Darkness can be healing. Darkness can be nurturing. Darkness can be a place of growth and transformation. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the darkest day of the year–let us embrace that darkness as beautiful and magnificent.

How do you embrace the darkness?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The final Sunday of Advent is used to prepare ourselves to work for peace. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King famously said that “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

How are you creating true peace in the world around you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In the Eastern United States, fireflies light up summer nights. In the cold of winter, their larvae grow under the ground, glowing all the while. They shine their lights under the Earth as they wait to emerge in the spring.

How do you shine your light in ways that no one sees?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The sun silently slips below the horizon, heralding the end of another day.

Remember a sunset that you have watched. How do you prepare yourself for tomorrow?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Our bodies are part of our spiritual journeys. The attention we give to healing our bodies is attention we give to healing our spirits.

Where and how is your body the most comfortable? How can you care for your body today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.

Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup.

Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy.” -Thich Nhat Hanh

What can you do to center yourself in the present moment today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

An incredible connection is found in the act of creating harmony. Singers need to be listening to one another and balancing their voices with one another. For many, the loss of this regular practice has been a difficult spot in this year of pandemic and isolation. And yet, there are still ways we can seek the balance of harmony even while remaining safe.

When have you created connection by balancing your voice with another’s?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

If you’re a cook (or a fan of TV cooking shows), you understand the pursuit of “balanced flavor.” Sometimes a little bit of sourness adds the right amount of acidity to a dish to make it delicious. Sometimes, it’s the harshness of salt that brings out the flavors. Maybe our lives are like a well-seasoned dish and require some of this in order to be complete.

How does the harshness of the world help balance your life?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes, balance is ridiculous. We go to absurd lengths to make sure things are balanced, when they really should not be. Sometimes, we need to take the potato off of the spoon and let things fall to the table.

What balance do you need to let go of because the pursuit of it is simply ridiculous?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In Chinese philosophy dating back to the I Ching of 700 BCE, Yin and Yang are opposite and complementary energies. They are fundamentally balanced with one another, and interdependent. One cannot exist without the other, and nothing can be purely one or the other; together they create a whole.

What are complementary and interdependent things in your life that bring you wholeness?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes, despite the odds, we achieve a balance that seems impossible.

What are the ways that you have stretched to balance when it seemed impossible to do so?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

There are times when everything seems perfectly balanced. At those times, we should ask ourselves at whose expense our own balance is coming. Are there people holding us up? Are there people whose lives are unbalanced by our seeking balance?

At whose expense does your balance come?

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We need both light and dark in our lives. They need to be balanced. The Earth teaches us this. At this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, we are experiencing the healing power of darkness in the shortest days of the year. At the same time, our siblings in the Southern Hemisphere are experiencing the rejuvenating power of sunlight in summer. And near the equator, the light and dark stay balanced all year long.

How do you balance light and darkness in your life?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

A slackline is a thin strip of cord suspended between two fixed objects. It is not tight (or it’d be a tightrope), so it gives and bounces with every movement. In order to balance on the slackline, one needs to constantly adjust one’s body. The adjustments are small, but important, and the exercise takes concentration.

How do you find yourself needing to adjust in order to find balance?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In nature, balance is not an endpoint but a process, called “homeostasis.” Bodies and systems have intricate feedback loops that keep moving around the balance point. When something goes wrong, that balance becomes impossible–like when an infection leads to fever by disrupting the balance point of our body’s temperature. The fever is a signal to us that our bodies are out of balance.

What are the signals that your life is out of balance?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Prayer can be a practice of interrupting the hectic world to reconnect ourselves to something greater than we are. As such, it can be a tool that returns us to balance.

How do you connect to something greater than yourself?

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“As a child, I used to do gymnastics. And I loved the balance beam. I remember the graceful motion of one leg passing through thin air, as the other leg holds steady on the beam. Much like life, the grace and art of the balance beam, was that you have to concentrate on one step at a time. Whether landing jumps, or doing tricks, every foot or hand fall on the beam was vital to the balance you kept. In life, I find it often the same way. To balance, we must take it one step, one plan, one day at a time. And sometimes if we do, we can enjoy the art of moving through the air.”
-Rev. Emily DeTar Birt

How can you concentrate on one thing at a time, one movement at a time, one day at a time?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In the Greek myth of Atlas, the giant is imprisoned because he balances the whole world on his shoulders. He is able to do it, but because he carries the whole world, Atlas can’t do anything else. Atlas can’t even eat, drink, or just share some times with friends. So often in our lives we try to balance the entire of our world on our shoulders, in moments feeling we should or can be invincible and all powerful. But even a Greek giant struggles when balancing the world and has no power to do anything else.

When have you felt like you were balancing the weight of the entire world on you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The priorities of our society are often messed up. Because of our societal pressure we feel to work ourselves into exhaustion, balance is often difficult to find. Sometimes, we find ourselves in a cycle of being overwhelmed, working fast, getting tired, seeking rest, and then quickly back to being overwhelmed.

How do you interrupt the cycles that cause you to become overwhelmed?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

There is a myth that on the equinox, one can balance an egg on its tip. The truth is that this is always possible, but it is always fleeting. Balance is not a permanent state, but a momentary state of seeking. The egg resting on its tip is beautiful, but it does not stay that way for long.

What are the myths you carry with regard to the concept of balance? How do you dispel those myths?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“I could say grace was a woman with time on her hands, or a white buffalo escaped from memory. But in that dingy light it was a promise of balance.”
From Grace by Joy Harjo

Balance sometimes comes when we give ourselves permission to slow down in the midst of the mess, to breathe even with the dishes still in the sink.  The grace we give to ourselves and others, to not have our lives balanced, can often be the times when we achieve the most balance in our lives.

When have you experienced grace that allows you to feel more balanced?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Balance is seductive, and hard to achieve. Rocks balanced on one another are toppled by a breeze or a wave. We seek balance and yet so rarely feel it.

What are the moments in which you have felt most balanced?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Here on the pulse of this new day
You may have the grace to look up and out
And into your sister’s eyes, and into
Your brother’s face, your country
And say simply
Very simply
With hope
Good morning.
-Maya Angelou, from “On The Pulse of Morning”

What do you hope greets you in the new year?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Today’s Kwanzaa principle is Nia, or purpose: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.

How are you supporting the communities of Black, Indigenous and other People of Color in the ways you live and work?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Windows separate us from the outside but allow us to experience it at the same time. What do we let in? What do we keep out? What do we see through the windows in our spirits?

Look out a window today. Notice what is out there. Notice how it makes you feel.

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Today’s Kwanzaa principle is Ujima, or collective work and responsibility: To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems and to solve them together.

How can you create a cooperative community today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In some places, luminaria are set along pathways to invite the spirit of the season into our homes. They invite in hope, peace, love, and joy along with the spirit of God.

How are you signaling welcome to hope, peace, love, and joy?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In this year of pandemic reality, many of our tables are empty this holiday season. Instead of gathering physically with those we love, we are asked to address our need for connection in creative and safe ways, even if that makes us sad.

How can you reach out to someone you love today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Christians around the world today celebrate the birth of hope into humanity, the manifestation of the divine in human form.

Where do you find hope today?

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In the supposed silence of the night are the sounds of life. The howl of the wind. The rustle of the trees. The scurrying of the animals. The cries of babies. And each bit of it is holy and precious.

Where do you find the holy in the world around you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The aurora borealis, the Northern Lights, happen when charged particles in our upper atmosphere are blown by solar winds. They remind us of the unseen forces that wrap around our planet even when we cannot see them.

What do you need to make visible that usually exists hidden in the dark?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In the silence of a clear night, we can see the stars, each pinpoint a ray of light emitted countless hours ago from celestial bodies many light-years away. As we look to the stars, we are reminded of our place in the universe.

What reminds you of your connection to the immensity of the universe?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Darkness can be healing. Darkness can be nurturing. Darkness can be a place of growth and transformation. In the Northern Hemisphere, today is the darkest day of the year–let us embrace that darkness as beautiful and magnificent.

How do you embrace the darkness?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The final Sunday of Advent is used to prepare ourselves to work for peace. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King famously said that “true peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice.”

How are you creating true peace in the world around you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

In the Eastern United States, fireflies light up summer nights. In the cold of winter, their larvae grow under the ground, glowing all the while. They shine their lights under the Earth as they wait to emerge in the spring.

How do you shine your light in ways that no one sees?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The sun silently slips below the horizon, heralding the end of another day.

Remember a sunset that you have watched. How do you prepare yourself for tomorrow?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Our bodies are part of our spiritual journeys. The attention we give to healing our bodies is attention we give to healing our spirits.

Where and how is your body the most comfortable? How can you care for your body today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“You must be completely awake in the present to enjoy the tea.

Only in the awareness of the present, can your hands feel the pleasant warmth of the cup.

Only in the present, can you savor the aroma, taste the sweetness, appreciate the delicacy.”
-Thich Nhat Hanh

What can you do to center yourself in the present moment today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Imagine yourself on a mountaintop, the world spread out before you, above you only the heavens. Release to the sky that which you’re holding inside you that is holding you back.

What do you wish to release into the sky?

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“We pray because we are here–not to change the world, but to change ourselves. Because it is when we change ourselves that the world is changed.”
-Douglas Wood, “Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth”

What is the prayer within you today? What is the prayer you say simply because you are here?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The third Sunday in Advent invites us to feel joy, knowing that goodness will be possible in the future. The joys we share with others are magnified.

What brings you joy today? How can you share that joy?

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Seek out a place that is calm today. Carve it out of the hectic and the busy if you need to. Spend as much time there as you are able to. Breathe deeply, and take the calmness into you.

How do you find calm amidst the frenzy of your life?

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“It will be hard we know, and the road will be muddy and rough.” -Osibisa, “Woyaya”

Sometimes, the way forward is unclear. Sometimes, we need to simply start moving down the path. This requires trust and faith.

Where do you find the faith and the trust to keep moving forward?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Spending time by ourselves can be healing if we spend the time recovering a sense of who we are, facing our fears, or relieving ourselves of the pressures of society.

What are the healing messages you need to tell yourself?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Today, we invite you to notice. To see silent beauty in the world around you. Notice the small things. Notice the light. Notice the interaction of soft and hard, of light and dark, of cold and warm around you.

What silent beauty can you notice today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes, rituals come with words or music. Sometimes, they are done in silence. Building an altar or connecting with the divine need not be noisy.

What silent rituals are meaningful to your spiritual journey?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Silence can be used to exert power over another. Silence that enforces secret-keeping can break trust and do great harm.

How have you experienced silence being used for harm?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The second Sunday of Advent invites us to hope. The invitation to hope comes along with an invitation to participate in the co-creation of what we hope for.

What are your hopes for our world? How are you helping to make those hopes reality?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Long ago, I went cross-country skiing deep in a snowy wood. When we stopped, the silence around us was complete and amazing. We held our breath in awe of the magnificent silence all around us.

What is the most silent place you have ever been? How did it make you feel?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes, great change occurs in silence. Revolutions start with a tweet and not a shout. Silent revolutions can happen in the world as well as within us.

What are the great changes you need to make in your life?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Silence invites our bodies into stillness. Stillness invites us to look inward and to listen to the still, small, voice within us.

What do you hear in your moments of stillness?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

So much of the life that surrounds us is silent, and yet our silent siblings communicate with us and each other. Trees communicate with one another in ways that humans cannot understand.

How are you connected to the silent life around you?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

The caterpillar dissolves its entire physical form inside the chrysalis in order to transform into what it is meant to be.

What are you transforming in yourself?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Today is the first Sunday of the Christian season of Advent, the season of waiting for the birth of Jesus–for the birth of new possibility into the world.

What possibilities are you waiting for?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

By clearing our minds of distracting thoughts and focusing intently on the present moment, we can sometimes make room for possibilities to enter us.

How can you practice mindfulness and focus on the present moment?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Troy, a CLF member incarcerated in Ohio writes, “The journey will always have difficulties. Had I focused my outlook on a limiting philosophy, gotten lured in, I could easily have been hooked and sunk by its impossible weight.”

What difficulties do you need to overcome in order to make new things possible?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

We pause in thanks today for all of the life that has made it possible for us to live. For the earth and the sun and the plants and the streams, for the ancestors in all of their imperfection.

What are you grateful for today?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes, the stories we tell are just pieces of the truth. Sometimes, those stories get in the way of imagining something different, something better. Sometimes, we need to write new stories. Sometimes, we need to listen to the stories that others have been telling all along.

How do you change the stories you tell to make new things possible?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

We sometimes label things “impossible” when in reality they are just very difficult. Bumblebees flying, computers, the four-minute mile, space exploration–the list of the possible impossible is endless.

Have you ever witnessed something labeled “impossible” become reality?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“A freedom that reveres the past but trusts the dawning future more, and bids the soul, in search of truth, adventure boldly and explore.”
-Marion Franklin Ham, “As Tranquil Streams”

Where will your next adventures of the soul take you? What do you hope to explore?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“A child’s world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct for what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed and even lost before we reach adulthood.”
-Rachel Carson, “Sense of Wonder”

How do you feed and rekindle your sense of wonder?

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Practice, practice, practice. Practice creative problem solving. Practice hanging upside down. Practice reaching a little farther.

What seems just outside your reach that you need to keep trying to get to?

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Fabric sometimes begins to fray. It comes apart where it has been stressed or injured. It needs to be gently stitched or woven back together again.

Where are the places you are feeling frayed? How can you begin to stitch those places back together?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

When we think there is only one way to what is possible, we limit ourselves. Sometimes we need to make new ways. Sometimes, we need to redraw the map. There is always more than one way.

Where do you need to redraw the map of your life?

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A blank sheet of paper can be a list, a poem, a piece of art, a manifesto. A blank sheet of paper can be an origami crane, a sermon, or a flag. It can start a fire or make a plan.

Today is a blank sheet of paper. What will you turn it into?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Sometimes we make new things possible because we bring the right tools. Sometimes it’s through sheer force of will.

Where do you summon the strength to pull yourself into the possibilities that await?

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Forgiveness transforms the giver and the receiver. It requires atonement and amends, but also a heart open enough to let someone else back in. It makes new things possible by making relationship possible.

How do you need to seek forgiveness? How can you offer it?

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As Hindus all over the world light diyas and lanterns in their homes and set blazing fireworks in the air to signal welcome to Lakshmi, goddess of abundance and prosperity, at Diwali, we are invited to let our own light shine. Each of us has a spark of the divine within us that needs to be uncovered for the world.

How do you let the spark of the divine within you show to the world?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Comparing us to dandelions, Rev. Theresa Soto writes, “You are no less resilient, reaching/both down to the strength that holds you,/and up, up to the light, out with your beauty.”
-Theresa I. Soto, “Taraxacum”

How are you resilient? How do you root yourself deeply and persist in growing?

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Allowing ourselves to be human involves allowing ourselves to make mistakes. To practice abundant grace and understand that we will not ever be perfect.

How do you forgive yourself for past mistakes?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

photo credit Robert Crouse Baker

We honor those whose lives have been dedicated to serving others, to serving the ideals of freedom and justice, and to serving the values of community and collective responsibility.

What greater ideals and values do you hope to serve?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Faith is necessary to make our possibilities reality. Faith in ourselves, faith in our communities, faith in the power each of us has to create.

What does it mean to you to “have faith?”

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“I know this rose will open. I know my fear will burn away.”
-Mary Grigolia, “I Know This Rose Will Open”

What possibilities do you need to unfold that are tightly bound and hidden away?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

All change brings anxiety. All possibility requires change. We each need tools in our spiritual toolbox to help us manage the anxiety that moving into a different future will bring.

How do you cultivate a non-anxious presence in your being? What are the spiritual practices that help you manage your anxiety about the future?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

Possibility requires embracing complexity. Because everything is connected, what is possible for us is connected to what is possible for all beings.

How do you embrace complexity?

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Adrienne Maree Brown entreats us to keep our hope “in a place that’s safe,” to cultivate a “faith that lets [us] be a part of humanity.”

How do we protect our hope against the cynicism and despair of the world?

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All that you touch you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change.”
-Octavia Butler

How do you welcome change into your life?

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When things are uncertain, we search for steadiness around us. We seek those things and people that remind us that we are here, we are whole, we are loved, and we are enough.

What are the things (or people) you lean on in times of uncertainty?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

photo credit: Jeff DaPuzzo

Waiting can be turned into spiritual practice. Waiting can be turned into a time for curiosity. Waiting can be turned into possibility.

How do you practice patience when there’s a long time to wait?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“God is a river, not just a stone. God is a wild, raging rapids and a slow, meandering flow. God is a deep and narrow passage and a peaceful, sandy shoal. God is the river, swimmer, so let go.”
-Peter Mayer, “God is a River”

What do you need to let go of to be able to carried into new possibilities?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“You can dream all the day, never reaching the end of everything possible for you.”
-Fred Small, “Everything Possible”

How do you turn dreams into possibilities? What do you need to make possible today?

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Samhain, or Halloween, marks the moment when, in the pagan tradition, the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead is at its thinnest. It is a time to honor the dead, to celebrate their place among us, to revisit cherished memories and to pledge ourselves to carry forward their work in the world.

Who do you feel close to this Halloween?

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I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground.
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.
― Edna St. Vincent Millay

Whose death are you not resigned to?

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Wouldn’t it be nice if our personal burdens could be labeled with a “heavy” sticker like boxes or items of luggage, giving those around us some notification on just what needs care in lifting?

What would you like to put a “heavy” sticker on?

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“No matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn’t stop for your grief.”
― Faraaz Kazi

How do you make space for grief?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

You are under no obligation to smile. You are also under no obligation not to smile. You are allowed to do whatever it is you want with your own face.

What expression is on your face right now?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“For in grief nothing “stays put.” One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats.”
―C.S. Lewis

Over time, how (if at all) has grief shifted for you?

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Your little light is not enough to illuminate the whole world. It doesn’t need to be.

What tiny thing will you do today to bring brightness to your bit of the world?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“Give sorrow words; the grief that does not speak knits up the o’er wrought heart and bids it break.”
― William Shakespeare

How do you give words to your sorrow?

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When tragedy or terror strikes, hearts and bodies and relationships are broken. We knit our communities back together by public witness and public mourning, by coming together to honor what we have lost.

When have you been moved by public mourning?

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“Now something so sad has hold of us that the breath leaves and we can’t even cry.”
― Charles Bukowski

How do you open your heart to grief?

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On a misty day it can be hard to find your path—edges are softened, familiar landmarks disappear and what once seemed obvious becomes vague and ill-defined. Slow down. Go gently. Notice that there is a different kind of beauty.

What feels misty or unclear for you at the moment?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

“Deep grief sometimes is almost like a specific location, a coordinate on a map of time. When you are standing in that forest of sorrow, you cannot imagine that you could ever find your way to a better place. But if someone can assure you that they themselves have stood in that same place, and now have moved on, sometimes this will bring hope”
― Elizabeth Gilbert

Who has been able to offer you hope through their own experience of grief?

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When times are so tough all over, it can feel like any expression of joy is out of place, like we need to hide our successes and our delights so as to not hurt or offend those around us. But there’s a place for joy and laughter even in the hardest of times.

What joy or triumph would you like to share?

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“You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp.”
― Anne Lamott

How have you been changed by the experience of grief?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!

When we are struggling inside it’s easy to imagine that everyone else is waltzing along with their pink umbrella, protected from the elements that threaten us. Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. Maybe they have space under the umbrella to share.

How do you make room for others under your umbrella?

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“Absence is a house so vast that inside you will pass through its walls and hang pictures on the air.”
― Pablo Neruda

What helps to fill the vast spaces left by absence?

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Times of stillness and reflection may not be as exciting or fun as action and adventure, but as seeds need time in the dark earth, people need times to be quiet and inward.

What have you learned from a period of stillness in your life?

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“Talk to me about the truth of religion and I’ll listen gladly. Talk to me about the duty of religion and I’ll listen submissively. But don’t come talking to me about the consolations of religion or I shall suspect that you don’t understand.”
― C.S. Lewis

How—if at all—does your religion help you to grapple with grief?

The Daily Compass offers words and images to inspire spiritual reflection and encourage the creation of a more loving, inclusive and just world. Produced by The Church of the Larger Fellowship, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation with no geographical boundary. Please support the publishing of The Daily Compass by making a $10 or $25 contribution (more if you can, less if you can't)! Thank you for your support!