Courage
March 2015
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. ” —Maya Angelou
Articles
Courage
“Without courage, we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. ” —Maya Angelou Read more »
The Cadence of Courage
Arianna Huffington, the noted author and popular pundit, wrote a book entitled On Becoming Fearless. In it, she observed that too many women and girls today are afraid to be themselves. Read more »
Living with a Courageous Heart
Anyone can slay a dragon, she told me, But try waking up every morning and loving the world all over again. That’s what takes a real hero. Read more »
Standing Like a Tree
Perhaps you remember the story about Antoinette Tuff. She’s the woman in Atlanta, Georgia, who was working in the main office of an elementary school when a man burst in with an automatic rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition. Everyone got out, thanks to her. Read more »
The Courage to Endure
One of the things I miss most about home is having a comfortable place to sit. It isn’t something most people think about, but over time, it becomes more and more important. Read more »
From Your Minister
The older I get, the crankier I am about fear. My own fear, other people’s fear. I can see back across decades to all of the times when I have stood moving my lips soundlessly like the cowardly lion in The Wizard of Oz while some disembodied voice thundered, “QUIET!” Read more »
REsources for Living
A few months back 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Read more »
To Risk Going Too Far
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” —T. S. Eliot Read more »
When Things Fall Apart
When things fall apart and we can’t get the pieces back together, when we lose something dear to us, when the whole thing is just not working… Read more »
Did You Know?
That you can join a lively conversation on the theme of this issue in a Facebook group? Read more »
Love
February 2015
“Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.” —Zora Neale Hurston
Articles
Living by Love
You don’t have to be Christian to admire this ancient and beautiful religion and wish to learn from its wisdom. Read more »
Sharing the Love
Love is a way of life. It should be how we make our way in the world. And truth be told, we should be preaching love every Sunday. Read more »
Love Is…and Isn’t
Love is patient—as opposed to people who rush to judgment; as opposed to those who insist that everybody should agree immediately on the obviously right answer, whether or not they have had time to think it through. Read more »
CLF Invites GA Delegates
Would you like to represent the CLF at the UUA’s General Assembly (GA) this summer? Read more »
Tucked In
On a quiet suburban street on a Sunday evening, just as it was getting dark, I saw a car pull into a driveway, and then the silhouette of a man walking from the car to the front door of the house, carrying a sleeping child. Read more »
Because of Your Dollars
“Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is such a struggle since coming back home from deployment. Thank you for being there for me, as it is hard to be with people right now.” —Tim Read more »
From Your Minister
Before I had the good fortune to serve the Church of the Larger Fellowship as senior minister, I was part of a team that designed and launched the Standing on the Side of Love Campaign at the Unitarian Universalist Association. Read more »
REsources for Living
A few years ago, Unitarian Universalists got a new nickname. In 2010 lots of UUs went to Arizona to protest the way immigrants were being treated. Read more »
Did You Know…
That you can buy many fun items with the CLF “I Carry the Flame” logo? Check them out at CLFUU.org Shop. Read more »
Transformation
January 2015
“You cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” —C.S. Lewis
Articles
Transformation
“You cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” —C.S. Lewis Read more »
The Necessity of Discomfort
Recently, in preparation for my daily practice of mindfulness and prayer, I came across a stunning piece of information. Read more »
Transformation vs. Acceptance
Transformation is part and parcel of most religious groups. The work of a faith community is to build a better world and to help each other become better people… Read more »
The Stream: A Sufi Story
A stream, from its course in the far-off mountains, passing through every kind and description of countryside, at last reached the sands of the desert. Read more »
These are the Times that Grow Our Souls (Excerpt)
The America that is best known and most resented around the world pursues unlimited economic growth, technological revolutions, and consumption, with little or no regard for their destructive impact on communities… Read more »
From Your Minister
For the past several years, I’ve been part of a group called Transforming Families, in which families that include trans* kids come together for support, information sharing, and fun. Read more »
REsources for Living
I can well remember from my childhood that most adults had a very strange habit. Pretty much any time you saw one of your parents’ friends, or an out-of-town relative, they would greet you in exactly the same way… Read more »
Life’s Transformations
To live is to change, to acquire the words of a story… —Barbara Kingsolver Read more »
Nighttime, January
When breath catches in the crisp night air, and sight turns to stars, mind to moon, silence asserts itself, breathing the beauty of night into being… Read more »
Signs and Wonders
December 2014
“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.”—Socrates
Articles
Wondering and Wandering
In a meeting the other night we lit a small chalice and someone shared a blessing to center us down and gather us in for whatever work it was, and the blessing ended with the question, “What do you welcome in winter?” Read more »
No One Lights a Lamp
No one lights a lamp in order to hide it behind the door: the purpose of light is to create more light, to open people’s eyes, to reveal the marvels around. —Paulo Coelho Read more »
Miracles and Wonders
A man arrives at a wedding banquet and finds that they have run out of wine. Mysteriously, plain water is transformed into wine sufficient for all the guests. Read more »
God Crashes the Wedding
Was it only dumb luck in that wedding, out at the state park, when I happened to call thunder and lightning down out of the sky? Or was it a sign from God? Read more »
From Your Minister
When I was a kid, I pictured the part of the Christmas story about “no room at the inn” as a kind of neon no vacancy sign, blinking from the ancient motels of Biblical days. Read more »
REsources for Living
Some days are special not because there is a birthday or a holiday—although those are very special days. Some days are special because if you are paying close attention, you get a sign. Read more »
When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer
When I heard the learn’d astronomer, When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me… Read more »
Home
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 »
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 »
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 »
Security and Risk
June 2014
“Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is.” —Will Rogers
Articles
The Faith of a Trapeze Artist
The word “faith” doesn’t occupy the same place of prominence in Unitarian Universalism that it does in some religious traditions. For many of us, faith has become synonymous with blind acceptance of particular religious beliefs …
Embracing the Dangerous and Sacred (Excerpt)
I have a favorite tree that I like to sit in. Going there is a form of meditation for me. I like to climb up into the branches and look out over the Bay.The birds fly around me and my cares just melt away. I feel like I am in a sacred and safe world. ...
The Risks We Take
Am I going to take the most familiar, safest routes or will I open myself to new possibilities and new ways of doing things? Such untrodden paths might challenge me, reveal my inexperience, my biases, and expose the soft underbelly of my vulnerable, human self.
Finding Our Way in the Wilderness
Making room to be more inclusive means letting go of some more stubborn aspects of a given culture. It means making room to be changed. But change can also bring new promise and possibility—something better than the past.
Into the Wilderness
When Jesus was baptized the spirit descended upon him like a dove and God said, “This is my son, in whom I am well pleased.” It must have been a great feeling, but it didn’t last long.
From Your Minister – June 2014
When I was a kid, my father had a reason why just about everything my siblings and I might do was risky and might ultimately lead to death, or at least dismemberment.
REsources for Living
What’s the riskiest thing you’ve ever done? Jump out of a plane? Travel to a foreign country? Ride a bike downhill with no hands? Change jobs? Make friends with a stranger? Swing upside down on the monkey bars? Tell someone you love them?
Holding On / Letting Go
May 2014
All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” —Havelock Ellis
Articles
The Glove in the Subway
A one-paragraph newspaper article describes a subway platform during the morning rush hour at Grand Central Terminal. A train pulls in; a well-dressed woman gets off. Before the doors close, the woman realizes that she is holding only one of her leather gloves. Read more »
Letting Go of What We Don’t Have
Oh, letting go. Every so often a minister has to preach on something that is absolutely not a personal strength. And this is one of those times. I’m not a letter-go; I’m an attacher and a holder-on. I hold onto people and relationships I love. Read more »
The Roots We Choose (Excerpt)
We don’t get a say in the roots we inherit, even as they stretch beneath the surface of our daily lives and contain within them countless stories of danger and survival and elation and heartbreak that inform our living in ways we understand and ways we do not. Read more »
From Your Minister
My uncle had lost his powers of speech by the time he died. In his hospital bed, surrounded by his loved ones, he used a bead board to spell out what he wanted to say during his final days. Read more »
REsources for Living
Have you ever had an all-out, meltdown, full-on temper tantrum? I don’t remember having major hissy fits when I was little, although if you asked my mom you would probably learn that’s more about my faulty memory than my good temper. Read more »
A Stone to Hold On To
It was the weekend before I was scheduled for a biopsy. Marta spent the morning gathering stones on the beach. Later that evening, she pressed a smooth round stone into my hand and said I know that when you’re facing a challenge it helps to have something to hold onto. Read more »
Holding On / Letting Go
“All the art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on.” —Havelock Ellis Read more »
Letting Go of the Past
Grief in all of its forms is essential to a healthy life in this fragile world. But fiercely and stubbornly clinging to singular events and losses in the past is not so much grief as it is a kind of “stuckness” that truly limits the gift of our present life. Read more »
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