Pre-registration is requested.
This film is not available for general public streaming, but this event is open to the public. We ask that viewers be over 18. On-site childcare will be provided free of charge by a team of experienced and background-checked adults.
If you plan to attend, we recommend watching this talk by the creator of the film to prepare. PLEASE NOTE: themes of self-harm and suicide are present in both the talk and the film.
This time of year can be a lot for the ritual keepers known as parents. To honor all you do, we’d like to offer you a break! Drop off school-aged children in the social hall from 1-4 on December 28th. We’ll have a thank you card writing workshop (with helpers for those who haven’t mastered the pen yet), make snacks, and settle in for a movie while you take a few hours to recover from the holiday hustle. To make the most of the thank you card workshop, please send your child with a list of specific people & gifts for which to offer thanks. Pre-registration is requested at bit.ly/postholidaybreak
The Spiritual Practices Adult RE workshop has wrapped until April. Thanks to all who participated – we learned a lot together!
Check out the RE new page to see our book recommendations for your personal lectionary and some of our art journaling commitments for practice.
We recently completed Part 1 of the Adult RE Spiritual Practices workshop and it was a true delight!
In our time together, we discussed and defined spiritual practice, explored how to pray (even if the G-word makes you itchy), experienced various forms of meditation, mindful walking and eating, tried our hand at the ancient practice of devotional reading called lectio divina, and practiced art journaling our commitments to daily-ish spiritual practice that we will work on individually until we come together for Part 2 of this series in April.
Several of you have expressed interest in attending this workshop during the day so that you don’t have to drive at night. If you would like to see a round of the Spiritual Practices workshop offered on Mondays at 9:30 AM, email me (dre@uucorvallis.org). If enough people are interested, we’ll launch a day-time workshop in February.
As a gift from our Spiritual Practices graduates to the wider Fellowship, we offer this list of book recommendations that you might choose to add to your own personal lectionary. If you don’t have a personal lectionary, or don’t even know what that means, you should consider joining the next round of the Spiritual Practices workshop!
Meditations of the Heart by Howard Thurman recommended by Sherri Argyres
Love Poems from God by Ana Huang, Eden O’Neill, Ghassan Zeineddine recommended by Sherri Argyres
Heart to Heart by the Dalai Lama and Patrick McDonnell recommended by Bonnie Morihara
Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows & Macy recommended by Rebecca Bedell
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl recommended by Heather Thomas
Untamed by Glennon Doyle recommended by Heather Thomas
Beauty by John O’donohue recommended by Jay Coffman
A Religion of One’s Own: A Guide to Creating a Personal Spirituality in a Secular World by Thomas Moore recommended by Skyla King-Christison
An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor recommended by Skyla King-Christison
The Power of Ritual: Turning Everyday Activities into Soulful Practices by Casper ter Kuile recommended by Diane Weisner
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown recommended by Anya Ballinger
Torah Journeys: The Inner Path to the Promised Land by Rabbi Shefa Gold recommended by Melinda Sayavedra
Adult Coming of Age is returning to UUFC on Monday evenings, January 8th-February 12, from 5:30 to 7 in Room 7. Unitarian Universalism requires you to be an active participant in building your own identity, a task that sometimes requires letting go or “unlearning” painful lessons from our past. What does it mean to “be you?” What role does your community and lived experience play in constructing a religious identity that matches your unique journey? Together, we’ll explore these topics and more. All are welcome. Pre-registration at bit.ly/AdultCoA is requested.
