Inspiration: 

 

We win justice quickest by rendering justice to the other party.
–Mahatma Gandhi 

Come, Ye Disconsolate

The most influential minister of my childhood and early youth was a Baptist minister from Georgia. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to the brokenness and suffering caused by injustice in society. His words, echoing the messages I heard from the pulpit, named injustice and oppression as evils that had to be transformed—but King went further. He called the oppressor as well as the oppressed to a vision of beloved community, a society of love and justice that all people were responsible for creating.

by Taquiena Boston, Director of Multicultural Growth and Witness for the Unitarian Universalist Association. TO READ MORE

Inspiration: 

Spirit of Life, connecting each to all, help me to remember that my every action affects the Web of Life. 

Repairing the World

Acts of justice, or repairing the world…take place in much smaller, less public, ways. Perhaps today you have composted your kitchen waste or chosen to walk when you were tempted to drive, choosing small ways to protect the web of life. Maybe you pointed out to someone at work or at school that you don’t like to hear people described as “retarded.” It might be that you called your senator about internet censorship or school funding. One way or another, you may have taken some small step that nudged the arc of the moral universe in the direction of justice.

That’s the other thing I would say about justice. It shapes the future. Bringing soup to your sick neighbor is kindness. It’s important, but it’s a thing of the moment. Visiting a friend in the hospital is an entirely worthy act of compassion. But justice tries to shape the world, to make a future in which a few more pieces of our common destiny are healed. Justice, in the end, is the foundation of hope.

By REV. LYNN UNGAR, MINISTER FOR LIFESPAN LEARNING, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP TO READ MORE

Inspiration: 

 

 

How do you choose to bless the world?

Give It All Away! Wisdom of the plants

As I go into the fifth or sixth summer of having turned my yard into flowers, herbs and vegetables, it is imperative that I give stuff away.  If I don’t, if I try to hold onto all of the abundance for myself, the whole thing will die…I go to farmers’ markets, see people paying $5 for rhubarb, $25 for a hanging basket full of morning glories, and though I want farmers to make a good living, still I want to whisper, “I’ll pay you to come to my house and take that same thing!”  I refuse to allow a friend I am there with to buy morning glory plants, my voice so sternly admonishing, you would think she wanted  to eat kittens.  I convince a friend into native foods to try to eat Jerusalem artichokes; I happen to have hundreds. I offer plants to neighbors who walk by and stop to admire, to friends planting gardens at their kids’ schools.  I plant lupines and ferns and hostas in pots from garage sales and sell them myself at a garage sale, to start others on their gardening journeys.

There is so much wisdom, so much life, in what the garden is teaching me about giving it away.

By Rev. Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship, TO READ MORE

A Prayer for Those Who Love Soldiers

This is a prayer for the ones who love soldiers who are in harm’s way—

For the parents, who remember with longing when you could hold that child in diapers, sending out mothers’ or fathers’ intimate care,

For the lovers, who smell the sweaters left behind, touch the pillow on the empty side of the bed, and wish only for one moment’s touch,

For the good friends, who try to store up the jokes, to remember the bits of daily gossip and news, who don’t enjoy them as much alone,

For the spouses and partners (who are also lovers) but who miss today the partnership as the grass grows long, as the kids talk back, or eat their first solid foods,

And most of all for the kids.  For the kids who have a hole in their heart, who don’t quite understand it all, who live in a blur of unknowing and dread, who can’t tell time but know when something has gone on too long, for the kids who can’t remember, for the kids who do.

May your heart’s knowing be deeper than the longing.
May your memories hold you.
May the love of others surround and support you.
May you keep the flame burning, now and ever more.
This is a prayer for those who love soldiers who have returned—

For the mothers and fathers, who wish you could kiss away the booboos,

For the lovers, joyfully reunited, and also struggling with all of the changes,

For the good friends who share jokes and gossip with a friend who wants to be in the present, but keeps getting jolted back to the field,

For the spouses and partners (who are also lovers), grappling to find a way to knit back together a new relationship, trying to be patient and attentive but also weary yourselves,

And most of all for the kids.  For the kids who are happy, laughing, feeling whole again.   For the kids who are confused, who thought happily ever after would arrive on the plane with the parent, and it didn’t.  For the kids who try to make it all better, for the kids who withdraw, for the kids who try to believe that the parent will stay, for the kids who grin in their sleep.

May you find your way with love at the center.
May your memories hold you,
May the love of others surround and support you.
May you keep the flame burning, now and ever more.
This is a  prayer for those who love soldiers who have died, our Fallen Warriors—

For the parents, looking once more through photo albums, every cell remembering,

For the lovers, who smell the sweater stored in the back of the closet, touch the pillow on the empty side of the bed, and steel yourselves to face another day alone,

For the good friends who are saddened by jokes or gossip, knowing how much more they could have savored it together,

For the spouses and partners (who were also lovers), in a suddenly too-big home, seeing the deceased in the kids’ faces and movements, thanking the neighbor for shoveling the walk again,

And most of all for the kids.  For the kids who stare at pictures, trying to conjure the memory of laughter, of singing, of being held.   For the kids who can’t remember anymore, for the kids who do.

May your heart’s knowing be deeper than the river of sadness.
May your memories hold you.
May the love of others surround and support you.
May you keep the flame burning, now and ever more.

This is a prayer for the people who love soldiers.
May your love be your North Star, ever guiding you home.

Memorial Day Resources

Inspiration: 

 

Spend a few minutes letting the compassion that is in your heart wash over you. Then let that compassion spill out into the world as justice.

Faithful Risk for Living Faith

Contemplative spirituality leads to and supports active spirituality. When contemplative spirituality is only about self-improvement and self-regulation, then it loses the spiritual piece and becomes another set of practices, like turning off the lights when we leave a room. Good and useful, yes, but not something that moves us out of our comfort zones and into working with others to bring more compassion, merciful justice, steadfast love, or ecological renewal to this world. The fruits of practice that is self-focused are personal. The fruits of true spiritual practices, of living faithfully, are contributing to the goodness of the whole.