Loving relationships, of all sorts, should be a source of joy. Healthy loving relationships are respectful, non-coercive, based in honesty and trust, and equal in power. How have you found joy in loving relationships with others?

Another greatly magnified cross-section caught my eye, so I promised myself I would draw it fast and finish it tonight. Skipping over detail and still capturing the feel of a thing can be a tough challenge for me.

Weekend Editor Eric O. Scott considers the recent successful injunction against a Biden administration executive order because of various states' objection to the "social cost of carbon." Continue reading Editorial: In climate policy, the global interest is the national interest at The Wild Hunt.

This was the last set of stairs in a 8 mile (1315 elevation) hike we did on Friday. The views were worth it, but the stairs were a killer. Luckily there was a bench on the top where we ate lunch. And, yes, I had my baggy of potato chips. Perspective is a tricky thing. […]

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 "6 February 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 "30 January 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 "23 January 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 "16 January 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 "9 January 2022 Worship Livestreaming Video"

On Friday I had  an interesting conversation with professor Bart Kahr, from NYU who is a crystallographer and an enthusiast for Froebel's Kindergarten. I had wanted to contact Dr. Kahr because of comments he'd made about his son's first day of school, in the Kindergarten Documentary Film Series. As Dr. Kahr described, he took his son to the bus after having spent years in which he had kept his son constantly in sight. He watched his son climb onto the bus and noted that upon delivering his own precious son to the state, he didn't even get a receipt. His comments so perfectly mirror what all parents feel, and perhaps might help us to understand the angst that so many parents feel about education. Are loving parents ever fully ready to si...

Sometimes the moments where we feel real connection to the "something bigger" are few and far between and we want to guard them jealously. But trouble lies ahead when we become hoarders of the spirit.

      Absalom was born into slavery in Delaware in 1746. When he was sixteen he was separated from his mother and siblings and accompanied his owner to Philadelphia. He was allowed an education and had a degree of independence. He married, the service officiated at by the local Anglican priest. (Reverend Jacob Duché […]

Occasionally, Heinrich Heine has been right. Those who burned books ended up burning people. We need not fear these people because they do not have the power to burn others, at least not in this country. We just need to make sure they never get it.

Joy is an anthem, a song–and a wish for others  “Joy Joy Joy!  Then may your heart be filled with joy!”  and “Joy to the World.” What is the music of your joy (actual or metaphorical)?

“Am I hurting you?” he asks, tapping the base of his glass against the bar for emphasis. “Have I ever been a part of anything that wasn’t good for you, in the long run?” He waits, watching the answer on my face, and nods. “Then what’s the problem?” Continue reading Column: All We Know of One Another are the Stories We Tell Together at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us on Sunday (13 February 2022) at 11:00 AM for “The Great Unfolding” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Rev. Barbara is in the pulpit this Sunday — we will have online-only worship for just one more Sunday. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. The number of new COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (13 February 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (13 February 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This Sunday’s topic is “Thich Nhat Hanh: Dealing with Strong Emotions.” Before we move on to a new book discussion or classroom series, we want to take some time to honor the memory and legacy of … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 13 February 2022"

Please join us on Sunday (20 February 2022) at 3:00 PM for “World Religion Day Shreveport – Bossier City Back to Basics:  My Faith 101″ Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this event will be an online live streaming video panel discussion. For 20 years, Shreveport and Bossier City has been home to a multi-faith observance … Continue reading "World Religion Day Shreveport-Bossier City — Back to Basics (20 February 2022)"

We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the dropping Omicron COVID case rates. 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. We also want some time to be together and nurture each … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us next Tuesday (15 February 2022) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch (please note the new day of the week for Zoom lunch). Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

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— Echoing and expanding upon some words by Jesus (Matthew 7:16), one of our own twentieth-century theologians, James Luther Adams (1901-1994), wrote: In this church, we accept the truth: By their fruits shall ye know them; but we also accept the truth: By their roots shall ye know them. Where there are no roots, there will be no fruit. But, whenever a minister of religion like me finds occasion to reference roots it can all often signal that they are about to make a “fundamentalist” turn. As most of you will know, wheneve...

    The immortal Charles Darwin was born on this day, the 12th of February, in 1809. Me, I mark it out as a time to pause and reflect on many things. As do many others. His birthday has been observed as something special pretty much since his death in 1882. In 1909 on the […]

Playing with SketchbookX. One leaf, four lives.

When I was going through a severe bout of depression, I couldn’t feel any joy in my life. I had a wonderful life – a husband and two kids who loved me, a safe place to shelter, food to eat, a supportive and loving UU community. Intellectually, I knew all that, but knowing I should … Continue reading Depression

Please join us on Saturday (12 February 2022) from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM for our monthly building and grounds work day. There are tasks inside and out — as weather permits — for all ages and abilities. Wear your mask and stay safely distanced from each other as you work together to spruce up … Continue reading "Building and Grounds Work Day (12 February 2022)"

Please join us on Saturday (12 February 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 (12 February 2022)"

Tonight I feel grateful to participate in the virtual opening ceremony for the Healing Turtle Island gathering. Songs, prayers in Indigenous languages, stories of grief, woundedness, devastating loss, and yet, gratitude. How do we bring healing, bring back balance in our relationships, with each other, with the earth, with spirit? This weekend will be filled […]

The launch and deployment of the JWST has been in the making for over a decade. TWH spoke with Dr Scott Rohrbach, a JWST ISIM Optical Systems Engineer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center about the project. Continue reading The magic of the James Webb Space Telescope at The Wild Hunt.

Susan Lawrence VIDEO | Zach Norris, the author of this year's UU common read, challenges our notions of safety, promoting a culture of care.

  Note:   Interest in the long life of labor agitator and anarchist Lucy Parsons has been rising for some time as the labor movement has begun re-embracing its radical roots and during the spontaneous mass actions around the country represented by the Occupy Movement a few years ago.   Despite her purposefully obscured racial identity, she has also inspired Black women of the Black Lives Matters movement.   A 2017 biography, Goddess of Anarchy: The Life and Times of Lucy Parsons, American Radical by Jacqueline Jones ramped that interest even higher.   The book, based on new research and discoveries, challenged the commonly accepted story of her origins with mixed Mexican, Native American, and mulatto Texas roots and identified her a...

      The Anglican liturgical calendar marks out today, the 11th of February as a feast for the seventh century poet Caedmon. Poets are, after all the bards of the spirit. And many deserve to be celebrated as saints. And, here we get one… Caedmon is the earliest English poet that we can name. […]

We have moved along to the spruces. They are distinguished in part by having needles that grow singly, instead of in the bunches of 2-5 typical of pines, and each needle emerges from a small, long-lasting bump on the twig. See how much I’m learning already? I could not have said what distinguishes spruce from […]

Have you ever felt utter contentment one moment, delighting in the joy that fills you, only to be filled with dread in the very next moment? It’s as though our busy, analytical perfectionistic brains are unable to relax into the full joyousness of a moment without thoughts intruding: “of course, this is too good to … Continue reading Elusive Joy

California Department of Education revises its ethnic studies curriculum, removing part of an Aztec affirmation and the use of the Yoruba word, Ashe. Continue reading California removes Aztec affirmations and Yoruba teaching from Ethnic Studies curriculum at The Wild Hunt.

What a difference a year makes. Book banning is back—and it’s on steroids. Is it a coincidence that it’s all the rave—more like rage—during Black History Month? The pearl-clutchers have assembled and are targeting not only books dealing with sex and gender but also books featuring Black themes and US history. It’s a predictable flex. A tired flex.

Jeff Milchen Our personal transportation choices matter, but significant emission reductions must also involve large-scale institutional change. 

          Whenever Jan and I find the time to wander up the coast, one of our favorite spots to pause is Guadalupe. It’s a tiny town on California 1 at the very northern edge of Santa Barbara county. It bills itself as the “gateway to the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes.” A poor town. […]

These are the steps of Pagan religious life, a map to building and advancing your practice in a way that’s meaningful and helpful. It’s not the only way and it’s certainly not the One True Way, but it’s a way – and it’s a way that works.

Satchel Paige--the Big League years. at last.   Note:  Yesterday we took Satchel Paige’s wild ride from childhood to the cusp of World War II.  Now the rest of the story. Achievements like Satchel Paige’s—his 19–3 record, a 1.93 ERA, and 208 strikeouts in 205 innings in the Puerto Rican League in 1940—naturally revived interest in Paige despite his ban in the Negro Leagues for jumping to the Mexican League in 1938.  The Kansas City Monarchs were now in the new Negro American League and could not promote Paige to their regular roster until the ban could be dealt with.  Paige started the 1940 season with his barnstorming team.  The Negro National League (NNL) Newark team claimed they owned rights to Paige.  It took a meeti...

The needles of this tree are only 2-4 cm long. Like its close relative Pinus balfouriana, from yesterday, they grow in a “foxtail” of closely bunched needles. “The oldest known dated living trees are Bristlecone Pines more than 4600 years old . . . . Although these trees are classed among the oldest known living […]

Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what is joy and what is happiness. Are they the same thing? How should I be attached to it, do I deserve happiness or is it just something that exists where we find it? Like In a cup of tea, or a moment with dear friend. I do … Continue reading Happiness and Joy

Journalist Sean McShee compares the modern Olympic Games to the Olympics of antiquity. Continue reading The Olympics, a pagan festival? at The Wild Hunt.

Sunday, February 13, 10:30 a.m. Widening the Circle: Pro-Sex, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life An Online Worship Service led by Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann, UCMH, and Rev. Lynda Sutherland, First Parish Northboro   Join us this Sunday, February 13, as Rev. Alice and Rev. Lynda reflect on what it means to be pro-sex, pro-choice and pro-life.     Join Zoom Meeting   [ … ] The post Sunday, February 13 ~ Pro-Sex, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

      “Everywhere I went I inquired as to the local whereabouts of a spiritual director or a devout spiritual guide. Eventually I was told that in a certain village there was a landowner who had lived there for a long time and who spent all his time working out his salvation. He had […]

…The comfort of invisibility, the ease of ignorance As I continue to study the ethical foundations of equity, particularly as those foundations show up in public policy, I learn more about the various personal motivations that seem to sit at the heart of cultural belief.  I’m struck by how, in a very general way, when […]

Lynette Yetter I was often being a stern taskmaster over my mind. I yearned for more openness and joy. Continue reading "Starting Fresh"

                                             Satchel Paige's breakthrough Baseball Hall of Fame plaque.  Note:   One of those posts in which my enthusiasm for the subject broke the length limits of an acceptable blog post.   Thus today part I of a two day series. On February 9, 1971 Satchel Paige became the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for his accomplishments in the old Negro Leagues .   It was a belated honor for both the legendarypitcher and Black baseball in the Jim Crow era. Paige, who was both coy and vague about his exact age, undoubtedly had the longest career ever in professional baseball from 1926 with the Chattanooga Black Lookouts of the Negro Southern League to his last p...

The Ozarks Watch video filmed at ESSSA about hands-on learning can now be viewed online at your convenience. https://video.optv.org/video/hands-on-education-p5fsiw/ Today in the Clear Spring School wood shop we'll be working on bird houses and bird feeders.  Kindergarten students will be making boxes. Make, fix and create...

Going for something a bit more impressionistic. Didn’t capture the feel of rippling waves that the original gave me, but I try, try again.

For me, joy is like a deep feeling of gratitude for major elements of my life beyond the circumstances. For example, even amidst the rivers of tears in the last year and a half, I’ve found great joy due to finding a community of like-hearted people, here and in other spaces, to work with, struggle … Continue reading Gratitude and Grace

UUSC partner Victim Advocates International is working tirelessly to hold Facebook accountable for its complicity in the Rohingya genocide.

My father-in-law, Marty Morgenstern, died on Saturday. I can’t believe he’s gone. I know the unreality will fade with time, but I will keep on missing him. Marty was very special to me, and although I’m glad to say I had many opportunities to say why before–such as at his “I’m really, really retiring this […]

Bylaws often include a statement of purpose. In this religious community, the UU Schenectady Bylaws use the language of covenant, of promises we make to one another. We are, after all, a covenantal rather than a creedal faith. The UUSS Bylaws say, “ARTICLE 2: PURPOSE The members ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy- Feb. 8th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

WINTER OUTING! Come, join the Green Sanctuary folks for a winter outing at the Albany Pine Bush on Saturday, 2/12, from 1:30-3:30. See 2/8/22 Circuits for details. Upcoming RE Classes: – K-6 EXPERIENCES WITH THE WEB OF LIFE:  These nature lovers will meet again Sunday morning, 2/20, from 9:30-10:15. – ... read more . The post RE This Week – Feb. 8th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

30 Days of Love is Side With Love’s annual celebration that runs approximately from Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January through Valentine’s Day in February. It is an opportunity to collectively nurture our spirits, deepen our understanding, and take action on our values ... read more . The post 30 Days of Love appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

As we gear up for UU the Vote 2022, I am excited to tell you about our Spring 2022 Skill Up Series! But first, let me tell you about my learning journey last week, participating in the UU Ministers’ Association Institute for the Learning Ministry. I immersed myself in worship and thought-provoking keynotes. I played cello as part of a ritual of lament with fellow members of the Committee on Anti-Racism and Anti-Oppression and Multiculturalism. I had FOMO (fear of missing out) as I made dinner for my children during seminar time, but I also got to take in some parts of it that fed my soul and challenged my mind in evocative ways.  Lifelong learning and the ever-unfolding of our paths is central to Unitarian Universalist practice. For m...

A Tennessee pastor held an event that included burning books that related to Witchcraft and the occult. Continue reading Pastor holds “ol’ fashioned” book burning to destroy “witchcraft” items at The Wild Hunt.

By Ricky Tucker | This was one of the first images my friend and “And the Category Is . . .” photographer Kareem Worrell developed while I was writing the book—and it became an aspirational photo. The audacity of Lee, the central figure, drove my urge to match in tone his ferocity in the first few chapters. To, like Ballroom, unapologetically hold accountable the public appropriation of this unique culture, AND to elevate to divine status the unwavering love that is its foundation. In short, this photo is the epitome of the chapter “Werk.”

A recorded sermon, suggestions for opening and closing words, readings, and hymns, as well as a complete transcript. Continue reading "Sermon of the Month Series for Small Congregations"

Bruce Knotts We see a historical pattern that puts everyone in the world in danger. To obtain a safe and dignified life, we need to foster trust, mutual support, and reliance on science.

        The list of things I do not believe in is quite long. Among the things I do believe is our Lady of Guadalupe. Okay, believe isn’t quite the right word. Rather Mary appears in my life in all sorts of intersections. She does have different names at these intersections. And her […]

  Students at South Carolina State College in Orangeburg marched after some of them had been barred from the All Star Bowling Alley and roughed up by police the night before.  This orderly demonstration deteriorated into scuffles after being attacked by police. 1968 was one of the most eventful years in American history—the Vietnam War raged.   Riotsexpressing Black rage tore up inner cities. Chicago Police themselves rioted, beating and gassing demonstrators at the Democratic Party Convention. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated. Richard Nixonwas elected President. Apollo astronauts first orbited the Moon. Maybe that explains how the first shooting of students on campus by authorities on February 8, 1968 gets ov...

Third-rate preachers have been burning books for years. In an era of mass production, it’s an exercise in futility. But it’s also a warning. This preacher and his church are trying to destroy what they see as upsetting the proper order of things.

I call it Black Joy because I am Black and it is the joy that I have been familiar with my whole life. It is the joy that I have learned from Black people. It is the joy created through our collective healing — our laying down of burdens, to be picked up and shared … Continue reading Black Joy

Someone pointed out to me that Star Island has posted an interesting job opening. Star Island, for those of you who aren’t familiar with it, is a retreat center off the coast of New Hampshire that was founded by Unitarians and liberal Congregationalists, and remains affiliated with the United Church of Christ and the UUA. … Continue reading "Not OK"

In this week's Pagan Community Notes: Indigenous communities denounce Ottowa protestors using Native symbols, HBCUs threatened at the start of Black History Month, Roma demand Jimmy Carr apologize, community announcements and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of February 7, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

Harbor Freight Fellows continues to repost some of my blog/facebook posts on occasion as they did today. It's a reminder that we're all in this together and there are many hands working on educational reform. https://www.harborfreightfellows.org/post/wisdom-of-the-hands-serial-position-effect Make, fix and create...

as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, December 24, 2021 “For there exists a great realm and a boundlessness whose measure no angelic race has comprehended.” I start my annual Christmas homily with words you have probably never heard before. They come from a text that I suspect is equally unfamiliar, the […]

  It was this day, the 7th of February, in 1497 that followers of the Dominican friar and preacher and for a moment functional dictator of Florence, Girolamo Savonarola, gathered together what they and the good friar considered temptations into sin, piled them up, and lit them as bonfires. These objects included clothing, cosmetics, mirrors, […]

Going through my boxes of old files in the basement, I am now working on files related to activism in solidarity with Indigenous people in Boston back in the 1990s. I found some correspondence with one particular activist, for example, and I am remembering the long process of getting to know each other, building trust, […]

Through the church, we became incredibly involved in the greater Tulsa community. All Souls has enriched our lives in so many ways. It is because of All Souls that we have and are living a fulfilled, rewarding, and enjoyable life in Tulsa. The post Centennial Award: Dave Kroll appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Yesterday I watched myself on the Ozarks Watch video production, and have decided TV does not put me in my best light. I've gotten a bit too old for that kind of spotlight. The old joke, "you look perfect for radio comes to mind." In any case, however, I did manage to tell my tale and get some word out about our Eureka Springs School of the Arts and about the need for hands on learning. The crew took some nice video of my boxes and of the school and I thank them sincerely for their interest in my career and their kindness during the production of the show. Pre-orders of the new book are going well with over 1200 copies being ordered so far. Make, fix and create...

  Debi Thompson on ice at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. Note —The controversial Beijing Winter Olympics are in full swing and ever popular figure skating competitions are underway with new stars with compelling stories. There are more Black faces sprinkled among the athletes than in the past, due largely to international teams .   Afro-Americans include speed skater Erin Jackson , short track racer Mama Biney , and bobsledders Elana Meyers Taylor , Sylvia Hoffman , Kaysha Love , and Hakeem Abdul-Saboor but look high and low and you will find no figure skaters. Thirty-four years ago, at Calgary figure skating was about the whitest sport imaginable.   OK, maybe yachting or some other contestthat requires millions of dollars for th...

Also known as the two-needle pinyon. “The most common species on the south rim of the Grand Canyon.”

Joy can be big–for example, the birth of a child.  Joy can also be small things to be happy about–seeing an old friend, watching a bird eat, seeing a color filled sunset, wearing new warm socks on a cold day.  Be sure to take the time to embrace the joy you feel in the smaller … Continue reading Small Joys

The Aquarian Tabernacle Church (ATC) announced its award winners last week and report on the recipients and took a moment to spotlight the organization's work and history. Continue reading Aquarian Tabernacle Church International announces leadership awards at The Wild Hunt.

as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, February 5, 2022 It is good to be back in the pulpit. I miss you when I am gone. Not that I particularly went anywhere. I spent most of the last month holed up in my home office working on finishing the manuscript for the […]

Is the earth a mirror image of the sky? No wonder the ancients thought heaven was above us. For me, God (and heaven) is on this earth. Beauty is in abundance, at least around here. It helps me to believe that God is here with us and not sitting on a throne way up in […]

We kick off February's exploration of "Widening the Circle" with a look at the circles closest to us – our own selves and the people we call "us."

Under stress or despair, I feel as if a completely different person inhabits me. When jealousy arises, I contract becoming stingy and cranky. When fear sweeps over me, my imagination dissolves to one single response. When anger and rage strike, my choices are so constricted I spew forth unhelpfully. Spiritual Practice is like a great reminder. The post Please, Help Me Remember to Be Loving appeared first on BeyondBelief.

Melissa Lewis will be at the church parking lot this Sunday afternoon (6 February 2022) from 2:00 to 4:00 PM to collect food and other items for the Noel United Methodist Church Food Pantry. Items requested this month are Jiffy cornbread mix, canned soups (any brand), and cereal (any brand).

      Joseph Priestley died on this day, the 6th of February, in 1804. He was born into a comfortable dissenting family in Birstall, Yorkshire, on the 24th of March, 1733. As a small child he lived with various extended family. His brilliance was quickly noticed, at four he could recite the entire Westminster Shorter […]

As week 4 of 30 Days of Love begins, I’m thrilled to introduce myself to you. I’m Rachel Myslivy, Climate Justice Organizer for the UUA’s Side With Love Organizing Strategy Team.  As someone who has worked in the climate movement for roughly fifteen years, I know that we all come to the work from different places with different perspectives and strategies. Climate justice requires us to see climate change not as a technical problem to be solved, but as a moral and ethical challenge that we as people of faith need to rise to meet and overcome.   Climate justice requires us to act on the reality that the communities hit first and worst by climate change are the least responsible for climate impacts.  Similarly, climate impacts exa...

Today, February 6, 2022, Ozark Public Television's program Ozarks Watch features an interview with me recorded at the Eureka Springs School of the Arts. Locally or on local satellite, look for channel 21. The program airs from 1:30 to 2:30 with my segment being the second half. News around the country is that being an educator is an endangered profession. Teachers are disrespected and undervalued and are leaving the profession in droves. Teachers with a masters degree in education often leave the profession in their first five years. This is in part due to the unreasonable expectations placed upon teachers—too large class sizes, the rigid expectation of teaching exactly by the book, and the use of standardized testing to measure studen...

The first minstrel show established conventions and stereotypes for blackface revues and introduced songs like Jimmy Crack Corn  and Turkey in the Straw.  Note the end men who became the stock characters Tambo and bones. On February 6, 1842 the very first all Blackface revuetook the stage of the Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City.  The Virginia Minstrels launched a new theatrical form with their own entirely self-contained shows after brief trials, first for no admission at a billiards parlor, and in January as part of a larger program at the Chatham Theater. While Blackface performers had been popular on stage for at least two decades, they usually appeared as soloor duet acts or occasionally in short comic skits.  The new show pu...

I plan to get back to the needles once I have my field guide again, but I’m tempted to just draw one of these every day until I have done them justice.

An atheist blogger hopes that reincarnation is real. I believe it’s real, but I hold that belief rather loosely. I might be wrong, and even if I’m not I don’t want to get so caught up in the next life that I neglect to live this life as fully as I can.

      Joseph Priestley died on this day, the 6th of February, in 1804. He was the chemist generally acknowledged as the discoverer of oxygen, and not long after of soda water. Priestley was also an educator, progressive political theorist, and a Unitarian clergyman. According to the Wikipedia article on him, “Priestley’s science was integral […]

In recent years, I have come to embrace joy as an act of resistance. There is so much evil and sadness out there and it was through reading and following Black activists that I realized that we can’t get lost in the idea of finding joy wherever we can. How do you resist the evil … Continue reading Resistance

"Does the toll of work on the physical body bring about a sense of depletion or restoration? Aging is a fact of life. When what we do for a living hastens the spread of life's markings on our bodies, a change can be made. I find that asking this question on a regular basis matters to keep my energetic levels in balance. I ask if what I do nourishes and restores me. I ask if I choose this work today. Each day.  I leave in flexibility to change my mind each day because I am human." Continue reading Column: Time is a Gift of the Great Pause at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us on Sunday (6 February 2022) at 11:00 AM for “Revelation in Relationship” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. For this Sunday only, we will not have an online coffee hour because many of us will be going to the Highland Center for the LA-AID Fundraiser. … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (6 February 2022)"

Our give-away-the-plate recipient for February 2022 is the Whitney Plantation. Every month, we dedicate all of our non-pledge income to an organization doing the work that best embodies our Unitarian Universalist principles and values. We usually choose a local organization but we are changing that for this Black History Month in order to honor The … Continue reading "Whitney Plantation — February 2022 Give-Away-The-Plate Recipient"

When: Saturday, February 5 from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm Where: Unitarian Church of Los Alamos 1738 N. Sage St. (Patio outside front door) Bring only packets of seeds you wish to give away entirely. You may not get any back! Take only enough seeds you can use in one growing season. If you are …<p> 2022 Community Seed Swap Read More »