Inspiration:

 

Notice what is changing around you as spring unfolds.

Spring

How deep our sleep last night in the mountain’s heart, beneath the trees and stars, hushed by solemn-sounding waterfalls and many small soothing voices in sweet accord whispering peace!

And our first pure mountain day, warm, calm, cloudless—how immeasurable it seems, how serenely wild! I can scarcely remember its beginning.  Along the river, over the hills, in the ground, in the sky, spring work is going on with joyful enthusiasm, new life, new beauty, unfolding, unrolling in glorious exuberant extravagance—new birds in their nests, new winged creatures in the air, and new leaves, new flowers, spreading, shining, rejoicing everywhere.

by John Muir (1838-1914), American naturalist

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Inspiration:

 

Water, ice, and steam are totally different things – other than the fact that they are identical.

Life Unfolding: Transformation

Just as a tree takes on different shapes and sizes throughout its lifespan, from seed to sapling, to sturdy oak, so do we as human beings. We are constantly emerging, growing, and changing shape. For many of us, this includes assuming new roles or taking on new responsibilities. Ideally, I suppose these roles would all converge into one and we would be integrated and whole beings. But that is so difficult sometimes!

Often, our roles conflict with one another, or cause tension in our lives or relationships. But even in those moments, there is a potential for growth and unfolding; there is a chance for transformation. We unfold across our lifespan, and grow more into who we are. In those instances, there is also a possibility of transformation for others’ ideas about us and the many roles we hold. The potential for transformation, for learning, and for understanding lies within us and around us. Perhaps the key to such a discovery or development lies in our ability to live the journey and be open to all of the things (good and bad) that we might realize about ourselves. And perhaps the most effective thing we can do is not strive to become someone or something else, or to change who we are, but to let our lives unfold to exhibit the transformation that has taken place.

by Margaret Weis, Ministerial Intern, First Parish of Watertown, Unitarian Universalist. TO READ MORE

Inspiration:

 

Abba Lot came to Abba Joseph and said: Father, according as I am able, I keep my little rule, and my little fast, my prayer, meditation and contemplative silence; and, according as I am able, I strive to cleanse my heart of thoughts: now what more should I do? The elder rose up in reply and stretched out his hands to heaven, and his fingers became like ten lamps of fire. He said: Why not be changed into fire?

―From The Desert Fathers

Born Again… and Again… and Again

Abbot Joseph is putting the young monk on notice: the religious life, he’s saying, isn’t finally about rituals and prayers and piety, it’s about transformation of ourselves and our world. It’s about your soul catching on fire and burning bright. It’s about giving your life over to the good. Abbot Joseph is trying to say the same thing that C.S. Lewis said about religion. Religion, he said, isn’t about making people nice. That’s just a byproduct of religion. But religion isn’t about making people nice, it’s about making people new. Not nice people, but new people. Born again…and again…and again.

The Greeks had a word for this kind of transformation. They called it metanoia, which means, “to be given a new heart.” To have someone reach in and grab hold of the old one, pull it out and put in a new heart. Not because the old heart was corrupt. Maybe it was just too tired, or had been broken and patched too many times. Maybe we just needed to trade it in for a larger model. To be given a new heart….

But while we can wish, we can’t will or force the kind of transformation I speak of. We can only prepare ourselves. We can only remove barriers to its fulfillment. If being born again is indeed akin to a new heart, then what we can do is try to make sure that our bodies and our souls won’t reject the transplant. To make sure that our usual defenses are removed. So that when transformation comes, we will know it for what it is, and welcome it.

by Robert Hardies, Senior Minister, All Souls Church, Unitarian, Washington, D.C. TO READ MORE

Inspiration:

 

The important thing is this: to be ready at any moment to sacrifice what you are for what you could become. –Charles Dickens

Transformation Is

Faithful transformation approaches the change that is living with reverence and with humility, with laughter and with a readiness to be surprised. One wonderful magical time changes into another, often through trouble, often through challenge, often through brokenness. Yet faith persists, the fruits of the spirit setting, growing, ripening, being of use, returning to dust, changing and changed, abiding.

I do not know how and who I will be tomorrow. Today I am the sum of my yesterdays, all those changes and what I have done with them. Today, I am just becoming something different in this amazing whole. Today, I am glad to just be part of it all.

by Rev. Naomi King TO READ MORE

Inspiration:

 

Spirit of Change, help me to find joy in the surprises life brings me.

Room to Be Surprised

I sometimes hear pundits or other cultural voices say something like this: “At my age, nothing really surprises me any more.” But that’s not what I hear from CLF members, nor what I experience myself. We are saying: At every age, until the moment we draw our last breath, there is still room to be surprised. There is still room to learn, to grow, to open, to accompany one another on our journeys, no matter where those journeys may lead.

Hope is not for the naïve, for the young, for the unseasoned. Hope is always beckoning to us, no matter whether we can see it, no matter whether we can put it into words; no matter whether it comes in the form we expected it. Hope pervades all of life, if we have the courage to see it.  And once we know it, we feel no choice but to offer it to others as a gift.

BY REV. MEG RILEY, SENIOR MINISTER, CHURCH OF THE LARGER FELLOWSHIP TO READ MORE