The Cambridge Unitarian Church on 19th July 2022, the hottest day recorded in the UK  A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation  (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— In the last piece I wrote for you before going away for the summer I encouraged you seriously to consider adopting a philosophy or theology that understands movement, change and process as being fundamental to everything, including God.  Like many people involved with the Unitarian, Free Christian and Universalist tradition, I first came to know about this way of understanding the world through the highly influential process theologian ...

Please join us this Sunday (4 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for “For the Life of Our Living Tradition” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. It is the beginning of the church year and a time to turn our focus to our Unitarian Universalist identity, history, and heritage. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (4 September 2022)"

As the church year begins, our classes will be meeting separately for activities and discussion around our Unitarian Universalist principles and how they fit into our history and our daily lives. For most weeks, they will be joining together for part of the hour to continue work on the updated mural in the middle and … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education for 4 September 2022"

Please join us on Sunday (4 September 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. On this Sunday, we will continue our two-part exploration of the movement for LGBTQ+ rights within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Join us on Sunday (18 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for our 2022 Homecoming worship service. We will recognize member milestones and include a memorial tribute to those we have lost since our last in-person homecoming. We will have a blessing of the backpacks (sports bags, dance bags, briefcases, gym bags, diaper bags, etc) for … Continue reading "Homecoming 2022 (18 September 2022)"

Each month we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to an organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist principles and values. For the month of September 2022, we choose Highland Center Ministries — a partnership of congregations that includes All Souls along with many congregations. Along with the Highland Blessing Dinner, the … Continue reading "Highland Center Ministries — September 2022 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient"

Join us on Sunday (11 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for the annual presentation of the Ralph Waldo Emerson Award to Kathaleen Pittman (Director of Hope Medical Group for Women). We honor Kathaleen for her years of service and unyielding dedication to the rights of all people to plan their families as they choose and … Continue reading "Kathaleen Pittman — 2022 Emerson Award Honoree"

Back in July, Carol and I drove to the Cumberland County Fairgrounds in Maine. We sang Sacred Harp, in a pulling shed, with forty other Sacred Harp singers. There were horses trotting around the race track next to the pulling shed. The pandemic shut down in person singing for a long time. It felt really … Continue reading "What I did on my summer vacation"

Please join us on Saturday (3 September 2022) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The group is free and open to all. For more information, contact Larry … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (3 September 2022)"

Setting out on his bicycle in southern Sweden, Lyonel Perabo heads out in search of the Ale's Stones and the Uppåkra archeological site, once home to one of the most important Heathen temples ever excavated. Continue reading A pilgrimage to Sweden’s Stonehenge and the lost temple of Uppåkra at The Wild Hunt.

Sometimes, in the face of immense natural beauty, we feel awe. Perhaps at the base of a great waterfall, overwhelmed by the power of the rushing water, or at the top of a mountain overlooking a vast valley. When have you felt awe in the presence of great natural splendor?

Staff Writer An Ingathering greeting from UUA President Susan Frederick-Gray.

I was always interested in being somewhere in the world of books. Before college, I wanted to be a full-time writer, and at some point, in those four years, I realized I needed more social interaction in my day than there would be in a typical freelance day. Publishing seemed like the most adjacent career that was less isolated, and it’s turned out to be the case!

I love sweatersAnd I love my wifeAnd I love being outSo I have no choiceBut to love Tallahassee. Tallahassee, FloridaWas a miserable place For me to live, butThe place where my love And my livingBecame real. Tallahassee is the kind of townWhere no matter what, most daysAll you really needIs a sweaterAnd thisIs the only […]

The McLeod Ganj Psalter RSV, Week 2 Ken Ireland (Ken was Ivy League and Jesuit trained, and for some years a member of the Society of Jesus. He currently lives in Dharamshala. Ken’s a long time Zen practitioner and a friend. He’s taken an interest in my current deep dive into the Psalms project, and […]

A series of editorials in the New York Times addresses the question "what is school for?" And we must admit that it serves a variety of functions in today's world, ranging all the way from baby sitter to preparing our children for a future that's completely unknown to us. One essay insisted that School is about teaching kids to read.  When it comes to kids reading in school, some read as early as 4 years old, having read most of the beginning reading books in the library at age 5, and some are reluctant readers, and I suggest that we back way the hell off.  In the US we begin applying pressure to read in Kindergarten. In Finland they begin formal reading in schools at about age 8. When tested in the PISA test which compares education i...

Prayer for the Week of September 5, 2022 - Prayer for Labor Day Lover of Life may we give thanks for those who insist we are more than our productivity, more than economic units, more valuable than the measurements of income and assets, skills, degrees, and talents. Lover of Life...

It must have been a very hot news night when The Evening News with Walter Cronkite was aired on CBS's still un-air conditioned set in New York City. He had only been on the job a little more than a year when Walter Cronkite finally got his wish. Over the fierce objections of local affiliates who resented losing profitable time for local or syndicated programming to the network, his program, re-named the CBS Evening News , expanded from 15 to 30 minutes every night on September 2, 1963. A week later NBC ’ s Huntley-Brinkley Report , the ratings leaderamong the three network news programs by a wide margin, reluctantly followed suit.   ABC ’ s lightly regarded and little watched new program then anchored by the entirely forgotten Ron C...

A ceramic sculpture by artist Sandy Brown that was commissioned by St. Austell to celebrate and reflect the region's historical connections to the china clay industry has seven Christian leaders up in arms. Continue reading Earth Goddess statue in Cornwall deemed ‘offensive to God’ by Christian leaders at The Wild Hunt.

EBWA Calendar 2022-2023 Evening Branch of the Women’s Alliance Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady 1221 Wendell Avenue, Schenectady, NY   Sept. 29  “Edmonia Lewis: Sculptor of Determination and Courage” with Bobbie Reno, East Greenbush Town Historian, author and illustrator. Oct. 27  “Genetic Genealogy ... read more . The post EBWA Calendar 2022-2023 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The notion of awe combines reverence, respect, fear, and wonder. It can be inspiring, or overwhelming. It can be uplifting or frightening. When have you felt awe?

    Millions of families living in America face hunger and food insecurity every day. Your neighbor, child’s classmate or even coworker may be struggling to get enough to eat. Feeding America     Hunger in America is growing. In the wake of COVID-19, unemployment and food insecurity soared, and an estimated 60 million people turned to food banks and community programs for assistance in 2020 alone. Children and adults face hunger in every community across the country, and millions read more... The post September Action Alert: Hunger in America — How You Can Help appeared first on Promise the Children.

The sermon I preached for Covenant Sunday 2022.

Yesterday we held a special box making class for folks from the Fayetteville VA as part of their recreational therapy program. We had a great time making cedar boxes. We will have another series of classes for Veterans on Nov. 19. Registration is not open yet. You can find more information here: https://essa-art.org/events/veterans-appreciation-day/ I will be teaching. Guess what... wait for it... Box Making.  Make, fix, create. Assist others in learning likewise.

James Gordon Bennett, the cross-eyed publisher in 1851. James Gordon Bennett , Sr ., born this day in 1795 in Newmill,Banffshire, Scotland, was so cross-eyed that one acquaintance said, “when he looked at me with one eye, he looked out at the City Hall with the other.”  Yet he saw far enough to revolutionize American journalism in several ways for good and ill. Bennet was born into a prosperous Catholic family which was devout enough to give him a good education in hopes that he would enter the priesthood.   He entered a seminary in Aberdeen at age 15 and remained there for four years.  But the restless lad was not cut out for the restraints of the cloth.  He undertook a series of rambles about Scotland while reading voraciously...

  Edgar Rice Burroughs was born on this day, the 1st of September, in 1875. He died in 1950. I was two years old. A decade later, or close to it, a friend and I were rummaging through some boxes of magazines and books looking for old copies of my father’s stash of Playboys. I’ve […]

(updated May 27, 2022) Friends, The current case-load in Los Alamos County has passed the threshold that we set for what we consider to be in the safety zone. After consultation with the COVID Safety Team, we will be *requiring* masking for all people ages 3 and up while in the building. Coffee hour will …<p> Live In-person Worship Resumes! Read More »

My Guide to Woodworking with Kids has been translated and published in German with copies available on Amazon.de The title is Holzwerken mit Kindern and it is my third book translated and published in German by the publisher, Holzwerken. In the meantime, I had a fine day at ESSA making cedar boxes with a group from the Fayetteville VA. I'll share photos of that tomorrow. Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

Concerns over a vendor with a past conviction as a sex offender involving children resulted in a clergy member resigning and calling for greater awareness and more preparedness in addressing issues with past sex offenders. Continue reading Clergy member resigns from Circle Sanctuary after raising sex offender concerns at The Wild Hunt.

This group focuses on Church members, friends, and the community. It provides a way to share joys, sorrows, milestones, dreams, travel stories, and Church community announcements. Group members may also exchange produce/items/services or request information and referrals.

Evacuated Afghans should not be left in legal limbo more than a year after U.S. withdrawal.

Sarah Skochko There is no such thing as unskilled labor. Continue reading "Your Life Could Depend on It"

Hippocrates, a Greek physician from 400 BC, was one of the first to use music to help heal his patients.  It has been said that Hippocrates prescribed a session of harp playing to relieve depression.  Feeling anxious?  Try a drumming session! -Beth Murray (CLF) When has music made a powerful impact on you?

“Toward a Buddhisto-Christian Religion” by Charles Hartshorne (1897-2000) (from “Buddhism and American Thinkers”, eds. Kenneth K. Inada and Nolan P. Jacobson, State University of New York Press, 1984, pp. 1-13). A digital copy of this essay can be borrowed at the following link: https://archive.org/details/buddhismamerican0000unse/page/10/mode/2up A recording of Hartshorne giving a version of this essay can be heard at the following link: https://archive.org/details/hartshorneabuddhistchristianphil Hartshorne’s connection with the Unitarian movement can be read about at the following link: https://uudb.org/articles/charleshartshorne.html —o0o— Prefatory Remarks to Charles Hartshorn’s Essay (Kenneth K. Inada and Nolan P. ...

How do we prepare for Tower Time? How do we make our way through it? With our eyes wide open, our intellect fully engaged, and our magic running wide open.

      CHAN: ITS MEANING FOR MODERN CIVILIZATION Shin’ichi Hisamatsu Chan means Emancipation and Construction As to the question, “What is Chan?” if one is to be brief, it may perhaps suffice to utter just one word or, indeed, to utter no word at all. If, however, one is to elaborate, it may be […]

  Jail Brakers , the program that offers support and services to the familiesof incarcerated individuals, and the experts at Prairie State Legal Servicesare offering a special sealing and expungement of cannabis records andconvictions presentation at the McHenry County Board of Health office, 620 Dakota Street, Crystal Lake on Saturday, September 3 from 2 to 5 pm.   Use the main entrance at the rear of the building. After the State of Illinois legalized recreational use of cannabis—marijuana—the Legislature passed an automatic expungement of the records of those convicted of simple possession of small amounts of the drug.   Many others, however, convicted of possession of larger quantities and/or sale and distribution are required...

A recent Sunday morning, the Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael, senior co-minister of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, NJ had us thinking. He asked, “What would you say God is? What would you say God is not?” in his similarly titled sermon. There were many different responses to these questions and all like-minded and agreeable to […] The post My Pagan view of the deities — what God is and what they are not appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

The  myōgō/nembutsu is at the top and centre At the end of July, as some of you know, we at the Cambridge Unitarian Church were pleased and honoured to welcome Enrique Galvan-Alvarez a Jodo Shinshu scholar and priest ordained at the Nishi Hongan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan. Enrique had joined us for many of the Wednesday Evening Conversations during which, since January, between six and ten of us explored the classic Jodo Shinshu text, “The Tannisho.” Enrique’s deep knowledge of the Jodo Shinshu tradition were invaluable to our conversations as was his openness to the traditions, insights and concerns of our own Unitarian, Free Christian and Universalist tradition.  L. to R. Me, Susanna, Riena and Enrique As I have mentioned else...

The droughts being experienced around the globe have revealed both archaeological wonders and stark reminders of history. Continue reading A round-up of ancient and modern objects revealed by drought at The Wild Hunt.

Hello UUSS, This is the beginning of our sixth year serving as your Co-ministers! We are so grateful to have had a bit of time of vacation to rest a bit and connect with friends and family. Our time of study leave gifted us with some much ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – August 30th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

2022-23 Religious Education classes begin on Sunday, 9/25! To register your child(ren), click HERE . Below is a list of this year’s awesome RE offerings. Please note that this is a tentative schedule while we’re inviting folks to teach, facilitate, and advise. A final schedule will ... read more . The post Religious Education News – August 30th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

You cannot make somebody else heal, or do the healing work for them. It is hard to watch people we love struggle, but it is important to remember that there is no timeline, no deadline, and healing is different for everybody. -Marin Smith (CLF) How do you make space for others to heal?

When the tired bones settle downupon the cliffsto see the greatest show on gaiabeyond the watercolor imaginationof an unheralded genius so ends the day, blue keep aloft in the skiesthe sun makes its retreat past mountain rangesto illuminate other places over the vast oceanthe gold-dust scattered deepens and the far cornerbecomes indigo then violet beauty, … Continue reading "Journey’s end"

    The 30th of August the ever delightful Episcopal Church celebrates a feast in honor of the life and ministry of Charles Chapman Grafton. I wrote about him a couple of years ago. And it feels time to revisit… Born a Boston brahman in 1830, Grafton was educated at Philips Academy and Harvard College. […]

                                               Fashionable and foppish young Henry Bergh returning from Europe. Henry Bergh  was a softy.  A sentimental fool who could not abide to witness the sufferingsof animals and small, helpless creatures.  And that made him a damned annoyance, and worse, a meddlesome nuisance to honest men who were simply trying to get the most out of livestock that God had clearly given them dominion over.  It said so right in the  Bible,  didn’t it?  To make matters worse he was richer than Croesus and had money to burn and spread around courts and newspapers to persecute men for doing as they saw fit with their own damned property!  And he was sl...

On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, we urge the Biden administration to do more to end this pattern of human rights violations.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, FOX News downplays aggression at Pagan events, U.S. Customs and Border Protection intercept canopic jars and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of August 28, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Healing always takes time – whether it’s a cut or a scratch or a relationship that needs attention and listening and understanding.  We must be patient and do the work required to allow for healing. -Judy DiCristofaro (CLF)

    On the evening of the 26th of August, 2022, in Long Beach, California, I was honored to give Mo Myokan Weinhardt and Tom Daimon Wardle denkai transmission within my Zen lineages. This is the first step of transmission within our Zen sangha. The new Dharma Holders are authorized to gather and lead communities […]

Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. Despite his many accomplishments, Oliver Wendell Homes, Sr. is best remembered today as the father of the great Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., he of the impressive mustachio and beneficiary of a bestselling fictionalized biography and an even more fanciful MGM movie.  The father, who evidently did not engage a good press agent, would probably have been both proud and amused.                          The famous son, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. The senior Holmes was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 29, 1809. Like his nearly exactly contemporary, Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was the son of noted liberal minister and a descendentof poet Anne Bradstreet.  Unlike...

For the past month, we’ve been living in Westport, Mass., and I’ve been commuting to my new job in Cohasset, Mass. It’s at least an hour and a half drive, more if there’s traffic. By the time I come home, I’m often tired of driving. Fortunately, there’s a rest area almost exactly halfway between the … Continue reading "The Ted memorial rest area"

Devotees of Hekate are asking the British Museum to keep a statue on display after an exhibition rather than return it to storage. Continue reading Hekate devotees request British Museum keep statue in public view at The Wild Hunt.

“In my mind, there is a direct relationship between the healing of my body and the healing of the world. Where healing and peacemaking are one, they are the bridge between individual healing and the healing of the community. I do not ask for my healing without committing entirely to the healing of the other … Continue reading Healing Ourselves

They say it can be hard to see the forest for the trees. That works for lakes too, I guess, although I am glad for both the beauty of the trees and for their shade. I know the lake is there. Of course, maybe the lake isn’t really there even though you know it should […]

In the early days of May 2022, the U.S. experienced another mass shooting motivated by an ideology called “replacement theory.” How and when did this theory emerge? How has this idea affected persons of color? How can our awareness of this harmful ideology foster our work as compassionate humans? This talk will touch on these questions and others in an attempt to come to grips with difficult events in our history and our present moment.

A sawmill is closing in Hong Kong due to the government's plan for a massive homogenized renewal and development project. An article in the New York Times, Wood is Life, describes the philosophy of the owner and operator of the mill.  He thinks young people could learn a great deal from wood. “I hope they’ll learn from its resilient nature and stay grounded and not run away from difficulty.” When I've asked my students  whether  they want me to make things easy for them, or difficult so they learn more, they choose the latter. In my wood shop I've been making a prototype cedar box for a Veteran's  class  on Wednesday  and making inlaid boxes to fill orders. Make, fix and create.

Dr. Martin Luther King's ringing  I Have a Dream  speech was the highlight and climax of the 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington and helped change America, but the March itself was bigger than any one man. Like a lot of people back in ’63 I was glued to the television for the beginning-to-end coverage provided by CBS News of the March for Jobs and Justice on August 28.  I was a 14 year old in Cheyenne, Wyoming at the time.  I was both thrilled and awestruck.  Listening to Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech literally changed my life. The March was the brain child of labor and Civil Rights leader A. Phillip Randolph. The march originally was the brainchildof an elder of both the labor and Civil Rights movements.   A. Phil...

I’ve learned some things this year. Discipline is important. Discernment is more important. Spiritual practice is most important. It’s the foundation of any good religion, including our contemporary Pagan and polytheist religions.

Please join us this Sunday (28 August  2022) at 11:00 AM for “Oil and Water:  A Water Communion Service” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (28 August 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (28 August 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. On this Sunday, we will begin a two-part exploration of the movement for LGBTQ+ rights within the Unitarian Universalist Association.

Summer religious education is more art and activity-based. All children and youth are with us in the 11:00 AM service for the first 20 minutes or so and then are dismissed to their activities. On Sunday (28 August 2022), Maggie Molisee will be back to work on the mural with the group.

Please join us next Tuesday (30 August 2022) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Do you have a bucket list – a list of things you’d like to do before you kick the bucket? I understand the appeal of a bucket list. I don’t have a written-down list, but sometimes I’ll have a thought of something that I’d like to do one time before I die. Some of those things I have since done, others I may yet do, others I probably won’t get to, and others I’ve forgotten or lost interest in. The key point is that it really doesn’t much matter if I get to them or not. The measure of a life is not the list of things you did once. It’s all the things you did over and over, making each time fresh. So: back to Jinniu and his rice pail and his laughing and dancing. As you hold that image in mind, there are a couple things yo...

Ever since then, across six decades, I’ve associated the forest – any forest – with dwarfs, elves, secrets, songs, trolls, traps, witches, wizards, and other mysterious manifestations. All unknowingly, my ex-monk philosophy professor father was laying the tracks for my later embrace of Norse mythology and Ásatrú religion. Continue reading Column: The Stories of Our Lives at The Wild Hunt.

Sixteenth century Jewish mystic Isaac Luria told a story of creation in which God, in order to make room to create the world, stored divine light in earthen vessels. Some of these jars broke, and the light that they stored scattered with the broken pieces of clay. In Luria’s account of creation, the goal of … Continue reading Healing the World

To sit upon a cushionmandala-embroiderednot to flush the mind of all thoughtinstead to wrestle with the selfexistence as sufferingsuffering as craving the breath slots inas the zen of assemblingfurniture bought cheaplyfrom familiar corners of the Webalso the struggle as the partsjiggle, pop, settle, breakbreath goes in and out of rhythm seeking not perfectionsenses aflame may … Continue reading "Cool in the crucible"

The delegate caucus. Two years ago, the Republican National Convention which renominated the former orange Resident of the United States was in full ugly swing. This verse erupted after stepping out my back door at 1:30 am.   Unlike the pleasantly cool night this year in McHenry County it was close and muggy.   I was trying my best to keep from being over-exposedto the Trumpista hate fest, but it kept creeping in on newscasts and social media.   No wonder I was restless.   Surrealism anyone? "Mistah Chairman, I Rise to a point of order!" The Convention of Crickets August 26, 2020   The Convention of Crickets nominates the Night. The Fireflies and Cicadas             concur. The Night accepts             and bla...

Please join us on Saturday (27 August 2022) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The group is free and open to all. For more information, contact Larry … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (27 August 2022)"

For the past few years, troubled as they have been, the energy leading into the arrival of autumn has been all about getting ready; preparing for lean times, stocking up, building community connections, and helping one another. That need still exists, of course, and is more important to be met than ever it has been. Continue reading Column: Autumn is Coming at The Wild Hunt.

One of the difficult parts of healing from COVID-19 is that in many people, long after the virus is gone from our bodies, our brains struggle to return to health, remaining foggy. It is a pathway of healing that most of us are not used to – and it means we have to re-think our … Continue reading Healing in the COVID Era

There is a picture of me as a child frowning over my book at whoever is behind the camera interrupting my read, and I think it is the perfect depiction of my relationship with books. I’ve always loved books, and nothing else made sense to me. If I couldn’t share stories with people, what else could I do? 

Under the withered treeby the exit-rampheat-shimmered asphaltI draw in sulphurand exhale rose-breathvibrant springtime birdsongwithin primeval, ever long I take in poisonto then speakwith loving-kindnesslove, the last well run drywhile anger fills with dustswept in, disappearsa transformation happens here.

Some reflections on eating around London...

Prayer for Students Beloved, grant courage, heart, and curiosity to all who learn this season, to enter their studies, to meet new classmates and returning ones, to meet new teachers and returning ones, to grow stronger and steadfast in their pursuit of learning. Bless those who are students, learning the...

                                           Tony Pastor in all of his splendor.   It was America’s most beloved—and most heavily romanticized—theatrical form for 50 years bringing inexpensive, wholesome(mostly) entertainment to the working and middle classes of big cities and burbs in the sticks alike.  It employed singers, dancers, musicians, comedians,magicians, acrobats, animal acts, rope spinners, and even celebrities fallen on hard times with nothing to exhibit but their presence by the tens of thousands transforming a handful of disreputable saloon theatersand traveling troops into the might industry called Show Business.  Vaudeville, as it came to be called, became an unquenchable font of talent ...

Alfred North Whitehead said in his essay on the Aims of Education,  " In training a child to activity of thought, above all things we must beware of what I will call “inert ideas”—that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations."  That's where the hands come into play, for as Charles H. Hamm had noted, the mind seeks the truth but the hands discover it. Utilizing, testing, and throwing into new combinations is what the hands do best. Whitehead had described a learning in depth process starting with romance of the idea, then the development of precision in the application of that idea, culminating in what he called "generalization" or the ability to ...

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A Texas church has announced it will pay damages for performing an unauthorized and modified version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway play, "Hamilton," that included several evangelical segments, one of which demonized homosexuality. Continue reading Texas church will pay damages for its “Hamilton” performance at The Wild Hunt.

I spent an academic year interning for UUSC and I learned some invaluable lessons.

By Alan Levinovitz | As long as national parks have existed, people conceived of them in religious terms. In his book “Discovery of the Yosemite,” the nineteenth-century explorer Lafayette Bunnell described the valley as hallowed ground. Yosemite wasn’t just beautiful, it was holy, “the very innermost sanctuary of all that is Divine in material creation,” a place where visitors could “commune with Nature’s God.” When his companions failed to behave respectfully, Bunnell reacted as one would in church.

Daily Compass returns after a prolonged period necessary for healing. It is a stretch, a reach, a challenge to move forward into the future while staying connected to our daily meditation tradition. Tell us about a time you’ve returned to something after an absence. How did it feel? What was difficult about it?

Where the sprawl of concreteEndsReplaced with boundless treesThe true north as the surveyorWould tell youCities to towns to villagesTo a gas station sellingExpired hard candy and PepsiThe dead-straight 5 gains itsSlalom features through the mountainsWeaving between the timber trucksTowards a state line signifyingNothingHeading towards the landOf the Willamette and the ColumbiaGridlocked bridges and trolley bellsThe … Continue reading "Forgotten north"

We finally got two solid rain storms this past week after a long drought. What a relief! And now four very tiny frogs have appeared in the pond. (I don’t know what happened to the one we had before that was a little bigger.) A few days ago, this new water lily flower started blooming, […]

A half-decade after the Burmese military viciously expelled the Rohingya Muslim ethnic minority, justice is in short supply.

In a previous post I outlined some reasons why I don’t want to wear a preaching gown. In this post, I’ll do my best to give some of the many good reasons why Unitarian Universalist ministers should Geneva gowns, or other types of preaching gowns. First, women ministers are held to impossible standards of dress, … Continue reading "Preaching gowns, part two"

  Although no illustrations accompanied the  New York Sun  stories of a civilization on the Moon, artists and publishers were quick to produce prints depicting the alleged flying humanoid residents and other wonders. Almost a hundred years before Orson Welles soiled the knickers of radio listeners across the country with his broadcast of A War of the Worlds , a New York newspaper had many of its readersconvinced that the world’s most famous astronomerhad observed a civilization on the Moon through a powerful telescope. On August 25, 1835 the New York Sun published the first of six articles which claimed that noted Britishastronomer Sir John Herschel made the observations through a powerful new telescope “of a new design.”   The...

I was trying to explain to someone why I don’t wear a preaching gown, or any other clerical vestments. It’s kind of a long explanation, so I thought I’d turn it into a blog post. Unitarian Universalists ministers who wear gowns to preach typically wear one of two types of gown. If they have a … Continue reading "Preaching gowns"

I've gotten my quality award base to the point of gluing it up. Sanding will come next, then finish, then shipping to the supplier who will attach an acrylic block containing the essential information of the award.  Cutting the miters and assembling the base reminded me of a question asked by a member of the Central Indiana Wood Workers. He asked about the need to stand miters before assembly.  There are three good reasons to leave a well cut joint alone. First, in sanding, however much one tries to be perfect, the perfect joint will be made less perfect. Secondly, sanding dust will fill the pores of the wood, making glue less effective in securing the joint. Third, sanding adds an unnecessary step in which mistakes can be made. How ma...

The case: At each meal, Master Jinniu himself would bring the rice bucket to the front of the Zen hall, dance there and laugh loudly, saying, “Dear Bodhisattvas, come and eat rice!” (Xuedou said, “Although he behaved that way, he was not [simply] kind.”) A monk asked Changqing, “An ancient worthy said, 'Dear Bodhisattvas, come and eat rice!' What does it mean?” Changqing said, “That is exactly like praising and giving thanks at the midday meal.” ( Blue Cliff Record , #74)I want to talk to you today about that koan that Tracy read – look at some of the lessons it offers. It’s about how we become genuine, authentic – become who we are – and that the way to do that is compassion. But first, what are koans? In the 12t...

No archeologisthas the power of Solsummer soul unrelentingcourt of last appealrefuses a reprieve the currents ceasethe ripples endthe inhabitants flee if they have the powerunearthed the hunger stonesour ancestors telling uswhat we already know the famine agebegunbeyondthe bed riven withfissures in a kilncrafted in greed a mountain of goldcannot buy a single dropof the Loireabundant … Continue reading "Eden to eternity"

TWH explores the use of cover crops in the fight against climate change. Continue reading Cover crops and sustainability at The Wild Hunt.