Inspiration

UU thoughts, sermons, music

Meditation on Love

CZ

[TEDTalks (audio)] A better way to talk about love | Mandy Len Catron

“In love, we fall. We’re struck, we’re crushed, we swoon. We burn with passion. Love makes us crazy and makes us sick. Our hearts ache, and then they break. Talking about love in this way fundamentally shapes how we experience it, says writer Mandy Len Catron. In this talk for anyone who’s ever felt crazy in love, Catron highlights a different metaphor for love that may help us find more joy — and less suffering — in it.”


https://download.ted.com/talks/MandyLenCatron_SFU_2015X.mp3?apikey=172BB350-0207


May these words help us all focus on love and how it should be. 


Namaste, 

Cricket 


#UULent

Blessed Imbolc

CZ

Today is a special day. We are halfway through winter. The world is starting it’s wakeup cycle. Imbolc, also known as Candlemas and Groundhog’s Day, occurs at the beginning of February. It marks the middle of Winter and holds the promise of Spring. The Goddess manifests as the Maiden and Brigid. It is a festival of spiritual purification and dedication. There are many different rituals and activities to do for this holiday, some can be found here. One of my favorites is “waking up the trees“.

Here is a small devotion or meditation for the day.

Prayer in Winter By Deborah Weiner

Oh spirit of life and love,
We pause for a moment on this snowy day to reflect on the changes one week can make in our lives.

We celebrate the feast of Imbolc, the pagan holiday that heralds the coming of spring.
Our hearts stir with the thought that lambs are being born, that the light is increasing, that—if not here, than in other parts of our country—the earth has begun to stir from its winter sleep.

We bow to the forces of nature that have stirred, again and again, and reminded us, through storms and sudden changes in our weather, that we are not in charge—that earth is moved by jet streams, polar vortices, and Alberta Clippers and we must endure and be patient.

And through it all, we are reminded, again and again, that we are not alone:
May we continue to recognize that in this spiritual home, we are held.
In this house of memory and hope, we will be welcomed and supported.
In this temple of celebration and contemplation, we may bring all of who we are,
and be both honored and affirmed.

For all this and all that will come in the days ahead, we say “Amen” and Blessed Be.

 

Namaste,
Cricket

Holding Reality and Possibility Together

CZ

I invite you now into a time of gratitude, reflection, renewal and hope.

What an unearned blessing to delight in the calming peace of this space;
to hear the robin’s song again at daybreak;
to feel the warmth in this room,
and to enjoy the promise of summer almost upon us.
Each moment of wakefulness has so many gifts that offer energy and delight.

Yet, too often they seem unavailable
as the weight of our troubles press down on us.
The threats to our well being, real or exaggerated,
feel like mosquitoes in the night looking for a place to land.
Minds become captive to rising flood waters: forceful, murky, threatening and ominous.

Even in moments of great danger, the direction of attention is a choice.
Fear can dominate the mind, binding it like a straitjacket.
Or love can unbind it and open it to resource and opportunity.
The soil of the mind can be watered with kindness.
The thorns can be removed one by one to appreciate the buds ready to flower.

Great possibilities await us even if all we can see is the cliff before us.
The grandeur of life, of which we are a part,
scatters rainbows in every direction, even as the deluge approaches.
Holding reality and possibility together is the holy, hope-filled work of humanity

If…we choose it, again and again, in love.

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