I’ve been thinking about privilege. Anna, my cousin, who works in Chicago’s inner city school system, said that over two thousand teachers and aides were fired this year. As a specialist, her job, funded by a grant, was on the chopping block. She just learned that her principal found the money to keep her; a … Continue reading Thinking about privilege

The Public Witness at the Unitarian Universalist General Assembly (our annual international gathering) in Louisville, Kentucky, focused on Environmental Justice. Preceding our march to the Ohio River we gathered in a worship service lead by the Kentucky/West Virginia Ministers Coalition; featuring Wendell Berry, Tim DeChristopher, Rev Cynthia Cain, and Rev Mel Hoover. We did this … Continue reading WHERE IS OUR ENERGY? WITNESS FOR EARTH, OUR COMMUNITIES, AND OUR FUTURE

Look into the lens of deep space, a cosmos intent on increase. Let forty million galaxies come into focus. Rivers of fire, the orbit of release, how this life moves round, one to the next and the many turns one. What’s visible and can’t be seen, never separate. No line divides the mystery from the … Continue reading Look into the lens of deep space…

Anyone looking for the holy land might best begin with the earth that sustains us … Rev Forrest Church, UU Minister The holy holds you in stillness, calms all the mental chatter, the anxieties and fears that press. It focuses the power, mystery and beauty of the universe. It connects you brilliantly to the interdependent … Continue reading Begin with the earth that sustains us…

Let’s try an experiment. Make a list of what brings you joy/ fun. Without too much thinking jot down what opens you to joy and leads to fun. 1) The birds at the feeder, morning, noon and dusk. 2) Chuck whistling. 3) Poppy running full speed over the hills. 4) Norah (my 5-month-old grand niece) … Continue reading Let’s try an experiment.

When I was 3 we moved from Lindsborg, Kansas, to the NW edge of Chicago. Working farms were within a mile of our house. Mrs. Berry lived across the dirt road and lived on what remained of her small farm. She had chickens, ducks and geese. As the roads were paved, more houses sprung up … Continue reading Mrs. Berry

Learn and obey the rules very well, so you will know how to break them properly. … Dalai Lama  What will call the promise of living meaningful lives into this new year? What will bring us into wider dimensions of spiritual authenticity? The willingness to expand beyond the strictures and structures of the way we … Continue reading The promise of living meaningful lives

Cut loose, without devotion, a man becomes a comic. His antics are passed around the family table and mimicked so well, years later the family still laughs. Without devotion, any life becomes a stranger’s story … Marie Howe, in her poem Without Devotion, explores the emptiness that results from having nothing to believe in; lacking … Continue reading Pluralism

Grateful for the pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and our vision. This sentence found at the beginning of our hymnal, Singing the Living Tradition begins the last paragraph of the covenant Unitarian Universalists agree to promote. I love the linkage between deepening one’s understanding and the … Continue reading Pluralism