I have been practicing the art of reframing toward gratitude in the last two months of 2025. While the frost on my windshield in the morning means I need more time to get the car ready to go, I am grateful for the few extra minutes of time to connect with Ruddy, Rio, and Ellie as we prepare for the day. When our dog doesn’t listen to me calling out from the door that it’s time to come back inside, I am grateful for the moment of unanticipated childish joy that comes from chasing her around the yard. When I find myself overwhelmed by the many responsibilities I take on and the various hats I wear, I am grateful for the sense of purpose and connection that each of these brings.

This year, we committed to co-creating positive, alternative futures that offer new and innovative pathways for humanity. This is difficult, sometimes frustrating work that often feels like it moves at a glacial pace. Yet, I am grateful to our congregation for the opportunity to focus our collective imagination and efforts toward such an incredible goal. In a world that increasingly pulls us toward fear, fragmentation, and authoritarianism, UUFM is choosing a different way. We are choosing a way that is firmly rooted in shared leadership, courageous community, and radical inclusion. I am grateful for each of you.

Over the past two months, the Board has been especially focused on deepening our understanding and practice of sociocracy, a form of shared governance that emphasizes co-ownership, distributed leadership, and clear, values-driven decision-making. This work is not simply about adopting a new structure of governance, rather it is about cultivating a culture of trust, transparency, and mutual accountability. Together with the Community Team, we have been learning about how sociocracy can help us live our mission more fully by inviting more voices into leadership and ensuring that power is exercised with care.

A meaningful milestone in this journey was our second Co-Parent convening, where members of the Board and Community Team gathered to reflect on how we work together to steward the mission, vision, and values of UUFM. These conversations helped us to clarify roles, strengthen relationships, and continue to work toward a relational, collaborative way of leading. While this work is not always neat or easy, it is a practice of hope. We are actively practicing the future we say we want to create.

This matters deeply in the broader context in which we live. At a time marked by rising authoritarianism and narrowing definitions of who belongs, our congregation has an opportunity to serve as a living example of transformative leadership and radical inclusion. This is not only about how we govern ourselves but also about how we meet one of the most basic human needs: the need to belong.

I invite us, as a congregation with shared values of pluralism, interdependence, and equity, to continue to reflect on who exists at the edges of our current capacity to include. How do we maintain healthy and necessary boundaries in support of justice and dignitary safety while also cultivating a spirit of generosity, hope, and love for all human beings—even those by whom we are most challenged to do so? These are not abstract questions. They are spiritual practices that ask something real of us as we seek to enact our shared values as UUs.

We are not only creating positive, alternative futures for ourselves. We are doing this work with all the messiness and complexity of humanity in mind. May we continue to lead with courage, humility, and love, trusting that even imperfect efforts toward new possibilities can transform the world far beyond the boundaries of our congregation.

In community,

Mac Benavides
Board Chair