Minister's Post, Fri May 19

Dear Ones:

What I want to share with you today are these words of Jaya Rudgard:

"We have a very strong tendency to view joy as something that either happens to us by chance in lucky moments or as something that we have to deserve, that we get as the fruit, the reward, of good behavior or skillful cultivation. We can reframe that to think of joy as something we can offer as a gift to the world, offer as a gift through our lives."

Our joy is realized (in the double sense that [a] joy is made real, and [b] we become aware of joy) by giving joy to others.
Joy is always there, but invisible, unless and until shared. You can't see it until you manifest it -- and you manifest it by spreading it to others.

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 May 14 service, "Happiness":



The May 7 service, "Commensalisty":



PRACTICE POINTER

It’s time again for our Ecospiritual practice for this month – adapted from Rebecca James Hecking and brought to you by Community UU’s Environmental Practices Social Justice Team: Widening Our Circle.

We are all interconnected more closely than we generally assume, and so are the Earth’s ecosystems. What we do to one part of the Earth, we do to the entire Earth – and What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.

A man orders a burger. The burger, shipped from South America, came from a cow raised on land that was formerly part of the Amazon rainforest, now burned and cleared for grazing.

An empty plastic bag floats across a parking lot -- and ends up floating in the middle of the Pacific six months later.

There are also positive connections:

A woman purchases a bag of fair-trade coffee at her local co-op. Somewhere in Sumatra a father buys school books for his children with money earned from his small family coffee plantation.

A teenager, after learning of the crisis in the rainforest, decides to skip the trip to the burger place and packs a vegetarian lunch instead.

A couple serves locally grown food at their wedding reception, supporting the farmers of their foodshed in the process.

The great challenge is identifying implications of our choices, and changing the way we relate to the world based on what we learn.

Ecospiritual practices for this month include: Degrees of Gratitude: being grateful for the many Earth systems that sustain you – Mindful Choices: Journal specifically about your consumer choices – and a “How Wide is your circle?” exercise.

For details on these, as well as group activities for your Ecospiritual group, see the post: Widening Our Circle.

Here it is, your...
MOMENT OF ZEN
#159: The Ancestors

This is Gray Wolf's seventh appearance. She first appeared in #22, where she asked for an explanation of karma. Then, in #59, she didn't think the enlightenment of bushes and grasses was likely. In #75, she asked how she could save the many beings. In #103, she remarked that the goal of practice seemed to be more practice. In #140, Gray Wolf asked, "Why do we always do everything in exactly the same way?" In #144, she said it seemed undignified to bow before the Buddha. Gray Wolf was also mentioned in #120, when Owl said she still didn't know what to make of Brown Bear's answer to Gray Wolf back in #59.

"Dream" may refer to a delusion, or to a hope. Perhaps Raven is referring to the delusion of separation -- the human delusion of being separate from other animals. Or perhaps she's referring to the hope of a more aware and attentive way of living. Which do you say she means? In either case, there's no answering for it.

Case

One evening Gray Wolf Came by after a long absence and asked, "Are the old masters of the past really our own ancestors?"
Raven said, "Most certainly."
Gray Wolf said, "But it seems that they were folks who wore clothes."
Raven said, "I can't answer for the dream."

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