There are downsidesto having been raised vaguely Protestant and residing in sometimes inhospitable northern climes.  Perhaps the biggest is regardingwith wistful envy the liberating extravagance of Carnival and Mardi Gras .   It is the un-religious holiday—a day of wallowing in the ways of the flesh and merry making before getting down to the serious and unpleasant tasks of the proper piety of Lent . Revelers are crowding the French Quarter again in New Orleans. Catholicsseem to know how to take advantage of the opportunity, especially in warm places where the streets beckon—New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro most famously.  But folks from countries where Romance languages are spoken can find ways to celebrate even in icy Quebec City....

“We form a web of compassionate listening when individuals among us, embodying vulnerability, name the fears that grip their hearts, the joys that buoy their spirits. We speak the language of love.” -Erika Hewitt How can you embody vulnerability today?

Best song I’ve ever heard about domestic violence: “Johnny’s Girl” by Spirit Artis. The music is not complex: mostly Artis’s expressive voice, with her understated guitar accompaniment, and a touch of overdubbed harmony singing. The song is powerful enough that it doesn’t need any more than that. In a podcast, Artis said this is a … Continue reading "Song"

In this week's Pagan Community Notes: Return of a Native Totem, a new Witch-themed bar, a "spirit hunt", announcements galore, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of February 20, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

Although I realise it won't be everyone’s “cup of tea,” I thought some of you would be interested to see this religious naturalist Lent course by Donald Szantho Harrington prepared for his Unitarian, Lenten Manual in 1980. It was based upon some of Henry Nelson Wieman’s work and that of his wife, Regina Westcott Wieman. I first ran it for my own congregation in Cambridge (UK) during 2014 whilst a group of us were exploring both Weiman's thought and religious naturalism in general. Since then I've kept this blog live and available for anyone else to work through should they be so minded. Here's the link to its front page updated for Lent 2023: https://memorialunitarian. blogspot.com/

The colt,unsteady gait to gallop—               beside long, barbed fence; The woman,her walk a melody—               his crude, roving eyes; The lovestruck,blush leaping hot to cheek—               legislation, lost; The ravenous,hand to silken pudding—               labels, searched like prayer; The family,to broad table, beaming—               Door shut, bolt fastened; The young,rounds of laughter lifting—               silent social norms; The flagwaving for unity—               red line, pipeline split; The men,yearning to be held tight—               lone superhero; The book,affirming a way through...

Note— A Version of this post last appeared in 2019.  Now updated. Finding it hard to get into the spirit of the day, Bunky?  Are pictures of George and Abe, fly-over panoramas of Mt. Rushmore, your kid’s cherry tree and log cabin school projectsmagneted to the refrigerator, mattress sales, crazy deals on Korean cars, and all the bunting in the world not doing it for you this year, eh Bunky?  Can’t erase the fetid stench of corruption, betrayal, ignorance, racism, and lingering around White House despite a new resident and through disinfectant makes you want to retch when you hear the word President?  You are not alone, Bunky. Well, suck it up!  Pull up your big boy/girl panties!  Take a stroll down memory lane with us today t...

A Prayer for Dreaming a World Made Whole - Ash Wednesday, 2023 Lover of Ordinary People and Ordinary Abundant Blessings, may we join You in dreaming a world repaired and healed and full of justice and joy, not just for a few, but for everyone in every land and every...

Start treating your Self like someone you love. J. Mike Fields, Life Coach Love shows up in most religious traditions as a most important thing. Jesus’ famous words agree with the teachers of his Jewish tradition that loving God and … Continue reading →

My daughter has a lot of people she calls her “best” friends. She sees no conflict in naming more than one person her “best friend forever.” There is no competition for her love, and no ranking of who is better than the others. To her, the love of friendship is based in abundance and not … Continue reading BFFs

For at least a few moments, before we had children, Carri and I had this one perfect moment where we had a sense of control about who our kids would be. See, we adopted through foster care, and as a part of … Continue reading →

Yelp.com used to be my go-to online source for finding religious communities in a given area. In the San Francisco Bay area, I could type in my location, plus the search term “Religious organizations,” and I’d get a fairly complete list of religious communities, including communities that had no other web presence. But here in … Continue reading "Online tools for finding religious diversity"

The Carnival of Viareggio is one of Italy's most spectacular and this year several floats and happenings had Pagan themes. Continue reading Pagan themes abound at the Carnival of Viareggio at The Wild Hunt.

    Here in the Los Angeles area there’s a breaking news story. A local Catholic bishop has died. A gun is involved. There’s little information more than that. It strongly suggests suicide. A sadness. Always. But given the conventions of the Catholic church (and most of Christendom) regarding suicide, a strange silence from the […]

So far, we've talked about loving the neighborhood as ourselves - heart, soul, and strength - and about the act of charity as an inroad to a bigger love. But what about those times we feel we cannot love? How can we love everyone with our own fragile, fallible spirits?

So far, we've talked about loving the neighborhood as ourselves - heart, soul, and strength - and about the act of charity as an inroad to a bigger love. But what about those times we feel we cannot love? How can we love everyone with our own fragile, fallible spirits?

I’m so excited to finally share this with you! My first book of poetry, Something Resembling God, is now available on Amazon. This collection is so close to my heart – they are all poems about the many beautiful, messy, human ways we relate to The Divine. It feels like a love song for the […]

The horizon is so expansive when you are near the ocean. The waves have their own rhythm and the sand brushes lightly against your skin, even if there is only a slight breeze that day. Better not to go too near the sea during a storm because a howling wind might drive the sand to […]

I’m so excited to finally share this with you! My first book of poetry, Something Resembling God, is now available on Amazon. This collection is so close to my heart – they are all poems about the many beautiful, messy, human ways we relate to The Divine. It feels like a love song for the […]

The powder magazine of the Negro Fort explodes killing nearly everyone inside.  Note the fort flies a British ensign and, ironically, the red flag of no quarter. On July 27, 1816 two United States Navy gun boats opened fire on a small but modern and professionally constructed fort on the Apalachicola River near the Gulf of Mexico.  After wasting a few rounds to find range one of the boats fired a round of hot shot which landed within the walls of the fort on the powder magazineresulting in a thundering explosion that completely destroyed the fort and killed almost all of the 300 defenders, their families, and refugees inside.  That round has been variously called the deadliest cannon shot ever fired by the Navy or by any U.S. armed fo...

A confession: there is a kind of envy that sometimes creeps up in me when I notice famous people, like authors with many popular books, or those widely praised or described as “influencers” and “visionaries.” (Especially when those books are most similar to my own one book.) I grapple with the fact that in the […]

It’s important to celebrate our successes. It’s also important to examine our failures, so we can figure out where we went wrong, so we can do better next time. These are some of the most common reasons why Tarot readings and other divinations go wrong.

I was reminded of this old New England story recently. It’s one of those stories utterly pointless stories you tell in the winter when there’s not much else to do. Back in the days of coastal schooners, there was a sailor who lived in Gloucester. He lived with his wife in a small house right … Continue reading ""

“These are friends. They are loves. It’s kind of a surprise that you should love someone so much who would eat the butter on the table if they could get away with it, and gets endless hair on the sofa when they aren’t even supposed to be on the furniture.” -from “When Your Best Friend … Continue reading Animal Friends

Storm Faerywolf surveys some positive stories for the queer community, include memorials to the Rainbow Dead, surprisingly encouraging words from the Pope, a new queer superhero, and the scientific advancement of the erection. Continue reading Through a Glass, Queerly at The Wild Hunt.

Piqiang Fault, China (source)   A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation   (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— Last week, drawing on a poem by Mary Oliver, in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, I brought to you a single, religious naturalist thought to consider, namely, that the earthquake must not be thought of as the sharp sword of God but, instead, as simply another wild body loving its life. As a whole, my piece was directed at encouraging us to continue to display a love of life through the material movements of our own wild bodies.  And, despite how it initially de...

                                                  William Wells Brown in 1847 at the time of the publication of his first book of memoirs. His life was as compelling as any characterher ever created—up from illiterate slavery to international celebrity as a pioneering Black author and leading abolitionist.   In his day William Wells Brown was nearly as famed as Fredrick Douglassbut today is barely a footnote in American literaryand social justice history.     This post aims to help fix that. Brown was born in 1814 or ’15 near Lexington , Kentucky in the racially complex circumstances common to slavery.   His motherElizabeth had both African and Native American ancestry , and she was held in bondage by...

Friendship is how I know love is real. People who choose to be in each other’s lives, for no other reason than the fact that they enjoy each other’s company. It is so pure and beautiful. Friendship can be serious, silly, high maintenance, low maintenance. It is fluid and wholesome and life-giving! – Marin Smith … Continue reading Love Is Real

Please join us on Sunday (19 February 2023) at 11:00 AM for a child dedication service for Effie Violet Turner by the congregation of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church — Shreveport, Louisiana.  Rev. Barbara Jarrell will be leading this service. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (19 February 2023)"

Building and Grounds Work Day (Saturday, 18 February 2023) 2023 Pledge Drive — We Need Your Pledge Now

Children and youth will attend the worship service for the first 15-20 minutes and then are dismissed to their classes. After the holiday break, we are now discussing the wisdom of the world’s religions that is one of the six sources of our Unitarian Universalist faith. It’s important that we gain an understanding of teachings … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Classes — 19 February 2023"

Please join us on Sunday (19 February 2023) as we continue our our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM. Our adult religious education class is still meeting via Zoom. We are now reading and discussing the book God of Love: A Guide to the Heart of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam by Mirabai Starr. This … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 19 February 2023"

For this month only, we are moving our second Saturday of the month building and grounds work day to the third Saturday of the month. Our monthly building and grounds work day will happen on Saturday (18 February 2023) from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We will have tasks available for all ages and abilities … Continue reading "Building and Grounds Work Day (Saturday, 18 February 2023)"

Please join us next Wednesday (22 February 2023) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch (this event is on Wednesday for this week only). Our weekly Zoom lunch is going dual-platform — join us from home using Zoom or in person in the social hall. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All … Continue reading "Zoom Lunch on Wednesday — This Week Only (22 February 2023)"

Please join us on Saturday (18 February 2023) 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. Please note that this group is still meeting via Zoom.  You will need … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (18 February 2023)"

I’ve picked up the ukulele again, but there’s not a lot of live ukulele happening in southeastern Massachusetts. So I’ve been getting my uke fix watching the weekly video podcast of Hawaii Music Supply, which you can find on their YouTube channel. Yes, they promote their high-end ukuleles. Yes, there’s a lot of pointless chit-chat, … Continue reading "Long distance uke"

A passage in Richard Eddy’s Universalism in America says something to me about the period around 1803, deacons and baptism, three things I’m studying now. First, it’s worth knowing a recalling there were two associations or conventions that might make a claim to being “the Universalist denomination” and they ran side by side with some … Continue reading "Eddy: Contrasting the two early Universalist “denominations”"

Alan D.D. shares the practical ways in which his practice has evolved since he immigrated from Venezuela to the United States. Continue reading The practical magic of an immigrant Witch at The Wild Hunt.

Alan D. D. comparte las formas prágmaticas en las que su práctica ha evolucionado desde que emigró de Venezuela a los Estados Unidos. Continue reading La magia pragmática de un Brujo inmigrante at The Wild Hunt.

It's an exciting time to be a climate activist.  After years of fighting for federal support for equitable clean energy, we're seeing historic investments with enormous potential.  For UUs, who have been leaders in the faith climate movement, now's our time to shine.  Think big.  Think systems.  Think resilience.  Think love.  Think of all the ways our congregations can be hubs of climate resilience and community care.     How can we build our capacity as UUs to faithfully respond to these opportunities?  What would our communities look like if clean energy was a human right and all people could thrive?  With trainings on benchmarking and UU-specific funding strategies and leadership opportunities, we're skilling up to rise to...

The Sunshine Pearl-Clutching Brigade is back on their BS and doubling down. Under Governor Ron DeSantis, Florida banned a new AP African American Studies course under the pretense that it’s “indoctrination” that “runs afoul of [their] standards.” This is almost a year after the Florida legislature banned the teaching of “the state-sanctioned racism that is critical race theory” with the Stop WOKE Act. It’s giving unwoke on numerous levels.

I started 2023 by falling down the stairs and breaking both arms. I don’t recommend it. I am very grateful to The Author’s League because without their support, I do not know how I would have made it through the month. Funds from the Author’s League allowed me to take the necessary time to heal. […]

Finding Zen Teachers & Spiritual Directors James Ishmael Ford Empty Moon Zen “Vigorous people who study and practice Zen: You absolutely must meet a dharma teacher who, through right view, embodies the Way. Then stay close and serve them for three-five years. Ask for their instructions for body, speech, and mind; carefully, precisely follow their […]

Come learn from Zoe Johnston, UU Young Adults for Climate Justice, about ways to engage young adults in your congregation, especially with your Green Sanctuary 2030 and other climate justice organizing. How do we get young adults involved?  Where do we find them?  How do we support them?  In this Green Sanctuary 2030 Community Meeting, we learned from Zoe Johnston with UU Young Adults for Climate Justice about ways to engage young adults in our congregations, especially with Green Sanctuary 2030 and other climate justice organizing.   View the webinar Download the slides Zoe shared some helpful framing for effective YA leadership, including:  Timing:  hold meetings outside of school and work hours Accessibility: hold meetings on Z...

Founder Richard Allen and his wife and the history of Mother Bethel AME Church are commemorated in this mural recently completed in the current church building. On March 28, 1796 the Bethel Methodist Episcopal Churchopened in Philadelphia.  It was the first American church organized by and for African Americans.  In 1787 Richard Allen and other free blacks were worshiping at the city’s St . George Church.  After angry parishioners literally dragged praying blacks from their knees, a small group withdrew determined to found their own congregationwhere they could worship safely and without interference.   Allen had been born a slave to a wealthy Quaker family in 1716.  As a child he was sold with a brother to another Quaker, Stokel...

I was taught  to put family before myself even though the ones who were teaching me were definitely not doing what they preached. It took a health crisis to realize that I needed to start putting myself before others. If … Continue reading →

A Prayer for Courageous Hopes Dreamer of Courage, cloak us in blessed darkness to nurture our hopes for a world of greater equity, a world where economies are adapting to mitigating climate change rather than accelerating it, a world where we treat each other and this earth with dignity and...

Friendship often asks us to show intimacy to another. To share our emotions with them, and to receive theirs in return. We learn caring and sharing in the context of friendship. This experience of closeness with another is a healthy part of our lives. How have you learned to care for others?

I have to be careful about what I investigate or else I keep running down rabbit holes. Here’s what I intend to look at in the next weeks: I hope also to write at least one article tying up my thoughts on the Kansas Universalist Convention Church, which I didn’t get back to.

Dr. Cornell West famously said, "Justice is what Love looks like in public." At Side with Love, Justice is our primary focus. And we know that in order to keep showing up with our Love in public, we need to ground ourselves in love -- of ourselves and others. Will you join me in our Faithful Grounding to practice love next Thursday? Beloved, do you find yourself in need of grounding in the love that allows you to act for justice? I invite you to join me at this month's Side with Love Faithful Grounding Hour: an hour of spiritual sustenance and grounding with others organizing on the side of love hosted by our Fun & Spiritual Nourishment Squad. Faithful Grounding Hour A MONTHLY GATHERING FOR SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT Thursday, February 23 4:3...

Pagan advocacy for religious freedom continue to be front-and-center within community groups. Continue reading A Tradition of Advocacy for Pagan Religious Freedom at The Wild Hunt.

By Remica Bingham-Risher | For a long time, I was making a list in my head of the writers who changed me, the ones I had to meet. I started planning too late and missed James Baldwin, who died when I was six. I hadn't yet been gobsmacked by his short story “Sonny’s Blues” then, but read my way through his whole milieu my freshman year of college. I met Toni Morrison (thank goodness) but didn’t get to ask her questions, flanked as she was by other booklovers. Who I regret missing the most is August Wilson, as lines from “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” and “Jitney” still wake me up some nights.

Neil Clarke, editor of a respected science fiction magazine, reports on his blog that numbers of spammy short fiction submissions are way up for his publication. He says that spammy submissions first started increasing during the pandemic, and “were almost entirely cases of  plagiarism, first by replacing the author’s name and then later by use … Continue reading "“AI” generated writing"

This month's Fine Woodworking arrived this  morning and includes my response to a letter from an interested reader. He had noticed a star knob on the cover of the magazine and wondered about it, directing  letter to me for clarification. Yesterday in the Clear Spring School wood shop the Rainbow Group made treasure boxes. The exercise fit in well as they've been studying pirates. Decorating the boxes with plastic jewels and markers will come next. Make, fix and create.

                                                    Do current books for children about explorers include contributions of Blacks?  Earlier books and school texts erased them. History texts for American school children and high schoolers used to spend a lot of time on explorers.   It was part of a narrative that began with Columbusand saw the New World as something to be conquered and tamed for European use and occupationin which native peoples were seen only as obstacles to be brushed aside or exterminated.   Perhaps that version is obsolete now and some more thoughtful analysis is now taught.   Even so the participation of Africans, slaves, and servants in explorations is generally little more than a ...

I must confess. I’ve been using you, sometimes. I let you walk about the world Flashing back so much in my rear view mirror. I look and find you just so irritating.  You talk too loud. You wear odd clothes. … Continue reading →

  Getting Away & Coming Home: Zen Retreats and a Note on What to Do When You Can’t James Ishmael Ford “Above all things, love silence.” Isaac of Nineveh As an old Zen hand, I’m reluctant to tell non-Zen friends I’m off to a retreat. When I do, too often the response is something along […]

People act as if friendship is somehow “less” than romance, when it is a lifesaving miracle in its own right. How could I have survived any tragedy in life without the help of my friends? Celebrated any victory? Friends are the people who show up when they don’t have to, but they want to, because … Continue reading Lifesaving Miracle

Apokries celebrations trace their roots in Greece back to ancient time and the Dionysia, a festival dedicated to Dionysus. Continue reading Apokries: A festival with Pagan roots heralds springtime and the Christian Lenten season at The Wild Hunt.

I was searching for early Universalist convention records when I happened on a trove of midcentury issues of Universalist Leader and Unitarian Universalist Register-Leader, the magazines which became what is today the UU World. This is really exciting, since documents from the late pre-consolidation and early post-consolidation (1961 onwards) eras are hard to find, at … Continue reading "Found: Universalist Leader"

Valentine’s Day reminds us that love is critical to human rights work.

Sunday, February 12 What Does Love Have To Do With It?   The Unison Affirmation that we recite every Sunday states, “Love is the doctrine of this church.” What does it mean to hold Love at the center of our faith? Join us this Sunday, February 19, as Rev. Alice reflects on a theology of Love   [ … ] The post Sunday Worship: February 19 ~ What Does Love Have To Do With It? ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

I blogged previously about AI in a post titled “Immigrants Aren’t Coming for Your Job, Robots Are.” So, why am I revisiting this topic now, five years later?  I knew it was time last summer when The Washington Post reported that an engineer at Google was raising the alarm that Google’s AI chatbot had already […]

Elaine McArdle Reflections on the transformational presidency of Susan Frederick-Gray.

A Call for Love and Compassion – February 11, 2023 – Our hearts are heavy as we bear witness to grief and suffering in our local communities and around the world. We feel the weight of the devastation caused by the recent tragedy in Laval, Quebec, the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, revolution in […] The post A Call for Love and Compassion appeared first on Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada.

While making plans for choir anthems for this month, Rev. Jan and I spoke about the possibility of using the hymn “There is More Love Somewhere” from our hymnal. This sounded like a great (and fairly simple, ‘singing something out … Continue reading →

Personal tragedy and four years of the burdens of war visibly aged Abraham Lincoln as shown in his final portrait taken by Alexander Gardner on the   day before his death. Note— We take up the review Lincoln and his racial attitudes today when he was elected President of the United States.  In this conclusion he faces his immediate crisis, and we examine how he used issues of race and slavery to advance his proclaimed war objective of preserving the Union and how his views evolved. If Abraham Lincoln held any real hope that his pledges not to interfere with slavery in states where it was established , and his protestations of racial loyalty would mollify the South he was quickly disabused of the notion.  Before he took the oath of ...

Our traditions are sacred and our virtues are timeless, but how we embody and express them is something every generation has to continually review and revise. What doesn’t change is that our beliefs don’t make us good people. Our actions do.

Today we honor the different kinds of love. Romantic love, yes, but also friendship love. We honor the unconditional love for all beings that inspires us to act, and the love of self that inspires us to set healthy boundaries. What are the kinds of love you can honor today?

Taken with a Fuji X100V using Øyvind Nordhagen’s Modern Negative Fujifilm Recipe Just click on the photo to enlarge it.  This picture was taken only last Saturday in the Common Room of the Cambridge Unitarian Church hall amidst the chaos caused by the need to fix the building’s one hundred-year-old central-heating pipework. It shows the end of the Hibbert Journal which was subtitled A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy . The bright yellow coloured magazines in the lower far right of the frame are the editions from 1968, whilst to the left and above (all the way to the ceiling on two more, full shelves) are the earlier editions, stretching back to the first in 1902. The slow decline from being a journal with great...

I came to activism late in life after retiring from a career in music and then technology.  I didn't know anything except that I wanted to do something to contribute to making the world more equitable for all.  Armed only with my lofty goals, I reached out to folx in the UU community, a little intimidated but willing to learn.  I was met with welcome, patience, humor and support by some extraordinary folx that had been doing this work for years.    Now I coordinate Side With Love’s Skill Up Series , our monthly trainings on organizing skills to help YOU build stronger teams in your congregation and community.  When I think about our Skill Ups, they mirror my experience:  welcoming, fun, and educational offerings to help all of u...

Spy balloons and other unidentified objects aside, there is a LOT going on in with the sun and other celestial activity this month. Continue reading A week of celestial activity at The Wild Hunt.

This Sunday we’ll have a Faithful Funday session. Children and youth will start in the Great Hall for the first part of the service. Afterward the Time for All Ages, the children in Kindergarten through 6th grade will go to the K-3rd grade classroom, next to the ... read more . The post Religious Education on Feb. 19th, 2023 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

UUSS Covenant Groups are small groups of people who will meet six times between late February and early April to have conversations about some of life’s big questions. They provide an opportunity to reflect and share thoughts and feelings, to get to know some fellow UUs ... read more . The post Register Now for Covenant Discussion Groups! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The LGBTQ group will have its first meeting on March 24, 2023 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in the UUSS Fireplace Room. The purpose of the group is to create a space for the UU LGBTQ community to come together. If interested in learning more, please contact Jen Pritchard at jeniferpritchard@ymail.com for details. Masks ... read more . The post UUSS LGBTQ Group is Forming! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Social Justice Action Fund Grant Application Available We are pleased to announce the annual call for applications for grants from UU Schenectady’s Social Justice Action Fund. We will offer grants between $2,200 and $5,400 for social justice initiatives and activities working towards bringing about ... read more . The post Social Justice Action Fund appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

We are delighted and honored to announce The Frontline’s Campain Director Tiffany Flowers will be the Keynote speaker for our Good Trouble Congregations Celebration on Tuesday, February 28 at 7pm ET/4pm PT. She will join Rev. Susan Frederick-Gray and other special guests, including our Good Trouble Congregations! The Frontline was our lead partner in training crucial Election Defenders in 2020 and 2022, and is a powerful coalition made up of  Working Families Organization, Working Families Party, United We Dream Action, and by the Movement for Black Lives Electoral Justice Project.  RSVP Now “Speak up, speak out, get in the way. Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” Late Rep. John Lewis’ ...

EVER AFTER I will not, cannot, love you for some “reason”, Just a momentary season, For a minute, or an instant, Or a solitary in-tent, I must love you past all heartaches, Past all tortured conversations, Past all weary speculations, … Continue reading →

By discord, I don’t mean the unsettled state of being, but the community and communications application, so commonly used in gaming. Trying to get a sense of who uses it, and who might use it apart from gaming. I’ve used it in Esperanto and some religious settings and it seems to a lot of promise, … Continue reading "Discord?"

I was thinking about using the well-known Theodore Parker quote in this Sunday’s service, the one that reads: “Be ours a religion which, like sunshine, goes everywhere; its temple, all space; its shrine, the good heart; its creed, all truth; its ritual, works of love; its profession of faith, divine living.” It didn’t sound quite … Continue reading "Is it Theodore Parker, or not?"

In an effort to clear out a bit of space in my shop, I'm finishing a few things with a hope that they'll sell. The board shown is ash with a fresh coat of penetrating oil finish composed of half and half, tung oil and polyurethane varnish. The beautiful pattern in the wood is from the heartwood of the tree. This table will be featured in an upcoming issue of Popular Woodworking Magazine, and you can make a relatively small investment to have it in your own home. Make, fix and create... Assist others in learning likewise.  

Here we go again... My Facebook news feed predictably erupted on last night with the news of yet another grizzly mass school shooting.  This one was at Michigan State University in East Lancing.  Three are dead and five others critically injured.  The gunman, a 43 year old ex-con with no known connection to the campus was found dead of a self-inflicted wound hours later.  At this writing his motives are unknown.  Perhaps he was just celebrating Valentine Day in a now time honored tradition. Post gun massacre flow chart. We have been through this kind of thing so often the responses were almost entirely predictable—horror and anguish followed by sputtering outrage and the lingering sense of hopelessness that when the last funerals ...

There's a magic thing that happens when a clear penetrating oil finish is applied to wood. And that's one of the pleasures that woodworkers receive in their work.  Yesterday I applied tung oil to two maple table tops and watched the depths of color come forth. The oil also revealed places in the wood that were not quite sanded as smooth as needed, so I used a cabinet scraper to dig a bit deeper into the surface in those spots. After applying an oil finish, sanding is less effective because the oil and sawdust build up in the sand paper. That's not a thing that will affect a cabinet scraper. The closer view shows more of the wood grain and color highlighted by the penetrating oil finish.  You will also note the darker lines of grain pro...

Love and Death: A Small Zen Meditation on Valentine’s Day James Ishmael Ford I notice the semi-sort-of Christian holiday St Valentine’s Day will be followed in a week and a day by the Christian holy day Ash Wednesday. Basically. I love you. And you’re going to die. Works for me. Me. I think a lot […]

Science fiction author Charlie Jane Anders takes on the J.K. Rowling brouhaha in a post to her Buttondown newsletter. Anders asks, can we separate the art from the artist? Or, to be more specific, can we separate Hogwarts from notorious transphobe J.K. Rowling? Anders reminds us that not every artists gets to have their art … Continue reading "Separating the art from the artist"

What is the “path of love” state of consciousness? It is the state that is considered the very core of many spiritual traditions and paths, particularly the ones that are called “mystical”. It is obtained by practices and not creeds, … Continue reading →

We honor of International Internet Friends Day by understanding that friendship does not require physical proximity. Real relationships are built on computers and phones. Reach out to an internet friend to say hello today.

Out of habit I went to uuchristian.org to see the Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship website, but it wasn’t there! Come to find out it is at (and only at) uuchristian.com, at least for the time being. Heavens, but it’s a bit of an archeological site. I have it on good authority that comments about improving … Continue reading "The Unitarian Universalist Christian Fellowship website is …"

In this Week's Pagan Community Notes, stone monuments defaced in Ireland, Pietas temple events, how to send us your events, Convocation, and other news! Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of February 13, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

Know Thyself . It’s an Ancient Greek aphorism. Socrates makes reference to it in one of Plato’s dialogues. And, before we’re done today, we will find a Valentine’s Day message in this maxim. Supposedly, “know thyself” was the first of three maxims inscribed at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi – along with "nothing to excess" and "certainty brings ruin." So: know yourself, but not excessively, and, anyway, don’t be so sure. It appears that the ancient Greeks used “know thyself” primarily in two ways. People whose boasts exceeded reality were cautioned to know themselves – because, if they did, they wouldn’t make such boasts. Second, saying “know thyself” was a way to suggest “be true to thyself” – like “y...

What you see in the photo is a tangle of legs and stretchers for two tables that I'd started months ago.  Having allowed them to sit for a few months I found that the thick maple tops had warped and needed to be flattened and re-planed. I had to place wedges on the underside at opposite corners on each end of the tops to pass them through the planer to get them flat.  By lifting the corners at opposite ends with the wedges allowed one side to be made flat. Flipping the boards over then allowed them to planed smooth and flat on the side that had been supported by the wedges. The boards were reduced in thickness by 5/8 in. But that's a fine thing as it leaves the tops appearing much lighter, as though they can actually float above the ba...

What I’ve been drawing for the past few days.

A number of years ago I was ready to board an airplane. I had done my share of traveling, and I anticipated the gate clerk’s questions. I set my bag on the scale and announced: “I packed my bags myself. No one unknown to me has given me anything to take on board the flight.” […]

This grant will help the congregation sponsor an asylum-seeking family.