Happy Returns Did anybody notice? I think we all kind of missed something yesterday. I’m sure they won’t care, but we might owe a belated greeting of some kind. I’m sure they’ll understand, right? See, some other things happened yesterday so we just kind of missed it. It makes sense really. After all, Rev. Susan […]
Crashing Tide Anyone ever see real passion? I’m not talking about romantic, amorous passion. I’m talking about the kind of passion that sweeps into someone’s life and tugs, pushes, cajoles, and otherwise propels the afflicted toward something they hope to accomplish or attain. It can seem like passion possess the person it chooses. Anyone who […]
The Thing with Feathers “Hey there, buddies. How you doing? I’ll see you later, OK?” These words, or those like them, are words we’re all used to hearing. Maybe someone speaks them when leaving a social situation. Maybe they’re said to children when a parent is leaving home to run some errands or to go […]
More Than What Divides Us Aloha from Portland, Oregon! This is the week of the Regional Assembly for the Western Region of the Unitarian Universalist Association. Unitarian Universalists from across the western states will gather for education, worship, and to work together to strengthen the bonds that hold our movement together. It is a blessing […]
What Dreams May Come Ask a dozen people, “What is money?” If you only get a dozen answers, congratulations. Among the responses you’ll hear are things like, “Money is what we use to secure needed or wanted goods or services.” Very true. But you might also hear less concrete approaches like, “Money is how a […]
Paths to Wonderland There was a period of time a while back when Disney was making some really out there movies. I remember watching parts of Dumbo, especially when the elephants were on parade in Dumbo’s dream sequence, and thinking, “This is just weird.” I remember trying to get through Fantasia, and wondering what the […]
Take My Hand One of the smartest people I have ever known, someone who has seen more, weathered more, suffered more, than I might ever see, ever whether, or ever suffer, often listens thoughtfully and quietly to what is going on in my head. A lot of what I have to say to him comes […]
On a Jetplane “All my bags are packed, I’m ready to go…” I remember when those words were sung to me for the first time. My mother’s cousin David was playing his guitar and singing along in my great grandfather’s living room. I remember not wanting the music to stop. I remember a feeling flooding […]
All the Things I have a friend who says often that he is “doing all the things.” He says this to mean that through times of sadness or stress, he does those things, indeed, all those things, which he knows he needs to do to get through. He speaks with friends, attends to his spiritual […]
Something Is Happening There is a plant in my room here at the church. It was there when I arrived. Not knowing much about plants, I took a look at how it seemed to be surviving (with water) and I kept it up. I added water to it, kept it in the spot in my […]
Inspired One of the most beloved songs we sing as Unitarian Universalists is the song Sprit of Life by Carolyn McDade. In it, the singers beckon the arrival of a spirit that touches the soul and builds in us something of use to the world. As with so many of the most powerful images and […]
A Place in the Choir I will never forget watching that videotape. There on the second riser, he stands. He is playing with his tie. OK, now he is hitting other children with his tie. And what is he doing now? Oh my…he is now pretending to blow his nose on his tie and wipe […]
The Archer’s Mark Throughout many of this nation’s streets, and certainly in its bars, the celebration of Mardi Gras, or Fat Tuesday to those who skipped out of French class, will herald the arrival this week of…Valentine’s Day? That’s right, that amorphous holiday purporting to celebrate romantic love by venerating saints executed in a Roman […]
Visitors Growing up, I was a fan of the science fiction miniseries V. The “V” stood for “visitors” and it was an imaginative take on what would happen should visitors from another planet come to our own planet. The series I remember had a trademark gaseous compound that would, however, cause the visitors to remove […]
Homeward Bound “Ladies and gentlemen. As you can see the captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign indicating that we have begun our initial descent into Honolulu. As the crew moves through the cabin to collect any remaining service items, please return your chairs and tray tables to their full upright and locked position. […]
A Shared Blessing Who is your minister? You might be thinking of the person you see on Sundays delivering a sermon. Or you might be thinking of some other person who was a minister of the church in the past. But most of us have an idea of what a minister is, right? But think […]
Getting In Line I turn off the ringing alarm. I pack up my documents. I get in my car and head down. I want to arrive early so that I can beat the line. Surely, there can’t be too much of a line before they open, right? And if I get there early it’ll go […]
Talk About The Weather I never spent a lot of time worrying about the weather. And being here in Honolulu has effectively cured me of any lingering habit I might have had to worry much about checking the weather or fearing for what it will bring—surely some rain here and there, but nothing to get […]
Skip My Turn Well, here we are again, my friends. Every year we put Thanksgiving behind us, we vault out toward the winter holidays, and then we are here, in this space together. We traverse this distance, this final leg of our journey together through the Bermuda Triangle of the holiday season toward the New […]
Reason for the Season This time of year it’s common to hear people saying, “Remember the reason for the season.” And the implication is to remember that this is this time of year that we remember the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem to his parents Mary and Joseph. In orthodox theological circles, this is called […]
