By Pamela D. Toler | Cathy Williams (more or less 1844–1892) was the first African American woman known to have served in the United States Army—a two-year stint in which she passed as a man. Born a slave near Independence, Missouri, she was a “house girl” on the Johnson plantation in Cole County, near the Missouri capital of Jefferson City, when the Civil War began. After General Nathaniel Lyons’s troops captured Jefferson City, which had become a rebel stronghold, the Eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry claimed Williams and other escaped or displaced slaves as “contrabands.” She traveled with the regiment for the rest of the war, working as a laundress.

DanaLee Simon We already have everything we need within us to meet the life that is before us. Continue reading "The Work That's Ours to Do"

I seek those things that realign my mind, body and spirit. What is it that aligns your mind, body, and spirit? How do you know when there is alignment there? What does that feel like?

Healthy doubts keep us honest and humble. Unnecessary doubts hinder us from having the deep experiences we need and want. Trust the voice you know.

    Hugo Enomiya-Lassalle was born into a Huguenot family on this day, the 11th of November, in 1898 in Gut Externbrock, in Westphalia. He experienced the horrors of trench warfare during the Great War. By the time he was twenty-one he had become a Catholic and entered the Jesuit Order. Ten years later he was […]

  This year for Veterans Day instead of my usual post on the history and meaning of the observation the World War I Armistice on November 11, 1918 I thought I would resurrect an old chestnut that I first read as a Chalice Lighting to open services at the old Congregational Unitarian Congregation in Woodstock, Illinois about 2000.   I read it subsequently when the congregation movedand was renamed the Tree of Life UU Congregation in McHenry.   It was included in my 2004 Skinner House collection, We Build Temples in the Heart. It was based on the memories of a boy from Cheyenne in the 1950s.   Reviewing it now, I am struck that the World War II is fast fading away.   In not too many years the last of them will gone, just as I remember...

 OK, I'm actually not writing this from Glasgow, but from back home in Cardiff, after returning from Glasgow a few days ago.I spent a long weekend in Glasgow, in the middle of the period of the COP26 conference. I went to Glasgow because I felt I had to, I needed to, and I was able to. Of course not everyone has the privilege of time and money and freedom from other responsibilities to do

In the search for my matrilineal ancestor Marie Madeleine, I am feeling the need to summarize where I’ve come to so far. If you’ve been following along, you know that I’ve been searching through hundreds of images of records from the Postes du Roi on the north coast of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. […]

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "5 September 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "12 September 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "19 September 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "26 September 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

I am working on mindfulness as centering. Consciously noticing my thoughts, accepting them without judgment, and letting them go peacefully helps me re-center when I feel distracted. Spend a few moments practicing mindfulness today, focusing intently on what is before you and doing it with intention.

            James Luther Adams is one of the most important figures to appear within Unitarian Universalism in the Twentieth century. I mean to note his birthday every year as it rolls around. Sadly, I’m not as consistent as I would like. What is now many years ago when Jan & I first […]

“I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over.   Out on the edge you see all kind of things you can’t see from the center.” —Kurt Vonnegut Kurt Vonnegut was born on Armistice Day, November 11, 1922 in Indianapolis, Indiana. He would go on to become a veteran of another warand the experience shaped him as a human being—one of the great iconoclasts of his time, and a confirmed pacifist. His death on April 11, 2007 at the age of 84 was, as he predicted, not an emphatic period at the end of a long life, but a mere semi-colon (he despised semi-colons.)   He died of a brain injury sustained after slipping and falling in his Manhattanapartment several days earlier.   It was the kind of comic, anti-heroic departur...

Last night I went to a 10th anniversary celebration and talk at Crystal Bridges Museum held by Alice Walton, museum founder, Rod Bigelow, museum director and Moshe Safdie, architect. Only original members of the museum were invited. The event reminded me of having met Alice Walton and the original museum director Bob Workman years ago just as construction of the museum had been launched.  I was exhibiting my work at a craft show in downtown Bentonville. I was set up with my work in a building owned by friends Tom and Becky McCoy and Alice came by to see my work. I asked her whether she planned to have crafts in her museum of fine American art, and I suggested the work of John Townsend, Newport, RI cabinet maker that renown art critic Ro...

Liz Williams reports and reflects on her town of Gloucester, formerly known as the Roman town of Glevum. Continue reading The Romans remain at The Wild Hunt.

A short “thought for the day” first offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church on 12th November 2021 as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation  (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— In his journals, the theologian Søren Kierkegaard wrote: “The matter is quite simple. The bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly” (quoted in Provocations: The spiritual writings of Kierkegaard, Plough Publishing ,   20...

"It took me a very long time to realize the kind of worship that feels most real to me is living into the energy of my gods. To me, this feels a little like a deliberate practice and a little like the forces that make pets look like their owners." Continue reading Column: Imitatio Dei at The Wild Hunt.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "3 October 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "10 October 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "17 October 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

A timeline that give institutional chronology of the Unity Society and the Unitarian Church of Palo Alto — and also introduces you to some of the interesting Unitarians who lived in Palo Alto from 1891 to 1950. The links mostly go to Wikipedia or other online encyclopedia pages, or to local history websites. 1891-1894 — … Continue reading "Timeline of Palo Alto Unitarians, 1891-1950"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "24 October 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, we have begun to broadcast a livestream video of our Sunday morning worship services. This worship video will be available live and in recorded formats. For our livestream video of our worship services, we are using Facebook Live.  One does not have to log into Facebook … Continue reading "31 October 2021 Worship Livestreaming Video"

Please join us on Saturday (13 November 2021) at 10:30 AM for our weekly meditation group with Larry Androes. This is a sitting Buddhist meditation including a brief introduction to mindfulness meditation, 20 minutes of sitting, and followed by a weekly teaching. The group is free and open to all. For more information, contact Larry … Continue reading "Meditation with Larry Androes (13 November 2021)"

By Dina Gilio-Whitaker | The Red Power movement was just one aspect of the social revolution that swept across the American social landscape in the 1960s and ’70s, paralleling other ethnic nationalisms, women’s liberation, the antiwar movement, and the emergence of a new, rebellious, and predominantly white middle-class counterculture. Disenchanted with the conservative values of their parents’ generation and witnessing the increasing degradation of the environment, countercultural youth looked to other cultures for answers to existential questions they perceived as unavailable in mainstream American society.

The seventy-fifth anniversary of the organization of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto is in 2022. So I’ve been working on the history of the congregation Sources for this timeline: Rae Bell’s timeline for the 60th anniversary of the congregation; Annual Reports from 2009-2020; documents in the UUCPA archives; personal reminiscences; denominational sources. Timeline, … Continue reading "Timeline of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto"

Please join us on Saturday (13 November 2021) from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM for our monthly building and grounds work day. Join us as we get our church home — inside and out — as we continue to reopen.

My family is the center of my universe. How I define family is up to me and differs at any point in time. Who are the people who nurture you and call you back to your center?

      I’ve been reflecting a lot on the arc of the spiritual path. It has numerous aspects. There is the principal thread, the cord that pulls us into the depths. But along with it are numerous points about ourselves, strengths, weaknesses. All the things that make us, that stand in the way for […]

During a lull in the post-attack chaos in Paris a stunned survivor surveys the carnage. Note— Six years ago on unlucky Friday the 13th the terrorist attack on Paris nightspots teeming with attractive young people including those getting down to a loud American death metal band both shocked the world and set off a controversy over the relative worth of some victims vs. those from swarthier or more remote parts of the world and internet bickering over the propriety of selective grief.  On the next Sunday I scribbled a poem before church services which I read to semi-stunned silence.  This is the post I put up reflecting on the terror, telling that story, and, of course, the poem. Coordinated ISIS shootings and bomb blasts left 130 peop...

I'm starting to accumulate blurbs and reviews for my new book, Wisdom of Our Hands, from various colleagues in a variety of sectors. Pete Moorhouse is an educator and artist in the UK and also the author of the book shown, Learning Through Woodwork.   Is it rudely self-promoting for me to share what he and others have said? Which is: "Not hard to be positive!... Wisdom of Our Hands is an exceptional book CONGRATULATIONS!!" Review/ blurb: "This is a book full of wisdom clearly built upon a lifetime’s experience of working with wood and sharing this generously with students of all ages. Like his woodwork this book is beautifully crafted. The book shares a secret - the wonder of working with the hands is within our grasp - it is a call t...

UUSC and our partners believe a path to citizenship in this Congress is still achievable. Here, we answer your questions about the legislative roadmap to victory.

After being away for a day, I have a new realization to share in my hunt for Marie Madeleine. Because, after 1802 or so, priests started recording names using the father’s Innu name like a surname, it occurred to me to look for Marie Madeleine Katshisheskueit as Marie Madeleine Tshinushiu, using her father Antoine Tshinushiu’s […]

"Part of the healing that Chiron forces on the internal is the acknowledgement of human frailty and the acceptance that sometimes things just happen. No one is invincible. No one is irreplaceable." Continue reading Column: Chiron and Healing from Pain at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us next Wednesday (17 November 2021) at 12 noon for our weekly Zoom lunch. Bring your lunch and meet up with your All Souls friends, have lunch, and just catch up.

Families — we hear you and realize how done you are with Zoom. First, thanks to everyone who made last weekend’s Trunk or Treat celebration such a fun time for our children and everyone else. We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers.  We feel encouraged by the cooling weather and the possibility of … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us on Sunday (14 November 2021) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. We are discussing episodes of the podcast Learning How to See with Rev. Brian McLaren, Father Richard Rohr, and Rev. Jacqui Lewis. They are discussing the 13 kinds of bias that Rev. Barbara mentioned recently in … Continue reading "Online Adult Religious Education — 14 November 2021"

Please join us on Sunday (7 November 2021) at 11:00 AM for “Settled Up. Settled In. Settled Down. But Not Settling” by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. And . . .  this will be our second consecutive in-person worship service in the sanctuary since March 2020. We have some … Continue reading "In-Person and Online All-Ages Worship (14 November 2021)"

When I have problems sleeping, I force myself to count slowly starting at 100, and working my way down. If thoughts of the day begin to creep in, I stop counting, take a deep breath and then go back to 100 to count down again Take a moment to count. Feel your body relax as … Continue reading Counting

      It was on this day, the 14th of November, in 2003 that astronomers discovered 90377 Sedna. It’s a dwarf planet. “Dwarf planets” are one of a three-part categorization offered by Alan Stern, one of the premier scientists concerned with the matter. In his scheme there are “classic planets,” “dwarf planets,” and “satellite […]

Young people are abandoning religious institutions at an unprecedented rate. Some religions are trying to adapt. But others are focusing on advertising and packaging, when the problem is that fewer and fewer people want what they’re selling.

  Civilian pilot Eugene Burton Ely at the controls of his Curtis bi-plane. He had been flying for about six months. When a young, self-taught pilotnamed Eugene Burton Ely left the deckof the U.S. Navy cruiser USS Birmingham in a primitive stick, bailing wire, and canvas winged Curtis pusher biplane on November 14, 1910 he barely escaped with his life and his aircraft intact but raised the curtain on naval aviation . Ely, a 24 year-old Midwesterner from Iowa, may seem like an unlikely aviator.   But in those early days of aviation, he was not untypical of the kind of daydreaming tinkerers and speed enthusiasts who were drawn to the new opportunities in the sky. He was born in the farming community of Williamsburg, Iowaon October 21, 18...

An editorial in Bloomberg  notes that Americans need to learn to live more like Europeans, wanting less and saving more.  "It's become the conventional wisdom that the U.S. economy is built on Americans' endless appetite to buy lots and lots of stuff. Household consumption makes up about 67% of GDP. When the economy falters, we're told spending is our patriotic duty... But suddenly, Americans can’t spend like they used to. Store shelves are emptying, and it can take months to find a car, refrigerator or sofa. If this continues, we may need to learn to do without — and, horrors, live more like the Europeans. That actually might not be a bad thing, because the U.S. economy could be healthier if it were less reliant on consumption.We'...

Some of you may remember the old Joni Mitchell song, “Both Sides Now.” Simply lovely and very wistful lyrics. This week, we climbed a mountain (Mount Burdell) from both sides. One trail, from the Open Space Preserve side is rocky fire roads, mainly through open grassland, where cattle graze during part of the year. The […]

A Prayer for Back to Church Written by Helen Cassara 11-14-21

This is the third in a series of essays about the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to UU congregations and religious exploration. “The Church has Left the Building” – May 2020 “On Reopening and the Least of These” – July 2021 “Brave is a hand-me-down suit from terrified as hell.“ Andrea Gibson (they/them), American Poet … Continue reading "As We Knew It: A Challenge to Dream"

"Self-care" is rapidly turning into a commodity, with businesses large and small seeking to sell your soul-feeding back to you. This week, some thoughts on tapping into an abundance of the spirit without tapping your wallet dry.

Editor-in-chief Manny Tejeda-Moreno reviews two significant attacks on freedom of religion - the first from former Trump official Michael Flynn, and the latter from the U.S. Supreme Court. Continue reading Editorial: “One religion, one god” is dangerous rhetoric – and a worrying tendency in the Supreme Court at The Wild Hunt.

                                                 TURNING TOWARD THE MORNING Rev. Kit Ketcham, Nov. 14, 2021, PUUF             I remember discovering this song that we’ve just heard at a fairly bleak time of my life. It was late fall in Colorado, the golden aspen groves on the mountain slopes were now starkly bare of their leaves, we’d had two feet of snow on Halloween, my marriage was over, my son was struggling, my paycheck barely lasted from month to month, and I was dreading the cold Rocky Mountain winter ahead.             One of my great pleasures in life then was attending the monthly acoustic music jams of the Denver Friends of Folk Music. And one Saturday night, a fellow fo...

Feeling rooted in my body is so important to finding my center. Whiteness/white supremacy is a culture of disembodiment, and re-learning how to fully inhabit my body is a lifelong process. Feel your body today. Notice it’s strengths and its aches. Be gentle with your body today.

      Some days its not possible to hate the world. For instance, the other day one of my favorite people whom I do not know but thanks to Facebook feel I do, Seraphim Sigrist, offered a small reflection on a Krazy Kat cartoon. This tickled me for many reasons, but four principally. First, […]

The world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude, Robert Emmon, has done research that demonstrates that practicing gratitude has a number of significant physical and mental health benefits. His studies show that people who practice gratitude have fewer health complaints, more energy and determination, greater satisfaction with life, as well as more optimism and resilience.  He knows this as a scientific reality, I know it as a sacred principle. Elite athletes use gratitude practices to help them win and stay mentally prepared to compete at the highest levels. In the summer of 2018, tennis star, Novak Djokovic wrote an open letter to fans after […] The post Gratitude: A Winning Strategy For Life appeared first on BeyondBelief.

  Martha Sharp; her son Waitstill, Jr.; husband Rev. Waitstill Sharp; and daughter Martha after their return from Nazi occupied Europe.  In 1939 the Unitarian minister and his wife left their church and children to aid and rescue Jews and intellectuals in Prague, Czechoslovakia in a daring mission under the noses of the Nazis.  They returned to Europe to rescue Jews from occupied France. Photo from Two Who Dared: The Sharps Story. Two Who Dared: The Sharps Story , a documentary film about the Unitarian couple who rescued Jews in Prague and France during World War II will be shown on Zoom this Thursday, November 18 at 6:30 pm by the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenry, Illinois.  The film will be introduced by ...

    Guest post by Janice Russell with Parenting Disasters. Image via Unsplash.     All parents want the best for their kids. This includes wanting your child to know how to make good choices. One day your children will no longer live at home; when that day comes, you do not want to worry about whether they are making smart decisions for their mental and physical wellbeing. Here are three ways you as a parent can encourage your kids read more... The post Guest Post: 3 Ways to Encourage Your Kids to Make Good Choices appeared first on Promise the Children.

    “The Build Back Better Act provides a historic opportunity to move toward an economy that works for all of us, not just the wealthy and corporations.” — Americans for Tax Fairness     The Build Back Better plan will make historic investments in healthcare, childcare, and education by making billionaires and corporations pay their fair share in taxes. With a vote expected this week, we’re fighting to make sure this legislation passes—and we’re almost there! Please consider contacting read more... The post Action Alert: 1 Way You Can Support The Build Back Better Plan appeared first on Promise the Children.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, remembrances announced ahead of TDoR, Maori request use of Haka cease in vaccine protests, update on Oak Flats, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of November 15, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

“A large part of my childhood was spent in Turkey. Occasionally, on nights when we were particularly routy my dad would round up all the kids and take us to see the whirling dervishes. The dervishes are part of the Mevlevi Order and they would perform this “dance” as part of their faith practices. It … Continue reading Dervishes

        It was on this day, the 16th of November, in 1973, that Alan Watts, self-described “spiritual entertainer,” who might have been characterized as a “stand up philosopher,” raconteur, teacher, and notorious libertine, died. The waves of influence from his life have no where near stilled. Alan Wilson Watts was born in a […]

Beginners worry about being hexed far too much. Spend your time building a good spiritual practice instead. But do this long enough and you’re going to run into a real hex, either directed at yourself or at someone who comes to you for help.

Ralph Chaplin, then the editor of the Industrial Worker wrote this poem, later set to music.  Pictured is Frank Little, the tough IWW hard rock miners organizer who was lynched in Butte, Montana in 1917. For many of us November is a melancholy month.   Often slate gray skies silhouette naked trees in a chilling wind.   Death seems at hand.   But so is its handmaiden—remembrance.   After all, the month begins with All Souls/Day of the Dead when the memories of ancestors and loved onesare honored.   English school children still chant “Remember, Remember the Fifth of November,” now a harmless nursery rhyme about Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot but was once an annual call to riot and mayhem against Catholics not only in Britai...

UUSC and our partners believe a path to citizenship in this Congress is still achievable. Here, we answer your questions about the legislative roadmap to victory.

Sponsored by Schenectady Clergy Against Hate Location: Schenectady Urban Farm, Fehr Avenue & Central Park Road in Schenectady, NY The service will begin at 3:00pm and will feature prayers, music and conversation amongst folks of all faith traditions who live, work, and/or worship in Schenectady. Grounded in ... read more . The post Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, 3 pm Nov 21 appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Friday, November 19th at 2:00pm-3:30pm ET 2021 has become the deadliest year for transgender and non-binary people. The barrage of anti-trans legislation that has been levied against the trans/non-binary community along with a culture of hate that is harming our children is directly responsible for these ... read more . The post 2021 UUA Transgender Day of Remembrance Chapel appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Thursday, Nov. 18th at 7:30 pm ET/ 6:30pm CT/ 5:30pm MT/4:30pm PT Unitarian Universalism’s history, during the Civil War era, is directly connected to the creation of the mythos supporting the US Thanksgiving holiday and the historically inaccurate and harmful colonial narrative of “Pilgrims and the ... read more . The post Decolonizing Thanks Giving: UUA Virtual Worship Service appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

RE ATTENDANCE: While most all UU churches have seen a significant drop in RE attendance in the past 20 months of the pandemic (some have even shut down their youth groups and children’s programming), it still disappoints me that our numbers aren’t what they were in ... read more . The post RE This Week -Nov. 16th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Dear UUSS~ When we had a week of study leave in early July and began to imagine and map out worship themes for this church year, we thought Building Bridges might resonate in November. At the time, we had thought that many of us would be ... read more . The post Co-Ministers’ Colloquy – Nov. 16th appeared first on Unitarian Universalist Society of Schenectady.

Four Pagans who attended the historic first virtual conference last month share their experiences. Continue reading Four Pagans talk their experiences at Parliament of World’s Religions 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

Well, the timing is just right. At this year’s tribal nations summit, skipped over the previous four years by you know who, President Joe Biden signed an executive order for the US to take steps to protect tribal lands and address the epidemic of missing and murdered Native Americans. He also proposed a ban on federal oil and gas leases on the sacred tribal site of Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico. And in his official White House proclamation for Native American Heritage Month, he listed more commitments the country will make to Indian Country.

The practice of seeing ourselves as beautiful is, for some, a lifelong struggle. You have permission to see beauty when you look in the mirror. You have permission to understand that you are beautiful, and to do what you need to to feel that beauty radiate from you. Look at yourself and know that you … Continue reading Beauty

        Today, the 17th of November  is marked out as a feast in honor of Hilda, in some records Hild, of Whitby. She counts among my favorite Christian saints. Her feast is observed in the Roman, the Orthodox, and Anglican communions. The precise date of her birth is unknown, but she lived […]

It seems like a good day to resurrect a poemthat appeared in a slightly different form in my 2004 collection We Build Temples in the Heart published by Beacon Press, Boston. The poem came to me early one morning on my daily walk from the Metra train stationin Cary, Illinois to Briargate Elementary School where I was the Head Custodian.  After I opened the building and classroomsand hoisted the Flag outside, I grabbed a cup of bad coffee in the Teachers’ Lounge and set down to scribblea first draft.   Mid-November Dawn   The time has come,             I know, I know.   The soft frosts that fade             at the first blush of light             are over.             The grass snaps now  ...

David Glasgow Spirit of Life who dwells before and between and beyond all words… we open ourselves to you. Continue reading "Words Fail"

Since the coronavirus pandemic began, we have witnessed many global systems fail those who depend on them most — rather than provide people with safety, stability, and freedom, they have often deepened inequity, injustice, and insecurity. And throughout 2021, COVID-19 has continued to intensify the existing inequities around the world. In response, UUSC swiftly dispatched […]

This Saturday I’ll be presenting a paper at the AAR on “The Universal Black Men Catechism: The African Orthodox Church and Marcus Garvey’s Populism” as part of a panel on “A Century of African Orthodoxy: Exploring Racism, Blackness, and Religious Identity” organized by the Afro-American Religious History and Eastern Orthodox Studies Units. The panel commemorates […]

Today at the Clear Spring School we have been hanging the bat houses we made, and with the Rainbow group (kindergarten) we made color wheels. The Clear Spring School  color wheels are not the same thing as what you'd find in college art classes. They are simply a disk of wood mounted on a stand that you can color and spin, blending the colors you applied.  It is more interesting to kids than a conventional color wheel because it's active. You can spin it and find pleasure in doing so. A friend of mine who was teaching design at the university level was surprised when she asked her students to use scissors. She learned that both hammers and scissors were foreign tools to her kids. And so when did that happen? In the olden days, kids ent...

Sunday, November 21, 10:30 a.m. The History We Hold in Our Bodies: Trauma and Healing in the Midst of a Pandemic A hybrid worship service with Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann   From knots in our shoulders to chronic illnesses, our bodies retain the impact of our lived experiences. Join us this Sunday, Nov. 21, as Rev. Alice   [ … ] The post Sunday, November 21 ~ The History We Hold in Our Bodies ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Azby Brown, a friend in Japan offered the following comment after reading through most of my new book.  "What I get from your book is that creative craft work gives us the opportunity to live a life worth living, and to become better than we are. This really resonates with something I’ve been thinking about and sharing with people lately. "The temple carpenter Nishioka was Buddhist to his bones. He didn’t talk a lot about it necessarily, unless you asked him, in which case he revealed himself as an erudite scholar. More importantly he lived it and it shaped everything he did. "In his tradition, the best thing a master carpenter can do is help provide a path to enlightenment for his apprentices, through devoted and meaningful work ...

Consider this question – a test of your rationality. Suppose that: The prevalence of a certain type of cancer – cancer X -- is 1%. The sensitivity of a test for cancer X is 90% -- meaning the true-positive rate is 90%. In other words, for 90% of people who have cancer X and take that test, the test comes back positive. The false-positive rate is 9 percent. Audrey takes the test, and it comes back positive. What’s the chance she has that cancer X? You probably want to say there’s a 90% chance Audrey has cancer – after all, the test was positive, and the test was 90% accurate. But let’s break it down. Suppose 10,000 people take the test. 1% of them have cancer X – so that’s 100 people have it, and 9,900 don’t. The test ha...

Sometimes, we find our own center in relationships, in conversations, or even in therapy. A real conversation allows two people to share the center, to share the circle. Have a meaningful conversation with someone today.

  Nobody likes to be in the hospital, but my recent five day stay gave me important insights.  Surprisingly hopeful lessons came from lying flat on my back.   On Friday, I went into the ER at Presbyterian in Santa Fe for shortness of breath and was taken by ambulance to the bigger facility down in Albuquerque early the next morning to treat a pulmonary embolism and get emergency surgery. One thing I noticed immediately is that hospitals look like America in all its multi-ethnic complexity.  Of the half dozen physicians who attended me, three were women.  Two had last names suggesting their families came from India.  Doctor Chen was presumably East Asian..  My night nurse Sarita was African American, like the tech who did my echoc...

      An old friend asked why I consider the Four Bodhsattva Vows so important, and why I feel it a good thing to recite them daily. To me the four vows are important because they remind me that the intimate way involves all of us. I love the inside joke that we cannot […]

A fundamentalist says “humans were made to read.” This is clearly false and it demonstrates the problem of assuming that the way things are is the way they’re meant to be. We got here through a process of evolution, and we can move forward in whatever direction seems best to us.

November is Native American Heritage Month in the United States.  The designation was inspired by the false narrative of the First Thanksgiving myth and in recognition of the true history of the genocidal displacement of aboriginal peoples and nations by the European settler invasion and conquest. The Unitarian Universalist Association, like many progressive religious bodies has been moved to acknowledge that history.                                         We are all sustained by the earth, waters, and air.  Illustration by Molly Costello. The enormous wealth of the United States is based on the theft of Indigenous land and the enslavement of people of African descent. In order to maximize wealth, the colonizer...

Walmart has assured us that despite delays in shipping from overseas they will have plenty of stuff to unload in our landfills following the Christmas season holidays in which we feel compelled to give things we know are not needed or wanted and that have no real meaning either to ourselves or to those in whom we hope to induce joy.  You might consider cutting out the middleman. And in this case, the middleman is us as we buy stuff and direct it into the landfills shortly thereafter. Most of the stuff sold during the holiday season will be discarded without having made us rich in the same ways that making items of useful beauty can, and so that should become our goal.  I had an interesting idea this last week that crypto currency shoul...

Poetry will return to the Tree of Life Unitarian Universalist Congregation in McHenrywith a special evening of verse via Zoom on Saturday, December 11 from 7 to 9 pm.  Patrick Murfin will host Leaves of Tree of Life—A Virtual Verse Night and is issuing a call for participants. Patrick Murfin, seen reading at a Tree of Life Coffee House in 2019,  will host Leaves of Tree of Life--A Virtual Verse Night. There are ten slots available of up to, but not more than 10 minutes.  We welcome original work in any stylefrom the McHenry County area.  Poetswill have the option of logging onto the program live or submittinga recording.  Technical detailswill be forthcoming. Please send a short two or three sentence statement to be used for intro...

A Q&A with Cynthia B. Dillard | The inspiration for this book? I think it is the other way round. This book has inspired me. It has literally been writing me all of my life! It is the story of what happens when teachers have the opportunity and the audacity to (re)member their stories and their culture. It is about how the awesome power that experiences with the African continent opens a space for Black folks and fills in the blank of our often anemic education. I was inspired by all of this to write the book I wished I could have read as I was growing up: As a Black woman, as a teacher, as a leader.

With the holiday season just around the corner and food insecurity remaining above 10% across the U.S., Pagan pantries continue to provide assistance. Continue reading Hungry for the holidays: Accessing food security for Pagans and others this season at The Wild Hunt.

“Productivity” is a way of turning people into machines, of dehumanizing us and centering others. Self-care–including rest–is important. You are important enough to rest. Take a nap today, even a brief one. It’s ok, really.

FOCUS TALK: Mary Rose Muti, a WomenExplore participant. Click here to play the focus talk (28 m) MAIN LECTURE: James O'Connell, MD, President, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Dr. O’Connell graduated summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1970 and received his master’s degree in theology from Cambridge University in 1972.  After graduating from Harvard Medical School in 1982, he completed a residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). In 1985, Dr. O'Connell began fulltime clinical work with homeless individuals as the founding physician of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which now serves over 13,000 homeles...

        In the Record of Zhaozhou there’s a lovely conversation. Once when still studying with his master Zhaozhou asked Nanquan, “Mind is not Buddha; knowing is not the way. Is this correct or not? Naquan replied, “It is not correct.” Zhaozhou continued, “Then what is my error? I’m desperate to understand.” Nanquan […]

A magazine ad from the much ballyhooed launch of Ford's new Edsel for the 1958 model year. It was a mercy killing, of sorts.   On November 19, 1960 the Ford Motor Companyannounced it was killing its Edsel brand in just its third model year.   Named to honor Henry Ford’s only son and a former company presidentwho had died in 1943 at the age of 59, the car was launched amid considerable fanfare in 1957 for the ’58 model year. It was a large car aimed at the mid-range market and had several break-through features and unique styling.   It was the styling the public noticed first, dominated by the shield-shaped center grill that was a radical departure from the horizontalgrills that had become standard on post-war on cars.   The publi...

This week, November 15-21 is National Apprenticeship Week in which students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own lives and learning. Otto Salomon, based on the teaching of Diesterweg and Froebel, had suggested that schools start with the interests of the child, then bridge from the known to the unknown, from the easy to more difficult, from the simple to the complex and from the concrete to the abstract. Apprenticeship builds in these essential areas for the development of the child as well as the economy and culture at large. I use the term bridge, rather than the way I've stated the theory in the past, because a bridge goes both ways, and we never outgrow our need to connect in both directions. For example, we never outg...

I’m starting to write this early in the morning. The clouds are covering the sky, and the eclipse of the full moon is happening now, invisible, but I can feel it in how dark the outside has become. A funny thing about aging—I saw the most amazing full eclipse of the moon when we lived […]