Here we are at Black Friday again, and it seems that enough container ships coming from China made it to port and were unloaded in time to make most consumers happy with things that will fill our landfills in no time flat. The goods delivered to us from foreign manufacturers amount to trillions of dollars in cost with a balance of trade deficit that would quickly cripple a smaller nation. But few questions are asked. Some while back, economists and policy makers decided that we'd have a service economy rather than one that relied on making the things we need. Then we entered an "information age," in which exchange of information over the television and computer screens would earn our keep. It's time a few of us call BS. The opportunity c...

            For years and years people have talked about the Zen awakening experiences collected in Philip Kapleau’s Three Pillars of Zen. These accounts have inspired many people, including me, toward the practice, especially toward koan introspection. And these accounts have enjoyed a fair amount of reaction. At first in at […]

“I don’t want a faith that wordsmiths my truth, that asks why it’s necessary to use the words that best describe my experience as a queer person. I don’t need help finding alternative words that might go over better with strangers. I need my siblings in faith to notice their discomfort in hearing about my … Continue reading Solidarity

UUSC partner el Foro de Mujeres por la Vida provides a critical space to discuss Honduras’ elections and what those elections mean for women’s rights.

Greetings of gratitude from TWH. Continue reading Thanksgiving 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

This is Thanksgiving day and as folks gather to celebrate the holiday let's remember to stay safe and not infect those we love with a disease that may keep them from being with us in years to come. Ironically, the celebration of Thanksgiving began during the Civil War in the United States as the North was fighting to abolish human slavery and the South was fighting to retain the right to hold human beings in bondage. And yet, now North and South, we celebrate and give thanks. One of the points that I make in my new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands has to do with the small things of useful beauty that occupy our lives.  Shopping small and avoiding the big box stores this holiday season, starting tomorrow with Black Friday, gives us a better...

Thomas Nast's 1869 Thanksgiving cartoon pictured Uncle Sam carving a turkey at a diverse post-Civil Ware table inhabited a legion of ethnic stereotypes under the watchful eyes of Presidents Lincoln, Washington, and Grant belied Nast's own strong Nativist bias.  He extoled universal suffrage for freed slaves and women, but certainly didn't mean if to include the table's Native American interloper. For some, the annual angst over Thanksgiving is upon us.  For years Native American protests that the Holiday represents European colonialism, American racism, cultural erasure, and actual genocide have begun to registerwith many of the rest of the current inhabitants of this country.  It is hard to deny that our First Nations, as the Canadia...

      In preparation for Thanksgiving, along with getting ready for the family gathering, where my spouse Jan & I are the cooks (we appear to be the only people in the family who aspire to taking care of the vegans and the folk who need blood at every meal), I reviewed some of […]

The practice of gratitude is one that connects us to something important. We do this daily to remind ourselves of the grace–the unearned blessing–that surrounds us. What are you grateful for today?

Our area of Maine loves nature news. So when we heard in the news that there were visiting river otters in the ponds at Evergreen Cemetery, we joined many other Portland residents to go to the cemetery to see if we could see them. And we did! We saw this one in one of the […]

As COP26 closed, scientists and investors were already looking at strategies to mitigate the impact of a warming planet. Continue reading Some strategies to offset climate change impacts were underway before COP26 at The Wild Hunt.

An online service with lay preacher Daniel Stack   “Soon after I became sachem they disarmed all my people…their land was taken. But a small part of the dominion of my ancestors remains. I am determined not to live until I have no country.” King Philip, Sachem Metacom of the Wampanoag   The Unitarian Church of   [ … ] The post Sunday, November 28 ~ Exploring Our Forebears ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

I’m so grateful to everyone who came together to affirm the dignity of lives lived in truth and connect to the tragedy of the at least 46 lives lost due the compounded violences of transphobia, racism, classism, and capitalism. This service was a reminder that we are all responsible for the epidemic of violence against the transgender community…and must do everything we can to celebrate the lives of the transgender, genderqueer, and non-binary community by dismantling any and all barriers to total equity and full inclusion in our congregations, institutions, and society at large. View the 2021 UUA Transgender Day of Remembrance Chapel Resources to Support the Transgender Community Subscribe to the UPLIFT Newsletter TransLash Media cr...

We've finished an arched bridge with student help at the Clear Spring School, and with help from my tractor and some straps we'll carry it for installation on the Schoo campus, giving our students a clear path over a creek between buildings. On projects like this, that are adult in nature, not every child will be involved with the same level of enthusiasm, but each can help and learn, and too few kids these days are drawn in as participants in adult labor. In my home woodshop I'm finishing some boxes that had accumulated unfinished. Each is different, so they'll give me a way to provide boxes to a few galleries that handle my work. When I have quiet times in the wood shop I've been listening to the Path to Learning Podcast. It is readily...

Sally Fritsche May we release ourselves from the need to fit every truth neatly into our own language. Continue reading "An Atheist's Prayers"

Murfin’s It turns out that this illustration, swiped from a children's book, was actually created by Theresa Murfin! Gotta be some kind of relative!.  Hello, cousin and feel free to stop by for the feast.  We'll make room. Note— This has been one of my most popular, regularly requested, and widely shared of my annual holiday posts. So here it is today, in plenty of time to share with your guests—or your hosts.   This list of rules is particularly apt for those of us who do not live in House Beautiful , Snapchat posts, or Martha Stewart fantasies.   It’s for those of us with cramped space, short time, and real families of blood, choice, accident, or convenience that don’t resemble that famous Norman Rockwell cover or behave ...

        Keiji Nishitani died on this day, the 24th of November, in 1990.\ If you’re unfamiliar with him, and you are interested in Zen, I suggest you may want to learn more. He was one of the principal figures in the establishment of the Kyoto School, which the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, […]

“This is a prayer for all the travelers. For the ones who start out in beauty, who fall from grace, who step gingerly, looking for the way back. And for those who are born into the margins, who travel from one liminal space to another, crossing boundaries in search of center.” -Angela Herrera What are … Continue reading Boundaries

I sometimes like to say that I’m religious but not spiritual, because I associate “religion” with institutions, and “spirituality” with individualism. I’ve come to really dislike the hyper-individualism of the U.S. today, and for me institutionalism lies at the very heart of my religion. So to better express my religious values, I just added an … Continue reading "Institutionalism"

By grieving healthily, the memory of loss gradually transforms its predominate tone: from pain to gratitude for what was. This work can have no deadlines. You’re ready to move on when you’re ready to move on, and you can’t determine in advance when that will be. It takes as long as it takes. You can bring some intentionality to the process, but you can’t control how long it takes. Eventually, on its own schedule, grief work leads us toward gratitude and peace. The other connection between gratitude and grief points the opposite direction. Gratitude contains hints back toward grief. All things must pass. That for which we are today grateful will pass. Today, once again, I am grateful for breathing. Some day – maybe today – my ...

The second part of a two-part series on the Parliament of World's Religions that focuses on the important role interfaith plays for Pagans. Continue reading Interfaith work: The Parliament of the World’s Religions, Part Two at The Wild Hunt.

Susan Frederick-Gray However you celebrate, holidays and rituals are an invitation for reflection. They remind us of our past, and they also invite us to be attentive to the present moment. Practicing gratitude helps us all to be intentional in naming the gifts that surround us, reminding us that we are loved and we all share a fundamental interdependence.

Evelyn Caruso is the new Front Desk Coordinator at All Souls. Stop in the church office anytime between 10 & 3 pm, Monday through Friday to welcome Evelyn to the All Souls family! The post Meet Evelyn Caruso! appeared first on BeyondBelief.

In the conclusion to the “Thanksgiving with Family” series, Muds and Possum talk over the Thanksgiving dinners they had with their relatives. For both of them, it didn’t go as badly as they had feared! As usual, full text is below the fold. Possum: Hi Muds! Muds: Oh, you’re back from visiting your relatives at … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 3"

                                 Poet, mystic, activist Robert Bly. Robert Bly, the iconic and wayward Minnesota poet best known as the founder of the sometimes controversial spiritual mythopoetic men’s movementwhich tried to re-connect masculinity with nature and re-balancethe male role the sacred feminine, died Sunday in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the age of 94.   He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease since at least 2012. Bly, through his publications, seminars, and tribal gatherings nurturednew generations of ecopoets.   The men’s movement he spurred with the publication of his book Iron John: A Book About Men in 1990 exploded in popularity and participation around the turn of the 21st Century. ...

This week may you be blessed with enough nourishing food, good health for you and your family, an opportunity to serve the wider community. This week may you be blessed with enough nourishing connection, emotional health to express joy and grief, an opportunity to know your place in the family of things. (thank ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Nov 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

K-6 EXPERIENCES WITH THE WEB OF LIFE: These nature lovers will meet again online on Sunday, 12/5, from 9:30-10:15. It was wonderful getting to see so many of you in person this past Sunday! A big THANK YOU to teachers Joel Best and Ed Kautz for ... read more . The post RE This Week – Nov 23rd appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Our words can be used to heal and to harm. We might intend one outcome and yet the impact is something else. For election season and as we may start gathering with family over the holidays, we may feel a large chasm between what we ... read more . The post November Theme – Building Bridges appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Once again, COVID-19 is preventing us from doing our traditional Dining for Dollars lasagna dinner fundraiser. It still doesn’t feel safe enough for us to gather in groups to cook and pack meals, but with people still struggling we feel the need to do something, ... read more . The post Dining for Dollars – “the cookie version” appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Schenectady Community Ministries/SiCM Food Pantry reports they are happy to get calendars to distribute! Although you can’t drop your spare calendars in the SiCM box on Sunday mornings at the Green Sanctuary table, we are still collecting them. Just send an email to Nancy Peterson ... read more . The post Calendar Collection for SiCM/Food Pantry appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Here are some boundaries to think about and to think with. Meditate on them in the context of your particular situation and see what comes to you. You may be surprised at the answers you find inside yourself.

I recently took an adult religious education class at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Montclair, NJ (UUCM) led by the Rev. Scott Sammler-Michael, senior co-minister. The course was on Walter Rauschenbusch’s text “A Theology for the Social Gospel.” He gave us an assignment to define sin and salvation as a UU. This really had me […] The post A Pagan understanding of the Christian’s belief of sin & salvation appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

Finding a physical center is an important part of many peoples’ spiritual journeys. Though our bodies have different ways of feeling comfort and of moving in the world, we can all use our bodies to connect with something greater than ourselves. Take a few moments just to sit today–to center yourself in your body and … Continue reading Sitting

Dr. Sharpie, Rolf, Ms. and Mr. Bear, and Elephant share Thanksgiving dinner together. They wonder how Thanksgiving dinner went for Muds and Possum. Just then, Muds and Possum come home…. As usual, full text is below the fold. Part 3 coming soon. Ms. Bear: Oh good, everyone’s here. Rolf: The food’s all ready, let’s eat! … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 2"

Muds and Possum are worried about going to visit relatives at Thanksgiving, because of uncomfortable conversations with relatives who have differing opinions about climate change, gender, and religion…. As usual, full text is below the fold. Go to Part 2. Possum: Muds, I’m worried about Thanksgiving. Muds: But I thought Thanksgiving was your favorite holiday, … Continue reading "Thanksgiving with family, pt. 1"

An interesting new children’s book of Bible stories is being funded on Kickstarter. The goal: a kid’s book that’s gender-balanced. Why? Because for the majority of children’s Bible story books, “female characters are vastly underrepresented in both the stories and the illustrations.” The illustrations are also going to show racially diverse characters. Admirable, and I … Continue reading "Gender-balanced kids’ book of Bible stories"

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Secretary Halland announces the removal of derogatory place names, the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft & Magic announces a new exhibit, a new mural in Scotland to Isobel Gowdie, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of November 22, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

The view from my desk in the Cambridge Unitarian Church What follows here is a lightly edited version of my message to members of the Cambridge Unitarian Church, UK, where I am lucky to be the minister. Having penned it for them, it struck me that some readers of this blog may also want to read it and, perhaps, come along to the Zoom event mentioned. You would be most welcome.   Dear All, It was lovely to see and talk with you all at the last Wednesday Evening Zoom Conversation. Thank you. As promised, here are a few links to introduce you both to the text of the Tannisho and Shin Buddhism . What I am proposing is that during the next few months we talk/walk through the Tannisho chapter by chapter — i.e. one chapter every other week. ...

New Yorkers gobbled up hastily printed extra editions as they gathered in shock on the city streets. November 22 .  For the members of a couple of generations, at least, I don’t have to say or writeanything else.  You know.  The date and the eventare etched in your mind.  If you were sentient in 1963the moment when you heard the news is so solidly etched in your memorythat you can recall every detail—the cast of the light through the window, the muffled sobs or wails, even the smell of that autumn day 58 years ago. November 22, 1963 was, of course, the day President John F. Kennedy was shot while passing the Texas School Book Depository Building in Dallas, Texasin an open car with his young wife, resplendent in pink, sitting besi...

        Fifty-eight years ago today, on the 22nd of November, 1963, in Dallas, the president of the United States,John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated. It was a lifetime ago. Actually two lifetimes. The parents of adults today were not yet born. Fifty-eight years is a long time. It made me wonder and I […]

“We speak to the god, the goddess, the spirit of life, the eternal. We speak to the mysterious thread that connects us one to the other and to the universe. We speak to the deep wisdom at the center of our beings. We embody the yearning of all people.” -Susan Manker-Seale What is the deep … Continue reading Deep Wisdom

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 "21 November 2021 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 "14 November 2021 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 "7 November 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

“Even if you don’t know who your ancestors are, your ancestors know who you are.” @drxicana Dra. Vanessa M. Bustamante I think I am coming to the end of my intensive search for the family of my Innu third-great-grandmother Marie Madeleine. I have found the most likely Marie Madeleine of the many that I researched, […]

Alan D.D. recounts a legend of a womanizing man meeting a stranger outside a cathedral in Caracas, and reflects on his own past relationships and difficulties with trust. Continue reading Column: A Legend of Appearance and Deception at The Wild Hunt.

Alan D.E. nos relata la leyenda de un mujeriego que se encuentra con un extranjero afuera de una catedral en Caracas, la cual resulta en reflexiones sobre sus relaciones y dificultades con la confianza. Continue reading Columna: El Enano de la Catedral, una leyenda sobre las apariencias at The Wild Hunt.

        GIVING THANKS A Meditation for an Antifa Sunday James Ishmael Ford First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles 21 November 2021   I began an earlier draft for today’s message with a litany listing the many wrongs with this world on display just this past week. It began with Kyle Rittenhouse and […]

Nature has her ways. Fallen trees slowly return to become earth again. Moss, ferns, bugs, and fungus all do their part to help. It is a beautiful process which moves more swiftly if there is water about. Water is the source of life, even in death. It brings transformation, completing the cycle, spiraling forward in […]

The story of the first Thanksgiving, as we've come to tell it, glosses over the reality of Native American encounters with their colonizers. This week, how reclaiming and retelling the truth of the lives of our forebears is an act of gratitude for what has come before.

Yesterday I learned that a friend, Joe Youcha, director of Building to Teach, will write a review of my new book for Wooden Boat Magazine. Publication of the review has been approved by magazine editor, Matt Murphy. You may remember Joe as the designer of the wooden boats we made at the Clear Spring School a few years back. In his Building to Teach program schools build boats to learn math. It's based on the understanding that we learn best when we're doing real things. Joe, having read an advanced review copy of the book, told me that he intends to buy the book for his students, his own kids, and would buy copies of the book for his own teacher if he was able, as some of those are now gone. Those teachers left profound marks on his life...

Gun for hire Tom Horn passed the time awaiting trial in the office of the Laramie County Sheriff calmly plaiting a horse hair Mexican style riata.  Tom Horn is a kind of litmus test of conflicting, class driven, views of Western history.  Depending on who you ask the soft spoken man who was hung for shooting a 14 year old boy in the back and killing him was a misunderstood hero, the beau ideal of a cowboy, lawman, and range detectiveor a ruthless, pitiless gun for hire. These two visions are represented in American culture by two iconicbut contrasting western stories.  Owen Wister’s The Virginian had as its hero the noble foreman of a great ranch who led a fight against rustlers and thieves.  Years later in the classic film Shane, ...

It’s good to be thankful and giving thanks is part of my daily spiritual practice – even though gratitude isn’t everything. As we approach the American Thanksgiving holiday, here are five things I’m especially thankful for this year.

You have a spark of the divine within you—the essential potential for goodness. To many, the ultimate religious journey of humanity is nurturing that spark of the divine and fully realizing our inherent goodness. How can you recognize and nurture the divine within yourself today?

TWH commemorates Trans Day of Remembrance, 2021, acknowledging the disproportionate violence against trans people. Continue reading 2021 Transgender Day of Remembrance at The Wild Hunt.

Have I been doing art every day? Yes, but this piece is so slow, and my time with it so short each day, that it’s only half done. I’m really liking it, though.

      Leo Tolstoy died on this day, the 20th of November, in 1910. He is one of those complicated figures, difficult, and yet shining with might be called the harsh light of the divine.  In his Confession and Other Religious Writings, he offers something I’ve found an absolute delight. It’s sort of a […]

One of my students, Ray Taylor, sent me this photo of a box made by one of his students, making it obvious that we live on in the things we've taught others. Ray teaches woodworking at the Northwest Arkansas Community College. The following is from Felix Adler's address to the National Conference of Charities and Correction, Buffalo, July 1888 discussing the value of making a simple wooden box: "By manual training we cultivate the intellect in close connection with action. Manual training consists of a series of actions which are controlled by the mind, and which react on it. Let the task assigned be, for instance, the making of a wooden box. The first point to be gained is to attract the attention of the pupil to the task. A wooden box ...

Note —After public observations of Transgender Day of Remembrance were canceled due to the Coronavirus pandemic, they are returning to communities across the U.S. and the globe as violence continues to escalate against people identifying or displaying non-traditional gender identity, especially transwomen of color.   Remembrance must me matched with action. Maybe because their namesand faces get lost in the grim glut of crime reporting. Maybe because no one knew their story—or their secret.  Maybe it’s because the Guardians at the gate want to protect our tender sensibilities.  Maybe it’s because outside of “those people” no one cares.  Or maybe it’s because some see a kind of rough justice acted out on the streetsa...

The Hollis Chair of Divinity Harvard Divinity School’s Hollis Chair of Divinity was established in 1721 by a donation from the wealthy merchant, Thomas Hollis. The Hollis chair is the oldest endowed chair in the United States, the first professorship in theology in the country, and, in the early 1800s, was the most prestigious professorship in America. The first three holders of the Hollis chair were Calvinist Congregationalists: Edward Michael Wigglesworth (43 years); his son, Edward Wigglesworth (27 years); and David Tappan, who died in 1803 after holding the chair for just nine years. At Tappan’s death, the chair was vacant for two years as the liberal and conservative wings fought over who would succeed to the chair. Jesse Applet...

“Our bodies inherently have value; our bodies are where we live, and they’re the container for all of our experiences—including our religious and/or spiritual experiences. If we tolerate or perpetuate the devaluing of other people’s bodies, we’re also willing to devalue their spiritual experiences. Ableism is the centering of able bodies and experiences over disabled … Continue reading Ableism

Please join us on Sunday (14 November 2021) at 11:00 AM for our Thanksgiving Service and Potluck Feast with Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. And . . .  this will be our third consecutive in-person worship service in the sanctuary since March 2020. We have some special rules … Continue reading "In-Person and Online All-Ages Worship (21 November 2021)"

For this Sunday (21 November 2021), our 9:00 AM adult religious education class is taking a break.  We will resume class next Sunday (28 November 2021). We will resume discussing episodes of the podcast Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis next Sunday. The podcasters are discussing … Continue reading "No Online Adult Religious Education This Sunday (21 November 2021) — Class Resumes 28 November 2021"

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the cooling weather and the possibility of comfortable outdoor activities. We are not resuming regular classes for children and youth at this time because our classrooms are too small to be safe for unvaccinated children, and because we want some time to … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us next Wednesday (24 November 2021) 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 (20 November 2021) 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 (20 November 2021)"

"Those stereotypically “masculine” qualities that I intuitively rejected as a young queer boy in the 1970’s, identifying instead with those espoused by strong female role models whose characters resonated with my own soul. Wonder Woman didn’t just want to “beat up the bad guy” (no matter how good she might look doing it!); she wanted to win hearts, minds, and souls." Continue reading Column: The Magic of Wonder Woman at The Wild Hunt.

“Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons, becomes as important to the rest of the country as the killing of a White mother’s son—we who believe in freedom cannot rest until this happens.” – Ella Baker (1903-1986) In weeks like this one, it can be particularly heartbreaking to see just how far the aspirations of our faith and the realities of our society are from one another.  In Kenosha, Wisconsin, after a ghastly display of the racism inherent in our judicial process, the jury just returned a verdict of not guilty on all counts, acquitting a young white man of the murders of two pro-BLM protesters participating in the uprising that occurred after the police killing of Jacob Blake. In Brunswick, Georgia, the defe...

    Guest post by childcare professional Stephanie Manhardt.      November 1st seems to have transformed into the unofficial start of the Holiday season. This is such a magical time of the year and through the eyes of children, the magic is everywhere and everything. There are so many activities and gatherings to enjoy. On the east coast the weather doesn’t always make it easy to attend those fun activities. Luckily the magic can be done within your home. read more... The post Guest Post: 2 Holiday-Themed Activities That You Can Do With Kids At Home appeared first on Promise the Children.

I’m starting to write this early in the morning. The clouds are covering the sky, and the eclipse of the full moon is happening now, invisible, but I can feel it in how dark the outside has become. A funny thing about aging—I saw the most amazing full eclipse of the moon when we lived […]

This week, November 15-21 is National Apprenticeship Week in which students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own lives and learning. Otto Salomon, based on the teaching of Diesterweg and Froebel, had suggested that schools start with the interests of the child, then bridge from the known to the unknown, from the easy to more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract. Apprenticeship builds in these essential areas for the development of the child as well as the economy and culture at large. I use the term bridge, rather than the way I've stated the theory in the past, because a bridge goes both ways, and we never outgrow our need to connect in both directions. For example, we never outg...

A magazine ad from the much ballyhooed launch of Ford's new Edsel for the 1958 model year. It was a mercy killing, of sorts.   On November 19, 1960 the Ford Motor Companyannounced it was killing its Edsel brand in just its third model year.   Named to honor Henry Ford’s only son and a former company presidentwho had died in 1943 at the age of 59, the car was launched amid considerable fanfare in 1957 for the ’58 model year. It was a large car aimed at the mid-range market and had several break-through features and unique styling.   It was the styling the public noticed first, dominated by the shield-shaped center grill that was a radical departure from the horizontalgrills that had become standard on post-war on cars.   The publi...

        In the Record of Zhaozhou there’s a lovely conversation. Once when still studying with his master Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, “Mind is not Buddha; knowing is not the way. Is this correct or not? Naquan replied, “It is not correct.” Zhaozhou continued, “Then what is my error? I’m desperate to understand.” Nanquan […]

FOCUS TALK: Mary Rose Muti, a WomenExplore participant. Click here to play the focus talk (28 m) MAIN LECTURE: James O'Connell, MD, President, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Dr. O’Connell graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 and received his master’s degree in theology from Cambridge University in 1972.  After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1982, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In 1985, Dr. O'Connell began fulltime clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 13,000 homeles...

“Productivity” is a way of turning people into machines, of dehumanizing us and centering others. Self-care–including rest–is important. You are important enough to rest. Take a nap today, even a brief one. It’s ok, really.

With the holiday season just around the corner and food insecurity remaining above 10% across the U.S., Pagan pantries continue to provide assistance. Continue reading Hungry for the holidays: Accessing food security for Pagans and others this season at The Wild Hunt.

A Q&A with Cynthia B. Dillard | The inspiration for this book? I think it is the other way round. This book has inspired me. It has literally been writing me all of my life! It is the story of what happens when teachers have the opportunity and the audacity to (re)member their stories and their culture. It is about how the awesome power that experiences with the African continent opens a space for Black folks and fills in the blank of our often anemic education. I was inspired by all of this to write the book I wished I could have read as I was growing up: As a Black woman, as a teacher, as a leader.

Poetry will return to the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenrywith a special evening of verse via Zoom on Saturday, December 11 from 7 to 9 pm.  Patrick Murfin will host Leaves of Tree of Life—A Virtual Verse Night and is issuing a call for participants. Patrick Murfin, seen reading at a Tree of Life Coffee House in 2019,  will host Leaves of Tree of Life--A Virtual Verse Night. There are ten slots available of up to, but not more than 10 minutes.  We welcome original work in any stylefrom the McHenry County area.  Poetswill have the option of logging onto the program live or submittinga recording.  Technical detailswill be forthcoming. Please send a short two or three sentence statement to be used for intro...

Walmart has assured us that despite delays in shipping from overseas they will have plenty of stuff to unload in our landfills following the Christmas season holidays in which we feel compelled to give things we know are not needed or wanted and that have no real meaning either to ourselves or to those in whom we hope to induce joy.  You might consider cutting out the middleman. And in this case, the middleman is us as we buy stuff and direct it into the landfills shortly thereafter. Most of the stuff sold during the holiday season will be discarded without having made us rich in the same ways that making items of useful beauty can, and so that should become our goal.  I had an interesting idea this last week that crypto currency shoul...

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States.  The designation was inspired by the false narrative of the First Thanksgiving myth and in recognition of the true history of the genocidal displacement of aboriginal peoples and nations by the European settler invasion and conquest. The Unitarian Universalist Association, like many progressive religious bodies has been moved to acknowledge that history.                                         We are all sustained by the earth, waters, and air.  Illustration by Molly Costello. The enormous wealth of the United States is based on the theft of Indigenous land and the enslavement of people of African descent. In order to maximize wealth, the colonizer...

A fundamentalist says “humans were made to read.” This is clearly false and it demonstrates the problem of assuming that the way things are is the way they’re meant to be. We got here through a process of evolution, and we can move forward in whatever direction seems best to us.

      An old friend asked why I consider the Four Bodhsattva Vows so important, and why I feel it a good thing to recite them daily. To me the four vows are important because they remind me that the intimate way involves all of us. I love the inside joke that we cannot […]

  Nobody likes to be in the hospital, but my recent five day stay gave me important insights.  Surprisingly hopeful lessons came from lying flat on my back.   On Friday, I went into the ER at Presbyterian in Santa Fe for shortness of breath and was taken by ambulance to the bigger facility down in Albuquerque early the next morning to treat a pulmonary embolism and get emergency surgery. One thing I noticed immediately is that hospitals look like America in all its multi-ethnic complexity.  Of the half dozen physicians who attended me, three were women.  Two had last names suggesting their families came from India.  Doctor Chen was presumably East Asian..  My night nurse Sarita was African American, like the tech who did my echoc...

Sometimes, we find our own center in relationships, in conversations, or even in therapy. A real conversation allows two people to share the center, to share the circle. Have a meaningful conversation with someone today.

Consider this question – a test of your rationality. Suppose that: The prevalence of a certain type of cancer – cancer X -- is 1%. The sensitivity of a test for cancer X is 90% -- meaning the true-positive rate is 90%. In other words, for 90% of people who have cancer X and take that test, the test comes back positive. The false-positive rate is 9 percent. Audrey takes the test, and it comes back positive. What’s the chance she has that cancer X? You probably want to say there’s a 90% chance Audrey has cancer – after all, the test was positive, and the test was 90% accurate. But let’s break it down. Suppose 10,000 people take the test. 1% of them have cancer X – so that’s 100 people have it, and 9,900 don’t. The test ha...

Azby Brown, a friend in Japan offered the following comment after reading through most of my new book.  "What I get from your book is that creative craft work gives us the opportunity to live a life worth living, and to become better than we are. This really resonates with something I’ve been thinking about and sharing with people lately. "The temple carpenter Nishioka was Buddhist to his bones. He didn’t talk a lot about it necessarily, unless you asked him, in which case he revealed himself as an erudite scholar. More importantly he lived it and it shaped everything he did. "In his tradition, the best thing a master carpenter can do is help provide a path to enlightenment for his apprentices, through devoted and meaningful work ...

Sunday, November 21, 10:30 a.m. The History We Hold in Our Bodies: Trauma and Healing in the Midst of a Pandemic A hybrid worship service with Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann   From knots in our shoulders to chronic illnesses, our bodies retain the impact of our lived experiences. Join us this Sunday, Nov. 21, as Rev. Alice   [ … ] The post Sunday, November 21 ~ The History We Hold in Our Bodies ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Today at the Clear Spring School we have been hanging the bat houses we made, and with the Rainbow group (kindergarten) we made color wheels. The Clear Spring School  color wheels are not the same thing as what you'd find in college art classes. They are simply a disk of wood mounted on a stand that you can color and spin, blending the colors you applied.  It is more interesting to kids than a conventional color wheel because it's active. You can spin it and find pleasure in doing so. A friend of mine who was teaching design at the university level was surprised when she asked her students to use scissors. She learned that both hammers and scissors were foreign tools to her kids. And so when did that happen? In the olden days, kids ent...

This Saturday I’ll be presenting a paper at the AAR on “The Universal Black Men Catechism: The African Orthodox Church and Marcus Garvey’s Populism” as part of a panel on “A Century of African Orthodoxy: Exploring Racism, Blackness, and Religious Identity” organized by the Afro-American Religious History and Eastern Orthodox Studies Units. The panel commemorates […]

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, we have witnessed many global systems fail those who depend on them most — rather than provide people with safety, stability, and freedom, they have often deepened inequity, injustice, and insecurity. And throughout 2021, COVID-19 has continued to intensify the existing inequities around the world. In response, UUSC swiftly dispatched […]

David Glasgow Spirit of Life who dwells before and between and beyond all words… we open ourselves to you. Continue reading "Words Fail"

It seems like a good day to resurrect a poemthat appeared in a slightly different form in my 2004 collection We Build Temples in the Heart published by Beacon Press, Boston. The poem came to me early one morning on my daily walk from the Metra train stationin Cary, Illinois to Briargate Elementary School where I was the Head Custodian.  After I opened the building and classroomsand hoisted the Flag outside, I grabbed a cup of bad coffee in the Teachers’ Lounge and set down to scribblea first draft.   Mid-November Dawn   The time has come,             I know, I know.   The soft frosts that fade             at the first blush of light             are over.             The grass snaps now  ...

        Today, the 17th of November  is marked out as a feast in honor of Hilda, in some records Hild, of Whitby. She counts among my favorite Christian saints. Her feast is observed in the Roman, the Orthodox, and Anglican communions. The precise date of her birth is unknown, but she lived […]

The practice of seeing ourselves as beautiful is, for some, a lifelong struggle. You have permission to see beauty when you look in the mirror. You have permission to understand that you are beautiful, and to do what you need to to feel that beauty radiate from you. Look at yourself and know that you … Continue reading Beauty

Well, the timing is just right. At this year’s tribal nations summit, skipped over the previous four years by you know who, President Joe Biden signed an executive order for the US to take steps to protect tribal lands and address the epidemic of missing and murdered Native Americans. He also proposed a ban on federal oil and gas leases on the sacred tribal site of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. And in his official White House proclamation for Native American Heritage Month, he listed more commitments the country will make to Indian Country.

Four Pagans who attended the historic first virtual conference last month share their experiences. Continue reading Four Pagans talk their experiences at Parliament of World’s Religions 2021 at The Wild Hunt.