Five more copyright-free hymns added to this Google Drive folder. Full info about these newly added hymns below the fold. There are now 91 copyright-free hymns in the Google Drive folder. 66 of these are copyright-free versions (tune, text, and arrangement) of hymns from one of the two current Unitarian Universalist hymnals. For the hymns not in … Continue reading "Still more copyright-free hymns"

Sunday, May 22, 10:30 a.m. The Ordinary Miraculous Worship Service led by Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann   Hans Christian Andersen said, “The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.” Join us this Sunday, May 22, as Rev. Alice reflects on the everyday miracles that abound.    Join us   [ … ] The post Sunday, May 22 ~ The Ordinary Miraculous ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Elaine McArdle The UUA wants the multiplatform General Assembly to be an equitable experience for all, including the voting process.

    This year Promise the Children will be raising funds to help address our nation’s child care crisis and to fund after-school programs for children in Lynn, Massachusetts. Start bidding today!     Join Promise the Children for our third virtual online auction! This year we will be raising funds to help address our nation’s child care crisis and to fund after-school programs for children in Lynn, Massachusetts. We are proud to have recently partnered with and supported Building read more... The post Bid for Good! Promise the Children’s Third Annual Online Auction appeared first on Promise the Children.

Susan Maginn None of us are mission-making machines. Continue reading "A Way in the Wilderness"

Physicist and astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson tried to throw cold water on those excited about last Sunday’s lunar eclipse. If you’re so scientifically snobbish you can’t appreciate an ordinary-but-beautiful event, just let people enjoy things.

Trees don’t pay any mind to human boundaries, and this species of oak lives along either side of the border in Arizona and New Mexico, USA, and Sonora and Chihuahua, México.

UUSC played a pivotal role in helping several of its partners address the impacts of the pandemic.

        I am in the midst of a project reflecting on the Biblical Psalms. While searching for possible Buddhist comments on them I stumbled upon S. Yamabe & L. Adams Beck’s translation of the Buddhist Psalms of Shinran Shonin. Not the psalms I was looking for. But… While I’m a Zen person, […]

In place of our colloquy, we share this powerful message from the Side With Love organizing team: “On Saturday, an 18-year-old white supremacist carried out a premeditated fatal attack on a Black community in Buffalo, killing ten and injuring many more. Today, we mourn the ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – May 17th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

OWL UPDATE (Our Whole Lives sexuality education): With the 8/9 OWL class, which wrapped up last month, and our current K/1/2, 5/6/7, and 11/12 OWL classes, we’ve had a total of 44 kids participating in OWL this year! During a pandemic! I couldn’t be more grateful to our ... read more . The post RE This Week – May 17th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Green Sanctuary invites you to join us for our annual celebration of the beauty of Mother Earth as she puts on her festive celebration of the coming of summer at Woods Hollow on the north edge of Ballston Spa. WHEN: Saturday, June 11, 3:00-5:00pm WHAT TO BRING: Comfy shoes (may ... read more . The post Spring Into Summer Hike, with the Green Sanctuary Team appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

UU Wellspring is a series of 10-month long spiritual deepening courses. Group members experience deep listening and spiritual reflection in small groups of about ten, inspiring personal and community transformation. Participants read, view and respond to pre-session assignments that are focused on spiritual topics and ... read more . The post Registration is Now Open for UU Wellspring 2022-2023 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The Ecological Spiritualities Conference held a panel that discussed eco-fascism and featured Deja Newton who spoke on “The History of Eco-Fascism and Its Spirituality." The recent mass shooting in Buffalo reflects this type of harmful ideology. Continue reading Eco-fascism and mass killings at The Wild Hunt.

The love that lasts through the years is pragma. It is the love one has for those people you know you can count on, the people you don’t even have to say something to in order for them to know what’s on your mind. It is the love of partnership–romantic and otherwise. What does it … Continue reading Pragma (Enduring Love)

Here’s yet another example of a hymn in a current UU hymnal, with an ambiguous copyright status. The lyrics to “This Old World Is Full of Sorrow” — no. 315 in Singing the Living Tradition — apparently first appeared in print in 1983 in New American Songster, ed. Charles W. Darling (Univ. Press, 1983). Darling … Continue reading "More ambiguous copyright status"

A Q&A with Eboo Patel | Always remember: the goal is not a more ferocious revolution; the goal is a more beautiful social order. Those of us in advocacy have signed up to be the architects of a better society, not just tell other people what they are doing wrong. We need to defeat the things we do not love by building the things we do. What does a better school look like? What does a working grocery store in a food desert look like?

We've been making a series of small boxes in wood shop at the Clear Spring School and the photo shows but one example. This one is made to display student made tops. You show a student a box and the student says, "I want to make one."  Students will be finishing another type of box today. The second photo shows boxes of a higher standard made by Ray Taylor's older students in NWACC's Construction Technology program. More photos of Ray's student boxes can be found on instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CdW6pbpI_9p/ Making beautiful and useful things should be a part of  every student's school experience. Make, fix and create.

  Barbara Brown and her mother in front of the Supreme Court building. On May 17, 1954 a unanimous decision by the United States Supreme Court overturned legal precedent and established custom to rule in the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”   The ruling sent shock waves across the nation, and it took more than a decade of turmoil and violence before this precedent was enforced across the land.   Before this ruling school segregationflourished not only in the Deep South but across much of the rest of the nation under the protection of the 1896 court decision in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson which ruled that “separate but equal” public accommodations we...

Manzanita doesn’t grow on the East Coast, where I grew up. Now when I see it during a hike–which is more often than not–I am delighted. I love the dark red bark, whose traces you can see here in the pink stem of the leaf. Arctostaphylos manzanita has two common names: “common manzanita” and “whiteleaf […]

Every mass shooting is followed by disinformation when it comes to holding others accountable for their actions.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Indian Affairs release a joint report on boarding schools, a new Earth-based spirituality team, blood moon video, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of May 16, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.

On Saturday, an 18 year old white supremacist carried out a premeditated fatal attack on a Black community in Buffalo, killing ten and injuring many more. Today, we mourn the loss of these ten precious people and grieve with the Buffalo community as they reel from this violence and collective trauma. Tops is more than a grocery store - it is a space that the community created to meet essential needs. The shooter’s plan was specifically designed to target the beating heart of the Black community, taking aim at a nexus of community care, resources, and resiliency. This is the essence of white supremacist ideology - the annihilation of not just BIPOC people as individuals, but entire communities and cultures. Given how many times white su...

I was recently in a conversation with colleagues about how great it would be if the UUA would help with some of our church processes we struggle with, specifically payroll. It reminded me of this article I wrote for the no longer available blog "The Lively Tradition" run by Tom Shade. Much of this article is dated, but the final point remains. "A Relentlessly Useful UUA" Published August 16, 2004 It was just announced that the UUA newsletter "Interconnections" is ending.  In June, the UUA announced a budget shortfall of 1.3 million, and this is one result of that deficit.  Donald Skinner, who edited Interconnections for 15 years, says Tom Sites, former UU World Editor, wanted the newsletter to be “relentlessly useful." As a minister,...

Love can bring out the best in all of us. Ever notice when you are falling in love, whether it be with romantic love or family love or friendship love, we lift up the person we are newly in love with. Everything that they do is wonderful and exciting. We encourage them and support them. … Continue reading Falling in Love

Susan Frederick-Gray Living into Beloved Community is spiritual work.

As we reach the millionth U.S. COVID death, how can we prevent such overwhelming numbers from demoralizing us and instead reach people in ways that inspire work to build the more equitable and compassionate system?

                                     Pharmacist, teetotaler, and entrepreneur Charles Elmer Hires. Note —The blog is back.   I have still not been able to restore my Facebook but now have over 150 friends on my new page—about 10% of my old one—and still have not been able to get in several of the interest groups where I routinely posted links to entries.   If you are a fan of this hodge-podge you can help by sharing links widely and inviting me to join groups where you have seen posts before.   Thanks for the sympathy, encouragement, and support many have lent me and this little pop stand at the far end of the cul de sac. Root beer is fadingfast.   Once one of America’s favorite soft drinks it is in dan...

        Elizabeth Palmer Peabody was born on this day, the 16th of May, in 1804. The litany of her accomplishments is long. Widely read and cultivated, after starting and running two schools, and would eventually open the first kindergarten in the United States. Elizabeth served as William Ellery Channing’s private secretary for […]

Archeologists have published an initial study of a carving found in southern-eastern Turkey that depicts a procession of deities in a mixture of Assyrian and Aramaic styles. Continue reading Assyrian deity carvings found in secret Turkish tunnel at The Wild Hunt.

Clearing a backlog of copyright-free hymns from my music files. I’ve just uploaded PDFs of 6 more copyright-free hymns to this Google Drive folder: “The Growing Light,” “A Hundred Years Hence,” “Peace, the Perfect Word,” “Prayer for This House,” “There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute,” and “Turn Back.” Most of these hymns have appeared … Continue reading "Six more copyright free hymns"

All people are sexual beings, but not all people express or receive physical pleasure in the same ways. The intimacy of healthy relationships allows us to express with partners how it is that we feel pleasure, and what it is that we desire physically and emotionally. Talk with someone about a sensitive topic today.

This afternoon I took the Pashley Guvnor out for a 30-mile spin, heading back into Cambridge via Toft, a small village lying 6 miles to the west of Cambridge. It’s a village I have often cycled through and many, many times I’ve stopped in the churchyard to drink a flask of tea and read a few pages of whatever book/piece it is I happen to be reading at the moment — on this occasion, it was T. S. Eliot’s 1922 poem, “The Wasteland” following up on my recent visit to Margate. Alas, pre-COVID-19, the church was always locked on my visits but, today, I was very pleased to find it open and so I took the opportunity to go in, look around and take a few photos before quietly saying the Lord’s Prayer and then stepping out to a bench ...

We explore "Nurturing Beauty" this month, with reflections on the intrusive, insistent nature of beauty and the paths it opens to reunion with the "all-that-is."

      A while back BBC produced a wonderful six-part History of Christianity written and presented by the scholar Diarmaid MacCulloch. I recommend it. In the first episode Professor MacCulloch talked, briefly, about the Oriental Orthodox churches.  He interviewed a professor from a seminary of the Syriac Orthodox Church, which is a monophysite church […]

I bumped Jason Miller’s new book “Consorting with Spirits” to the top of my to-be-read pile and I started writing this review as soon as I finished it. If you’re at all interested in spirits and working with them, you’ll find this book quite helpful.

Please join us on Sunday (15 May 2022) at 11:00 AM for “Practical Reason, Practical Faith” by  Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so. Our … Continue reading "All-Ages Worship (15 May 2022)"

Notice of Congregational Meeting Date / Time — Sunday, 29 May 2022, at 12:15 PM (immediately following the 11:00 AM service) Location — In the All Souls sanctuary or via Zoom here: Agenda — We will vote on the following Board members: Vice President – Susan Yellott Secretary – Rovena Windsor Member at-Large Deborah Warren … Continue reading "Notice of Congregational Meeting (29 May 2022)"

Please join us on Sunday (15 May 2022) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This Sunday we continue our work through the book Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad. As the author says, “This is not a book you read, this is a book you do” and we … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 15 May 2022"

On this Sunday (15 May 2022), children and youth religious education classes will continue to meet in person during our 11:00 AM worship service. We have resumed our pre-COVID practice where the children and youth will join us in the sanctuary for the first 15-20 minutes and then we will sing them out to their … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education (15 May 2022)"

Please join us next Tuesday (17 May 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.

The folks I know who work with Odin, after a certain age, have remarkably similar medical histories. Eye trauma features heavily: cataracts, glaucoma, the sorts of illness that require long periods with eye patches or new, glass eyes to fill out empty sockets. The day my partner looked at me and held up their hand, covering one eye and nodding as if something made more sense, sits with me still on some nights. Continue reading Column: Old One-Eye at The Wild Hunt.

Romantic love is eros. It is the love that bonds partners together. It is the stuff of hearts and flowers and is often (but not always) accompanied by physical intimacy. What does “romance” mean to you?

      It was on this day, May 14th, 1878. that the last trial on a charge of witchcraft was initiated in an American court. Somewhat awkwardly for all concerned, the case was heard in Salem, Massachusetts. It was brief. But it had an interesting backstory. Lucretia Brown of Ipswich, Massachusetts was a life […]

The free weekly MailChimp newsletter link did not post to Facebook or Twitter for this weekend (14-15 May 2022). Here is the email newsletter for this weekend. You can use this link to sign up for our free weekly email newsletters.    

The Shreveport March for Reproductive Rights will be happening on Saturday (14 May 2022) from 10:45 AM to 11:30 AM. Use this link to RSVP in you are planning to attend. The march will begin at the Shreveport Police Department (1234 Texas Avenue) and proceed to the Caddo Parish Courthouse (501 Texas Street). The All … Continue reading "Shreveport March for Reproductive Rights (14 May 2022)"

In 2003 we finished the construction of Fanshaw's dwelling and invited Arkansas author Donald Harington to visit it. Students from our middle school and high school attended. In addition to being one of Arkansas' most prolific and acclaimed novelists, Harington taught Art History for over 22 years at the University of Arkansas. His presentation might have been over the heads of the students gathered at his feet and at the feet also of two towering pine trees, that for Harington served to illustrate duality in nature and in art. The two young men sitting at Harington's seem to not be paying attention. After the event was over, I noticed that they had taken notes, recreating with small stones and pine needles a forest scene complete with ...

Pray for mothers and motherhood, That most sacred place between being and not being The gift of grace The promise of personhood The dawn and the dusk. For, mothers everywhere Mothers of all kinds Give life to dreams And illuminate our souls They are often our best selves Within us and our world. Pray for […]

Fun with fall colors

The beach-shelter on Margate Sands where Eliot wrote some of The Waste Land   On Margate Sands. I can connect Nothing with nothing. The broken fingernails of dirty hands. My people humble people who expect Nothing. T. S. Eliot in The Waste Land All photos taken with a Fujifilm X100v and are straight out of camera (except for the odd crop) Just click on a photo to enlarge it

The BBC reports that toxic chemicals in the environment are just as big a threat as climate change: “Chemical pollution has officially crossed “a planetary boundary”, threatening the Earth’s systems just as climate change and habitat loss are known to do. A recent study by scientists from Sweden, the UK, Canada, Denmark and Switzerland highlights the … Continue reading "Not only climate change"

I was reading a work of biblical interpretation from 2002 which referred to the house churches of the early Christian era. Memories of then-chic church planting came back, almost accusingly. Were new house churches such a good idea then? Did they endure? Did it lead to sustained growth, either numerical or spiritual? I realized that … Continue reading "New in church formation?"

TWH welcomes Bart Everson back to discuss Gaianism in our Spotlight on Traditions feature. Continue reading Spotlight: Personal Definitions in Gaianism at The Wild Hunt.

Since  2010, UU Schenectady has offered a range of 6 different Wellspring classes. This year’s advanced offering is Deep Questions Participants examine the 7 Unitarian Universalist principles and the 8th proposed principle through the lens of their own experience and beliefs to see ... read more . The post UUSS Wellspring Deep Questions, 2022-2023 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Since 2010, UU Schenectady has offered a range of 6 different Wellspring classes. Sources is the foundational class for all other advanced classes. Participants in Sources are supported by a curriculum designed to strengthen your understanding of Unitarian Universalism. Through class assignments and interactions, ... read more . The post UUSS Wellspring Sources, 2022-2023 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Still kicking two years in, COVID brought out the worst from the nation’s populace: racist brutality against marginalized communities. This year’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month commemorates the victims of the 2021 spa shootings as well as all other Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders lost to anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and throughout history. This violence is a form of erasure. As historian Catherine Ceniza Choy writes in her forthcoming addition to Beacon Press’s ReVisioning History series, “This positioning of Asians in opposition to American identity and experience is perhaps most powerfully expressed through the erasure of their long-standing presence in the United States and their contribut...

It is important that playful actions like teasing and tickling have firm, mutual, consensual, and respected boundaries. Each of us deserves to fully, freely, and joyfully consent to how we are treated and how our bodies are touched. And that consent can be fully and freely revoked at any time. How do you tell people … Continue reading Boundaries

I’ve just uploaded PDFs of 5 more copyright-free hymns to this Google Drive folder: “Come By Here” (a.k.a. “Kumbayah”), “Many Thousand Gone,” “Nobody Know the Trouble I’ve Seen,” “Siyahamba,” and “Transience.” All these hymns have appeared in UU hymnals. Why copyright-free hymns? Because you don’t need a license, which smaller congregations may not be able … Continue reading "Five more copyright free hymns"

      As it happens, today, the 13th of May, in 1373, Julian of Norwich starting having a series of visions. It would become the basis of her extended meditation, Revelations of Divine Love. I find myself thinking of Love. I find myself thinking of Universalism. At Wikipedia we find: “Universalism is a religion […]

Please join us on Saturday (14 May 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 (14 May 2022)"

These are additional photos of the making of Fanshaw's dwelling in 2003. The students loved working together outdoors and the framework of the double dwelling came together quickly with bent saplings lashed together with twine. Gathering the material to form the roof took longer.  Unlike modern homes, Fanshaw's dwelling decomposed into the earth leaving no trace but these photos and the experiences remembered from making it. Make, fix and create...

One who is delighted by blossoming fragrances and the music of bees, bend your heart in the direction of all in need of comfort, of care, of sweetness and refuge. May our courageous songs be carried on the breeze through the treetops and along the clouds, to reach everyone who...

Focus talk: Paula Chandoha. Click here to listen. (28 minutes)

Sometimes love feels like a playful puppy, with boundless energy and undivided attention. That puppy requires a lot of care and instruction on how to grow up well. How do you care for those you love?

Back in 2003 and as students at the Clear Spring School were studying our indigenous peoples, I had observed Arkansas' nearly famous novelist Don Harington's illustration of Fanshaw's Dwelling in his classic book, The Architecture of the Arkansas Ozarks.  Don and I had become friends at that point so I asked him if any high school students in the world had built a replica of Fanshaw's dwelling. Learning that none had, we offered be the first.  As our current group of older students is currently working on a wilderness survival structure, I'll share photos from an earlier time at the Clear Spring School over the next few days. Fanshaw's dwelling was an unusual one, in that it had two chambers side by side, each with its own entry. Othe...

 I got two magazines in the mail today and each featured a review of one of my books. Here they are: Make, fix and create... Thereby reshaping the world in which we live.

Sunday, May 15, 10:30 a.m. Circle Round ~ A Multigenerational Service led by the Children and Youth of the Circle RE Congregations Come learn about – and experience! – the adventures we’ve had in Circle RE this year! Our kids and youth are excited to share their skills and accomplishments as we celebrate our first year   [ … ] The post Sunday, May 15 ~ Circle Round ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Due to serious technical issues Heretic, Rebel a Thing to Flout will be on temporary hiatus for—I hope—a short time.  I was locked out of Facebook, the primary means I have for promoting the blog and connecting with readers through post links on my Timeline and in several interest groups.  Not only am I locked out, but Facebook security has completely removed my account including removing every post I have made in the last 16 years, my nearly 1,500 friends list, access to pages and groups to which I administer, and hundreds of photos. In case I cannot get my original account restored, I have created a new account.  Please accept new friend requests from me and send me a friend request if you don’t get one.  Also if you are a me...

I’ve spent a lot of time on today’s leaf, and want to continue tomorrow before considering it done. So I’ll update then with the actual drawing.

TWH speaks with Karen Crowley-Susani and Dominique Susani of Energetic Geometry, land healers who work restoring nature through energy work and sustainable practices. Continue reading Sacred geometry, harmonizing and healing the energies of the planet at The Wild Hunt.

By María de los Angeles Torres | After a contentious campaign that ignited strong debate specially among Pedro Pans—Cuban children who came to the US unaccompanied in the early sixties—Governor DeSantis of Florida is poised to sign a new law effectively banning shelter for recent unaccompanied immigrant minors in the state fleeing violence in their homeland.

Silly, playful, giggly love is ludus. It involves shared activities and mutual joy. What is something that makes you laugh?

Molly Peacock The best thing about a hand-made pattern is the flaw.

Leslie Ahuvah Fails Motherhood must be a choice. It cannot be chosen for us. Continue reading "The Sacred Choice"

Irving Berlin--American master song smith. There was a lot of buzz recently over Rolling Stones list of the “100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time.”   There is always room for entertaining debate about such lists.   But this one doesn’t come close to living up to the claim of representing “All Time.”   The earliest on the list were Woody Guthrie and Fats Domino.   Most were active from the 1970’s—the magazine’s birth decade—and were limited to rock, pop, R&B, and a smidgen of rap.   Not a single mention of any of the composers and lyricists from the Great American Song Book who were active from about 1900 to the ‘60s.   That’s a lot of enormous talent to overlook.   And the most egregious omission was this guy...

    Hard to recall the date precisely. I was somewhere on the cusp of adolescence, maybe thirteen, possibly as old as fourteen. A friend and I were rummaging through some boxes of magazines and books looking for old copies of my father’s stash of Playboys. Instead found a cache of Ace paperback editions of […]

I was musing with friends about the size and fate of congregations and so looked up some data in an old UUA directory. The old print versions have been digitized and are online, if you ever need to look them up yourself. https://listview.lib.harvard.edu/lists/drs-431987185

The first installment of a series covering the Conference on Ecological Spiritualities hosted by Harvard Divinity School last month. Continue reading Conference on Ecological Spiritualities, Part 1 at The Wild Hunt.

The battle to end Title 42 is being waged in Congress and the courts.

What will you do to make the world more beautiful? That was what we asked folks during worship on Sunday, inspired by the story, “Miss Rumphius” by Barbara Cooney, and by the poem, “The Pact” by the Rev. Bob Janis-Dillon. Creativity and beauty can be ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – May 10th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Director of Lifespan Religious Education Robin Ahearn will be on vacation 4/29-5/11. If you have any urgent RE concerns in her absence, please contact Congregational Life Coordinator Kristin Cleveland at clc@uuschenectady.org. Robin will resume checking emails 5/12. UPCOMING RE CLASSES: K-6 Experiences with the Web ... read more . The post RE This Week – May 10th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Though we often think of the masters, what is actually true is that everyone is creative. Any one of us can create (or destroy) using our imagination, our resources, our will, and our connections. What we do with our creative impulses can inspire, transform, offer ... read more . The post May Theme: Creativity appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Now that we have a new Music Director, we’re going to squeeze in one more opportunity to sing with the choir before the year ends! Starting on Tuesday, May 17, 7-8:15pm, we’ll have distanced, in-person, masked choir rehearsals in the Dining Room and starting on ... read more . The post Sing with the Choir! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Last month our congregation generously donated over $7,500 for relief for Ukrainian refugees, from a Special Sunday collection for Ukrainian Emergency Response and a Women’s Alliance grant to the International Convocation of UU Women. We have received two heartwarming responses. This short video from Rev Kinga Szekely from ... read more . The post Ukrainian Humanitarian Relief appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

When my firstborn was very young, my father commented on how often I told her I loved her. He said, what if adults heard how they were loved as often as you tell your little one she is loved. I’ve taken that to heart. I tell the people in my life all the time that … Continue reading I Love You

Union Pacific and Central Pacific tracks meet at Promontory Point, Utah. On May 10, 1869 the United States was bound together as never before when the final Golden Spike was driven at Promontory Point in Utah connecting the Union Pacific Railroad (U.P) from the Eastwith the Central Pacific (C.P.) from California. Together the two railroads formed the first Transcontinental rail connection.  Construction was spurred by the Civil War and the Union’s need to connect to California and its gold wealth to help finance the war.  The construction was authorized and encouraged by the Railroad Acts of 1862 and 1864 which provided financing for the enormously expensive undertaking through 30 year bonds and extensive land grants to the railroad ...

Our religious, spiritual, and magical traditions are a great foundation. But sometimes “what we’ve always done” not only doesn’t work, it makes things worse. And so we have to make it up as we go along.

The common name of Salix sitchensis made me wonder whether there are really willows as far north as Alaska. Yes, they are. The native territory of S. sitchensis runs along the coast from central California to Kodiak Island, AK. When I’m tired already when I sit down to drawing, I have been trying to take […]

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, LA legislation follows Roe v. Wade decision leak, a new Croatian stamp feature Slavic Pagan imagery, Remembering Dr. Randy P. Conner, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of May 9, 2022 at The Wild Hunt.