Peter Friedrichs

From Peter Friedrichs

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Niagra Falls, at night, with the falls lit up by brightly colored lights

I want not dainty bone china-cupped, oh-so-polite, pinky-extended sips, but guzzle-by-the-gallon, drink-from-the-fire-hose- two-hundred-eighty-psi- Niagara-Falls volumes, and inch-thick slices of hearty multi-grain-hard-crusted- with-stick-in-your-teeth-seeds-bread (none of that bland supermarket...

Poetry | By Peter Friedrichs | February 4, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Body, Direct Experience, Love, Playfulness, Sexuality, Valentine's Day
Silhouette of a flock of birds on a branch

Why is this blank page staring back at me, mocking, like an affliction, and fraught with dread? How can it hold such sway, this simple emptiness? Might it instead be a gift left on my doorstep overnight, waiting to be broken open with the dawn?...

Poetry | By Peter Friedrichs | November 17, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Acceptance, Awe, Compromise, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Humility, Imagination, Purpose, Wonder
red leaves resting on a carpe of dead leaves

I wish I were like the trees, Who let their leaves go gracefully, without regret. Or the tumbling stream that flushes silt to sea, Exchanging murkiness for blessed clarity. Or the dandelion, who bows its head to the subtle breeze, Unleashing its future without fear or loss. Instead, I drive...

Poetry | By Peter Friedrichs | November 11, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Forgiveness, Healing, Humility, Letting Go, Regret, Relationships
A young child holding and eating an apple

What is the history of any thing? This apple, let's say, that my grandson just picked as he sits on my shoulders, feet dangling like parentheses around my heart?...

Poetry | By Peter Friedrichs | November 10, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Awe, Children, Connections, Direct Experience, Family, Fathers, Generations, History, Humanism, Interdependence, Parents, Wonder
Father and daughter at a dancing lesson

For sleepless nights awaiting the curfew-breakers For anxious hours as a driving instructor For hours spent on sidelines, cheering And watching school plays, sometimes “resting our eyes,” For the pressures of bread-winning And “wait ‘til your father gets home.” For teaching moments and...

Chalice Lighting | By Peter Friedrichs | April 16, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Change, Children, Direct Experience, Father's Day, Fathers, Parents, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships

There I was, at the "Big Question:" What is my relationship to the creatures on this earth, and to the earth itself? Are they, is it, here for me, or am I a part of it? How far does the interdependent web extend, and do I really believe that all of us are intimately connected with all of existence?

Homily | By Peter Friedrichs | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Challenge, Earth, Environment, Food, Food Justice, Prophetic Words & Deeds

Please join me now in a litany for the season. I invite you to respond with the words, “We remember. We forgive. We love.” For gifts we yearned for, but did not receive… For things we received, but never wanted… For those who offered us cheer when what we needed was comfort… For those who...

Reading | By Peter Friedrichs | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Christmas Eve / Christmas

Today is the second of our three-part sermon series dedicated to Rev. Forrest Church. As I noted last week, Church spent nearly 30 years as the senior minister of All Souls Unitarian Universalist Church in New York City....

Sermon | By Peter Friedrichs | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Limitations, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Purpose, Service, Unitarian Universalism

Pity the poor dandelion. It is, in many ways, nature’s perfect plant. With a tap root that grows more than a foot long, it can survive in climates of scorching heat and bitter cold. Its tender, young greens make a tasty addition to any salad, or they can be boiled like fiddleheads or as a tea...

Sermon | By Peter Friedrichs | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Acceptance, America, Anti-Oppression, Immigration, Respect, Anti-Oppression, Immigration

As part of my seminary training I spent a summer working as a hospital chaplain, assigned to the psychiatric floor. I found it to be deeply gratifying work, and I was able to build relationships with many of the patients. Some were long-term and others had a quick turnaround. Some were what we...

Sermon | By Peter Friedrichs | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
Tagged as: Calling, Identity, Meaning, Self-Respect, Unitarian Universalism

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