Today we've invited the community to come to visit our new, fledgling Museum of Eureka Springs Art. We will have a few works on display and show off the space at the Eureka Springs Community Center complex that will serve as the starter home for a unique museum. While most museums feature the works of individual artists and highlight their work, we are a community of artists and art lovers and the museum will not only celebrate the the individual artists from our past, it will celebrate the relationships between artists  and art patrons that has made our city a unique haven for the arts. Please join us if you can. If not able, then celebrate and build the arts in your own community. What we have here can be replicated. Make, fix and cre...

We have two weeks in which to relish Paris, and have been relishing away. Munchkin would like to go to college in French–not just in a French-speaking country, and certainly not just for a semester–so she has been exploring universities, first in Geneva, now here, and next week, in Lyon. Joy and I have no […]

A Prayer For Wonderment Alongside Brokenness Gracious Love, may we pray ever for the wow and wonderment when we meet loss, challenges, and these judgments called brokenness. What are we breaking into? What are we remaking as? When we ravel and ravel and ravel into new fibres, shapes, colors, dreams...

  The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray […]

Many popular images of the storming of the Bastille are highly romanticized like this English school text illustration.  In reality there was relatively little fighting and only seven inmates were freed including common criminals. It’s  Bastille  Day , of course, commemorating the day in 234 years ago in 1789 when the Paris Mob set off the French Revolution by storming the Bastille, a fortress prison traditionally used by the monarchy to detain its political enemies without benefit of civil appeal.  The French make a big deal of it.  In the United States it is marked by an exceptionally busy evening in French restaurants.  In recent years the long-time loathing of all things French by the right wing stre...

“The example of the humble is also before us. Indeed, humility has seldom looked so wise. So many people in positions of public trust and responsibility, who otherwise would not attract our notice, have gained authority and our confidence by unspectacularly acting with honor. They persist in seeking truth, being accountable, stepping up to their … Continue reading Leadership

For the Traveler Every time you leave home, Another road takes you Into a world you were never in. New strangers on other paths await. New places that have never seen you Will startle a little at your entry. Old places that know you well Will pretend nothing Changed since your last visit. When you travel, you find yourself Alone in a different way, More attentive now To the self you bring along, Your more subtle eye watching You abroad; and how what meets you Touches that part of the heart That lies low at home: How you unexpectedly attune To the timbre in some voice, Opening in conversation You want to take in To where your longing Has pressed hard enough Inward, on some unsaid dark, To create a crystal of insight You could not have kno...

Scientists have proposed a small Canadian lake near Toronto has having the necessary evidence that may mark the era of humanity's impact on the Earth. Continue reading Canadian Lake may provide evidence of the start of a new Human epoch at The Wild Hunt.

Sunday, July 16, 10:00 a.m. “Poetry Share” at UUCSW Summer Worship On The Road Continues! On this midsummer Sunday, Phyllis Barrett and Sheila McPharlin will invite those who attend to share poems which give them a feeling of delight. Jane Gates will be providing music. “He who draws noble delights from sentiments of poetry is a   [ … ] The post Sunday, July 16 ~ Poetry Share at UUCSW ~ 10 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

By Jane Strauss | One of the things that many parents seem to be unhappy about when their child is labeled “Autistic” is this: “But they will not have play dates.” Friendship, “socializing,” and human interaction are seen as central to our very humanity. Females often fly under the radar for being labeled on the autism spectrum because their social development is different from that of males, generally resulting in more social orientation, better imitation skills at a younger age, and earlier speech, of whatever kind, than their male counterparts.

The mitered finger joint is a very strong joint for box making, offering rhythm in the corners through the contrast of end grain vs. side grain. The mitered portion of the joint allows for a seamless movement of grain traveling around corners of the box, allows the easy use of floating panels on top (as used in this box), and also offers the possible use of decorative inlays along the top edge of the box. This box shown will have the lid cut free from the body of the box, and then a base, feet, and hinges will be added. Do not forget the soft opening of the Museum of Eureka Springs Art tomorrow evening 5-7 PM at the Eureka Springs Community Center. We have a very long ways to go in building our museum, and you're invited to help. Ozarks-...

                                          “An enlightened person who loves alcohol, when they pass the liquor store, their head will still turn.” I spent some time recently pursuing that quote. While one version of it or another is a […]

  After the outbreak of violence against the Draft in New York city rioters attacked the Provost Marshall's office--the small wooden building.  Police Superintendent James Kennedy tried to rally his overwhelmed men standing on the roof and was captured and nearly beaten to death. In the eyes of anti-war folks opposition to the Draft is a matter of principle.   I fully understand.   After all, I was a Vietnam resistor and did my time in Federal custody.   The active draft was allowed to expire un-mourned though a rusty Selective Service System remains in place if needed.   Our recent wars of choice—the Gulf War, intervention in Bosnia, and the tandem wars in Iraq and Afghanistan—have been fought by an all-volunteer professional ...

Sometimes I make assumptions that are incorrect. Humility to me is when I take the time to pause. Stop. Listen. Then ask questions, without assuming I know the answer. -Beth Murray (CLF) When has a humble moment in your life led you somewhere unexpected?

A Canadian senate report released last year outlines the ongoing incidence of forced sterilization of Indigenous women within the Canadian healthcare system. Continue reading Report on Forced sterilization of Canada’s Indigenous women: “horrific practice is not confined to the past” at The Wild Hunt.

Canadian Unitarian Universalists Mourn the Death of Rev. Rodrigo Emilio Solano-Quesnel July 12, 2023 Our hearts are heavy as we mourn the tragic death of Rev. Rodrigo (“Rod”) Emilio Solano-Quesnel, who died at age 42 in a traffic accident early on the morning of Tuesday, July 11. We extend our deepest condolences to his family and […] The post Canadian Unitarian Universalists Mourn the Death of Rev. Rodrigo Emilio Solano-Quesnel first appeared on Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada. The post Canadian Unitarian Universalists Mourn the Death of Rev. Rodrigo Emilio Solano-Quesnel appeared first on Canadian Unitarian Council Conseil unitarien du Canada.

I speak daily with God. She loves me and wears great shoes. She said I can set the past down It’s really heavy and not getting me anywhere. It’s time to pack the wound and commit to the healing of it instead of letting it fester. We got coffee once. She checked her email while […]

                                   John Quincy Adams presidential portrait. The years of the Monroe Administration were already being called the Era of Good Feelings because following the War of 1812 the Federalists had all but disappeared making the Democratic Republicans the single major political party.   But it was now unwieldy and had lost the ideological cohesion of the heady days of the Revolution of 1800 when Thomas Jefferson and the party had swept into office, crushing John Adam ’ s hopes for a second term. The orderly system of party caucus which anointed the favorite of the sitting President had broken down and the era of Revolutionary Founders had run out.   Despite the advantage of being Monroe’s ...

I receive your “Ouch” with openness and curiosity. I receive your “Oops” with acceptance and empathy. I offer my “Ouch” with hope and trust. I offer my “Oops” with humility and courage. I release my “Ouch” with immeasurable faith. I release my “Oops” with purpose. I release your “Ouch” with promise. I release your “Oops” … Continue reading Oops and Ouch

Taken with a Fuji X-T2 using Ritchie Roesch’s Kodak Portra 160 recipe Just click on a photo to enlarge it

Our correspondent Sean McShee updates us on the continuing archeological research which is providing new insights into the burial of a powerful Gaulish woman known as the Lady of Vix. Continue reading The Lady of Vix: Part 1 on Gaulish-Roman burial sites at The Wild Hunt.

                      According to tradition Bardaisan, or sometimes Bardesanes, was born into a wealthy pagan family in Edessa (today Sanliufa, Turkey) today, on July 11th, 154 in our common era. He was educated with the princes of the Abgar dynasty. He became a Christian and was […]

Famous parents and a daunting legacy--John and Abigail Adams.  John Quincy admired and respected his distant father but bitterly resented his mother who was never satisfied with him and whose sharp tongue made it abundantly clear to him. At the end of his long life John Quincy Adams was revered as Old Man Eloquent by opponents of slavery and reviled in equal measure as a Yankee mad man by the Southern slave holding aristocracy.   As a boy and young man, he lived in his famous father ’ s shadow, an errand boy and gopher for the great man on his diplomatic postings for the infant American republic. In between he lived an eventful life , full of public service, accomplishment, and occasional respect all the while battling what is now ev...

 It is Amazon Prime day in the US and a number of my books are available at special prices. These are Rustic Furniture Basics , Basic Box Making ,  Beautiful Boxe s, and Tiny Boxes. The sale should last until tomorrow.

I’ve always loved visualizations of deep time — those huge timelines that remind us that all of human existence on this planet is contained in a tiny speck at the end of time as we can imagine it. Reminders our smallness in the scope of time offer a kind of nourishing humility; it doesn’t mean … Continue reading Deep Time

In this week's Pagan Community Notes: European Congress of Ethnic Religions adopts the Riga declaration, Witch Detectives annoys a Christian group, Devils Hole pupfish, upcoming events and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of July 10, 2023 at The Wild Hunt.

  The Case this is the song of mehitabelof mehitabel the alley catas i wrote you before bossmehitabel is a believerin the pythagoreantheory of the transmigrationof the soul and she claimsthat formerly her spiritwas incarnated in the bodyof cleopatrathat was a long time agoand one must not besurprised if mehitabelhas forgotten some of her more […]

It is with great enthusiasm that the UUA welcomes the Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt as our tenth UUA President. With Rev. Sofía’s leadership, we are positioned to move forward in faithful community, in recognition of our shared values and the important work ahead. Continue reading "The UUA Welcomes the Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt as Its Tenth UUA President"

Charles Coe On July 10, Rev. Dr. Sofía Betancourt became the tenth president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Betancourt took time to talk a bit about her background and share with UU World some thoughts about the opportunities and challenges facing the UU community.

It’s amazing how you can walk into a room full of 17th century Dutch paintings, take a quick glance around as you move through,  and know immediately when your eye falls on a painting by Vermeer. I could spend the rest of my life trying to do what he does with light, but I figure […]

UUSC works with Native communities in Alaska and Louisiana to call attention to climate change and injustice—on a global scale.

Join us at All Souls Church on Monday, July 17, 2023 at 6 pm for a free screening of the documentary, Plan C. Shot over the past four years by award-winning filmmaker Tracy Droz Tragos, Plan C is a documentary capturing the work of Plan C (the abortion pill access campaign of the same name) as well as the work of many activists and providers fighting to improve access to abortion pills in the face of crumbling reproductive rights & access across the US. “In the tough sociopolitical climate we are currently experiencing, this film comes in as a sign […] The post Roe Fund Oklahoma and ASRJ Present Plan C appeared first on BeyondBelief.

  There were a lot of firsts involved when Telstar 1 was launched on top of a Thor-Delta rocket from Cape Canaveral , Florida on July 10, 1962. It was the first active telecommunications satellite, capable of relaying television broadcasts, bundled telephone calls, and fax images. Echo I , launched by NASA in 1960 had been a glorified weather balloon—a Mylar inflated sphere off which microwave signals could be bounced from one Earth station to another.   Although millions of Americans, me included, spent hours watching darkened skies for the passage of the gleaming object in orbit, Echo’s usefulness as a communications device was more symbolic than real. Echo 1 sits fully inflated at a Navy hangar in Weeksville, North Carolina.  T...

Munchkin and I are at the Louvre. I communed with one of Michelangelo’s “Captives” while she went in search of more recent European sculpture. I was lukewarm about returning to the Louvre, and came mostly to accompany M, but this time spent drawing made it more than worth the price of admission, and the wait.

“Today, transcending boundaries is hard work. For one thing, I’ve created more of them since I was young, and I’ve built them higher and stronger than they once were. For another thing, I’m much more self-righteous and much less humble than I was then. Sometimes, when I am at my best, I remember that the … Continue reading Boundaries

                                          God. A word that calls forth pain and joy. Hope and fear. And loss, so much loss. People die for that word. People die because of that word. God. And, what is God? What […]

Liz Williams reviews Channel 4's new series "The Change," a story of a menopausal woman's journey into the Forest of Dean with notable Pagan themes. Continue reading Review: “The Change” at The Wild Hunt.

SERVICE PARTICIPANTS Rev. John Cullinan, Pastor Yelena Mealy, staff accompanist Mike Begnaud, Patrick Webb, Renae Mitchell, Galen Gisler, and Rick Bolton, AV techs WELCOME! New to our church community?  Sign our guestbook and let us know if you’d like to get more connected. If you would like to submit a joy or sorrow to be …<p> Learnings and Musings From General Assembly Read More »

We went to the Marin County Fair this week. I hadn’t been in years. We used to take the kids every year, putting a blanket down on the lawn for the music and then later the fireworks. Randomly we went on the day that was the designated “Out at the Fair Day” so there were […]

  The record breaking string hottest days ever was not even over when ABC TV showed this frightening graphic this week . Scientists tell up that the Earth reached the highest temperatures ever recorded on four consecutive days this week —an unprecedented occurrence .   Worse, even higher temperatures are expected in this month and August as El Niño strengthens.   Canadian wildfires —this time mostly in northern Quebec and eastern provinces continue to burn out of control repeatedly blanketing much of the American Midwest and Northeast with foul and dangerous smoke .   Melting of the Antarctic and Artic ice caps is accelerating.   Climate change , the egg heads tell us, is accelerating even faster than predicted despite half-hea...

“The concern which I lay bare before God today is my need to be better: I want to be better than I am in my most ordinary day-by-day contacts: With my friends— With my family— With my casual contacts— With my business relations— With my associates in work and play. I want to be better … Continue reading Better

  Reading Some time ago, somewhere, I am not sure where exactly, there lived an old woman.   She served as the Wisewoman for a small village.   One day a friend of hers, a writer from a far-a-way Western country, came for a visit.   Each time the friend visited, the Village Wisewoman would teach him a new way of looking at the world.   The Village Wisewoman told her friend, “Most of western society thinks that we should believe only what we see.   However, in reality the mind works the other way around, meaning we see only what we believe.”   The writer asked, “But how can this be?”   The Village Wisewoman said “I will show you shortly.”   Soon two villagers came to the Village Wisewoman at different times, to ask he...

  You heard the story of a young Albert Schweitzer.   Did you know that later in his life he coined the term “reverence for life” and used that concept as a foundation for how he chose to live in the world?   Schweitzer wrote: “…Reverence for life contains within itself the rationale of the commandment to love, and it calls for compassion for all … life.”   He goes on: “I must interpret the life [around] me as I interpret the life that is my own.   My life is full of meaning to me.   The life around me must be full of significance to itself.   If I am to expect others to respect my life, then I must respect the other life I see, however strange it may be to mine.   And not only other human life, but all kinds of lif...

  Mohandas Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Ghandi wrote:   “I learnt the lesson of nonviolence from my wife, when I tried to bend her to my will. Her determined resistance to my will, on the one hand, and her quiet submission to suffering my stupidity…., on the other, ultimately made me ashamed of myself and cured me of my stupidity in thinking that I was born to rule over her and, in the end, she became my teacher in nonviolence.”         Even Ghandi, one of the many spiritual teachers of nonviolence...

  I grew up in a home with a father who had alcoholism.   I think at least in part, I became a counselor for people with alcoholism, drug addiction and eating disorders in order to cope with my own family history, to not look within to deal with my pain, but to let my need for healing and pain relief come out sideways by helping others heal and feel relief from their pain.   Early in my life I was unwilling to open the Pandora’s box of pain that was resting unopened in my shadow.   That’s not to say I didn’t know it was there and that I wasn’t curious about it, but most of all I was afraid that if I opened it, its contents would come flying out, uncontrollable, destructive, and in the end, I would become incapacitated by them...

  How many have heard the phrase “Fake it til you make it”?   I can’t tell you how many people—usually professors, colleagues, co-workers-- said that to me when I started out as a psychotherapist and as a minister.   Putting myself out there in front of people as an expert, a professional, someone who knows what the heck they are doing, when in fact they are brand new, not yet experienced, winging it the best they can is tough.   Being vulnerable in front of someone who has expectations of you is tough.   It is easy to experience “Imposter Syndrome.”   Feeling like you are an imposter because you don’t know enough, are not experienced enough, not smart enough, just not enough to be what you are expected to be or do wh...

Agape. Love.  Unmerited Love.  Unmerited acceptance.  Everyone’s worth and dignity seen and respected.  Grace.  Feeling loved.  Feeling accepted.  By a divinity, by another person, by humanity.  Regardless of who you are, how you look, where you are from, who you love, how you embody your gender.  Regardless of what you do or don’t do.  Regardless.  Just for existing.  At every moment, you are beloved.         Have you ever felt loved and accepted just for existing?  Not because of something you have done.  Perhaps someone has treated you that way.  Perhaps you helped a stranger.  Perhaps you felt a wash of unmerited grace and love when something worked out in your life when you didn’t earn it or deserve it.

  Reading   This story is about a particular era and reflects some of the viewpoints of that time, but it also offers some insight.  This Swahili story is set on the sultry coast of medieval East Africa.  It is called “The Meat of the Tongue.”    Once upon a time a sultan and a sultana lived on the coast of Africa. The sultan loved to lavish his sultana with beautiful gifts.    But the sultana was suffering. Her once rosy cheeks became pale, and she started to wither away to nothing but bone.    The sultan called all his royal advisors and doctors to the palace, but they couldn’t find a cure. However, they had heard about a poor fisherman in their village whose wife was thriving. So they sought him out, cornered him in a ...

Please join us on Sunday (9 July 2023) at 11:00 AM for “The Power to Choose” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. We will be meeting in the sanctuary for this worship service.  Please join us in person at All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church, 9449 Ellerbe Road, Shreveport LA  71106 if you are able to do so. Our … Continue reading "All Ages Worship (9 July 2023)"

During the summer, our children and youth participate in various fun artistic and creative activities. On this Sunday (9 July 2023), the brilliantly creative Maggie Molisee is back with a new painting project. Kids should wear clothing that can risk getting some paint on them — this is a good practice for many of our … Continue reading "Painting Project — Summer Activities for Children and Youth (9 July 2023)"

Please join us on Sunday (9 July 2023) for our adult religious education class at 9:00 AM. Our adult religious education class is now a dual-platform class — meeting in person in the church social hall and also on Zoom. For that week, we will continue our discussion of Patrice Cullor’s An Abolitionist’s Handbook.  We … Continue reading "Online and In-Person Adult Religious Education — 9 July 2023"

Please join us next Tuesday (11 July 2023) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. 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 Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Rogan josh curry (source) A short  “ thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful   Meditation. A pdf of the revised order of service in which this address was given, and about which it speaks, can be found at this link.   (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece)   —o0o— For the past year, it has been a privilege to help prepare the funeral service of a still living friend of mine who has a stage four cancer. We meet every few weeks, catch up with the medical news — or, as the old gag puts it, he performs for me an organ recital — and then we eat and shoot the breeze about life and death, music and films, politics, philosophy, religi...

Polish star Anna Held toasts her husband, producer Florenz Ziegfeld in 1905 two years before she advised him to introduce an American version of the Folies Bergère at his new venue. Showman Florenz Ziegfeld had the good sense to listen to his wife.  He had been named manager of the former Roof Garden Theater in New York City, an intimate venue on the top of Oscar Hamerstein’s Olympic Theater.  The new owners needed a hit to fill the seats and Ziegfeld needed a new idea for a show to open the room which had been rechristened the Jardin de Paris.  The showman’s wife was the Polish born curvaceous and highly successful stage performer Anna Held who Ziegfeld had wed in Europe.  She was a huge star in her own right in this country si...

Two more drawings in my 4×6 sketchbook. Clouds in Geneva, making me wish that I had colored pencils with me. And something inspired by Paul Klee, who was unafraid to incorporate signs such as arrows, numerals and letters, even stick figures if they served the vision. I would normally be cowed out of using arrows […]

“We light this flame For the art of sacred unknowing. Humbled by all that we cannot fathom in this time, We come into the presence of what we do know, Perhaps the only thing we can ever know: That Love is now and forever The only answer to everything And everyone In every moment.” -A … Continue reading Sacred Unknowing

Our monthly building and grounds work day will happen on Saturday, 8 July 2023 from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. We will have tasks available for all ages and abilities — inside and out. This is a great way to get to know others in your All Souls community while working side by side.  Please … Continue reading "Building and Grounds Work Day (Saturday, 8 July 2023)"

Please join us on Saturday (8 July 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 (8 July 2023)"

Lyonel Perabo interviews Victoria Svarga, a jeweler, social media marketer, and Ukrainian Pagan, about her faith in the face of the ongoing Russian invasion of her country. Continue reading Faith Reborn through Fire: an interview with Ukrainian Pagan Victoria Svarga at The Wild Hunt.

 I learned from Taunton Press that some of my books will be featured on their annual Prime Day sale, July 11 and 12. Special prices will be offered on  Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide Box Making ,  Beautiful Boxes  and  Tiny Boxes .  These titles will appear in the “Best Deals” in the “Books for Hobbies" category. I've not heard from my other publishers whether special pricing will be offered on any of my other books, but if you've wanted any of my books "Prime Day" may be an  excellent  time to buy. 

Our New England summer is off to an overcast, monsoony start, but that’s not going to stop us from vibing with our seasonal reads and binges. Here’s what our staff has been enjoying.

The Biden Administration’s efforts to secure the border have only caused more hardship for people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.

I started writing this during my outing three days ago, on Tuesday, so I’m going to stick with the present tense, as if it were all written on that day. —— I’m on a side quest of my own today. No one else has a powerful hankering to go to the Zentrum Paul Klee, so […]

(Reposted from September 4, 2023) What is it that renews you?  I don’t care how long the renewal lasts.  What renews you, for a moment, for an hour, for a day? How long since you last bent over a sink … Continue reading →

U.S. Marines from the Navy's Pacific Squadron under Commodore John Drake Sloat conduct a bloodless amphibious operation to seize the Alta California provincial capital, Monterrey.  Other men get most of the credit for the annexation of Alta California during the Mexican War of 1846-’48.   But Commodore John Drake Sloat, commander of the U . S . Navy Pacific Squadron, sailed into the harbor at Monterrey , the provincial capital, and after a bloodless skirmish with a small force of Mexican Coast Guard and silencing shore batteries with a few well-placed salvos, landed with a complement of sailors and Marines. Sloat raised the flag over the Customs House on July 7, 1846 and issued an edict annexing Alta California to the United States. ...

A Prayer for Respect - Week of July 10, 2023 Should I pray to Mercy or to Wisdom? To the Beloved to be beloved or to the Honey in the Rock, starting from that place of surprising possibilities amid difficult times? Mystery and Wonder, I don’t know where to start...

In my childhood, humility meant not just not asking questions, but also being meek and surrendering to ultimate authority, God. I now have a healthy humility that attempts to grasp what is knowable and submits to the source’s mystery. -Lecretia Williams (CLF) What are you okay with not totally understanding?

Let me keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be Astonished. ~ Mary Oliver (Photo by Dakota Roos on Unsplash) Sunday, July 9 ~ 10:00-11:30 a.m. Soul Matters Summer Sharing Circle: The Gift of Stillness The Unitarian Church of Marlborough & Hudson invites you   [ … ] The post Sunday, July 9 ~ “The Gift of Stillness” ~ Soul Matters Summer Sharing Circle ~ 10:00-11:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Women’s Red Tent: “Pausing to Pathfind” Saturday afternoon July 15, 1-5pm Hudson, MA Women’s Red Tent Gatherings: Celebrating over a decade of Sharing Our Stories and Creating Community! **PLEASE NOTE THESE EXCITING DEVELOPMENTS: THIS TENT TRAVELS! We will be gathering at 19 CARTER Community Place in BERLIN, MA for this event! TENT-BUILDING! Our time together will   [ … ] The post Saturday, July 15 ~ Women’s Red Tent: “Pausing to Pathfind” ~ 1:00-5:00 p.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

New research hypothesizes that the Stonehenge builders may have died from plague. We ask experts about the new conjecture. Continue reading Did the builders of Stonehenge die from plague? at The Wild Hunt.

More later. For now, I’m just posting this picture from outside the Montmartre apartment we’ll be staying in for the next two weeks. Everything is very French, and we are very happy.

There is a debate technique called the "Gish Gallop" named after Duane Gish who used the technique to argue against the facts of evolution. The way the Gish Gallop works is that you make up BS faster than folks can counter it with fact based reality. An expert in the technique can make things up on the fly faster  than experts interested in the truth dispute.  If you want to see it in action, attend a Donald J. Trump rally. After folks grow weary from the efforts of fact checking, some folks will allow you to get away with anything and believe whatever nonsense is offered by those "on your side." On the internet we find folks making things up faster than anyone can refute. Add artificial intelligence into the situation and things becom...

Yet another news article about a religious group taking a public stand that homosexuality is sinful: the Christian Reformed Church in North America did so in its national meeting last month. Because of this stance, several open and affirming Christian Reformed Churches have to decide what to do. Do they disaffiliate, or kick out their … Continue reading "Religion isn’t separate from human society"

(Reposted from September 1, 2013) As I write this, it is raining, again.  We have had more rain this summer than in many years’ memory. We have complained about it, but the reality is that the earth has never been … Continue reading →

Patrons flee the Big Top in panic as it goes up in flames in Hartford. When the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus band suddenly struck up The Stars and Stripes Forever in the middle of a matinee performance by the Flying Wallendas on July 6, 1944 in Hartford , Connecticut circus folk knew that something was wrong.   The song was a traditional signal of trouble.   And there was big trouble.   Band leader Merle Evans may have been the first person to see smoke or flames from a corner of the Big Top tent.   As the band continued playing Ring Master Fred Bradna urged the crowd , estimated to be about 8,000, to remain calm and make an orderly evacuation by the marked exits.   But the fire seemed to go from a small blaze to a r...

For some, humility is seen as a passive act: to be humble, meek, bashful, or timid. Sometimes, it has to be bold or courageous.-Beth Murray (CLF) When has your humility shown itself as a courageous, bold, or active act?

Correspondent Elyse Wells covers the recent honoring of land spirits in Greece. Continue reading Stoixeia: The Greek Land Spirits at The Wild Hunt.

    Fifty-four years ago today, the 5th of July in 1969, I was ordained an unsui, a novice Soto Zen Buddhist priest. The English word “ordain” comes from Latin by way of French and means “put in order, arrange, dispose, appoint.” Ordination is the formal rite dedicating someone to sacred work. It is common […]

(Reposted from September 10, 2013) Buddhist teachings say that there is no separate self, and I find that difficult to embrace all the time.  I think most Westerners do.  I don’t know that it matters whether it always makes sense … Continue reading →

July 4th is the 30th anniversary of Margy and I being together as lovers! We have many different anniversaries actually–for example, it was six years before we moved into a household together, when we moved from Boston to Cape Cod in 1999. Perhaps that was our first truly big commitment, buying a house together in […]

Summer Stars Sessions of RE start this week. This is programming geared for children in kindergarten through 6th grade; older children and youth are welcome to come help out. Bring your children to the room next to the dining room before the worship service to ... read more . The post Religious Education on July Sundays appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

UUSS Paddles! occurs in the evenings on the second and fourth Tuesdays during the months of June, July and August. Join UUSS members as we honor the interconnected web of life, while enjoying fellowship on local waters. All kayakers, canoeists and paddlers welcome. (If you don’t own watercraft ... read more . The post UUSS Paddles! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

If you’ve been attending worship at UUSS for a while and are ready to deepen your knowledge of and connections to Unitarian Universalism, plan to attend the “Getting To Know UU” program held after the services on Sundays 10/22, 10/29, and 11/5. In that 3-session ... read more . The post Get To Know UUSS better This Fall! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Green Sanctuary would like you to know the Nature Bus is back this year! ‍ECOS: the Environmental Clearinghouse and the Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy have teamed up with the CDTA to bring a limited Nature Bus trolley service to Schenectady! During a weekend in July ... read more . The post Take the Nature Bus this summer! appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

The struggle to win youth voting rights was rooted in Vietnam War protests. On July 5, 1971 the 26th Amendment which guaranteed 18 to 21 year old citizens the right to vote in all elections was officially added to the U . S . Constitution .   A Joint Congressional Resolution proposing the amendment had cleared both houses by March 23.   On July 1 North Carolina became the 38th state to ratify the amendment—the necessary three quarters of the states.   No other Constitutional amendment has come close to the speed at which the 26th Amendment was ratified—just 69 days.   On July 5 President Richard Nixon signed official certification of the amendment. The idea of reducing the voting age had been kicked around since West Virginia Dem...

In our worship, we recognize that sometimes we arrive in community with joys bursting forth from us. We celebrate those joys so that we are all lifted up by them. We celebrate those joys to remember that life can be more than it is in this moment. -Michael Tino (CLF) What joys are bursting forth … Continue reading Bursting Forth

Taken with a Fuji X100V using Justin Gould’s Daido Moriyama film recipe Just click on the photo to enlarge it

The inclination to create beautiful and useful things is a human universal. It can be found in every culture. It is rooted in relationship. We do good work because we are trained to expect it of ourselves, that we may be seen by others as caring. On the other hand, you can tell folks a thing or two, and lay verbal claim to your moral superiority, with it being revealed at some point as total bull.   Now with  artificial intelligence to supplement the ridiculousness of what folks can make up, we'll have launched ourselves further off the deep end. Imagine someone wants to create an image of Donald J. Trump wearing a tutu and on point. AI will do it in seconds and folks will believe it to be true. I lay the problem's source on our educa...

According to tradition, Rev. John Brown, the minister in Cohasset during the Revolutionary War period, gave a stirring reading of the Declaration of Independence from the pulpit of the meeting house to the gathered townspeople not long after July 4, 1776. I haven’t been able to find out the exact date when Brown read the … Continue reading "Declaration of Independence reading"

                                        Sometime in March of 1845, Henry David Thoreau’s friend the poet Ellery Channing famously advised him, “Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, & there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I […]

                                               Uncle Sam Dozing by  J.C. Leyendecker .  

  This weekend, millions of Americans will enjoy the fireworks, but others will take a knee on Independence Day.  Why celebrate?  In her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1619 Project,  Nikole Hannah-Jones argued that the primary purpose of the American Revolution was to promote and preserve slavery.  But it’s important to get the history right.   In 1775, Virginia’s English Governor, Lord Dunmore, proclaimed that slaves who deserted their American masters would be welcomed into the British army as free citizens.  Multitudes did so, and soon Dunmore had a black regiment at his command to quell unrest in the colonies.  It was only then, Hannah-Jones’ argument goes, with the prospect of losing their enslaved property, that delegates in...

  A single blue whale can weigh 400,000 pounds.  But suppose you could put every kind of mammal on your bathroom scale, not as individual organisms but as a species. Cattle would physically weigh the most, according to a new study by the Wiezman Institute of Science.  In a paper titled “The Global Biomass of Wild Mammals,,” published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science last March, researchers determined that dogs–our family pets–collectively weigh about as much as all 4,805 wild species of mammals combined.  Cats tip the scales at double the tonnage of savannah elephants.   Watching Nature on PBS, with its migrating wildebeests, foraging bears and wallowing hippos gives a seriously distorted impression tha...