Inspiration: 

Miracles

Why, who makes much of a miracle?
As to me I know of nothing else but miracles….

To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space is a miracle,
Every square yard of the surface of the earth is spread with
the same,
Every foot of the interior swarms with the same.

To me the sea is a continual miracle,
The fishes that swim—the rocks—the motion of the waves—
the ships with men in them,
What stranger miracles are there?
― Walt Whitman

Changing Each Other’s Life

Recently I ran into someone who said, “You changed my life! After you told me that you liked pedicures, I had one myself, and I liked it so much I began having them weekly. They’re now my favorite luxurious treat for myself. But if you hadn’t said you liked them, I never would have started.”

I gaped at her in astonishment. I have had one pedicure in my life, because a friend dragged me there twelve or fifteen years ago. I must have run into this woman right afterwards and said it was more fun than I expected. I never even considered having another one.

I think we change each other all the time, in ways just this unpredictable and surprising.

by Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church Of The Larger Fellowship TO READ MORE

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Inspiration: 

 

“Worship is transcendent wonder.”
―Thomas Carlyle

Church in the Dirt

I worship in the dirt…Where do you worship?   At the Church of the Larger Fellowship, we call ourselves church without walls.  I love that concept.  I also love the brick and mortar church I attend, but my worship is not limited to either of these places.  The spiritual journey is a daily walk.  There are times in life when it is easier to be spiritual (e.g., when I’m not driving on the Interstate in morning traffic).  We all have those moments when our divinity or holiness or whatever you prefer to call it is challenged.   We also have times when it’s easy to meditate or give praise or be at one with Spirit…

By Mary Frances Comer, associate of pastoral care TO READ MORE

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Inspiration: 

 

May I learn to stretch my heart and soul, learning limberness of spirit as the athlete learns limberness of body.

The Company We Keep

How generous are we to the people we do not know? The people who frighten us? The people who are live in very different circumstances than we do? I’ve found myself seeking others like myself in strange environments. I’ll seek out the hearing impaired and those I know living with chronic illness. I’ll seek out others who have lots of experience of being unwelcomed, of living as strangers in the middle of supposedly wonderful hospitality. It is spiritual work to stretch and be generous in meeting and being with people we do not know, especially if they are people who frighten us or seem very unlike us. Yet, like other challenging activities, this practice of stretching into a mutual and radical hospitality can be enormously rewarding. Some of the relationships and experiences I now value the most are with people I would have missed had I played it safe and not stretched myself — and had not the other people involved risked in the same ways and stretched themselves.

BY REV. NAOMI KING, CITY OF REFUGE MINISTRIES TO READ MORE

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Inspiration: 

 

 

What draws you beyond yourself?

Going Beyond

Get over yourself! Or at least get beyond yourself. That’s kind of the idea of “transcendence,” our theme for this month. When you transcend something you go beyond it. A prisoner transcends his circumstances when he focuses on living a life of peaceful compassion while stuck in a setting designed to degrade the human spirit. A student transcends social boundaries when she sits at a table full of people who speak a different language or belong to a different social clique. A job seeker transcends anxiety and depression to go out and contact people who might or might not have leads on a job.

But we also use “transcendence” to talk about a fuzzier sense of something that goes beyond our ordinary reality, a feeling of something larger that’s hard to describe. Our Unitarian Universalist Principles and Purposes statement describes one of the sources of our living tradition as: “Direct experience of that transcending mystery and wonder, affirmed in all cultures, which moves us to a renewal of the spirit and an openness to the forces that create and uphold life.” Which is pretty much of a mouthful, but gets at the idea that there is a mysterious, larger something that holds us all together, that has to do with creativity and open-heartedness and growing.

BY LYNN UNGAR, MINISTER FOR LIFESPAN LEARNING, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP TO READ MORE

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Inspiration: 

Now I walk in beauty.

Beauty is before me.
Beauty is behind me,
above and below me.

―Navajo

Standing on the Side of Love

if love is like God, denying or condemning love is a desecration. Such negation has sinful effects not only on a person but also on the soul. Who is anyone to condemn what gives another strength, hope, happiness, belief in themselves, relief in grief and endurance in despair? If you cannot see the humanity in a person because of where they find love and hope, then it is your own humanity that is in jeopardy.

I agree with the Religious Right that faithful, traditional marriage between two believing and committed souls is a social cornerstone and a sacred institution. And I believe that love is sacred because of its transformative power. But sacredness doesn’t belong as an exclusive privilege, bottled up like spring water or reserved on high for members of an exclusive club which gets to decide who can join them and who can’t. That kind of elitism has no place in faith, no place in justice, certainly no place sticking its nose into love.

We have started a change and every single one of us needs to bend our shoulder to this task. We cannot be complacent, we cannot be tired, and we certainly cannot be bored by this issue. We have never said all there is to say and never done all we can do until the day, the shining day everyone deserves for their wedding, when all people can marry their great love, regardless of gender.

by Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, Parish Minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, Maryland TO READ MORE

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