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November 2014
“Home is where one starts from.”—T.S. Eliot
Articles
Home Is…
When I was born, our house was a two-story grey box with a big rock in front of the house the size of a Volkswagen. The builders found it while digging out the basement. Its resting place in the yard was as far as they would move it. Read more »
A Spiritual Home for Prisoners
The CLF offers our 600 prisoner members a spiritual home via UU publications, correspondence courses, and more. Please help keep our Prison Ministry strong and active by donating at clfuu.org or calling 1-800-231-3027. Read more »
Home Is Where You Park It
“Trans or Rez?” A bellhop asks this question of Barton Fink, title character in the 1991 Coen brothers film. Barton Fink is set in the 1940s, when the bellhop (played by Steve Buscemi) was likely clueless about the possible transgender or immigration implications of his question. Read more »
Finding Home
I can think of few words more powerful to me than the word home. It is the word that gives me hope, while at the same time it seems to be nothing more than a dream. It is both unattainable and so absolutely vital to me. Read more »
By the Waters of Babylon
By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down, and we wept when we remembered Zion. In the midst of it all we hung our harps upon the willows. They that carried us away captive required of us a song. Read more »
From Your Minister
A trend which began in the San Francisco Bay Area is now spreading to other cities—the trend of hipsters paying four or five bucks for a piece of toast. Toast. You know, like you make in the toaster. Read more »
REsources for Living
I’ve been enjoying looking at pictures of tiny homes lately—little bitty houses made of cargo containers, recycled materials or just a lot less traditional building materials. Read more »
Coming Home
It happens with the simplest gestures: a door swung open, a light turned on in the hall, the snap of a lock as it opens somewhere unseen inside. Read more »
Working Through Environmental Despair (Excerpt)
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In August, 1978 I chaired a week-long seminar on planetary survival issues. College professors and administrators had prepared papers to deliver on themes ranging from the water crisis to environmental effects of nuclear technology.
As we convened, I took time to acknowledge that the topic we were addressing was different from any other, that it touched each of us in a profoundly personal way. I suggested that we introduce ourselves by sharing an incident or image of how it had touched us.
Mourning
October 2014
Even hundredfold grief is divisible by love.”—Terri Guillemets
Articles
Grief
Each person on this earth has experienced loss. We may think when grief comes over us that we are alone in our mourning, that the smiling chatty folks around us don’t know…but of course they do. Being alive in this mortal world means knowing loss. Read more »
Grief—One Year Later
In writing about her mother’s death, Meghan O’Rourke suggests, “A mother is a story with no beginning.” Read more »
Working Through Environmental Despair (Excerpt)
Just as grief work is a process by which bereaved persons unblock their numbed energies by acknowledging and grieving the loss of a loved one, so do we all need to unblock our feelings about our threatened planet and the possible demise of our species. Until we do, our power of creative response will be ...Read more »
From Your Minister
It was not a surprise when my mother died. Survival rates for ovarian cancer are not high, and hers was in stage four by the time it was diagnosed. Against those odds, she lived three years with a high quality of life. Read more »
REsources for Living
One way of defining religion might be as a place for talking about things that are hard to talk about. What does my life mean? Who or what is in charge? Where did everything come from? Read more »
Offering for Grief
Look! I have made this bowl for you, this large dark blue one with lilies etched across the bottom, around the sides. Read more »
Theological Diversity and Common Ground
September 2014
Out beyond idea of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.” —Jalal ad-Din Rumi
Articles
The Challenge of Unitarian Universalist Theology
Some among us are asking, “Is there a center to Unitarian Universalism?” Do we have a theological center? And why are we asking about this? When did pluralism become a problem? Read more »
In Translation
Unitarian Universalists are people of words. But words mean different things to different people. Read more »
Saved
I am paid to evangelize, to grow current congregations and plant new congregations. I’ve been lurking on internet sites of fundamentalist evangelists, because, quite frankly, they have systems for planting new congregations. I mean, they’ve got systems! They have trainings and boot camps and coaches and conferences just for planting. I have a hot case ...Read more »
From Your Minister – September 2014
One of the ways that we create spiritual or theological common ground is so simple it’s almost embarrassing: We agree to do so. We make a commitment to each other to create a space that is held in common. In religious language, these commitments are called covenants. In the Bible, covenants are between people and ...Read more »
We Covenant
Covenants are intentional. / Covenants are audacious. / Covenants are a promise / that can change our lives / together in this faith. Read more »
REsources for Living
As someone who grew up Unitarian Universalist, I have to admit that there are some disadvantages to being a UU kid. It’s hard enough just getting people through the ten syllables of Unitarian Universalist. But if you manage that task then the inevitable follow-up question is: “What do you believe?” Read more »
Theological Diversity and Common Ground
“Out beyond idea of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I will meet you there.”—Jalal ad-Din Rumi Read more »
Welcome to Cell No. 9
One Today – Poem by Richard Blanco
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One sun rose on us today, kindled over our shores,
peeking over the Smokies, greeting the faces
of the Great Lakes, spreading a simple truth
across the Great Plains, then charging across the Rockies.
One light, waking up rooftops, under each one, a story
told by our silent gestures moving behind windows.
The Sun Shines Not On Us…
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The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song of the rocks in the heart of the mountains is our song, our very own, and sings our love.
By John Muir (1838-1914), from his journals
Independence and Interdependence
July-August 2014
To find yourself, think for yourself. —Socrates
Articles
Turn the Principles Upside Down
What happens when we affirm and promote: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part” as our first principle and leave celebrating the inherent worth and dignity of every person until the end? Read more »
How It Happens
“…I don’t want to stereotype, but you’re some kind of Asian, right? So, math is, like, in your DNA?” I was rendered temporarily speechless…. Read more »
Welcome to Cell No. 9
American prisoners are an independent lot—or that’s what most of them want you to believe. But there comes a time when even the hardest among them need help. Moreover, sometimes these tough guys are the first to reach out to those in need. Read more »
One Today – Poem by Richard Blanco
“One Today: A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration, January 21, 2013,” by Richard Blanco Read more »
From Your Minister – July 2014
I love acknowledgments pages, and award acceptance speeches, and other public expressions of gratitude where people spell out how their individual success is interconnected with the gifts of other people. Read more »
REsources for Living
One of the most exciting things about growing up is that you can do more and more things by yourself. Read more »
The Sun Shines Not On Us…
The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. Read more »
Risk
And then the day came,
when the risk
to remain tight
in a bud
was more painful
than the risk
it took
to Blossom
—Attributed to Anaïs Nin