I joined CLF when I moved to the Missouri Ozarks in 2000. The nearest fellowship was more than an hour away, the nearest UU church two hours. While I had some friends here, I knew not one UU. In Kansas City, I had been a member of All Souls for ten years, active as a ...Read more »

“Do you know who I am?” I asked my soul mate of almost 23 years. She looked at me attentively, which was something, but said no words. “I’m Patti,” I said, “your wife. We’ve been together for 23 years.” Read more »

My relationship to money was shaped in part by the habits, attitudes, complaints and worries I heard from parents and close relatives. We were secure financially as a family, but it didn’t feel that way. Read more »

I was the kind of tired you get when you have ten different people feeling in their heart that you should have done it differently. Their way. I was the kind of tired you get when your house is messy, your grass is too long, your car is cluttered and your gas tank is empty, ...Read more »

Here is a summertime truth: abundance is a communal act, the joint creation of an incredibly complex ecology in which each part functions on behalf of the whole and, in return, is sustained by the whole. Community doesn’t just create abundance—community is abundance. Read more »

“One lives in the hope of becoming a memory.” —Antonio Porchia

The essence of gift is that it creates a set of relationships.  The currency of a gift economy is, at its root, reciprocity. —Robin Wall Kimmerer

“My barn having burned down I can now see the moon.”—Mizuta Masahide

“I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver.” —Maya Angelou

“The true art of memory is the art of attention.” —Samuel Johnson

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” —Henri Matisse

“This could be our revolution: to love what is plentiful as much as what is scarce.”—Alice Walker

It always surprises me when people tell me how brave I am for being openly transgender. It doesn’t seem like bravery to me because I know how painful it was to live in the “before”… Read more »

Some of us have been able to escape the bonds of belief systems that condemn us through religious hate-speak. As an “escapee,” I offer you words of comfort: You are not an abomination. You are not flawed. You are good and worthy, and you deserve to live life in an unfragmented fashion…as well as confident that you deserve to ...Read more »

Just as much as marriage, divorce or separation can be a holy choice. When divorce is grounded in deep reflection and care, it can be an expression of love and commitment to life. Read more »

“Do you know who I am?” I asked my soul mate of almost 23 years. She looked at me attentively, which was something, but said no words. “I’m Patti,” I said, “your wife. We’ve been together for 23 years.” Read more »

Over the years, we learned that gender too was one of the seeds that would only emerge in time. How beautiful it has been to watch as our beloved child has bloomed, in gender and identity and expression. Read more »

Have you ever felt frozen after hearing the news of a traumatic event or catastrophe? After the sadness and reality of a traumatic event or catastrophe situation have settled in, you’ve probably also experienced the sinking feeling that there isn’t anything you can do to “fix” the problem. We hate acknowledging that difficult ...Read more »

Many of us have long since mastered the art of despair. Many of us have fallen into despair’s trance, memorized by thoughts of suicide. Read more »

Well-meaning people explain that it doesn’t matter what religion I choose, but I must choose, and only one. Only then, they say, can I go truly deep into a religion. Read more »

Optimism is often held up as a cardinal virtue. No matter the situation, we feel we should be plucky, searching for that silver lining, and courageous. Yet… Read more »