The Transformation of Silence
Vulnerability
October 2013
“Courage is vulnerability. Vulnerability is courage. Like shadow and light, neither one can exist without the other.” —Wai Lan Yuen
Articles
Sustainable Empathy
Traveling home at the end of a really hot day, I got to Grand Central Terminal and made my way down to the 7 train like I always do. Read more »
On the Mend: Brokenness and Healing
A friend of mine slipped on the ice and broke her ankle one winter and was laid up for weeks and weeks. As I expressed my sympathy for her misfortune and suffering, a surprising phrase slipped out of my mouth. Read more »
Vulnerability and Compassion
The pragmatist philosopher-activist Jane Addams in her first book, Democracy and Social Ethics (1902), examined the great gap that she believed was then opening up between “old” and “new” ways of thinking about poverty. Read more »
Facing Vulnerability
Why is it so hard to be vulnerable? Vulnerability is both necessary to create the real connections we crave as human beings, and it involves the risk of being rejected for the true and vulnerable selves that we might share with others. Read more »
From Your Minister
Over ten million people have now watched online a 20-minute talk called “The Power of Vulnerability.” It’s a talk by Brené Brown, a researcher on the topic. Read more »
REsources for Living
Imagine that you are standing in front of a group of colleagues, or your entire class, about to give a presentation. Read more »
The Transformation of Silence
In the cause of silence, each of us draws the face of her own fear—fear of contempt, of censure, or some judgment, or recognition, of challenge or annihilation. Read more »
Vulnerability
“Courage is vulnerability. Vulnerability is courage. Like shadow and light, neither one can exist without the other.” —Wai Lan Yue Read more »
Yuri Yamamoto
Yuri Yamamoto is a singer, pianist, composer, choir director, story teller, and meditation dancer, and is still expanding her possibilities. She is a member of SKY, a multicultural trio that performs eclectic music, and serves as the Director of Music for the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh, North Carolina while pursuing the UUA Music Leadership Credential. Born and raised in Japan, Yuri is actively involved in supporting the victims of the 2011 Japanese earthquake and tsunami, particularly those who were affected by the damaged nuclear plant in Fukushima. Her music videos as well as videos from an interview in Fukushima are available on Yuri’s YouTube channel. Lyrics of her Japanese songs are written by Masao Tachiya.
Travis Wernet – aka “Outlaw Dervish”
Travis is a Certified Projective Dream Worker, Professional Musician and ordained Unitarian Universalist Minister who leads on-going groups, and has offered his work internationally. He fuses his offerings in occasional Work Shops drawing on a diverse set of practices for exploring the rich wisdom of dreams. In June 2012, he led a workshop on Sound Healing and Dream Work at the International Association for the Study of Dreams Annual Conference in Berkeley California. Various Sound Healing techniques are applied in tandem with the dream work, providing layers of enriched experience for accessing the Deep Self. Travis also incorporates Shamanic techniques in order to ‘bring the dream alive’ and has been facilitating groups for the past 18 years, bringing a mythological-archetypal-poetic perspective to the work and much life experience. Musically, Travis has been playing Didjeridu and offering original Mystical Spoken Word Poetry for several years in a wide variety of musical projects, including Outlaw Dervish and Axis Mundi. He has traveled to India, Egypt and Australia to play music and say poems in group ceremonies and sacred spaces, and has released 4 studio albums featuring Didjeridu, on his own, and with Collaborators, most recently “Yoro Yoro” with Ben Leinbach.
Amy Carol Webb
The Reverend Amy Carol Webb is the “beloved song weaver” – passionate, powerful, and poignant. Born and reared in Oklahoma, Amy traces her heritage back to Native Americans through her Great-Grandmothers who settled Oklahoma when it was still a Territory. Amy’s music and ministry reflect the same pioneering spirit, tenacity, integrity and never-quit grit. With her undergraduate degree in performing arts, Amy cultivated a long and rewarding career travelling the world as a performer, recording artist and voice coach. Answering a life-long call to ministry, she earned her M.Div. from Andover Newton Theological school, and is now ordained to Unitarian Universalist Ministry. She currently serves as a hospice Chaplain, fills pulpits throughout Florida and the eastern seaboard, coaches congregational singing and composes both worship and secular music. She is presently at work on her 9th CD from her home in Miami, Florida. A congregant says, “Amy not only moves you, she moves you forward.”
Rabbi Danielle Upbin
Rabbi Danielle Upbin is a prayer leader, teacher, inspirational preacher and singer-songwriter. Originally from New York City, she currently resides in Clearwater, FL, where she and her husband serve as the spiritual leaders of Congregation Beth Shalom. Chanting Hebrew prayer in a joyous and soulful manner is Rabbi Danielle’s passion. She has studied meditation, Jewish mysticism, and yoga and strives to interweave inspiring teachings from Judaism into her presentations. She is actively involved in a local interfaith coalition, and is a regular presenter of song and prayer in the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Clearwater’s monthly gathering called “Festival Ruah: A Multicultural Spirit Experience” along with musicians, dancers, artists and spiritual leaders from around the globe.
Rabbi Danielle released her first CD in 2012, entitled, “Reveal the Light”, an eclectic collection of spiritually oriented songs and chants in Hebrew and English. It has been said of her CD: “Reveal the Light gives us a sonic pathway into the rich tradition of the jewish faith, blesses us with the gift of hearing the power and sincerity of Rabbi Danielle’s voice, and adds to our palate of songs to be sung for sheer pleasure.” – Fred Johnson, internationally acclaimed Jazz musician, singer and spiritual teacher.
When she isn’t singing, Rabbi Danielle is chasing around her four little children, running half-marathons, and baking cookies.
Her music is available on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby and OySongs.com.
Three Twelve
Since its inception in 2005, Three Twelve (known individually as Jason Whetstone, Deb McClain, and David M. Glasgow) has performed for thousands of listeners, in coffeehouses, conference centers, and festival stages. Stylistically, their music ranges from intimate ballads to jump-up-and-down rock—but with every song they perform, they explore the role of spirituality and transcendence in each individual’s search for meaning. Wherever they go, whatever they sing, listeners speak of hearing “exactly what they needed” in the music, speaking of situations ranging from a bad day at work to a cancer diagnosis.
Lisa Thiel
Lisa Thiel is a visionary artist and ceremonial singer whose healing song prayers and chants are among the most popular in the women’s spiritual movement today. Her spiritual path led her to study many of the world’s spiritual traditions and her teachers were yogis, shamans, Tibetan Lamas and Wise Women of the Goddess Tradition. The connecting thread throughout was the practice of sacred song for healing and empowerment, and an emphasis on the Sacred Feminine found in all traditions in one form or another.
The result is a vital, authentic music that resonates with the energy of her experiences. Lisa is a priestess of Brighid and Kuan Yin in the Fellowship of Isis and honors the old Celtic Wheel of the year.
Diane Taraz
For decades Diane Taraz has been creating her own songs and breathing new life into traditional ones. She excels at a cappella singing, but also plays guitar and lap dulcimer, and on her many recordings has collaborated with a wealth of talented musicians.
Born in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts, Diane taught herself guitar during long winter evenings, her feet perched on a wood-burning stove. She wrote her first songs in high school and began working her way through 100 English Folk Songs, a classic collection of ballads. She was captivated by the beauty and power of the melodies, and the way the words provide a glimpse into the past. After moving to the Boston area for college, Diane studied guitar with 12-string master Tracy Moore and polished her vocal skills at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.
Diane has recorded nine CDs that feature her many compositions and her vivid interpretations of traditional songs from England, Ireland, Scotland, French Canada, and America. She is the director of the Lexington Historical Society Colonial Singers, and she presents historic programs that focus on specific eras, including the American Revolution and the Civil War. She often performs as a guest with the Gloucester Hornpipe & Clog Society, a traditional band that plays maritime, Celtic, and Colonial music. She also sings with Vox Lucens, a 12-member a cappella Renaissance choir, and the UUlations, a women’s a cappella group.
Sweet Honey In the Rock
Founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon in 1973 (with Mie, Carol Maillard and Louise Robinson) at the D.C. Black Repertory Theater Company, Sweet Honey In The Rock®, internationally renowned a cappella ensemble, has been a vital and innovative presence in the music culture of Washington, D.C., and in communities of conscience around the world.
The metaphor of sweet honey in the rock captures completely these African American women whose repertoire is steeped in the sacred music of the Black church, the clarion calls of the civil rights movement, and songs of the struggle for justice everywhere.
Rooted in a deeply held commitment to create music out of the rich textures of African American legacy and traditions, Sweet Honey In The Rock possesses a stunning vocal prowess that captures the complex sounds of Blues, spirituals, traditional gospel hymns, rap, reggae, African chants, Hip Hop, ancient lullabies, and jazz improvisation. Sweet Honey’s collective voice, occasionally accompanied by hand percussion instruments, produces a sound filled with soulful harmonies and intricate rhythms.
