Stop talking. Find a quiet place. Quiet your body. Slow your thoughts. Listen. The following excerpt is from a sermon shared at the December 9, 2012 worship service at Chalice Unitarian Universalist Congregation. There are many components to finding silence, yes? First is to stop talking yourself. I want to …
Christmas is one of the most complicated holidays of the year for me. When I was a young, I liked all the trappings of my family’s traditional celebration. This included a gathering of 20 or more people, an extravagant meal, an excess of desserts, and many, many presents. As a …
This group led by Sharon Wylie met from November 2011-April 2012 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley, CA. We engaged in the spiritual practice of listening to a text, meditating and reflecting on its imagery and meaning, engaging in a creative response (drawing, journaling, praying), and then sharing our responses within …
The Center for the New American Dream is issuing a 2011 “Simplify the Holidays” challenge, noting “too often, the holidays seem to exhaust rather than uplift us.” The challenge invites us to commit to taking five actions in support of a simpler holiday season. I’m in! Won’t you join me? …
After leading a worship service about prayer, I was inspired by a congregant to think about developing a UU prayer bead practice. A quick google search reveals we are not the first to think about such things: Erik Walker Wikstrom describes a UU prayer bead practice in his “Spirit in …
December is a month full of religious holidays: Hanukkah in the Jewish traditions, Hijra and Ashura in the Muslim traditions, Bodhi Day in the Buddhist traditions, Yule (winter solstice) in the Pagan traditions, and of course, Christmas in the Christian traditions. Aditionally, Kwanzaa, although a secular holiday, also holds spiritual …
November is my favorite month of the year. The days grow shorter and cooler, the stress of the winter holidays is not yet upon us, the greatest food holiday of the year is celebrated, and on top of all that, it’s my birth month. There’s a lot to savor. But …
October is a good time for planting trees and shrubs. The heat of late summer is past, and the winter rains will help establish what has recently been planted. This is also a good time for people to put down our own roots. Children have returned to school, and for …
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