Living in a Multi-Racial Family
We Unitarian Universalists…are mosaic makers. We piece together truths from world religions, science, poetry, and personal experience to create a whole. We believe revelation is not sealed. New truth can be revealed in every moment. Each person contributes their unique piece to the mosaic of community. Out of our broken pieces, together we create beauty.
—Rev. Bill Hamilton-Holway
Our Unitarian Universalist faith embraces and celebrates diversity. Our principles declare that every person has inherent worth and dignity and all of us are part of an interdependent web of life.
But for those of us who live in multiracial families, this ideal of diversity meets the messiness of putting it into practice in our homes, both our family homes and our spiritual homes.
We are drawn to a faith where we can be part of building the mosaic of community and we know that diversity is key to making it beautiful. This vision calls us and sustains us as we negotiate a world that doesn’t always recognize the beauty of difference or the grace of creating wholeness from broken pieces.
Personal Story
Most people who talk about multiracial families talk about the beauty and joy of loving across difference. And there is plenty of beauty and joy. But there is pain too.
In my family, there is the pain of hearing my twenty-year-old son say, “You can never understand how it is,” and being unable to deny that what he says is true. I will never know what he faces as a young black man in this still painfully racist culture.
My white privilege has allowed me a lifetime of naiveté, keeping me blissfully unaware of the effects of racism on the soul: addiction, incarceration, violence, and despair. I never imagined my beautiful son would struggle with every one of them. My eyes and heart have been broken open and while that has given me room to grow, it has also been very painful.
In that struggle, I’ve had to search my heart and my faith tradition for strength, and I’ve been blessed to find it. Our commitment to diversity and justice is real and it matters, both in individual lives and in building a better world. That comforts and inspires me.
But I’ve been surprised to find that what comforts me more is the messy and very human way we’ve had to learn about what it means to put our vision into practice. For every amazing, proud moment of justice-making, there have been assumptions and false starts, mistakes and missteps on the journey. Our best moments have often been when we’ve listened and learned and taken the time to make amends and a new beginning—picking up pieces and using them to build something new and beautiful.
In my family and in my spiritual community, I need to know that my imperfect efforts will be accepted and even blessed. That my heart—as many times as it has been broken and mended and broken again—is good enough and strong enough, even if the cracks sometimes show.
Prayer
Spirit of Love and Life, Help me be strong in the face of injustice, yet gentle with myself and others as we journey together. Help me truly embrace the beauty that appears when we lay our broken pieces side by side in the messy mortar of community. Remind me to work to smooth my own sharp edges and be understanding when I bump into others. Let our Unitarian Universalist community grow in its capacity to do the work of justice and compassion this day and every day. Amen. Ashé. And Blessed Be.
Spiritual Practice
Set aside a few minutes and in a spirit of meditation, quiet your mind. If words or images arise, take a moment to explore them as if they were pieces of a mosaic. Look for the rough edges and the way the light shines through. How might you arrange them into a larger whole? Is there anything you might bless and let go? When you are ready, bring your quiet time to an end with these words:
Broken or whole, may all beings be blessed.
- Love the Limits - July 1, 2021
- Creativity, Art and Failure - April 1, 2017
- Living in a Multi-Racial Family - November 11, 2011
