3rd Sunday in Advent

CZ
Advent is the season of waiting. In the Christian year, it is the four Sundays before Christmas. Each Sunday there is a candle lit. They symbolize Love, Hope, Joy, and Peace. This week is about Joy. The reading below found on the UUA Worship Web is about waiting and Joy. What are we waiting for? What are we Joyful about?
Season’s Blessings,
Cricket
When Merry Meets Mess
By Erika A. Hewitt

“Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.”
— Natalie Goldberg

I know a little about “merry” meeting “mess” at the holidays — and by a little I mean How much time have you got?

Four Christmases ago, a painful break-up sent me spinning into a long tango with depression. Two Christmases ago, I came down with the stomach flu. Last year, as tears streamed down my face, friends cut off my long hair in preparation for my first round of chemotherapy. And this year? Like many, I’m grieving an election that, I believe, has already damaged the hearts and bodies of our country’s most fragile people.

I haven’t soured on the holidays, however — and I will not give up on Christmas — for two reasons.

First: long before my heart was broken and I lost my hair to chemo, I learned to shape the holidays to fit into whatever-shaped hole is in my heart.

At times, this has required ingenuity and vigilance. The holidays, laden as they are with traditions and sacred cows, can pull us into programmed ruts rather than genuine wonder. To ask, What do I truly need? and How can I claim my longing for joy? can happen only when we allow ourselves to practice vulnerability and take mindful pauses.

The other reason I won’t give up on Christmas is its central message: the Holy will never give up on us, her people. In fact, from Hanukkah to Solstice, that’s the message of most winter holy days: the Holy — call it God, call it The Force, call it Love’s Impulse — will never give up on us, even when we feel like curling up in a dark room and revoking our membership in the human family.

If I believe that your love will never let us go, I imagine saying to the Great All That Is, the least I can do is be your spy on the ground. I’ll keep watch for love, for compassion, for magic, for awe; and I’ll report back regularly, just to feel close to you.

Every one of you, Sugar Plums, has a story about the holiday blues: crisis, loneliness, wanting to give up. Telling our stories helps restore our wholeness. Tell yours. While you’re at it, form a plan for the coming weeks so that on the other side of this winter, you can look back  and say, “Here’s how I made it gentler on myself, and here’s where I remembered that love will show itself, again and again.”

Prayer

You reveal yourself to us in myriad ways, Gentlest of Ways, and at this time of the year you remind us that you’ll never turn away from us. Whether our hearts are merry or miserable, may our longing keep turning us toward you, and toward the presence of your Love among us.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

CZ

“Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius.” — Pietro Aretino

We will be joining the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown for a very special seasonal dance performance.  Tadashi and Helen Jones (musician) will perform REBIRTH of SUNNA.  This unusual service includes an interactive activity and a vigil.  Bring the family and enjoy the morning while being inspired.  

The service will be held at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Morgantown, 429 Warrick St, Morgantown, WV 26505. It will start at 10:45am. Here is a contact number if you have questions – 304-906-1014

Here are directions from Clarksburg

Hope to see you there.

Namaste,
Cricket

Chalica 2017 Day 7

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Identify ways your family can be more green. Start a compost, recycle, bike more? As a family, choose one and commit!
  • Clean up trash at a park or in your neighborhood.
  • Advocate that your workplace, or your school, be more eco-friendly. Ask for recycle bins and reuse as much as possible.
  • Volunteer at a local animal shelter.
  • Shop your local farmer’s market for local and organic fruits and veggies.
  • If you aren’t already vegetarian or vegan, plan to make a vegetarian or vegan meal.
  • As the saying goes, “Reuse, Reduce, Recycle.” Today, recycle something from your house that would have been trash and create something with it: art, a gift, or a handy item.
  • Write a journal entry about how the world is connected together.
  • Rescue an animal.

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.) Since it is the last day there are two.

For the Web of Life By Paul Sprecher

We light this chalice for the web of life which sustains us,
For the sacred circle of life in which we have our being,
For the Earth, the Sky, Above and Below, and
For our Mother Earth, and for the Mystery.

 

All Animal Chalice By Mark Causey
We light this chalice, spark of the original fire of creation, to remind us that we all on this planet—the furred, the feathered, the finned, and the scaled, along with us featherless bipeds—we are all made of the same star-stuff and all share a common destiny. We all share the same hopes of a life free from harm and suffering and the same aspirations of happiness, love, and flourishing—being able to express our own unique natures and capacities as best we may. We are just that many diverse perspectives from which the whole is seen and experienced. We are inextricably intertwined, interconnected and interdependent. And it is good.

Blessed be.

 

Meditation: 
There are two meditations.

Blessing of the Water by Ranwa Hammamy

Bring us Close to Earth by Lyn Cox

Here is a musical meditation as well. This is Peter Mayer’s “Blue Boat Home”.

 

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket

2nd Sunday in Advent

CZ
Advent is the season of waiting. In the Christian year, it is the four Sundays before Christmas. Each Sunday there is a candle lit. They symbolize Love, Hope, Joy, and Peace. This week is about hope. The reading below found on the UUA Worship Web is about waiting and hope. What are we waiting for? What are we hoping for?
Season’s Blessings,
Cricket
We Are Waiting (a reading for Advent) By Leslie Takahashi

When used as a responsive reading, “We are waiting” is the congregational response.

This is the season of anticipation,
Of expecting, of hoping, of wanting.
This is the time of expecting the arrival of something–or someone.
We are waiting.

This is the time of living in darkness, in the hues of unknowing.
Of being quiet, of reflecting on a year almost past.
Waiting for a new beginning, for a closing or an end.
This is the time for digesting the lessons of days gone past, anticipating the future for which
We are waiting.

Waiting for a world which can know justice
Waiting for a lasting peace.
Waiting for the bridge to span the divides which separate us.
Waiting for a promise or a hope.
For all of this
We are waiting.

Chalica 2017 Day 6

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Volunteer as a family or make a plan to volunteer on a regular basis
  • Write a Holiday card for a veteran, person, at a nursing home, or a neighbor
  • Go for a walk and randomly compliment people you pass.
  • Write a journal entry about what peace means to you
  • Write a journal entry about what liberty means to you
  • Write a journal entry about what justice means to you
  • Read stories of injustice from around the world
  • Read about other holidays from around the world.

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

 A Spark of Hope By Melanie Davis

If ever there were a time for a candle in the darkness,
this would be it.
Using a spark of hope,
kindle the flame of love,
ignite the light of peace,
and feed the flame of justice.

 

Meditation: 
There are two meditations.

Beatitudes for Justice Builders by Lindi Ramsden

Children’s Christmas Sermon by Gary Kowalski

Here is a musical meditation as well. This is “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” by John & Yoko, The Plastic Ono Band with The Harlem Community Choir.

 

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket

Chalica 2017 Day 5

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Listen to a friend who needs to talk without offering advice.
  • Write a letter to someone in the legislature.
  • Find out how to get on the board at your church.
  • Find out when your City Council meets and plan to go to the next meeting.
  • Host a family meal and everyone gets to vote on what you will make.
  • Write a journal entry about what the democratic process means to you.
  • Watch a movie as a family, but everyone has to vote on what it’s going to be.

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

Reminder of the Inner Light By Gregory David Miller

This fire is a reminder of the light within us all;
the yearning for freedom,
the longing for truth,
the flame of intuition,
the torch of conscience.
We dedicate this service to the remembrance of this Holy Light.

 

Meditation:
There are two meditations. The second one is even fun for kids.

Give Voice to Mourning by Lindasusan Ulrich

The Great Pie-Rat Controversy by Naomi King

 

Here is a musical meditation as well. This is Dion’s “Abraham, Martin, and John” because it focuses on people who lived this principle.

 

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket

PS: Very sorry this is a day late.

Chalica 2017 Day 4

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Find answers to questions in your family question box or find the answer to a question you have wanted to learn for a long time.
  • Go the whole day without lying (no white lies, answer honestly when people ask how you are, no lies of convenience).
  • Unitarian Universalism is a very long name, and not many people know much about it. Create an elevator, or playground, speech so you can tell people what it means to be a UU in one minute or less.
  • Check out a podcast like The Pamphlet or The VUU to learn some history or about something going on in the UU movement at the moment.
  • Do a science experiment.
  • Write a journal entry with your thoughts on truth and meaning. What does it mean to search for them? What is a free and responsible search?
  • Walk a labyrinth or do a virtual labyrinth meditation

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

The Meaning of the Chalice By Martha Kirby Capo

For some, the chalice cup is a communion cup, freely offered to all who would seek the greater Truth. Others see the circle of fellowship in its embracing sides. The sacred hoop of its rim, the ambient energy cradled in its basin, the abiding, grounded strength of its pedestal: may all be lit by the fire of spiritual integrity; so too may we each be bathed in the glow of our shared Truth, multifaceted and radiant.

Meditation: Today there are two meditations.

Hide and Seek with God by Mary Anne Moore

Try to Love the Questions Themselves by Rainer Maria Rilke

Here is a Music Meditation for you. It is “I Know This Rose Will Open” performed by the Clarence High School Treble Choir

Season’s Blessings,

Cricket

Chalica 2017 Day Three

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Cook a meal you’ve never made before, especially one from another culture
  • Attend a lecture, visit a museum, or go to see a play. Discuss the event with someone around you.
  • Discuss your religious beliefs and how they have changed over the years.
  • Write a journal entry about acceptance and spiritual growth
  • Play a board game with family or friends that none of you have ever played before
  • Meditate on something from each of the Six Sources

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

Thirsty By Gregory Pelley

And so we gather, from the ebb and flow of our lives
Thirsty for connection to ourselves
Thirsty for connection to others
Thirsty for connection to the larger life.

As we light this chalice
May all who gather here be filled:
Filled with joy and hope
Filled with compassion and love

Here, may we be filled
So that we may pour ourselves out
into the world.

Meditation:
There are two meditations today one about building spiritual walls and one about choice.

Towers of Babel by George A. Tyger

Choice by Alex Kapitan

 

Here is a musical meditation as well. U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is about doubt, which is part of Acceptance and Spiritual Growth.

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket

Chalica 2017 Day Two

CZ

For each day of Chalica we will offer activities, some are fun and some are more reflecting, a chalice lighting, and a meditation. Gather everyone together, light the chalice, and breathe into the principles with us each day.

Activities:

  • Write a Letter to an elected official about an injustice
  • Pay for the person behind you in the drive-through line
  • “Want me to pick something up for you?” If you know someone is overwhelmed – perhaps by a new baby, family health issues, or something else – give them a call when you’re going out to the store. Ask if they’d like you to pick something up. We’ve been the beneficiaries of this random act of kindness, and it’s great.
  • Try to go the whole day without arguing with anyone
  • Go out to eat and tip the server double
  • Go to the store or mall with the family and stand outside and open the doors for people
  • Find a social justice cause and/or a new way to support it.
  • Educate yourself and your family on a social justice issue. These Youtube channels are a great way to start.
  • Write a journal entry about what Justice, Equity, and Compassion mean to you.
  • Write a poem about being kind.

Chalice Lighting: (If you don’t have a chalice at home, remember that the point of a chalice is that it is a symbol so any candle will work.)

Justice, Meaning, and Purpose By David Breeden

We light this chalice
remembering and honoring our own tradition
and celebrating the rich diversity of traditions among us.

As we search for justice, meaning, and purpose,
may we remember that justice, meaning, and purpose
live first in deeply listening to one another.

This chalice lighting was written for a multifaith gathering.

Meditation:
Our Meditation today is about Love. Focusing on love helps us to remember that each person is important.

May We Reach Out in Honesty and Love by Dennis McCarty

Here is a musical meditation as well. This is “Do What the Spirit Say Do” as performed by Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Season’s Blessings,
Cricket