Daily Compass

Inspiration:

Do not be too hard, lest you be broken; do not be too soft,

lest you be squeezed.–Ali ibn Abi Talib

“All The Stuffing Pulled Out”

Life is, sadly, full of stuff that gets broken. Maybe you’re just having a look around the table for crumbs and a cup falls off and shatters. Or maybe your nicest leash just plain wears out and breaks. But you know what is the saddest? When stuff breaks because you broke it, and you knew at the time you were doing it, but didn’t stop…All of us, dogs and people, don’t do things we know we should do, and do do things that we know we shouldn’t. Somehow, things are bound to get broken before you ever set your teeth on them.

Forgiveness from the people who love you is good. And we can remember that this kind of brokenness happens for all of us, and be ready to forgive others and ourselves. And we can work on ways to do things better the next time, like when Mama buys me toys that don’t have any stuffing in them to come out. And sometimes, when we are lying on the floor with all our stuffing pulled out, someone will come along, and instead of throwing us out will take the time to tuck the stuffing back in, and sew on a patch, and we’ll go on, not the same as before, but still good.

by Taz, the six-year-old Belgian Tervuren, companion of Lynn Ungar, the CLF’s minister for lifespan learning. 
TO READ MORE 

 

Inspiration:

Spirit of Wholeness, guard my heart from both complacency and contempt. Help me to expect the best from myself and others.

“Abundant Life”

We can understand the abundance of the universe in two ways: as an invitation to complacency, or as an invitation to generosity. Much depends upon that choice. For if we respond with complacency—if we merely accept all the creative energy and all the love and sacrifice that have made our own lives possible, then the abundance of the universe comes to a stop in us. If we choose to receive what we have concluded is our due—and even, perhaps, to complain that it is not given exactly as we would have preferred it—then we make ourselves something outside the process, something other than the ever-flowing stream of life, something transitory and futile and ultimately trivial. It is when we respond to the abundance of life with gratitude and generosity that we become a part of that universal creativity. When we contribute our own energy to the flowing stream then it fills us and pours out of us to others, so that the stream is enhanced.

by Kendyl Gibbons, Senior Minister, First Unitarian Society, Minneapolis, Minnesota
TO READ MORE 

 

Inspiration:

Songwriter Bob Franke writes: “There’s a hole in the middle of the prettiest life….” Where is there a hole in your life? What do you fill it with?

 

 

 

Brokenness and the Golden Mortar 

“I am a Universalist because people have shocked – and removed – the hell out of my theology, my worldview, and me.”

by Joanna Fontaine Crawford, Intern Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship

 

 

Inspiration:

I am a judge with the capacity to pardon all who come before me.

 

 

 

From Your Minister

by Rev. Meg Riley, Senior Minister, Church of the Larger Fellowship

How do I stay present when things are breaking or broken? How do I allow things to break when they need to break, and still stay on the side of Life? How do I manage to not numb out or move into denial, without going mad and breaking apart myself, when systems far beyond my control or even my comprehension, are wreaking havoc? And for what do I go down fighting? MORE

 

Join us at 1:30 pm ET today for our service of Reflection & Connection: http://www.livestream.com/questformeaning

 

Inspiration:

Where in your body do you physically feel pain or discomfort? Spend a moment envisioning that spot surrounded with warmth, light, and acceptance of the flawed state it is in.

 

 

To Be Joyfully Determined 

by Joshua Mason Pawelek, minister, Unitarian Universalist Society: East, Manchester, Connecticut

Happiness and fulfillment, says Ben-Shahar, come from what we choose to see and seek, what we choose to focus our attention on. These days it can be difficult to see goodness, dignity, worth and wholeness, let alone bring it into our lives. In a world facing potentially catastrophic climate change; in the midst of tragic land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a more amorphous and seemingly unending war on terror; in the midst of an economic recession with enormous housing and job insecurity; in the midst of a first world culture focused on material consumption and addicted to corporate media—in the midst of all this breaking and brokenness, all these generators of fear, anxiety and numbness, all these demonstrations of human shortsightedness, arrogance, selfishness, and sinfulness—how do we focus on what is working well, on what brings joy, on what brings happiness and fulfillment? Tal Ben-Shahar says, “Practice.” MORE

 

Join us at 7 pm ET tonight for our service of Reflection & Connection: http://www.livestream.com/questformeaning