This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Awakening …   You live like this, sheltered, in a delicate world, and you believe you are living.  Then you read a book (Lady Chatterley, for instance), or you take a trip, or you talk with [someone], and you discover that you are not living, that you are hibernating … Continue reading Awakening (April 2022)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Renewing Faith …   “Faith is homesickness. Faith is a lump in the throat.”  — Frederick Buechner “Once a reporter asked A.J. Muste, “Do you really think you are going to change the policies of this country by standing out here alone at night in front of the White … Continue reading Renewing Faith (March 2022)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Widening the Circle …   Is it possible that being on the inside leaves you out of the loop? What if the margins aren’t narrow? What if that space of exclusion is also a position of perspective? What if being shut out allows you to understand the insiders better … Continue reading Widening the Circle (Feb 2022)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Living with Intention …   “Here’s what I discovered. Intention is different from setting goals or resolutions in that it “pulls us into” who we truly are.  Goals and resolutions “push us out” into future possibilities.  To set intentions, we must listen to our inner voice which tells us … Continue reading Living with Intention (Jan 2022)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Opening to Joy …   It’s easy to get tricked, taken for a ride, convinced that joy is a possession.   Something to be opened just by us. As if it’s a holiday special delivery, waiting for us to unwrap it and keep forever.   And who can blame … Continue reading Opening to Joy (Dec 2021)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Holding History … Let’s start with the words of Parker Palmer, “Jewish teaching includes frequent reminders of the importance of a broken-open heart, as in this Hasidic tale: A disciple asks the rebbe: “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon your hearts’? Why does it not … Continue reading Holding History (Nov 2021)

This month’s Soul Matters theme explores Cultivating Relationship … Pandemic time is teaching us so many things about relationships. It’s undone our assumptions about work, calling into question the worth of “going into the office” and exposing how we pass most of the economic pain down to those on the so-called lowest rungs of the … Continue reading Cultivating Relationship (Oct 2021)

What does it mean to be a people of Play? We all are playing. Playing it up, playing it down, trying to play fair. Playing for keeps, playing favorites, playing it safe, sometimes too safe. He plays hardball; They’re playing house; I’m playing it by ear, or at least learning to play it by ear. … Continue reading Play (June 2021)

What does it mean to be a people of Story? Stories don’t just embellish our lives; they make and even dictate our lives.  This might be the most important reminder of this month. Indeed, who of us hasn’t felt controlled by a story? Stuck in a story?  Hopeless about the way our story will end … Continue reading Story (May 2021)

What does it mean to be a people of Becoming? It’s become popular in our society to talk about spiritual journeys as a process of living into your full or true self, of letting the authentic seed inside you unfold.  We UU’s agree.  We even enshrined it in our principles that celebrate each of our … Continue reading Becoming (April 2021)