Minister's Post, Fri Jan 6

Dear Ones:

I want to acknowledge, on this 2nd anniversay of the event, that the Jan 6 insurrection was a blow to our spirits and to our prospects for building a more democratic world of peace and justice. The number "1/6" now echoes in our consciousness as the number "9/11" does. Both dates turned our world upside down. In many ways, for many of us, what happened on 1/6 is more disturbing. Public reaction to 9/11 was so strong and so wide that a case can be that our over-reaction did more damage than the original attacks (by, among other things, leading to the Iraq War, and to an increase in driving fatalities because of fears of airplane travel). The reaction to 1/6, however, seems to be an under-reaction, and largely limited to only one of our two parties.

I want to acknowledge that on this day of the 2nd anniversary of the insurrection, our U.S. House of Representatives held its 12th and 13th votes for a Speaker of the House -- and no Speaker was elected. Perhaps you are feeling a connection between the two events -- than they are both fruits of the same dissatisfactions and dysfunctions in our system. Perhaps you are right.

I want to urge us, on this day, as on all days, to remember that things have been much worse. The U.S. has been more polarized than this -- and humanity has lived for millennia under autocratic systems. For that matter, we have lived through much worse plagues than the Covid-19 pandemic. This, too, shall pass. Our task in this time is what it is in all times: to bring a loving heart to every situation we encounter, to keep on doing everything we can to spread and sustain love and justice.

Yours in the faith we share,
Meredith

Join a Journey Group: http://cucwp.org/journey-groups

I.C.Y.M.I. (In Case You Missed It)

The Sat Dec 24 Christmas Eve Service:

The Dec 18 service, "Open Hearts in Bethlehem":



PRACTICE POINTER

It’s time again for our Ecospiritual practice for this month – brought to you by Community UU’s Environmental Practices Social Justice Team. EveryDay Sacred.

Cathedrals and Zen Gardens, Mountaintops and meditative retreat weekends are special places and times. What makes them so? It’s our expectations. If we’re thinking, “this is a holy place,” or “a place of peaceful beauty,” the mind shifts to open us to experience the Sacred.

If we set up the expectation that the Sacred is something remote from us, something “out there,” far removed from quotidian reality, then we’re missing the sacred in the everyday. The Holy surrounds us, and infuses us every moment of our lives. We need only grow our awareness of it, cultivate a way of being in the world that connects us with something greater than ourselves, and situates our individual lives within the story of all life. Our task is to continually move in the direction of ever-increasing awakening.

In the end, it really is all good, all holy. The sacred permeates the mundane. Consciousness of the Sacred is not a goal that is ever permanently achieved. Some days we will be more conscious than others. The process of moving in the direction of awakening is itself holy, dynamic, and fluid. There is no end state, only the process of awakening, and then awakening some more.

Ecospiritual practices for this month include, first, decorating your altar with items symbolic of daily life. Second, notice small miracles several times a day. Finally, sit quietly in an outdoor space, then journal about your experience. For details on these, as well as group activities for your Ecospiritual group, see the full post: "EveryDay Sacred."

Here it is, your...
MOMENT OF ZEN
#140: Switch Roles

Any true teacher is also a student -- an ongoing student of the subject matter, certainly, but also a student of zir students. Do the roles of teacher and student switch back and forth? Or does each continually and always include the other? Either way, what's the difference, then, between the teacher and the student?

Gray Wolf seems to be noticing a difference in authority -- and she hints that she chafes at that authority. There's hope for her yet!

Case

Gray Wolf said, "Why do we always do everything in exactly the same way?"
Raven said, "Steady on."
Gray Wolf said, "Maybe we should switch roles sometimes. Somebody else could be the teacher and you could be just one of the students."
Raven said, "It's happening."

Case adapted from Robert Aitken; introduction and verse by Meredith GarmonA

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