SEARCHING FOR GRACE Rev. Kit Ketcham, PUUF, Sept. 25, 2022            As I’ve met with the four coffee klatch groups this past month, I’ve noted the heavy, heavy load that accompanies trauma, hearing about trauma in others, and dreading the impact of the next traumatic moment.          At our Water Ceremony on Sept. 11, we had asked each participant to name a trauma that, for them, had been life-changing, unexpected, and shocking.  When Meredith and I read the cards at the end of the ceremony, we were both in awe of the heavy load each person there was bearing.            Not just in their own lives but also in the awareness of the load their friends and neighbors were experiencing.  Right now, we are a...

TWH provides an update on its coverage of a new Chinese law that intends to crack down on unapproved religious sects, referred to by the Chinese Communist Party as xie jiao. Continue reading New Chinese broadcast rules ban dissent and religion at The Wild Hunt.

A sermon reflecting on the exhibition "Libuše Jarcovjáková: The Photographer as Dissident."

    Tonight, the 25th of September, 2022, starts Rosh Hashanah this evening with sunset. Celebrations and observances will continue on for ten days, culminating in Yom Kippur. In the Jewish calendar these are High Holy Days, the “Days of Awe.” This Rosh Hashanah is a New Year and marks the year 5783 in the […]

Crow has decided that it's safe to migrate once again. But, before she leaves, she has a few worries she wants to talk over. Join us as we give a warm send-off to Tina DeYoe as she heads off on her ministerial internship.

I only got two hikes in this week because of various meetings and a doctor’s appointment. My health is good – given my advancing age at least- and I got my flu shot and my arm still aches some after 23 days. It is worth it though. I am waiting on my omicron enhanced COVID […]

The man Ornette Coleman called the greatest tenor player in the world, Pharoah Sanders, has died at age 81. He may have been the greatest tenor player in the world, but I tend to think of Pharoah Sanders as the master of spiritual jazz. His extended musical meditation on peace, called “Hum Allah Hum Allah … Continue reading "Pharoah Sanders"

Building relationships with your local nature spirits isn’t complicated, but neither is it easy. It requires demonstrating good hospitality and responsible living, consistently, over a long period of time.

Back in the days when I was in school one of the little factoids that I learned that stuck with me was that the first newspaper in the Colonies was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick which was issued on September 25, 1690 in Boston. What I was not told in school was that within days of first appearing and before any second edition could be printed, it was suppressed by the Governor and Council of theMassachusetts Bay Colony.  This 20th Century illustration show a boy peddling newspapers on the street which are eagerly being picked up by readers.  No one know if Editor Benjamin Harris employed news boys.  More likely he or apprentices from Richard Price's printing shop circulated them to water-front coffee houses and taver...

Lately, my life is small, as if I am looking on to life happening nearby, just like these frogs looking out over the edge of the pond. So many big things going on in the world, much frightening, some inspiring, but all of it feels somehow at a distance. I haven’t had a lot of […]

We all have an innate desire to be loved, but that moment of realizing that love is a mutual experience can be one of awe. The surprise, the joy, and the care are special moments that make love real and worth risking heartache over and over again. -JeKaren Olaoya (CLF) When have you found awe … Continue reading Risking Heartache

Despite all their violently macho bravado, even the gods have empathy. Continue reading Column: Bloody Dreams and Blue Giants at The Wild Hunt.

We're looking for donations that encourage experiences with other congregants, gift cards, and homemade treats.

  Selected from MOSTLY SITTING HAIKU from a Chapbook published in 1978 By Allen Ginsberg The short poems (here) range from purest haiku through wry senryu to several which are simply poems, outside any genre save that of Coleridge’s ‘the best words in the best order.’ They are mostly about sitting, not in the studied […]

Please join us this Sunday (25 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for “What Do You Mean, ‘Happy New Year?'” with Rev. Barbara Jarrell and Barbara Deger. This is a service honoring Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (25 September 2022)"

On 2 October 2022 at 11:00 AM, we will have our annual Blessing of the Animals worship service. All of our animal friends are invited to join us in the sanctuary for a special service celebrating our shared home in the interdependent web of all existence. Bring your furry, feathered, scaled, or finned friends — … Continue reading "Next Week — Blessing of the Animals (2 October 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (25 September 2022) at 9:00 AM for “WhUU Dat (yeah, we did that . . . join us anyway)” via Zoom and facilitated by Susan Caldwell and Barbara Deger. This Sunday we will continue our exploration of Unitarian Universalist theology by taking time to explore how we express ourselves when … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 25 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 25 September 2022"

Please join us next Tuesday (27 September 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.

Henri Giffard's steam powered dirigible in 1854. Regular readers of this blog may have noticed a recurring interest in innovations in transportation and communications—the things that have tended to tie togetherour shrinking world.  But sometimes I am stunned to discover an innovation years—decades—before I ever suspected.  Take the notion of powered flight—the ability to propeland control some kind of aircraft over a distance by a mechanical engine.  I assumed that it would require some sort of internal combustion engine.  I never even considered the possibility of steam—the engines themselves were heavy and required quantities of water and fuel, not to mention the inherit dangers of fire, heat, and flying cinders. So imag...

The inscription in the Cambridge Unitarian Church ’s  Memorial Garden   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— Picking up on something I noted two weeks ago, last week I wrote a short thought for the day for you about Jesus’ commandment “to love one another” (John 13:34) and why, when it is understood in a certain way, I think it can be called a “new commandment.” I also noted that the new commandment to love one another seems central to any religion worth its salt and it has always seemed to me that this commandment alone, this alone, if it is do...

Please join us this Saturday evening (24 September 2022) at 7:00 PM for an in-person screening of the documentary film Slave State. This is a documentary film inspired by the book Slave State:  Evidence of Apartheid in America by Curtis Ray Davis II. All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church is honored to host a screening of this … Continue reading " Slave State Documentary Screening (24 September 2022)"

Please join us on Saturday (24 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 (24 September 2022)"

One of the reasons I love teaching and interacting with students, especially the small ones, are the moments of awe that happen on a daily basis. There is an incredible energy that erupts when a being is learning and growing, and you can witness it in front of you.  When a person has a moment … Continue reading Teaching

Redlined communities or “sacrifice zones” also bear the highest energy burdens in the country, with low-income communities spending three times more of their income on energy costs. I’m sure these percentages are much higher now as energy costs have skyrocketed in the past year. Urban heat islands plus high energy burdens plus poor air quality combine to increase incidents of violence and mental health crises in redlined communities, which leads to increased incarceration and criminalization of people of color. In short, it's impossible to separate struggles for climate justice and racial justice, because they are so deeply intertwined both here in the US and across the globe. As part of the deal to pass the Inflation Reduction Act...

Talk about an affront to human life. In a bait-and-switch tactic to push the Right’s anti-immigrant message, FL Governor Ron DeSantis paid to send 50 migrants like cattle on an airplane from San Antonio, TX, to Martha’s Vineyard, MA. The migrants were told they’d land in Boston, where they could get expedited work papers. On top of that, hundreds of thousands of people across Puerto Rico are waiting for water and power to be restored after Hurricane Fiona knocked out power lines and collapsed infrastructure with massive flooding. A rough way for Hispanic/Latinx Heritage Month to start.

“What are these pillars, Gramma? Why do they feel so strange?” She stopped on the sidewalk and looked at me over the top of her glasses and said, "You ask strange questions, Sheri Ann." Continue reading Column: Remembering and Keeping at The Wild Hunt.

This week in the Clear Spring School wood shop, my Kindergarten students made letter holders, that could also be used to hold napkins at the kitchen table. There are very good reasons for kids to make useful art. It goes home with them and establishes a great relationship between home and school. When children see the things they've made celebrated by use in the home, they know that they and their work is valued and appreciated. A carefully crafted item is concrete evidence of learning. And when the parents ask their kids, "what did you do in school today?" it's a question easily answered, and the kids are very proud of their work. For this project, I re-sawed white pine to make thinner stock for the front and back of the letter holder, ...

Giving the Checkers speech, Nixon sat behind the kind of home desk many middle class men used to pay the monthly bills.  He outlined his financial history in great detail asserting he and Pat lived pay check to pay check and were in debt with mortgages and bills. As scandals go these days the “Millionaire’s Club” or Fund Scandal that nearly bumped young Senator Richard Nixon off the 1952 Republican Party ticket, seems like a tempest in a tea pot.  It involved only $18,000 raised from political supporters in California—most of them wealthy men—to cover political expenses such as travel, hotel, meals, mailings, and telephones and such for a “permanent campaign” until the Senator was up for re-elect...

This past weekend, I was blessed with the opportunity to lead – or I suppose it would be more accurate to say accompany – two young children on a walk through the woods.   We carried magnifying glasses so that we … Continue reading →

Prayer for Week of September 26, 2022 - Prayer for Wonderment Beloved, wherever we are and wherever we go may we dwell in, reach for, whirl into, and co-create wonderment. May these “wow” moments and “ahhhhh” experiences and utterances of true amazed joy make our hearts have wings, finding nourishment...

It is said that it was on this day, the 23rd of September in 1215 that the Emperor Shizu of Yuan, the founding emperor of China’s Yuan dynasty was born. We know him best as Kublai Khan. In 1816 the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge published “an opium-induced, orientalizing fantasia of the unconscious…” In Xanadu did […]

There are some rituals that often move us to tears including weddings, child dedications, ordinations, and installations. All of these ceremonies include covenants: promises that people make to one another, to themselves, and sometimes to the Holy about who and how they want to be. ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Sept. 20th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

RE classes begin this Sunday, 9/25!  To register your child(ren), click HERE : K-3 Wonderful Welcome: begins this Sunday, 9/25! K-3rd Children will begin in the Great Hall with their families and stay through the Story for All Ages, when they will join their ... read more . The post Religious Education – Sept. 20th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The Adult Faith Development Team is proud to announce the exhibit, Creativity in Quarantine: UUSS Art and Craftwork from the COVID 19 Pandemic. The exhibit opens Sunday, September 25th, following worship service. Nearly 20 members of the congregation will share their artwork, photography, textiles and wood ... read more . The post Creativity in Quarantine: UUSS Art and Craftwork from the COVID 19 Pandemic appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Join us every Sunday after service from now until election day! Together, we’ll write letters and postcards to help Get out the Vote. You can design your own voting button. Sign up to be a poll worker. Ask about opportunities for text-banking, phone-banking, and voter ... read more . The post #UUtheVote Countdown to Election Day! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Albany, Montgomery, and Fulton Counties are in medium while Schenectady County is holding steady in low. This is good news as school has started and so far, even with a bit of a bump in cases, it hasn’t been huge. May this continue for all ... read more . The post COVID 19 Update – Sept. 20th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The arrival of the September Equinox brings celebrations of gratitude and harvest for the northern hemisphere, and the blush of spring for the southern hemisphere. Continue reading Happy September Equinox! at The Wild Hunt.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) issued a draft recommendation statement on Tuesday, suggesting that everyone under age 65 might benefit from screening for anxiety disorder. Before you jump to conclusions, you need to know a few things. First, this is still a draft statement. The USPSTF has released this draft for public comment. … Continue reading "Anxiety screening"

        Eihei Dogen died on this day, the 22nd of September, 1253, in Kyoto. He was fifty-three. And. Oh, my. What he accomplished in those fifty-three years… In his magisterial study, Dogen’s Manuals of Zen Meditation, Carl Bielefeldt begins by telling us “The Zen school is the Meditation school, and the character […]

Mobile soup kitchen, Germany, 1920 In Berlin, sometime between 1910 and 1929, the German philosopher Ernst Bloch wrote a micro-story that eventually appeared in his 1930 book,  Traces. I cannot get this story out of my head at the moment because it is speaking ever more powerfully of, and directly to, the present situation in the UK where under this new breed of Conservatives (although they are no longer Conservatives but full-blown, radical neoliberal ideologues) the policy is clearly to make the poor work for the rich even as they are forced into cold and hungry inaction and increasing isolation.        “What are you doing? I asked. I ’ m conserving light, said the poor woman. She sat in the dark kitchen, a long time alread...

There are times that you belong to a group but you won’t admit it . You spend most of your adult life denying it. Well, that was indeed me.  I would hear a name and memories would flood my mind. … Continue reading →

 The doomed boxelder tree and it hale neighbor, the five-trunk silver maple. It’s the Autumnal Equinox.  A year ago in the grey dawn I went out to retrieve the newspaper from the drivewayI was inspired. Equinox Eve Morn September 21, 2021 Murfin Estate Crystal Lake   The first few leaves flutter down             from the old, slowly dying boxelder             in the breaking grey light of dawn,             most of the thinning leaves not yet turned.   The vigorous five-trunk silver maple             whose crown enlaces it             has not even begun to turn             nor have any of the other trees             on our small lot.   A wind from the far-...

       —Lindsa Vallee

Click here for magpie song (12s)

“Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not, God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is … Continue reading Tears

A report released earlier this year by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations hopes to improve awareness about the sourcing and ethical harvesting of some wild plants, three of which are frequently used by magical practitioners. Continue reading Dangers in the trade of wild herbs and plants at The Wild Hunt.

By Pamela D. Toler | In the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, the kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa, in what is now the Republic of Benin, employed troops of trained full-time women soldiers who fought alongside their male counterparts. The Europeans who encountered them in the eighteenth century dubbed the Dahomean soldiers “black Amazons.” The Dahomeans called them abosi (the king’s wives) or minos (our mothers).

What is a sacred story? Sacred stories are stories that we find compelling. Stories that we lean into.  Stories that we find meaningful. Stories that we can listen to, read, watch or tell over and over again. Stories that evoke … Continue reading →

Sunday, September 25, 10:30 a.m. We Belong To Love Why is the so-called “heresy” of universalism so compelling that it continues to emerge in conservative Christian contexts? Join us this Sunday, September 25, as Rev. Alice explores the Universalist message of profound belonging and Love. We are pleased to welcome one and all in our beautiful,   [ … ] The post Sunday, September 25 ~ We Belong To Love ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

    My father James William Ford was born in New Jersey today, the 21st of September, in 1919. I don’t know all that much about his life before he married my mother. Some years ago my spouse Jan and I took genetic tests as Christmas presents for each other. One of the interesting things […]

Shaya French We don’t need to understand why someone sets a boundary to respect it. Continue reading "Some Kinds of Help"

On the International Day of Peace, let us recommit ourselves to the work of justice and equity.

Today we have four questions: on worship, practice in difficult situations, spirits from pop culture, and comparing different Pagan traditions.

This is another one of the calendar poems inspired by random , or not so random, coincidences of dates , usually discovered as I am in a mad scramble for a blog entry topic.   It first appeared in 2013 when two events fell on the same day.   Today, like most years, the astronomical event falls a day ahead to a proclaimed one but the calendar serendipity is still close enough. Tomorrow is the Autumnal Equinox and the first day of Fall in the Northern Hemisphere.  Here in McHenry County, we are riding out a nearly ideal string of late Summer weather with brilliant blue skies and the landscape still verdant.  As if on cue tomorrow the wind will swing around from the northand daytime temps will fall into the low 60s.  Today is the Autum...

It turns out private equity firms are buying up hospice providers. And it turns out the for-profit hospices do not, in general, provide as much care for dying patients as the nonprofit hospices, according to Kaiser Heath News: “Patients in nonprofits had more nursing, social worker, and therapy visits. For-profit hospices, the report found, had … Continue reading "Why you should seek out a nonprofit hospice provider"

When I was 8 or 9 years old, I used to write short stories. I imagined a collection of stories called, “The Adventures of Judy.” However, as a kid, I thought the sound of cooing parents (“Ahhhhh…”) was spelled “Awe.”  When Judy’s baby brother took his first steps, the family exclaimed, “Awe…!”  When Judy made … Continue reading Delightful Reverence

JB, a friend from high school, has been living in London for a number of years. His essay titled “The Mood in London” published by nonprofit news organization Who What Why helps explain to us Yanks what it’s like to be in England right now.

While this year's list for Banned Books Week is dominated by books that contain LGBTQ+ subject matter, the list also includes titles that involve Witchcraft. Continue reading Banned books include regular list of Witchcraft titles at The Wild Hunt.

Super editor Maxwell Perkins. In American letters there have been figures who nurtured the writers who became the voices of their generations.  There was the Sage of Concord, Ralph Waldo Emerson himself and his circle of acolytes and admirers.  William Dean Howells presided at The Atlantic and hobnobbed with Mark Twain and fostered the realist novelists who lifted the genre from genteel diversions for ladies and epic adventure yarns to a mirror of American life.  Ezra Pound in London and Paris and Harriet Monroe in Chicago nurtured a brood of modern poets.  These folks were writers themselves who mentored and encouraged other writers, most often through periodicals that they edited or controlled. But the man who revolutionized the Am...

When I write the word awesome, I always want to accentuate the letters “awe.” When I experience something as ‘awesome,’ what I am feeling first and foremost is the awe and wonder of whatever I am engaging with. When I hear a song that touches my heart and reminds me of a powerful memory, it … Continue reading AWEsome

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, White House religious conferences fails to include Pagans or Pagan-adjacent faith, 5K run changes story to prevent misunderstanding of Wicca, the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions took place in Astana, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of September 19, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

      I find myself recalling the American Zen Master Kyogen Carlson, who died eight years ago, yesterday. Kyogen was one of the senior Zen teachers in North America, respected and loved across the continent. He was also my friend. My history of Zen in the West, Zen Master Who? contains the bare outline […]

President James A. Garfield being treated by doctors at the White House after being shot.  The wound was serious, but should not have been fatal.  Attempts to probe for the bullet--often with unwashed hands and fingers, widened the wound, caused more bleeding, pierced his liver, and ultimately led to a deadly and painful infection. On September 19, 1881 President James A. Garfield died in agony on the Jersey Shore 78 days after being shot in the back by a disappointed office seeker in a Washington train station.  He had only been in office a total of 199 days, almost half that time incapacitatedby his injury.  One of the bullets fired the morning of July 2 by Charles J. Gateau grazed the President’s arm.  The other lodged in his b...

I never belonged to any group during my childhood. My mom is Puerto Rican. My father is a first generation Mexican-American. You would think that I would have a rich Latin heritage, but I don’t.  My mother decided not to … Continue reading →

We're beginning our fall semester in style with music from King Cabbage, billed as Oklahoma's only brass band, and a Louisiana-inspired boil for dinner. We'll have activities for the whole family, so bring the kids and come prepared for a great time. The post Wednesday Connections Kicks Off This Week appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "7 August 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "31 July 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "24 July 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "17 July 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "10 July 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "3 July 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

For I am a creature of the Universe, small but infinite A momentary body in the sea of life, and also the sea itself I am a gathered bit of energy, and one who gathers A creation and a creator Let me not hold too tightly to one form and lose the other -from “Imperfectly … Continue reading Both

The critics unleashed their hate on Bailey playing the little mermaid because they claim Disney has violated the integrity of the source material. No. It’s because they're racists. Continue reading Editorial: The Little Mermaid and the racists at The Wild Hunt.

A sermon reflecting on the nature of religious dissent in the 21st century United States.

A men’s group, aimed at learning about feminism, was composed of five men who all tend to be a bit geeky and who wanted to identify how misogyny had surreptitiously infiltrated our attitudes, communications, and actions.

It was cooler this week – we even got drizzled on during one hike! Not enough to pull out the poncho I didn’t have, but enough to have to dry off my glasses. We did two 5 milers and one 12. 12 is a bit much for me, although I love the trail we hiked […]

        In some ways this blog is where I process my inner life. A lot of it turns on expressing the depths of my gratitude for the Zen way while at the same time seeking to clarify precisely what it is within Zen that has been so transformative for me. Another part […]

New York City embarked on a plan to plant 20,000 new trees a year and already the addition of trees is having its effects on neighborhoods. While I'm grateful to live in a forest, even a single tree in an urban environment can make a difference, as reported in the New York Times.  On one block in East New York, a line of trees, planted in 2009, has grown into a canopy. Neighbors gather for cards, dominoes and barbecue. “When they first came, I could touch the tops of the trees,” Jaytee Spurgeon, 55, recalls. “It makes the neighborhood better.” When it comes to human effects on climate, scientists speculate on a "tipping point" at which the effects of CO2 become irreversible and begin accelerating out of control. If we assume tha...

Nathaniel Bacon leads his interracial forces on Jamestown and burns the Capital in the romanticized illustration by Howard Pyle in in  Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History: from 458 A.D. to 1905. The episode named Bacon’s Rebellion is a mere footnote in American Colonial history, yet some historians have claimed to divine the early stirrings of the spirit of liberty.   More have placed the blame on the ego clash between a stubborn and out of touch Royal Governor and a reckless upstart schemer.   While the latter is more likely, the fact was that despite the manifest defects of the rebellion’s leader, his cause united the genuinely discontented from all parts and levels of Virginia society from a disgruntled planter eli...

Gods have people. In the past, those people were likely to be from a single culture, or from related cultures. In some cases they still are. But in others, Gods are calling people from a wide variety of backgrounds to worship and work with Them.

"Looking back at that boy who didn’t feel he could ever fit in Venezuela, the young man who was in danger and resented all of Venezuela, I came to think about a healing exercise: healing with the flag of that same country." Continue reading Opinión: Sanando con la Bandera de Venezuela at The Wild Hunt.

"Looking back at that boy who didn’t feel he could ever fit in Venezuela, the young man who was in danger and resented all of Venezuela, I came to think about a healing exercise: healing with the flag of that same country." Continue reading Opinion: Healing with the Venezuelan Flag at The Wild Hunt.

Everything begins on the verge of awareness. The dawn is not and then is. Sleep is and then is not. In between is the awakening. The passage of thin light, between, breaks open the day. The passage of thin sound, between, flows into the day. Too soon the numbing rumble of traffic swells, the day … Continue reading On The Verge

I went quiet when I finished my six months of daily leaves and got COVID the same week. It took me a while to get my energy back, and a while longer to settle into my new practice. It has finally taken its form for the rest of the year: to do art first thing […]

Please join us this Sunday (18 September 2022) at 11:00 AM for our annual Homecoming Service with Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will recognize member milestones and include a memorial tribute to those we’ve lost since our last in-person homecoming. We will also have a blessing of the backpacks for all ages.  Kids and grownups — … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (18 September 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (18 September 2022) at 9:00 AM for “WhUU Dat (yeah, we did that . . . join us anyway)” via Zoom and facilitated by Susan Caldwell and Barbara Deger. This Sunday we will continue our exploration of Unitarian Universalist theology and take a look back to the early Christian Church to … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 18 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 18 September 2022"

Please join us next Tuesday (20 September 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.

Please join us on Saturday (17 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 (17 September 2022)"

                                   Charles Lewis Tiffany as a young man. 185 years ago today, September 18, 1837, Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B.Young opened a new establishment, a “stationery and fancy goods emporium.” That covered a lot of possibilities but was a sign that the merchants were aiming squarely for the deep pockets of the carriage trade.  They set up shop in Lower Manhattan and after some initial struggles were soon doing very well, thank you.  After picking up another partner were operating successfully as Tiffany, Young and Ellis and expanded their line to include such luxury items as Bohemian glass and porcelain, fine clocks, cutlery, and, oh, Jewelry. Charles Tiffany was born on February 12...

      A monk said to Dasui, “When the thousands of universes are altogether and utterly destroyed in the kalpa fire — I wonder whether this perishes or not.” “This perishes,” said Dasui. “If so,” persisted the monk, “does it follow the other?” “It follows the other,” said Dasui. Blue Cliff Record, Case 29 […]

Loving intra-actions between humans, a dog, and some fish swimming in the River Cam    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— Last week, I had reason to cite Jesus’ so-called “new commandment” found in the Gospel of John (13:34) that we “love one another.” Whilst I have never had an issue with the commandment itself — indeed, it remains absolutely central to my own religious faith, phenomenally hard though it always is to fulfil — I was, for many years, baffled, put-off even, by the claim made, perhaps by the gospel’s author rather than by Jesu...

The times I have found myself experiencing awe are when I witness people coming to the aid of other people without hesitation. Back when I spent my summers working at a boat launch, an intense storm hit the lake, and suddenly every boat was trying to exit the water at once, creating traffic and mayhem. … Continue reading Helping