This week’s story is a sad one, because not all stories can be joyful. A dying child and a kind spirit help the grownups around her to grieve with honesty and truth.
In the same way that not all stories are joyful, not all feelings are joyful, either! Sometimes feelings can be hard, but it’s very important for them to be felt honestly and fully. Here’s a silly way to explore your own feelings with vegetables: https://www.instructables.com/Feelings-Vegetables/
Today’s story is about seeing truly, seeing things others would rather not see. It’s based on a very old story called The Fairy’s Midwife, but it’s a very different take on the premise!
After you listen, why not go outside and see if you can find your own hagstone? Hagstones are also called adderstanes, witch stones, and serpent’s eggs. They are stones that have a naturally occurring hole in them. You can most easily find them in streams or on the beach, because water is very good at wearing holes in things, but anywhere there are stones, you might find a hagstone! And if you look through the hole, who knows what you might see?
Our keynote speaker is Linda Carroll, author of Love Cycles: The Five Essential Stages of Lasting Love, which has been translated into four languages, and the highly-acclaimed book, Love Skills, published in 2020. Linda holds a master’s degree in counseling and has practiced psychotherapy, specializing in couples and communication, since 1981. She works in Corvallis, Oregon, and coaches’ clients virtually, by phone, and in person all over the world. Linda first joined the UU in 1978 and is also a co-founder of a nonprofit serving migrants in Tijuana called Just One Story at a Time. just1atatime.org
Linda has authored three books on personal growth and healing. She grew up in a conservative Catholic family in San Francisco during the 1950s and came of age during the countercultural 1960s. From her traditional childhood, she preserves a faith in the importance of service, mystery, and reverence for all forms of life, and from her early flower-child leanings, she maintains a belief in looking outside the box for approaches to healing. Visit her website at lindaacarroll.com/.
Retreat Schedule:
Friday, Oct. 7 6:30 p.m. – Greetings, registration, workshop sign-ups, and sing-along 7:00 p.m. – Program begins in the Sanctuary Welcome & Housekeeping – Kris Egan Chalice lighting – Jill McAllister Speaker introduction – Amy Ayers 7:15 p.m. – Keynote Presentation – Linda Carroll 8:30 p.m. – Bedtime Story and Singing – Ann Marchant 9:00 p.m. – Housekeeping announcements and Dismissal
Saturday, Oct. 8 9:00 a.m. – Gather and Greet in the Sanctuary 9:15 a.m. – Announcements and chalice lighting – Kris Egan 9:20 a.m. – Speaker introduction – Bonnie Morihara 9:30 a.m. – Focus on Connection, Community, Caring – Linda Carroll 11:50 a.m. – Lunch and break announcements – Heather Thomas 12:00 p.m. – LUNCH and Recess 1:00 p.m. – Break-out Workshop #1 2:00 p.m. – Break-out Workshop #2 3:00 p.m. – Break-out Workshop #3 4:00 p.m. – Bathroom break; Re-group and Gather in Sanctuary. 4:15 p.m. – Singing 4:30 p.m. – Love in Action suggestions – Priscilla Galasso 4:45 p.m. – Closing thoughts – Jill McAllister 6:00 p.m. – Dismissal
Workshops and More!
Walking Connections – Priscilla Galasso
We will begin with circle time in the parking lot to introduce ourselves and focus our attention on the possibilities for connection during our walk. We will walk on paved paths west along Circle Blvd to Witham Hill Nature Area, where we will follow the Upper Loop trail through the woods and then return to the UUFC. The total distance is approximately 3 miles with about 200 feet of elevation gain. The pace will be moderate. Please dress for the weather, wear comfortable walking shoes, and bring your water bottle. This workshop will run from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Listening and Telling: The Yin and Yang of Connection – Shikha Gottfried
The stories we choose to tell others reflect part of the identity we portray as we move through the world. In this workshop, we’ll explore deepening our connection to one another by sharing small slices of our stories via a few guided questions, and perhaps along the way finding threads of shared experiences that you didn’t know existed in this community. This workshop finds inspiration from the book Between the Listening and The Telling: How Stories Can Save Us by Mark Yaconelli. Please bring a small object that symbolizes for you a time when you were either deeply cared for, or that you really gave of yourself to care for someone else. One hour
Connections within sewing and stitching circles – Amy Ayers
A brief history and celebration of women gathering in circles to knit, sew, quilt, or practice any other needle art as a part of community, necessity, charitable works, and political action. Please bring any portable needle art project you may be currently working on such as knitting, crochet, needle point or embroidery to work on while we share our projects and consider the power of women gathered together in sewing circles for connection, learning, and sometimes to promote political and social change. One hour
Poetry and Hats – a lighthearted way to share poetry. – Jean Gilbert
Please bring three poems and three hats. ALL types of hats are welcome! We will read the poems aloud while wearing the hats, with stories about our choices as time allows. I’ll have a few extra poems and hats in case you forget to bring them. One hour
Foods to build Community, Connection, and Caring – Ann Marchant
Community: Each person’s micro-biome is a community of microbes – some beneficial, others not so much. Which foods promote a healthy gut community?
Connection: the Gut – Brain Connection plays a major role in mental health. Food choices help guide that connection.
Caring: What do you bring to potlucks? Is everyone welcome at your table? Introducing “Universal Meals,” developed by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine. Even most people with food sensitivities can enjoy these delicious recipes. https://www.pcrm.org/universalmeals One hour
Ukraine and our connection to the world community – Irja Galvan
Join Irja as she shares her knowledge of and caring connection to the Ukraine. Learn and discuss more about the current crisis and how we all are connected to it. One hour
Word Play – Bonnie Morihara
Come play with your choice of different “illuminated” acrostic forms. Add words to represent various UU or personal values and color the pages. Or complete an alphabetical acrostic. What fun! Materials: pre-printed forms, colored pencils and pens which Bonnie will supply. Your playful, creative mind: you supply. One hour
Belly Dancing – Dawn Dirks
Come learn some basic belly dance moves. For Dawn, this dance form is sacred dance, ritual dance, Goddess dance. Sacred dance has probably been practiced for as long as humans have been able to move and to think about what it means to practice spirituality. This workshop will include gentle stretches and slow, low-impact movement. No dance experience is necessary – just bring your open heart and willingness to move your sacred body in ways that may be new for you. Dawn will bring hip scarves and silk veils for participants to use during the session. Please bring a yoga mat if you have one for a short meditation at the end of the session. One hour
Living Room Conversations – Nancy Haldeman Limited to 8 participants
Join Nancy in discussing “Coronavirus – Reflecting and Transitioning”. Each person speaks to questions provided for up to 2 minutes each with no cross talk. 1½ hours
Today’s story is about promises…and about gardens! Have you ever made a promise? They’re important! But it’s also important to ask for help when we need it, and that’s what happens in the story.
After you listen, you can make your own garden of promises! We all keep lots of promises every day, some big, some small. What are some of the promises you keep? You can make these paper flowers and write some of the promises on the petals or leaves.
Today’s story celebrates autumn! It was the autumn equinox last Thursday, which is also called Mabon. So here is a re-imagining of one of the many myths about the seasons, a new way to tell the Greek story of Hades and Persephone.
After you listen, one of the best things about autumn is APPLES. Apples are great for eating and cooking, but did you know you can also make dolls out of them? Here’s how!
The theme will be “Belonging.” It will focus on our feelings of belonging, especially in this pandemic and politically fractious time. Where and to whom do we belong? What does that mean as we age, change employers, or move our home from one community to another? How have our increasingly diverse gender, sexual, ethnic, racial, and political identities affected our sense of belonging? When have we felt excluded from groups or organizations, and when have we excluded others? How do we build a community together where we feel like we belong? We will of course adhere to all COVID protocols in place at the time to provide a very low-risk experience. Please mark your calendars, and pass this notice along to friends and especially any newer members whose primary identity is as a male.
The theme will be “Belonging.” It will focus on our feelings of belonging, especially in this pandemic and politically fractious time. Where and to whom do we belong? What does that mean as we age, change employers, or move our home from one community to another? How have our increasingly diverse gender, sexual, ethnic, racial, and political identities affected our sense of belonging? When have we felt excluded from groups or organizations, and when have we excluded others? How do we build a community together where we feel like we belong? We will of course adhere to all COVID protocols in place at the time to provide a very low-risk experience. Please mark your calendars, and pass this notice along to friends and especially any newer members whose primary identity is as a male.
Group Dynamics: Responding Skillfully When Hard Stuff Happens
February 2022
In these times of necessary distancing, strong emotions lie unexpectedly closer to the surface, and many of us have become more vulnerable in community than is comfortable. Even in the best of times, upset and hurt can be caused despite our best intentions, even when we are in agreement. Meaningful dialogue when true differences or disagreements are present often can be difficult, and in these times has become particularly fraught. It’s become easier and less painful to simply withdraw than to stay engaged, hoping that things will somehow magically change.
And yet. Religious community is where we practice the art of belonging, helping each other to grow and deepen our spiritual lives, understanding that all thriving must be mutual. In that spirit, UUFC is offering this practical, skills-based training, which focuses on helping to increase our collective ability to compassionately navigate disagreement and strong emotions. We’ll consider “group dynamics,” especially ways to respond skillfully and with care when emotions start to run high and hard stuff begins to happen. These situations are always possible — perhaps even more so now as everything we do carries more worry for the world and adds to our personal burdens.
Come, let us learn more about how to thrive, together.
If you missed this workshop, you can watch the RECORDING here.
Welcome to the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, a liberal religious congregation that has played an important part in this community for more than 60 years. Our religious tradition is more than 400 years old, dating back to the time of the protestant reformation in Europe.
Unitarianism and Universalism were two varieties of liberal Christianity, evolving over centuries, primarily in Europe and North America. By the time the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America merged in 1961 to become the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations of North America, (the UUA) our religious perspectives had expanded to include wisdom and teachings from all world religions, from science and humanism, art and mysticism, and much more. The UU Fellowship of Corvallis is still a member congregation of the UUA, and we still offer a broad and open approach to religious belief and practice.
Rev. Jill McAllister
The liberal tradition we uphold is best defined as an ongoing movement toward religious freedom, reason in religion, and the embrace of diversity in religious belief and practice. We are a community held together not by beliefs or creeds, but by these shared values of freedom, reason, and tolerance. We are a caring community, helping each other navigate the realities of life. We are a community of seekers; knowing there is always more to learn and understand, we explore many ideas, philosophies, perspectives and modes of worship and spiritual growth. We are a pluralistic congregation, dedicated to inclusivity and justice. Each individual is encouraged to aim toward these values and we are all called to live in right relations. We are a welcoming congregation, honoring the diversity of beliefs, practices and lifestyles among us. We are an active multi-generational congregation, working together in all the ways we can to increase justice and compassion in the world. We bring our whole lives, and together we face the realities of birth and death, sorrow and joy, sickness and health, knowing and not knowing. This is what it means to be religious. This is what it means to be Unitarian Universalists. We hope you’ll join us.
Some of our neighbors and some members of our UUFC community have asked about the Black Lives Matter banner that hangs outside on our building. What does support for Black Lives Matter mean for a faith with “Universalist” in our very name?
“To proclaim that Black Lives Matter is not to say that other lives do not. In this church we celebrate the inherent value of every life. Each life matters, but not all lives are equally at risk. Black Lives Matter is an attempt to spotlight and interrupt the persistent patterns of institutional racism which always leave persons of color on the margins, more vulnerable, with less protection. Black Lives Matter insists that the Beloved Community will not be achieved while these differences persist. Black Lives Matter calls us to solidarity in the service of justice. Black Lives Matter is an affirmation that we have not…yet…given up on the American Dream.”
-Rev. Bill Sinkford
Rev. Jill McAllister’s response to controversy with the UU Minister’s Association.
A daily blog by Nicole Cardoza where you can sign up to receive a daily email on a variety of topics aimed at addressing systemic and interpersonal practices that uphold white supremacy and systems of oppression; resources to support your education; and action you can take to practice anti-racism.
Black Lives Matter initiative working for policy change to address police killings, excessive force, profiling and racial discrimination, and other problems in law enforcement.
A powerful true story about the potential for mercy to redeem us, and a clarion call to fix our broken system of justice—from one of the most brilliant and influential lawyers of our time. UUA Common Read 2015-2016.
An NPR podcast “hosted by journalists of color, [which] tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between.”
The racial profiling, police brutality, voting restrictions, and mass imprisonment of African Americans and other people of color in the United States (dubbed the “New Jim Crow” by civil rights advocate and scholar Dr. Michelle Alexander) is a moral outrage. “As Unitarian Universalists (UUs), our dedication to global justice, equity, and dignity leads us to join hands across lines of race, class, age, and geography and work for an end to the injustices faced by black people in our communities, so that every person is treated equally under the law and has a fair chance at life.” UUA on Black Lives Matter
