Author: Michael Tino

Each November 20, communities all around the world pause to commemorate the Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year, we honor the 426 transgender people who were murdered or who died by suicide in the past year. The list is always too long–even one person on that list is too many. And yet, we must remember. And the list, however long, is incomplete. We remember them.

Take a moment today to remember and grieve. If you can, visit Remembering Our Dead and read the list of names or watch the slide show for a while.

“Spirit of Life and Love, help us to be known and to know each other. Let us see the beauty spilling out. Keep us vulnerable and open, speaking our own truth and listening—always listening—to the truths of others.” – Amanda Poppei

Have you had an experience of being truly known in all of your beauty? Tell us about it.

“Spirit of abundance, may we be with one another in solidarity and struggle. May the presence of one another, across oceans of separation, allow hope and optimism to rise.” -Tuli Patel

Who do you feel connected to today?

“Our Unitarian Universalist faith insists that we do not limit the infinity of grace. Therefore our job is to cultivate possibility in response to isolation and suffering. The feeling of chaos that is inherent in possibility makes us uneasy. But when we embody possibility, we are creating a new story to explain the world and our participation in it. We are taking an evolutionary step forward, one that allows for a future in which our children themselves can be creatively ambiguous in heart, body, and mind.” -Mitra Rahnema

How do you cultivate possibility?

“During my chaplain residency I prayed with hundreds of families—many of whom were dealing with the death or imminent death of their loved ones. At first I wasn’t sure how to pray, or to whom. So I muddled through the best I could, and then invited the families to pray in their own words. Sometimes they would pray to Jesus, sometimes to God, occasionally they would dispense with the address and just pray, but almost always their prayers were of thanksgiving. Time after time, in the moment of the tenderest loss, families would give thanks.” -Daniel Schatz

What are you thankful for today, despite what is so hard?