I’ve been eyeing up my local UU church for many years now. I grew up going to Christian school at first and went to church with my grandma and later a friend, but not within a religious family. There were always things about Christianity that I didn’t agree with even as a young child and things that I believed in that didn’t align. I fully rejected organized religion as a teenager but was still open-minded to certain aspects of paganism and new age spirituality. That kind of stuff was appealing to me as a little nature-loving hippie.

I then spent a few years active in AA and found a home there as a young adult. I became much more open-minded to seeing universal truth in various religions including Christianity (still was not Christian, just found value in the teachings of some Christian mystics due to early influence on AA texts and certain authors’ popularity among members). I enjoyed service commitments and felt spiritually fulfilled. It’s a long sad story, but it’s not really my home anymore and I feel like I’ve been missing that sense of community with other seekers for the last 5 or so years that I haven’t participated. I’ve been sort of trying to seek a sense of spirituality again on my own but it’s lacking. I have since explored paganism more than ever, but still have beliefs rooted elsewhere. I usually just say I’m agnostic lol.

I’m now pregnant and starting to feel like this is the time to finally explore UU. I want my child to grow up in a like-minded community and to have fun and meaningful opportunities like I did from participating in church. I wish I had grown up learning about all sorts of religions and been encouraged to explore my own beliefs. I also won’t be working much for the next few years (or so it seems like it’ll go that way) and I think it’ll be good for me to have somewhere to be. I want a more accessible avenue for volunteering and activism. My husband is just curious and would like to tag along. He very much likes the idea of our child being involved in something like this though.

Anyway, I don’t know why I’m typing this out. I guess I feel like most of my friends and family won’t understand this sort of thing and I tend to analyze my decisions into exhaustion. I’m excited though and can’t stop reading the local church’s website. They have a pagan group, a drum circle, a writers group, mindfulness group, a large vegetable garden, and many “teams” for various issues including food security. All things that are particularly appealing/familiar to me! But I’m looking forward to exploring anything they have to offer. I just really hope I like it. Thanks for reading if you made it this far.