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? …
The number one question I am asked in my work as a chaplain to people struggling with thought and mood disorders is some version of “Why does God let me suffer?” What I affirm again and again is that it’s a good question, that it’s okay to feel angry with …
October 2-8 is Mental Illness Awareness Week (sponsored by the National Alliance on Mental Illness), and today is National Depression Screening Day. You can screen yourself or a loved one online here.
I’ve spent the last year reading the 68 books and documents on the required reading list for the Ministerial Fellowship Committee. This is the list of readings everyone preparing for the UU ministry must read before interviewing with the committee. Although the required readings have provided me a powerful grounding …
I have moved my household three times in the past three years, and I am reminded each time afresh how much I hate moving. I am fundamentally a homebody, someone who likes to stay put. I like to put down roots, get to know a place, and build a routine. …
The recent devastation in Japan was followed, for me, by some difficult news from a dear friend whose family is experiencing a variety of losses. Whether bad news comes from the other side of the globe or from the neighbor next door, there are times when we are face-to-face with …
After my sermon for Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, many of you spoke to me about how hard it is to feel love or even compassion for people who have hurt you (or people who are hurting the world, or both). Some of those conversations got me thinking about the …
It’s a new year, and there’s lots of talk (as usual) about fresh starts, clean slates, and starting over. The past, it seems, is just luggage weighing us down, and if we can leave it behind, we can move forward faster, lighter, and unencumbered. My experience is that this is …
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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