From the Minister

Daily Practice – A Weekly Reminder

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I wrote this piece two years ago, at this exact time of year. It is helpful to me to re-read it. May it be helpful to you as well, in these early days of January 2025.

Years ago, I always started the morning listening to news. It seemed then the most prudent thing to do –- to know what was happening. It helped me feel secure in some way, and smart, and capable, as if it was a necessity for navigating the world, and for being recognized as an adult. Somewhere along the way, I stopped listening – I don’t remember exactly when or why. In some way I realized that “the news” was always the same – it was a very very small representation of what humans were doing from day to day. It was never the whole story.

Slowly I came to understand that there is news beyond the news – news before the news – that is much more important for me. It is the daily recognition of being alive and of being part of an infinite web of life. It is the daily presence of awareness, and an awareness of presence, which coincide with gratitude.

The news of the day in early January often begins with this: the tops of the hills are appearing and disappearing as clouds and fog slowly drift. There is a pink tinge above and suddenly a huge flock of geese in several interchanging “V”s moving across. Small patches of blue sky, and the bare branches of trees in clear and intricate detail. The tops of the hills appear again and both gold and pink light emerge in the fog around them. The air is cold and clean and heavily moist. It is within me and around me, in constant life-giving motion. I am breathing, being breathed, and amazed again to be both here and now.

Thomas Merton once wrote “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.” Embrace is the appropriate word for me this morning – and there is too much for my small embrace, but I open my arms wide nonetheless. With courage, faith and hope comes joy. And that’s more than enough news.

Between Us

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This year as the calendar moves toward its end and new beginning, I’m feeling watchful, alert, and sometimes a little on edge. I don’t think I’m the only one feeling the edge. I’ve experienced more crankiness from other people, and outright meanness – mostly from people I don’t know – in the past few weeks than in any other holiday season I can remember. I’m not surprised; we live in such trying times. But a sadness has come close to me, so I’m trying to learn from it what I can.

There is plenty to worry about, and to fear. That has always been true – and always more true for some people than for others. We humans make it hard for each other, and for all the other living things. We always have. Wise teachers of all cultures say it is because we are lost, we have forgotten, or we cannot see what is most important and closest to us, so in fear we grab and push and destroy. And yet, and yet – even now, love is present: it is holding and helping and healing so much that is broken within us and between us. And this has always also been true.

So I am letting myself be watchful and alert and I am giving attention to the edge and the sadness, while at the same time I am constantly considering how love is holding me and how I can help it move in as many ways and directions as possible. More and more I come to understand and appreciate the feeling of “love at the center” as a way of describing congregational and covenantal life – the life of the Fellowship. For the beginning of a new year – this new year in particular – this is the center I am leaning into, and leaning on. And you are part of it, and for that I am grateful!

Between Us

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The feeling that is most with me in the midst of these holidays/holy days is to be careful. To be full of care. This is most certainly not a time to be frivolous, yet it is a time to nurture joy. How can we do both? By being full of care as we consider what is most important and what is not. Care for the earth, care for people everywhere, care for all the other living things. Care reflected in what we buy, what we waste, what we kill or destroy in the process, what we consume at the expense of others. What gifts can we give, when so many are in need of the basics – beginning with safety and shelter? Maybe this year, in this season we might begin to understand that joy is related to what we are willing and able to take care of, to give care to. In the beautiful darkness of these solstice days, with Christmas coming, may we give attention to what we care for and why, and move ourselves toward a loving carefulness.

Between Us

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Just in case you’ve wondered whether or not the Fellowship, or UUism, has done or is doing enough to make things better (or perhaps to change all the things that need to be changed in the world – as if we could) here’s a heartening report from the wider world. Perry Bacon Jr, an opinion writer for the Washington Post, recently wrote an article (Nov. 27, 2024) encouraging folks to stop doomscrolling and choose from a list of five more constructive actions. #2 on his list is this: “Join a Unitarian Universalist Congregation.” He writes:

“If you’re part of a Christian, Muslim, Jewish or other religious group that meets regularly and engages politically, skip this. But there is a growing number of Americans, particularly on the left, who are religiously unaffiliated and not regularly congregating with people who share their values.

They should consider the Unitarian Universalists. I recently started regularly attending a UU service in Louisville. It’s much more political than the Christian churches I have previously been a member of. That turned me off at first. Since politics is essentially my job, I try (usually unsuccessfully) to avoid discussions of elections and government in my off-hours. And I was leery of a church whose openly liberal values would clearly turn off Trump supporters and therefore ensure a congregation that didn’t include many Republicans.

But before the election, church members engaged in politics in a practical way, encouraging congregants to go canvassing in opposition to a proposed constitutional amendment here to create a school vouchers program. (It failed.) So at least on Sundays, I was in a community of people working on a concrete, discrete local issue, as opposed to nervously speculating about Vice President Kamala Harris’s poll numbers.

Post-election, I was relieved to be in a space where we openly discussed shared values and ideals we felt had been rejected by America in electing Trump, such as support of immigrants and LGBTQ+ people.”

It’s encouraging to hear that our message and our approach are helpful! If you’ve been here awhile, doing exactly the work that Bacon describes, then take a moment to appreciate the fact that it does make a difference. (Share your appreciation with others). And if you are new to the Fellowship, perhaps looking for what Bacon describes, we welcome you! The world needs all of us, to keep these values and commitments alive and growing.

Between Us

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As the world turns (wasn’t that the name of a soap opera many years ago?) we still live day by day, and work on the things that are right in front of us most of the time. At the Fellowship, this weekend we are enjoying our annual December Holiday Fair, and planning many ways to gather this month to observe and celebrate holidays, holy days and the turning of the year.

Meanwhile, the classroom wing is filled with boxes and comings and goings as we get ready to empty that part of the building so that it can be repaired, renovated and renewed. This will be a big effort, as you can imagine, and will need many hands. If you haven’t already, please see the Announcement titled ‘Classroom Wing Renovation Begins in January,’ and sign-up to help in one of the listed ways. Or, talk to a member of the Building Expansion Project team in person this Sunday about how you can help.

All activities which regularly meet in the classroom wing will move to other locations in the building (or offsite) beginning after Christmas, and the classroom wing will be closed by January 1. If you have questions about where your group will meet, please ask me or office volunteer Priscilla Galasso.

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Every Sunday we go back out into the world with a renewed intention to stay aware of the way things truly are. To cultivate this awareness, within us and around us, is a path of learning to feel how things are happening in many directions at one time. Life, a day, a moment, is not merely either /or. In every moment there is yes and no, good and evil, pain and joy, past and future. From a Taoist perspective this is recognition of polarities. In yoga, this is learning to feel energy moving in opposite directions at the same time. Not to choose one side, one view, one position, one direction, but instead to feel where the sides, views, positions, directions meet and how they are related to each other. It’s not easy. Sometimes it is a luxury. Often it seems impossible. In a hurricane, it may be improbable or feel impossible to move to the center, the calm eye of the storm, and yet the calm center exists as much as the storm does. From the safety of the calm center, one cannot deny the destructive power of the storm all around.

Yes and no, good and evil, pain and joy, past and future. Whether we know it or not, see it or not, this is always where we begin when we pause to become aware of our breath. The breath itself is a guide. It can never go in only one direction – a whole breath is always made of in and out. Once again, may we allow ourselves to settle into the motion of our breath, the motion of Life as it lives through us, the stillness of resting within the motion. May we become aware enough of this motion, of its necessity, that the only thing we can do is give thanks. May we begin the day in gratitude – in calm awareness, in rest, and with thanks.

Sending love to you all – Jill

From the Minister — The Coming Holiday

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This week a letter from the UUA General Assembly Office included this reflection, below. It is a beautifully compact and eloquent statement of the coming holiday weekend, so I share it here with you, to help us enter in:

“A Thanksgiving Reflection: Honoring Connection, Gratitude, and Responsibility

As we approach Thanksgiving, we pause to reflect on the complexity of this holiday and its varied meanings. For many, it is a time to gather in gratitude with loved ones. For others, it is a somber reminder of the painful history and ongoing impact of colonization on Indigenous peoples and their lands.

This season invites us to hold these truths together: the need for gratitude and connection, and the imperative to honor justice and repair. We encourage you to take time to learn about the histories and cultures of the Indigenous peoples who stewarded the lands we now call home. Consider how your gratitude can inspire actions that support equity, solidarity, and healing.”

May we enter into this week, and our plans, with consideration. With openness to learning, with willingness to understand ourselves, our ancestors, and our abilities to contribute to needed justice and repair, in our own homes, families and communities.

See you Sunday!

Between Us, 11/17/2024

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Was that the first light dusting of snow on Mary’s Peak this morning? I stared at it for a good long while before heading out to walk and check on the maples of the neighborhood, now flaming red and gold. In the afternoon, the slant of the autumn sun outlined the coast range as beautiful clouds continued to shift and move in the blue sky. Later as I drove to join a small group to honor and celebrate a wedding (the joy!) the Beaver Moon – last super moon of this year – was rising, huge and round in the eastern sky. My Christmas cactus – a cutting from an old friend now gone, is blooming today. More beauty than one can really understand, all in the space of a day.

Through this week I have watched and listened to many of you, with abiding thanks. Some are focused on helping others who really need help; some feel an edge – a need to fight where needed; some are not feeling so well; some are planning next steps and forward movement; most of us have moments of shock and disbelief and genuine fear for our country, and in my opinion those moments are more than justified.

In all of these ways – the beauty, the adjusting, the wondering, the helping and the fear – in all of these ways we are being called to be present – to keep alert to what is true within us and around us. We are given gifts, we are called to continue working, we are needed. It is in and through our all these parts of our lives that love becomes real in the world. Let’s keep going together, step by step.

Between Us

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This is the thing about Life, and about the world – no matter how much we think we know, there is always more going on than we can even imagine. We say we value the ongoing unfolding of truth. Well – here we are. A lot has unfolded! And there’s more to come.

There will be plenty to talk about in the weeks and months to come, and much will change. But some things won’t change – like the fact that we need each other, and that it is possible and necessary to keep love alive within us and between us, and that love will be needed everywhere we turn, in tandem with the ongoing work of justice, compassion and peace. Just like it is today.

May we be able and willing to begin again and again and again, as long as needed, for as long as we can. Stay with us! See you Sunday!

Between Us

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It seems I have shifted from feeling overwhelmed by the possibilities next week might bring, to feeling focused on what good I can do. Even if it is a little bit, I’m going to keep doing what I can. Besides, I was exhausting myself. I’ve been buoyed by beautiful words from others this week, which I’m happy to share with you here.

From Buddhist teacher Tara Brach: “Dear Friends– For anyone who follows the news, this political season is filled with the animosity of war. And yet it’s possible for each of us to hold our participation as citizens in a different light. As Reverend Warnock said, we can consider our vote as a kind of prayer, and our encouragement of others to vote in the same spirit. When I voted early, it felt like the most poignant and important vote of my lifetime. I brought my palms together after sealing the envelope and whispered a prayer. It was a prayer to protect our imperfect democracy, a prayer to protect the most vulnerable among us, a prayer to heal the divides, a prayer for our earth and all living beings. Far from being separate from spirituality, voting was a very real and direct expression of heart.”

And from Clarissa Pinkola Estes: “In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that… We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear.. Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.”

Let us remember all the convictions which guide and steady us, and let us be grounded in them now. May we be what the world needs, in whatever ways we can. See you Sunday!