Minister's Post, Fri Feb 5

Dear Ones, Fellow Unitarian Universalists,

As I said last Sunday:

The seed of awareness of inherent belonging wants to sprout and grow and send forth new seeds of joy to plant in other hearts.

If you have ever found comfort and sanctuary, ease and acceptance here, then go ahead and bask in that for as long as you can – because you won’t be able to simply bask in it for too terribly long. It is the nature of this blessing that it will not leave you alone.

And if it seems to you that the ease and sanctuary of this place doesn’t feel quite like it used to for you, then you’re ready – ready for that next step. The way to feel more welcome and accepted and warmly received is to be welcoming, accepting, and warmly receiving. That means making our congregation a place more welcoming of people who have sometimes felt unwelcome. That also means the work of social justice – making the world a place of greater acceptance and celebration of diversity.

When we talk about injustice and oppression, it isn’t to make you feel bad. It’s to help you feel good, by lifting up the wonderful meaningful work there is for us to do together. If you need comforting, be a part of offering comfort to others – and justice to all. That’ll do it.

Covid Watch

U.S. and World: The 7-day average of new cases per day has been steadily declining for 3.5 weeks now -- ever since Jan 11. In the U.S. the new cases per day have fallen by 47% in 24 days. Worldwide, new cases per day have fallen by 33% in those 24 days.

Deaths appear to inching downward, albeit more slowly. We're still losing over 3,000 people a day in the US (7-day average), and over 13,000 a day worldwide.

Times are tough. The isolation is hard to bear. Hang in there, friends. It gets better.

Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith

Practice of the Week

The first Sunday of every month, our suggested spiritual practice is an Ecospiritual Practice. Brought to you by CUUC’s Environmental Practices Social Justice Team, ecospiritual practice is oriented toward developing spirituality through our connection with our planet home and our responsibility to care for it.

This month’s ecospiritual practice, “Falling in Love” refers to loving this Earth and all that lives upon it – being head over heels for this sublime and unimaginable state of being – being in love not with our own small lives, but Life with a capital L.

In the vision cast by this love, we walk a joyful path of creation. We do not dwell on negativity and are not paralyzed by it, but engage lovingly in creating the world in which we want to live. We walk on holy ground with every step and form deep and lasting relationships and communities where diversity is honored and uniqueness respected, and the Earth is healed and restored.

The suggested practices this month include: Ceremony of Closure, where you create a small personal ritual to mark your Ecospiritual journey so far.
Journal closure, where you re-read past Ecospiritual journal entries and reflect on the themes that seem to have arisen.
Beloved Earth is a practice of giving a small, biodegradable gift to the earth as you reflect on what loving the Earth means.

Activities for your Ecospiritual Group, and questions for group discussion are also included. See the post “Falling in Love”.