Today we welcome the ancestors with special foods, with herbal incense, and with a fire in our fire circle! For herbal incense I use cedar–I’ll use a dried bundle I made before, and burn it in our fire circle. Cedar was widely used by my Innu ancestors, and so I think their spirits will especially […]

as preached at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston, October 31, 2021 It is so good to have the choir back. The impact that COVID has had on live music or, really, let me be honest, live performance or gathering of any kind, has been devastating. Coming together to sing, or to be sung […]

The rain came and the creeks were full again. Little waterfalls graced the canyons by the trails. The drought isn’t over. The journey is never really done, but some moments deserve to be savored. Without joy in this chaotic world, hope can fade and we lose the courage to do what we can to make […]

En español On October 23, the President of Guatemala, Alejandro Giammattei, declared martial law in the town of El Estor, a community of about 20,000 mostly indigenous Maya Q’eqchi’ people on the shores of Lake Izabal in northeastern Guatemala. According to the President, the declaration was necessary because “armed people and groups have committed acts […]

Spirituality and conspiracy theories often cohabitate. Can we differentiate the two? Does the second coming place Christianity in one or the other category? Rev. Dr. Leona Stucky-Abbott is a UU community minister and has been a psychotherapist for over 40 years. She is semi-retired and loves to share insights with others, as she did when training pastors to become pastoral psychotherapists. She has watched meaning-making activities in people for many years and draws some surprising conclusions.

Maslow had said, "If the only tool you have is a hammer, all problems look like nails." But does it make a difference what kind of hammer you have? These are two different hammers offered by Home Depot online and one might assume the one on the right is for kids. In fact, I've seen similar hammers recommended for children's use.  One thing you'll notice is that the one the right is shaped for an adult grip and the one on the left is a lighter weight but with the proportions of a full-sized adult hammer. The diameter of the neck is an easy grip for a child. Which one would be better to give as gifts during the holidays while the usual Christmas paraphernalia is tied up in transit due to shipping and distribution delays? Of course the ham...

All of the familiar icons of American Halloween were present in this early 20th Century card. Note — After trick or treating, adult reveling, and movie slasher/horror showings were are all curtailed by the Coronavirus pandemic last year,  Halloween has come roaring back with pent up enthusiasm. Halloween traces its origin to the Celtic harvest festival Samhain.  It was one of the four festivals that fell between the Solstices and Equinoxes and which celebrated the natural turning of the seasons.  Samhain was particularly important because it was the gate in time to the death and starvation season of winter, as well a time to celebrate the recent harvest.  This association with the death of winter also extended to the spirit world, ...

Last week there were two excellent articles on witchcraft in major American publications. That acceptance is important not because we need it – we are who and what we are, regardless of what anyone thinks – but because of what is says about the wider society.

        I think of how it began for me. My first of many moments, my opening into the spiritual way. When I was a youth, I wanted to know God. Or, that God was a sham. Desperately. With all my heart. I even prayed that if God would reveal himself, herself, itself […]

Many cultures around the world sense that the veil between the living and dead is thin at this time of the year, and so prayers to and for the ancestors are common. Who are the ancestors that you are holding close today?

Please join us on Sunday (31 October 2021) at 11:00 AM for “The Dead and Dying, The Live and Living” by Susan Caldwell (All Souls Director of Lifespan Religious Education) Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. Watch for our weekly email announcements for info on the next in-person worship service and other … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (31 October 2021)"

Please join us on Sunday (31 October 2021) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This group will take time to review and reevaluate the anti-racism work we have done so far and determine how we want to move forward from here.

Families — we hear you and realize how done you are with Zoom. We will continue to watch the local COVID numbers and we feel encouraged by the cooling weather and the possibility of comfortable outdoor activities. We hope to have more news about future outdoor activities for children and youth soon like today’s Samhain … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us next Wednesday (3 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.

TWH wishes its northern hemisphere readers a blessed Samhain season and a merry Beltaine in the southern hemisphere. Continue reading Samhain Blessings at The Wild Hunt.

Karl Seigfried reflects on lessons learned from the scientist David Attenborough about our responsibility to the natural world and to each other. Continue reading Column: In the Eye of Eternity at The Wild Hunt.

Please join us on Saturday (30 October 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 (30 October 2021)"

The National Organization for Women's familiar logo had its origins when Betty Freidan doodled the initials NOW on a napkin in a meeting in her hotel room. On October 29, 1966 thirty charter members gathered in Washington , D.C. to formally launch a new Civil Rights organization dedicated to improving the status of women in all areas of society.   In no time at all National Organization for Women (NOW) was shaking things up and spearheading a new waveof feminist activism. The steam seemed to have gone out of the women’s movement after decades of struggle finally was rewarded with the adoption of The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1920.   Without a clear, unifying focusorganizations withered or went off in different direc...

      “To live in this worldyou must be ableto do three thingsto love what is mortal;to hold itagainst your bones knowingyour own life depends on it; and, when the time comes to let it go,to let it go” Mary Oliver Here’s a little secret. The spiritual life is our inheritance from before the […]

“Source of stars and planets and water and land Open our hearts to all of our neighbors Open our souls to a renewal of faith Open our hands to join together in the work ahead.” -Lyn Cox How can you open yourself today to something new and possible?

Samhain, the time when the veil between the worlds is the thinnest, we can connect with our ancestors. It is commonly known by the mundane as Halloween. This sabbat though has two other equally important aspects people tend to forget. It is the last harvest and to Druids it is the Celtic New Year. Many […] The post The three aspects of Samhain – honoring our ancestors, the last harvest & the Celtic New Year appeared first on Nature's Sacred Journey.

TWH's editor in chief, Manny Tejeda-Moreno, weighs in on the annual festival of mainstream articles about Witches and the long history of Witches explaining themselves to the public. Continue reading Editorial: Every October, the media remembers Witches exist at The Wild Hunt.

By Laura Erickson-Schroth and Laura A. Jacobs | The belief that transgender people are recognizably distinct from nontransgender people assumes that there is something we can pick out about a transgender person’s clothing, body shape, or speech that “gives them away.” It assumes that trans people never escape their “essential” gender assigned at birth—that they are never “really” a part of the gender with which they identify.

A short “thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation  (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— Today (Sunday, 31st October) is All Hallows Eve, Halloween, when many folk traditions suggest that the souls of the dead are to be found walking amongst us. It is also the first day of the 26th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.  Are the two connected?  Well, we all know that the language used at present by our political decision-makers to talk of how they/we are going to respond to the climate emergency is a dead one. It is a language clearly empty of truth, empty of ...

Sgt. Bill Mauldin on the job in Italy covering the war from the front lines for Stars and Stripes .  He looked younger than his 22 years. When I was a boy I was obsessed with the great event of my parents’ lifetime—World War II.  It was hard not to be.  Almost every house I ever visited had at least one framed photo of a handsome young man in uniform proudly displayed.  Sometimes more.  Husbands, brothers, fathers.  Most came home.  Some didn’t The survivors of those photos were still mostly youngish men in the prime of their lives—my father and the fathers of almost all my friends.  They were serious, hard working men.  They were very busy doing things, sometimes big things.  To a man those I knew best, my father and u...

Capitalism and the free-market economy are based on the exchange of value and the key freedom of participation.  One is free to work; one is free to pursue economic ends; one is free to do and create things in exchange for compensation or other value.  On its surface this is simple.  It is in many […]

    The Japanese Zen master Soyen Shaku died on this day, the 29th of October, in 1919. A prominent Rinzai master, he was invited to present a paper at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. While that event was captured by the great Hindu teacher Swami Vivekananda, this visit by the Rinzai […]

“We bow our heads in order to imagine not one path, but many. We imagine a path forward for those who cannot imagine any path forward, because of poor health, financial hardship, family crises, and other roadblocks we cannot begin to understand or imagine.” -D. Scott Cooper What pathway are you searching for today? How … Continue reading Searching

The title of a recent San Francisco Chronicle article says it all: He wanted to let homeless neighbors sleep in cars outside his church. It launched a two-year battle. The “he” in the title is my new UU hero, Chris Kan. Chris grew up in San Francisco, and after a stint teaching at UC Santa … Continue reading "Solving the Silicon Valley housing crisis four people at a time"

The widespread use of plastics during Halloween celebrations and trick-or-treating have the potential to create a large amount of waste and impact the environment. Continue reading The environmental impact of secular Halloween at The Wild Hunt.

 Yesterday we began classes for our Kindergarten students at the Clear Spring School. Our "Rainbow Group" made tops and the small hand crank drills mounted in vises allow the students to decorate them with colored pencils. In addition to the Rainbow Group class in which each student made two tops ("Do we get to keep them? They asked) the outdoors study science class made bat bats. Since my link between my blog and facebook will only load one photo or video, I've posted additional photos to my instagram account which you can find under the user name douglasstowe. To make the bat bats, magic wands through which the blessings of bats may be conferred, the kids cut out pictures of bats, glued them onto wood, and then cut them out with scrol...

“Spirit, I would really rather not learn this. Didn’t think I needed to. I thought someone else could do it. Thought a leader was coming to do it. Thought the young people could do it. Or the elders could do it. Or the professionals. Or I don’t want to learn it ‘cause it means letting … Continue reading Trust

Manny Tejeda-Moreno takes readers on a brief tour of some of nature's most innocent-looking horrors to help liven up and set the mood for Halloween. Continue reading Mood-setting visions from nature for Halloween at The Wild Hunt.

Sunday, October 31, 10:30 a.m. Samhain Service: Voices of the Ancestors An Online Service with Rev. Alice Anacheka-Nasemann   Samhain, translated from Old Irish as “Summer’s End,” is a pagan festival marking the end of harvest season. With life falling back in preparation for the winter, the Gaels believed that the border between this world and   [ … ] The post Sunday, October 31 ~ Samhain Service: Voices of the Ancestors ~ 10:30 a.m. appeared first on Unitarian Church of Marlborough and Hudson.

Meet UUSC’s inspiring youth partners on the frontlines of climate action.

Tania Márquez The dead aren’t really dead; their stories are perpetually being told by the world around us. Continue reading "A Thousand Voices"

“From your watchful gaze, we are fully seen and known. From your enduring presence, we are never left behind. We will fall short of honoring your intention for our lives, and yet somehow your hope for us remains as boundless as the sea, and in your hand we are forever held fast. May all…know the … Continue reading Protection

TWH – Over the course of the last two decades there have been a number of high-profile cases in the news involving artifacts held by museums that the countries they originated from have requested their return. Recently the request by the Norwegian Sami Parliament to retain a Sami drum that Denmark has held in its possession since 1692. The drum belonged to Sami shaman Anders Poulsson who had been accused of “witchcraft” and was being held for trial. Continue reading Returning the artifacts of ancestors at The Wild Hunt.

In this week's Pagan Community Notes New survey of UK Pagans in military service, Circle Sanctuary events, quick-thinking rescuers, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of October 25, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

Global climate change is more than a practical challenge; it’s also a matter of right and wrong.

“Give us the clarity needed to remember that the essence of your love and light resides in each of us. Divine one, it is through faith and by grace that we have survived the suffering and despair thrust upon us. Strengthen our resolve to work for justice and healing in a land filled with broken … Continue reading Clarity

In the first exhibition of its kind, Art d'Egypte has opened a three-week exhibition of contemporary art installed at the Pyramids of Giza. Continue reading “Forever is Now” brings contemporary art to the Pyramids at The Wild Hunt.

I was outside lying in the hammock two days ago, when I saw a hawk flying overhead, and then more and more hawks, higher and higher. I understand that a group of hawks is called a kettle of hawks, and only occurs during migration. It was amazing to see! A reminder that the seasons are […]

In this third sermon on reimagining grief, I reflect on the theology of Frankenstein.

What is essential to living a good life? What non-essentials continue to receive our energy and time? In this historical moment filled with ambiguity, unknowns, and endless distractions, it's time to ground ourselves in the essentials. Join Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink for a reflection on what really matters. The Rev. Elaine Aron-Tenbrink serves as Assistant Minister at Foothills Unitarian Church in Fort Collins, Colorado. Prior to this, she served both in congregations and as a chaplain in Minneapolis, Minnesota and Charleston, South Carolina. Elaine enjoys hiking and biking in Northern Colorado with her two young children and her husband, Jason, who grew up in the Unitarian Church of Los Alamos.

      At least for a time, the Western church recalled the Archangel Raphael on this day, the 24th of October. In more recent years he’s been mushed together with Michael and Gabriel and together are celebrated on the 29th of September. I went back into my blog archives and see while I am […]

It has finally started to rain here in California! A big storm too, an atmospheric river they call it. and it sounds and looks just like one. Hopefully it will put a dent in the drought, and will doubtless bring an end to fire season, at least for this year. Because of the rain and […]

A follow up on yesterday’s post on transparency: If we want to maintain trust in clergy, we have to be able to name names when clergy have been proven to engage in misconduct. By naming names, we demonstrate that we are willing to hold ministers accountable for their actions. If we don’t name names, if … Continue reading "Transparency, part two"

Colin Powell leaves a complicated legacy: a lifetime of service, effective leadership during the first Gulf War, and a moderating voice in the Republican Party. And also, a key accomplice in starting a needless war under false pretenses.

Annie Edson Taylor, her barrel, and Niagara Falls. America fell in love with stunts and daredevils almost from the beginning.  The first American celebrity, after all was not an actor or musician, but Sam Patch, a young Yankee who leaped—twice—into roaring base of Niagara Falls from a high platform in 1829, only to die trying a similar stunt at the Falls of the Genesee River a few weeks later.  In 1859 the French acrobat Jean Francois Gravelet, better known as the Great Blondin crossed the gorge above the Falls on a tightrope in a series of increasingly spectacular performances incorporating numerous tricks.  Over the next three decades several others would duplicate the feat—or die trying. Sam Patch became America's first celeb...

Please join us on Sunday (24 October 2021) at 11:00 AM for “Things Hidden and Shown”  by Rev. Barbara Jarrell. Our service will be livestreamed on Facebook Live here. Watch for our weekly email announcements for info on the next in-person worship service and other opportunities to gather in smaller groups in person.  You can … Continue reading "Online All-Ages Worship (24 October 2021)"

Please join us on Sunday (24 October 2021) at 9:00 AM for our adult religious education class via Zoom. This group will take time to review and reevaluate the anti-racism work we have done so far and determine how we want to move forward from here.

Families — we hear you and we realize how done you are with Zoom. Please see the invitation to our all-ages Trunk or Treat celebration on Saturday (30 October 2021) from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM.  We look forward to getting our families together in person to safely celebrate Samhain and Halloween. All are also … Continue reading "Children and Youth Religious Education Updates"

Please join us on Saturday (30 October 2021) from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM for Trunk or Treat — a DIY Halloween carnival. Members and friends — park your cars in the church parking lot. Decorate them as simply or elaborately as you please. Pass out candy and / or small toys for the children … Continue reading "Trunk or Treat Halloween Carnival (30 October 2021)"

Please join us on Saturday (30 October 2021) at 3:00 PM for a Samhain Ritual with the Thistle Grove of Ár nDraíocht Féin (a Druid Fellowship). Thistle Grove invites us to their ritual in celebration of Samhain (pronounced SAH-win) — an ancient Celtic festival of the dead that is the source of many of our Halloween … Continue reading "Samhain Ritual (30 October 2021)"

“Touch the earth, reach the sky! Walk on shares while spirits fly over the ocean, over the land, our faith a quest to understand.” -Grace Lewis-McLaren Touch the earth as a prayer today. Feel your connection to our planet.  

The Rabbinical Assembly, which credentials rabbis in the Conservative movement, has begun posting a publicly available list of “Rabbis Expelled from the Rabbinical Assembly.” Included on the list are all eight rabbis expelled since 2004, along with an apologetic note reading, “Please note the RA began posting this information in 2021 and this list does … Continue reading "Transparency"

Eric O. Scott dreams about the strange pilgrimage site called St. Patrick's Purgatory and wonders what such a ritual might look like in a Pagan context. Continue reading Column: A Pagan Dreams of Station Island at The Wild Hunt.

I am one of six box makers featured on this offering from Fine Woodworking Project Guides  https://www.finewoodworking.com/project-guides/boxes Boxes remain one of the best ways to learn overall woodworking techniques. My next box making article for Fine Woodworking will be photographed in the ESSA woodshop in December. In the meantime, my new book, The Wisdom of Our Hands has made it through the copy editing process and will be headed to the printer on November 7. Hopefully, the paper supply problems will not delay the 2/22/2022 publication date. Make, fix and create. Assist others in learning likewise.

A bird of prey in a “dogfight” over the River Great Ouse, Houghton A short “thought for the day” offered to the Cambridge Unitarian Church as part of the Sunday Service of Mindful Meditation  (Click on this link to hear a recorded version of the following piece) —o0o— There is much talk in our modern culture about how the “natural world” . . . which is already a deeply problematic term because our so-called “human world” is as much part of the natural world as anything else . . . Anyway, there is much talk about how the “natural world” functions as a kind of “‘natural’ sanatorium for a convalescent” (Erazim Kohák: “The Embers and the Stars”, University of Chicago Press, 1987, p. 43). Consequently,...

          I believe we need a “calendar” to mark the cycles of a Zen Buddhist life in the West, something that notes the major holidays adapted to a solar calendar, as well as celebrating notable figures from antiquity and in the establishment of our way. There have been a couple of […]

Today is International Day of the Nacho, so declared under somewhat murky circumstances and murkier authority for this date in 1975 after the tragic death of the delicacy’s inventor, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya at the age of 81.  This celebration is not to be confusedwith a strictly U.S. National Nacho Day observed annually on November 6 promoted by the cheese industry. I know.  It comes as a stunning surprise to gourmetsand foodies that nachos are not steeped in traditional Mexican cuisine. A menu from El Moderno in the 1950's. The story goes that Anaya was laboring as the maître d’hôtel —although I am relatively certain that no one ever called the front house managerby that title—at El Moderno Café in Piedras Negras, Coahuil...

We know that undemocratic processes lead to undemocratic outcomes. Over 70% of Americans support the Freedom to Vote Act. For decades, the will of the people has been denied due to the fundamental inequities in our institutions. Today, Senate Republicans blocked the Freedom to Vote Act, refusing to even open the floor for debate. This legislation is essential to realizing the promise of our democracy. It will create national standards for how elections are run, protect and expand the right to vote, and end partisan and racialized gerrymandering so that voters pick their politicians and not the other way around. It will create a campaign finance system that gets big money out of politics and ensures that elected officials are accountable ...

Diane Dassow I am learning to give up needing to know the answers, and instead live with the questions. Continue reading "Letting the Questions Float By"

New scholarship on medieval Irish manuscripts explores their creation and the role of poets in establishing genealogies. Continue reading New scholarship on medieval Irish manuscripts at The Wild Hunt.

                                        Peter Max became famous for his bright colorful psychedelic posters in the 1960s. If you are a certain age and you put on some vintage vinyl and close your eyes to visualize the Sixtiesit is highly likely that an image that will pop into your head like an acid flashback is a Peter Max poster with all of its vivid colors, bold lines, celestial imagery, and general wistfulness.  Even if you know better, you can’t help yourself.  No artist of the era—not even the relentlessly self-promoting Andy Warhol—was more ubiquitous and iconic. Yet despite enormous technical mastery and inventiveness, Max is an artist many love to hate—even when they can’t get his images out o...

I’m used to my Gods not showing me Their plans. I trust Them and I want to be a part of Their work, so I do it. But I’ve always felt like I knew where I was going and that I would get there in this life. I’m starting to realize that’s not the case.

      My google calendar announced to me that today, the 19th of October is the birthday of the prophet Mohammed. I’m pretty sure no one actually knows the date of his birth. And some muslim sects disapprove a few strongly any such observation. But most do, and the celebration is called Mawlid. There […]

“We choose at this moment to lay down the burden of our shortcomings, and grasp the courage to begin anew. Together, we affirm our capacity for goodness and grace, for freedom and purpose and joy. We are not trapped in our past, but freed by creation to live and grow today. With gratitude, we say … Continue reading Confession

In this week's Pagan Community Notes, Pagan artist Nebelhexë among victims in Norway violence, Cherry Hill describes new challenges in the Pagan community, a new documentary on Druidry, and more news. Continue reading Pagan Community Notes: Week of October 18, 2021 at The Wild Hunt.

This year supply chain problems will severely impact the delivery of mountains of Christmas time toys and stuff. That will likely impact for additional months to come, the volume of broken stuff delivered to landfills.  Naturally President Biden will be blamed as children are deprived of meaningless stuff that would have been intended to generate Christmas time delight but that then would have been thrown out as meaningless in the months to come. How about taking matters into our own hands. We and our kids can make the things we need and my book, Guide to Woodworking with Kids can help. It is currently scheduled to be reprinted and I'm hoping that the shortage of paper doesn't interfere with a timely delivery.  If supply chain issues a...

A typical Colonial shoe shop--a Master, journeymen, or possibly an apprentice.  Every shoe or boot made by hand with minimal tools and a small investment in leather.  Cobblers required much less capital and equipment than many other trades making it easier for craftsmen to set up shop.  According to some sources the first labor unions in the English Colonies of North America were organized in Boston on this date in 1648.  Close but no cigar.  In fact, it is wrong on at least a couple of different counts.   First, it was not the date that shoemakers and coopers first organized.  That had happened earlier.  It was the first time any organizations of craftsmenwere legally recognized with an official Charter to allow them to operate...

      Teitaro Suzuki was born today, the 18th of October, 1870. (The Wikipedia bio mistakenly lists his birthday as a month later) He died in 1966 at 95 widely celebrated for his critical part in the migration of Japanese style Zen Buddhism to the West. One could fairly say we in the West use […]

“Dear God, you are the between-spaces of our lives. Where one hand reaches to touch another, you are there. Where eyes meet across the crowd and confusion and find understanding, you are there. Where the spark leaps from one mind to ignite another, that is you. Wherever we connect, you are the connection. Each of … Continue reading Praise

Have you ever noticed that people look like their dogs?  Some folks are yappy and high strung.  Others are mellow and always ready for a belly rub.  Somehow temperament gets imprinted on physiognomy.  Perpetual worriers look like a Shar Pei with furrowed brow and woeful countenance. Glad-handers resemble Collies with an ever joyful glad-to-see-you expression on their faces. Maybe people adopt animals that have personalities aligned with their own.  But my theory is that we come to resemble the significant others in our relationships.  Whatever (or whomever) claims our day-in-day-out time and attention puts an impression on our lives.  So wives look like their husbands and vice versa.   Today’s news gave some confirmation for t...

An astounding gold hoard from the Iron Age has been discovered near Jelling, Denmark, and includes a bracteate amulet that potentially has a link to a myth featuring Odin. Continue reading Danish national museum unveils “dream find” gold hoard at The Wild Hunt.

      BLOOD-STAINED EDENA Meditation on Despair and Hope and Our Human Condition James Ishmael Ford A Sermon 17 October 2021First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles We’re running up to a terrible anniversary. Next week will mark one hundred and fifty years since the horrific massacre of Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles in 1871. […]

You know this feeling of Oneness —it is rare, fleeting, but also reassuring, comforting, and keeps us moving forward. The post Oneness: You’re included in the magic appeared first on BeyondBelief.

In this sermon I consider how we might re-imagine mourning the past.

We all know that endings and beginnings are a part of life, and yet change often leaves us with feelings of grief and loss. Join me in exploring the complexity of emotions that comes with times of transition and change. Our prior guest speaker, Jenny McCready was married in August and returns to our pulpit today with a new last name, Jenny Amstutz. Jenny is currently serving as the minister of a small church in Littleton, Colorado, Columbine Unitarian Universalist Church, where she serves part time. Her part time schedule allows her to return to our pulpit. Jenny is the mother of five, ages 21 to 8 years and lives in Lakewood, Colorado, with her new husband Jason and a menagerie of pets. She is grateful to continue to be a visiting prese...

We tried a new hike this week, an 11 miler with 1500+ elevation gain. It wore me out but it was worth it. It is always satisfying to accomplish something really hard that you really want to do. It was a beautiful hike, with sweeping views of the Point Reyes coast about half way through. […]

Yesterday, I wrote, concerning my search for my matrilineal ancestor Marie-Madeleine: “Why do I write about it here? I’m putting some magic out into the universe, hoping that some kind of thunder might open the cloudy skies between me and the past, between me and the place my ancestors are from. … It has been […]

When a student in Pestalozzi's school was told to look at a picture of a ladder, the child asked, "why should I look at a picture when there's a real ladder in the shed?" "We don't have time to go out to the shed," the student was told. Later when the child was presented with the picture of a window, the child asked, why do we have to look at a picture when there's a real window right there? We don't even have to go outside to look at it." The teacher complained to Pestalozzi and was told that the student was right. Whenever possible, lessons should be based on the real world. But we confine our students to classrooms and isolate them from deeper engagement.   “The sensational curiosity of childhood is appealed to more particularly b...

The body of one of 12 FDNY firefighters killed is removed through the 23rd street drugstore entrance of the deadly fire.  Fifty-five years ago, on October 17, 1966 members of New York Fire Department (FDNY) responded to a roaring blaze in the Flatiron District.   Twelve of them didn’t get out alive.   In the annals of the Department the 23rd Street Fire was the deadliest day until the World Trade Center Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001. The   fire was first reportedat 9:36 pm at the American Art Galleries in a four-story brownstoneat 7 East 22nd Street.   When the firefighters first pulled up the intensity of the smoke and heat made it impossible to enter through the 22nd Street side of the building.   Instead, they attacke...

The Chicago and Peshtigo, Wisconsin fires of October 8, 1872 were just two of the deadly blazes that swept the upper Midwest that day.  Libraries in Illinois and Wisconsin hosted a virtual on-line discussion. Note — Back by popular demand, especially that of Ron Relic, and updated. You may have noticed that this is National Fire Protection Week.  The annual event is marked by news stories extolling the virtues of smoke alarms and family fire evacuation drills.  Your local fire station may host school field trips or an open house—maybe they will let you climb on an engine or even slide down apole.  Ask and you will be told that this week was selected because the Great Chicago Fire broke out on October 8, 1871. This is the  sesqui...

I first ran across this story in a Patheos blog by a very conservative Protestant theologian. I googled the relevant terms and found a half dozen articles about a textbook “developed for use in Chinese schools” published by the University of Electronic Science and Technology Press. It takes an old and frankly challenging story about […]

“Spirits, we ask for guidance Send us strength and endurance Help us to give our all to this And hold nothing back For precious lives depend on it We will be imperfect Rest assured that we will mess up over and over again And we must do it anyway. May we summon the courage to … Continue reading →

The euthanasia of a rare white deer in the urban of Bootle last week has angered and disappointed Pagans in the U.K. and abroad. Continue reading Killing of a rare white stag in England upsets some Pagans at The Wild Hunt.

UUSC honors Indigenous survival and resilience while seeking a more just world where no one is forced to draw on these strengths.

Break out the confetti and the champagne! We’re having a double celebration for civil rights activist Desmond Meade! First, he has been named a 2021 MacArthur Fellow! Secondly, it’s the first-year anniversary of his book, “Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Rights of Returning Citizens.” The MacArthur Foundation selected him to join this year’s class of Fellows because of his work to restore voting rights to 1.4 million formerly incarcerated citizens in Florida and to remove barriers to their full participation in civic life.

Today I'm sitting on the front porch with golden doodle daughter Rosie at my feet. She's chewing a long branch into short pieces and I'm attempting to compose my thoughts.  A friend, Elliot asked me if I'd studied Viktor Frankl and his book, "Man's Search for Meaning." Sometimes you get much of what you need from the name of the book, taken as an invitation to explore your own mind and your own experiences. As I explain in the introduction to my new book, some will get everything they need from the title alone as it invites them to explore the workings of their own hands and minds in the shaping of the world around us. Yesterday as Rosie and I sat on the porch, a doe walked out of the woods to present herself not 30 feet away. Of course...

Note:  The exceptionally brutal murder of young Matthew Shepard 23 years ago triggered a national debate and a movement that led to the adoption of hate crime laws across the country.  Many considered it a game changer.  In subsequent years public acceptance of homosexuality and homosexuals steadily grew as did legal protections against discrimination and stunning victories including the legal recognition of same gender marriage rights.  Many thought that the bad old days of queer bashing for sport and the like were gone for good.  But as in so many other areas the Trump era was a Band-Aid that rips off a scab on a bleeding wound when removed.  Nationally as well as they can be tracked violent assaults and murders of Gay men, women...

An Evangelical blogger says that either the Christian God exists or he does not exist. But there is a third option: he is simply one God among many. Theism is bigger than Christianity. It includes polytheism, and for several millennia, that was all it included.

  Vajrayana Buddhist scholar (and father of Ulma) Robert Thurman, and sometimes renegade Roman Catholic and now Anglican scholar and priest, Matthew Fox speak of their spiritual paths, and discuss the perils, pitfalls, and promises in cultivating peace here and now.

For many people, prayer beads provide a vehicle for daily spiritual practice. Each bead can represent a specific way to pray, a certain value that you wish to hold, or a phrase of prayer that you find it meaningful to recite regularly. What reminds you to take time for spiritual practice? What guides you through … Continue reading →