Inspiration

UU thoughts, sermons, music

A Month of Stillness

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“Here are three of my own reasons for practicing the discipline of stillness:

  • I want to maintain perspective. If I don’t make time to be still, then I find myself in reactive mode—influenced by hundreds of little voices with big demands.
  • I want to stay connected to my true self. I don’t want to get confused, thinking that I am the image I present to the world. They are related, of course, but I want to live from the inside out.
  • I want more internal margin in my life. While I have been pursing external margin in my calendar and finances, I also want internal margin—more room to notice what matters most and be thankful for it.” – Michael Hyatt

This month we will be focusing on Stillness in our services and our posts. We will have meditations about stillness posted on Wednesdays and articles/information about the spiritual practice of stillness on Saturdays. We hope you will join us on our stillness journey.

First Sunday of Advent 2020

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This week we celebrate the First Week of Advent in 2020. The Christian spiritual tradition is an important to UU origins and remains an important source of wisdom today.

Light the Candle of Hope

Now the Work of Christmas Begins By Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flocks,
the work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost,
to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among the people,
to make music in the hear

A Reflection, A Prayer, and a Podcast

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Reflection – Casper ter Kuile -“ life heals life…”

“We think that the point is to pass the test or overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” – Pema Chödrön

Poem/Prayer – A Blessing For One Who Is Exhausted, John O’Donohue

Podcast – Looking Back: Reflecting On The Past To Understand The Present – Hidden Brain

Helping to Repair the World

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Tikkun Olam – To Repair the World – a Sermon from Rev. Matt Alspaugh

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.” – Mr. Fred Rogers

Even This Is Enough by Rev. Vanessa Southern

Healing Through Collective Power

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Podcast hosted by adrienne maree brown – Trauma, Healing & Collective Power with Spenta Kandawalla, Prentis Hemphill and Staci K. Haines

From Broken Parts, Whole,  Karen G. Johnston

“Grief is praise of those we have lost. Our own souls who have loved and are now heartbroken would turn to stone and hate us if we did not show such praise when we lose whom we love. A nonfake grieving is how we praise the dead, by praising that which has left us feeling cold and left behind. By the event of our uncontrolled grief, wail, and rap, we are also simultaneously praising with all our hearts the life we have been awarded to live, the life that gave us the health and opportunity of having lived fully enough to love deep enough to feel the loss we now grieve. To not grieve is a violence to the Divine and our own hearts and especially to the dead. If we do not grieve what we miss, we are not praising what we love. We are not praising the life we have been given in order to love. If we do not praise whom we miss, we are ourselves in some way dead. So grief and praise make us alive.” – Martin Pretchel