This is the time of year when the days get shorter and shorter and the night gets longer and longer. When it feels like we live more in darkness than we do in light.
And so the festivals and celebrations of this time are all about light: the light of candles, the light of stars, the light of lamps burning longer than they should in the darkness. We bring light and life–greenery, berries, glorious singing–into our lives to help us thrive in the colder, darker days.
But we need the darkness as well. We need time for quiet, for nurturing, for healing. We need the intimate embrace of stillness to help heal our wounded spirits and hearts. Because we are all wounded and in need of healing. Especially in these days of strife and conflict, anger and anxiety. In these days of our seemingly never ending grappling with pandemic and isolation.
Maybe you’ve noticed your fuse is a little shorter. Maybe you have less energy for relationships. Maybe you feel like you’re at your wit’s end more than usual. Maybe the season brings you more pressure and pressure than joy.
Please remember: you are not alone.
It’s OK for you to take time for yourself, for quiet and reflection, even if everyone around you is calling for celebration. It’s OK for you to say to your loved ones “I’m not feeling all that great.”
It is OK to ask for help. Please know that you can reach out to me if you need a listening ear, or a quiet presence, or a place to vent.
We’ve also planned a few ways you can find some quiet and healing in community, if that’s what you need.
Rev. Don Stouder and I will be offering a Holiday Service of Healing on Tuesday, December 7, at 6pm in our Sanctuary. Come and join us for quiet reflection and ritual to soothe your heart and listen for hope.
And I’ll be offering some quiet gathering times during the day as well. Join me in person on December 13 or 20 at 1pm or on Zoom December 15 or 22 at 1pm. We’ll light our chalice, share a reading and perhaps a quiet song, and be together in quiet, reflective community.
I hope that this holiday season—both its bright joy and its nurturing darkness—bring hope, healing and warmth to you, your family, and all those you love. I know you join with me in wishing hope, healing, and warmth to all of our neighbors, near and far.
Happy Holidays, dear one.
Minister’s Message Recent Posts
Bread not Stone: Transformation
This month in worship and in our chalice circles, we are exploring the. Last of the values expressed in the UUA’s proposed new description of our central values: Transformation. This value is shared with these words:
Transformation. We adapt to the changing world. We covenant to collectively transform and grow spiritually and ethically. Openness to change is fundamental to our Unitarian and Universalist heritages, never complete and never perfect.
Bread not Stone: Envisioning the Future
Hello Friends,
And the wheel of the year turns and December becomes January and a new year begins. In some ways it’s an arbitrary shift—a flip of a page in a calendar. But so many of us see this shift as an opportunity to imagine new possibilities in the year ahead.
Dear ones, in many ways, the life of the congregation continues: we worship together, we learn together, we raise the money we need to help our beloved community thrive, we grapple with the painful realities of the world and how we can understand and make change, and we engage in the work of moving ourselves and the world toward justice, kindness, and love.
Bread not Stone: Minister’s Message
This is the time of year when the days get shorter and shorter and the night gets longer and longer. When it feels like we live more in darkness than we do in light. And so the festivals and celebrations of this time are all about light: the light of candles, the...
Bread Not Stone: Pluralism
This month we continue our exploration of the values that unite and inspire us as Unitarian Universalists. A reminder that individuals and congregations across the Unitarian Universalist Association are exploring these values in preparation for deciding on adopting new language in our UUA bylaws that express our shared values and covenants with each other. We’ll be sharing conversation and reflection together, including in our Chalice Circles each month.
For November, we’ll be looking at Pluralism.
Bread Not Stone: Interdependence
Hello friends,
This month we begin our exploration of the values that unite and inspire us as Unitarian Universalists. A reminder that individuals and congregations across the Unitarian Universalist Association are exploring these values in preparation for deciding on adopting new language in our UUA bylaws that express our shared values and covenants with each other. We’ll be sharing conversation and reflection together, including in our Chalice Circles each month.
For October, we’ll be looking at Interdependence.
Bread Not Stone: How Can We Help?
Hello friends,
We see in the news so many stories about hardship and abuse of immigrants and refugees and those seeking asylum in our country. It’s often difficult to know how we can help.
A small group in our congregation has been meeting and having some conversations about ways in which we can help and have an impact on the situations of people in our valley and area.
And we want to explore ways our congregation and its members can help in more ways, especially with people experiencing struggles with our immigration and asylum systems.
Bread not Stone: Pondering the Principles
Hello friends,
It is such a full time for us in our congregation. We’re kicking off our pledge drive to plan for next year’s budget. We’re working to create new possibilities for moving from contract ministry to settled ministry. We are beginning to read and explore Mistakes and Miracles together as a congregational read.
And there’s lost happening in our larger movement as well, including exploring how we describe and envision our faith tradition through Article II of the bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
If you don’t know, Article II of the UUA bylaws contain the formal statement of our UU Principles and Purposes: saying what the purpose of our association is, what are the principles around which we live our faith out in the world, and what the sources and inspiration are for that work and that faith….
Bread not Stone: We hear you. We love you. You are not alone.
The past weeks in our country have shaken many of us to the core. The revelations of the congressional hearings, continued gun violence, the attacks on trans youth and their families, and the Supreme Court’s removal of the protection of the rights of women and many trans folks to control their own bodies and choose how and if they want to bring life into the world.
I’ve heard from so many of you about the fear and anger and confusion that you are feeling—and your fierce call to act to bring change, to ensure health and fairness for all, to help the most vulnerable among us to access the health care they need to keep themselves and their families safe.
Bread not Stone: Everyone is Connected to Something
In her novel Akata Woman, Nnedi Okorafor writes, “Everyone is connected to something. Connection brings you benefits, but it also makes you responsible.” It is a reminder to one of the characters that she is responsible for the health and safety of her community.
How do we respond to the pain and anxiety and violence in the world around us?
My friends,
As I sit to write this column for you there are bombs and deadly artillery falling on the people of Ukraine, there are children and families in Texas and Florida whose governments are telling them that their love and very existence is wrong and abusive and abhorrent, and there are still thousands and thousands of people sick and dying in our communities and around the world—dying from disease, but also from a lack of care and love and commitment to health for all.