TOOLBOX OF FAITH
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Children
SESSION 5: REFLECTION (MIRROR)
BY KATE TWEEDIE COVEY
© Copyright 2008 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 11/8/2014 7:15:45 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
SESSION OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left its seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains,
Within the sounds of silence.
— Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence"
The mirror symbolizes reflection. In this session, there are opportunities to explore physical reflection and to consider the tool of reflection in our faith. Discussion may include when, where, and how we take the time to listen inside ourselves for a still, small voice. As leaders, you will want to emphasize that our still small voice can be thought of as our conscience. In addition, some people think of it as the voice of God. Allow time for participants to engage the issue of when they have difficult questions and have used, or can use, reflection to think about the answers.
You will need to obtain some meditative music to help you create a reflective atmosphere for the Opening and for Activity 3: Reflection and Artistic Expression. Choose music ahead of time and arrange to use (or bring) a CD or tape player.
GOALS
This session will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
SESSION-AT-A-GLANCE
ACTIVITY | MINUTES |
Welcoming and Entering | |
Opening | 5 |
Activity 1: Story — Elijah and the Still, Small Voice | 8 |
Activity 2: Mirror Games | 15 |
Activity 3: Reflection and Artistic Expression | 22 |
Activity 4: Council Circle | 10 |
Faith in Action: Ideas | |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Take a moment and let your body and mind settle. If you are comfortable doing so, spend a few moments in peaceful meditation. In preparation for this session on reflection, you may wish to spend a few moments focusing on situations when you are most reflective, such as around a campfire, on a mountain top, or at night. What kinds of things do you think about? What does your still, small voice say to you?
As an adult leader, your opinion may have more influence than those of participants. Therefore, your personal disclosure should not become part of the discussion unless participants ask you a question directly. In that case, be sure to preface your opinion by setting the context that each of us, adults and children, has differing opinions, and yours is one among many. Then guide the conversation away from your own opinion and allow participants to reflect on their own thoughts.
SESSION PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Use this time to help participants find a space that feels reflective and begin to identify internal reflection.
Welcome participants quietly as they arrive. Encourage them to find a comfortable place to sit in the Council Circle space. Invite participants to draw on the foil or paper, and/or use the foil as an art medium. Call their attention to the glimmers from the foil as it reflects the candlelight.
OPENING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
With participants gathered in the Council Circle space, and quiet music playing, tell them the session is starting now. You may say:
Today we will begin our session in a quiet tone that suits a mood of reflection. Reflection is the quality of our Unitarian Universalist faith we will explore today, and the Tool of the Day is a mirror.
Begin quieting the participants as preparation for a time of reflection. The dark and the quiet music should set the tone. While this session provides more reflection time for participants later, this brief experience will help participants find a space that feels reflective and begin to identify internal reflection.
Tell the children they may close their eyes and reflect inwardly, or enjoy the beauty of the flickering candlelight while using a medium that is reflective, such as the foil.
If some participants seem to be having trouble focusing inward or there are some who have attention span challenges, you may wish to guide the group to first focus outward, as you formally begin the session. Engage the group to be quiet enough to hear things around them. Ask them to share what they hear. Then, can they be even quieter and hear things even farther away? Once they have quieted, you can ask them if they can hear their breathing. Then ask them to try to hear their heartbeat. Finally, invite them to listen to the still, small voice inside themselves.
In the quiet, invite the children to open their eyes as you light the chalice.
Indicate where the opening words are posted, for any children who are unfamiliar with them. Lead the group in reciting:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Hold up a mirror and tell them it is the Tool of the Day. Pass one or more mirrors around the circle, inviting children to share their prior experiences with mirrors.
Lead a discussion to introduce the mirror as a symbol of inward reflection. You might ask, "What do you think makes this a Unitarian Universalist tool?" Allow participants to share ideas. Affirm that there is no one answer.
Say, in your own words:
The mirror represents reflection. The mirror represents times when Unitarian Universalists listen to their hearts and nurture their spirits. We listen to the still, small voice which is inside of us when we reflect. Unitarian Universalism is a faith that values each person's path of questioning and searching for truth. This is a key part of growing in faith and deepening in religious understanding. One of the Sources of our faith is from each person's sense of mystery and awe — a sense we can exercise in ourselves through reflection.
Ask a volunteer to contribute a piece of foil art they have made before the session began, or invite a participant to choose a piece of foil now, and glue or tape it to the Toolbox of Our Faith poster. Write the word "Reflection" to represent today's theme.
Collect the mirror(s) and extinguish the chalice.
ACTIVITY 1: STORY — ELIJAH AND THE STILL, SMALL VOICE (8 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Read or tell the story.
ACTIVITY 2: MIRROR GAMES (15 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Participants explore the qualities of a mirror through active games in which they use their bodies in space.
Mirror Walk
Ask participants to try to walk backwards from one side of the area to the other, avoiding the obstacles you have placed and using only mirrors to see.
As a variation, assign each participant a partner who is allowed to talk and help the participants with the mirror. To make the obstacle course harder, have one participant walk backwards without a mirror, while two others accompany him/her on either side, each holding a mirror for the participant who is walking.
Mirror, Mirror
Form pairs, and instruct each pair to choose one person to be the mirror and one to be the actor. Let them start slow. You might suggest the actor improvise a dance or perform an action usually done in front of a mirror, like brushing teeth, or checking out their outfit. After a minute or so, direct them to switch roles.
Then introduce a change, such as:
After a while, let them abandon the switching back and forth, and try to initiate movement and reflect the movement of their partner at the same time.
Including All Participants
Mirror Walk. Partner a sight-limited participant with a child who can see, and have them walk backwards together; it may turn out that a child without sight is less unnerved by walking backwards than one who is used to seeing the path ahead.
A child with limited mobility for whom an obstacle course would be difficult or unsafe can take the role of calling advice to people who are trying to walk the course backwards.
Mirror, Mirror. A child who cannot see can mirror another child by keeping physical contact with his/her partner. You might engage the entire group to try this activity with fingertips, knees, and foreheads touching, so that every pair can experience this type of "mirroring."
ACTIVITY 3: REFLECTION AND EXPRESSION (22 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
The children experience using expressive media in a meditative atmosphere, as they draw in response to their own inner reflections and decorate a personal mirror to keep.
Gather the group in the Council Circle space. Tell them what to expect. You may say:
I'm going to put on some quiet music and ask you to listen to the still, small voice inside of yourself as the music plays. What images does the music bring to mind? Use the next few minutes or so to draw something that you see in your mind's eye or hear in that still, small voice. Perhaps it will be an abstract expression, or maybe a picture of something. Any questions?
Answer any questions. Then ask the participants to get into a comfortable position for listening and drawing. Distribute blank paper and color markers.
Play the music. After a few minutes, invite the participants to withdraw from their reflective mood by turning down the music briefly and telling them they have 30 seconds more to draw. Use your judgment about how long the participants are engaged in this activity.
When you turn off the music, invite participants to share an image that came to mind, or how the reflective experience made them feel. Allow some discussion.
Direct the children to the worktables where you have set the mirror-decorating materials. Ask them to choose a mirror to decorate and take home as a reminder that reflection is a tool of our Unitarian Universalist faith.
Note: Permanent marker can be rubbed off the mirror's surface with a finger until the marker ink dries, which takes about an hour.
Suggest that the children refer to the drawings they have just made, or even cut out and paste parts of their drawings, to decorate their mirrors.
ACTIVITY 4: COUNCIL CIRCLE (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Each session closes with a Council Circle. The goal of the Council Circle is to share our stories, listen to each other, and grow in faith together. Listening to each other is a religious act. The Council Circle includes three rituals: Reflection, Sharing of Joys and Concerns, and a Closing.
Reflection
Gather the group in the Council Circle. Light the chalice.
Offer words spoken routinely in your congregational worship, or these:
We are Unitarian Universalists
with minds that think,
hearts that love,
and hands that are ready to serve.
Invite participants to pass the Tool of the Day as a talking stick and respond to these questions. You needn't pose all the questions; use whichever you need to prompt discussion.
Sharing of Joys and Concerns
After discussion has closed, invite participants to share important things in their lives. What they share may or may not be related to the session topic and discussion.
Invite participants to light a council candle from the chalice flame as they share. If there are not enough candles, it is OK to snuff out and re-light a candle. Save the candle of a different color for last. When all who want to share joys and concerns have done so, light this candle with the words, "For all the joys and concerns that remain unspoken."
If you are using a glass bowl, water, and stones instead of council candles, invite participants to drop a stone into the bowl when they share. End the sharing by adding one last stone for unspoken joys and concerns.
Closing
Extinguish the council candles. Gather participants around the chalice; if it has been extinguished, re-light it.
Offer this reading, from a contemporary essay by Rabbi Michael Comins. You may wish to tell the group that Rabbi Comins has traveled to the site where Elijah is said to have had the experience of hearing the "still, small voice."
Not all silences are alike. Put in earplugs or enter a soundproof room and the silence is muggy and oppressive. Silence in a forested, mountain wilderness is rare. The wind howls, leaves rustle, birds chirp, insects buzz, creeks "sing." True silence, perhaps on a peak when the wind stops, is actually quite rare. It hits suddenly, with dramatic impact.
In Israel's deserts and the Sinai [where Elijah's story takes place], where the wind is usually still for at least half the day, the silence is vastly different. Close your eyes and wait for the wind to stop. This silence is total, yet light and natural — even embracing.
And precious. The smallest movement of an insect or the slightest breeze registers audibly. You hear the ruffling of your sleeve, or the call of a raven miles away. This is desert silence. Easily disturbed. A fragile silence.
From this desert silence come words that Elijah hears with his inner ear.
The voice asks, "Ma lekha po, Elijah?" Literally, the sentence reads, "What is for you here, Elijah?" But scholars translate this sentence as an expression, "Why are you here, Elijah?" or "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
If we stop to listen in the stillness, this is a question any of us can hear, anytime we walk the desert.
Who am I, when my achievements, titles, and bank account are left behind? When all that really matters is whether I can find shade and shelter. When the more possessions I carry on my back, the less chance I have of finding water.
Who am I, when the person I have become is a burden I can no longer carry, and the self-image and personality habits I have worked so hard to cultivate in the past, are precisely what might lead me to my death now?
When everything nonessential has been shed like a snake's skin, who am I?
Complete the Closing ritual with an element (meditation, benediction, song) commonly used in your congregational worship, or use one or more of the suggestions below. Base your choice(s) on the needs and energy level of your group. With your co-leaders, you may elect to use the same ritual to close every session.
A. Lead the group in singing "Meditation on Breathing," Hymn 1009 in Singing the Journey: A Hymnbook Supplement to Singing the Living Tradition. Hear the simple tune online (at www.uua.org/publications/singingjourney/52328.shtml).
B. Have the group read in unison Reading 452 by Marjorie Montgomery in Singing the Living Tradition:
Life is a gift for which we are grateful.
We gather in community to celebrate
the glories
and mysteries
of this great gift.
C. Sing or say the words to "From You I Receive," Hymn 402 in Singing the Living Tradition. Teach the group the accompanying movements.
From you I receive | Scoop the air by reaching toward other participants, then bringing air toward yourself at chest level, that is, receiving it. |
To you I give | Opposite from above — scoop the air at chest level and push it outward to "give" to other participants. |
Together we share | All grasp hands. |
By this we live | Make fist of strength with each hand and stack one hand on top of the other at belly button level. |
D. Go around the circle — using the Tool of the Day as a talking stick again, if you like — and invite each participant to say one thing they might like to do to give reflection a larger role in their lives. A higher-energy version of the above could involve the group repeating back, chant-style, the statement of each participant, and adding, "Go out into the world and reflect!"
E. Sing a familiar song. Suggestions: "Thula Klizeo," Hymn 1056 in Singing the Journey; "I Know This Rose Will Open," Hymn 396 in Singing the Living Tradition; or "Rejoice in Love," Hymn 380 in Singing the Living Tradition.
F. Use this team spirit chant, "Pump It Up!"
Leader: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Group: Pump, pump, pump it up!
Leader: Pump that UU spirit up!
Group: Pump that UU spirit up!
Instead of "Pump it up!" you may use "Fire it up!" or "Keep it up!"
Pass the Tool of the Day around the circle and invite participants, one at a time, to voice a way they plan to use the quality of faith that was explored today. Guide them to say:
With my UU [quality of faith, e.g., reflection], I will . . .
Lead the group in responding to each participant's contribution:
Group: "Go, UU, go!"
If you have not yet done so, invite a participant to tape or glue a piece of foil (to represent a mirror) and write the word "Reflection" on the Toolbox of Our Faith poster.
Extinguish the chalice.
Distribute Taking It Home handouts.
Thank and dismiss participants.
FAITH IN ACTION: IDEAS
Description of Activity
Inward reflection as a spiritual activity rarely just "happens." Design a Faith in Action project to learn about, observe, and engage in an intentional practice of spiritual reflection. Individuals in your congregation may be experienced in a practice that they could share with the group.
Research online about Zen or yoga meditation and locate meditation centers or classes in your area. You can hear guided meditations for children and adults on websites such as Learning Meditation (at www.learningmeditation.com/room.htm).
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
Reflect on these questions and discuss them with your co-leaders:
TAKING IT HOME
Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sounds of silence.
— Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence"
IN TODAY'S SESSION . . .
The children explored the physical reflective properties of mirrors. We used a mirror as a symbol to teach about reflection as a tool we find in our Unitarian Universalist faith. We talked about using reflection when we have difficult questions and need to think about the answers. And, we talked about when, where, and how we take the time to listen inside ourselves for a still, small voice.
The children learned that we often think of our own "still, small voice" as our conscience and that some people think of it as the voice of God. The group heard the story, adapted from Hebrew scripture (I Kings 19:11-12), of the prophet Elijah and his experience hearing a "still, small voice."
We learned about reflection to illustrate that:
EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about . . .
When are times that different people in your family find it easy to be reflective? Around a campfire? on a mountaintop? at night?
Talk about the kinds of things each of you think about when you are being reflective. Does reflecting give you fresh ideas? Calm you down? Help you solve problems?
What does your "still, small voice" say to you?
EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try . . .
Talk about ways you have used, or could use, reflection to help find meaningful, truthful answers to difficult questions in your lives.
FAMILY ADVENTURE
Many cultures and faiths use meditative practices to foster inward reflection. Explore forms of meditation (at www.meditationcenter.com/index.html) that members of your family could learn together. Research online about Zen meditation (at www.mro.org/zmm/teachings/meditation.php) or yoga meditation and locate meditation centers or classes in your area. You can hear guided meditations for children and adults on websites such as Learning Meditation (at www.learningmeditation.com/room.htm).
A FAMILY RITUAL
Try setting a time, such as during a family meal or before children go to sleep, to be deliberate about reflecting on events and issues. Ask each other to reflect on something unusual about your day or something that happened which made you think. Share your reflections with one another.
TOOLBOX OF FAITH: SESSION 5:
STORY: ELIJAH AND THE STILL, SMALL VOICE
Adapted from Hebrew scripture (I Kings 19:11-12).
Read or tell the story.
There are many stories from Hebrew scripture and Jewish tradition about a prophet, Elijah. Elijah believed there was one, single god when many others believed that there were a number of different gods, one stronger or more powerful than another. One of the popular gods of the time was called Baal. Elijah challenged the followers of Baal to a contest to prove whether his god or their god had more power. Elijah won. When the queen, Jezebel, found out, she was very angry at Elijah. He fled into the wilderness to escape.
After a day's journey, Elijah rested under a juniper tree. He felt afraid, and tired, and very much alone. As he dozed, an angel came to him and said "Wake up, and have something to eat and drink." When Elijah opened his eyes, there was cake and water for him. He ate and drank, and then dozed off again.
After a while, the angel returned and woke Elijah again to eat and drink, saying Elijah would need his strength because he still had a long distance to travel. Elijah continued on, to a mountain called Horeb, where his god was said to be. He found a cave in the mountainside and went inside.
While Elijah sat in the cave, he heard a voice ask him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?" He believed the question came from his god, so he answered, "I am not sure what I am doing here, except that I'm very scared and frustrated. I defended you and won a contest that proved you were the one, true god, stronger than the god Baal. Even so, there are still many people who do not believe in your power, and many who refuse to keep their covenant with you. And Jezebel the queen is after me. She's angry that I won the contest. Now I'm afraid for my life, and I do not know what to do."
The voice spoke to Elijah again. Because he believed the voice belonged to his god, Elijah did what it asked him to do. He came out of the cave, and stood at the mouth of the cave, atop Mount Horeb, hoping he might feel his god's presence and understand what to do next.
Suddenly, while Elijah stood there, a great, strong wind whipped around the mountains, breaking off pieces of rock all around which went crashing down. But Elijah did not hear the voice of his god in the wind.
Then an earthquake shook the mountain up and down, with a terrific rumbling, but Elijah again did not hear the voice of his god.
Then came a fire, sweeping across the rocks and brush outside the cave. But Elijah knew his god was not in that fire, either.
After the fire, it was quiet. And then, in the calm, Elijah heard the still, small voice.
FIND OUT MORE
Two sermons offer Unitarian Universalist interpretations of the passage from scripture about Elijah and the still, small voice:
"The Still, Small Voice of Calm," (at www.firstparish.org/cms/content/view/67/45/) given March 18, 2001, by Revered Gary E. Smith in Concord, Massachusetts, relates the story of Elijah, a tired prophet, to modern UUs' lives. He says, in part:
Up until this point, the Israelites have depended heavily upon the wind, the earthquake, and the fire to prove the power and the might of the one they hold most holy. What if instead the God of our forebears is to be found in the power of silence, found not in this booming anthropomorphic bellow of an angry father, but in a "small voice of calm?" This is a radical theological change and not one with which the storyteller necessarily lingers.
. . . I think we often find ourselves in Elijah's place: overworked, overstressed, burned out, tired of trying to prove ourselves, under-appreciated, at the end of our rope, alone, and tired . . . We can find ourselves in Elijah's place in the wider world, particularly in our passion for politics and change. It all sometimes seems so hopeless. What difference can one person make?
. . . Elijah is a caricature for all of this, it seems to me, to the point that he is reduced to challenging his detractors to a fire ignition contest. Better that he had skipped that and gone directly to what he does next. He heads for the wilderness. He rests. He dreams. Better yet, he listens to his dreams.
For a Unitarian Universalist overview of ways and places to hear the "still, small voice," read "Heeding the Call," (at www.eliotchapel.org/sermonDocs/heedingCall.htm) a sermon given by the Reverend Dr. Daniel O'Connell at Eliot Unitarian Chapel, Kirkwood, Missouri, on April 14, 2002.
The essay, "Elijah and the 'Still, Small Voice': A Desert Reading," (at www.torahtrek.com/writings-elijah.htm) by Rabbi Michael Comins can be found on the Torah TrekR website. Rabbi Comins proposes the translation "voice of fragile silence," based on his own experience reflecting on Elijah's story while sitting under the shadow of Mt. Sinai and reflecting on Elijah's experience. He says, in part
Not all silences are alike. Put in earplugs or enter a soundproof room and the silence is muggy and oppressive. Silence in a forested, mountain wilderness is rare. The wind howls, leaves rustle, birds chirp, insects buzz, creeks "sing." True silence, perhaps on a peak when the wind stops, is actually quite rare. It hits suddenly, with dramatic impact.
In Israel's deserts and the Sinai, where the wind is usually still for at least half the day, the silence is vastly different. If you are in the desert now, close your eyes and wait for the wind to stop. This silence is total, yet light and natural — even embracing.
And precious. The smallest movement of an insect or the slightest breeze registers audibly. You hear the ruffling of your sleeve, or the call of a raven miles away. This is desert silence. Easily disturbed. A fragile silence.
A sermon by Rabbi Janet Marder, given in September 2004 at Temple Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, California, articulates a contemporary message she finds in the story of Elijah and the still, small voice. Read "Does God Still Speak to People?" (at www.betham.org/sermons/marder040904.html) online. She says, in part:
The text says that God passed by. There was a great and mighty wind, splitting mountains and shattering rocks, but God was not in the wind. After the wind came an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came fire, but God was not in the fire. Finally, after the fire came "kol d'mama daka" — a phrase that is sometimes translated "a still, small voice." That is the only answer that Elijah gets; but it is enough to send him back to the world to do God's work.
Most important for us, today, though, may be our experiences of the still, small voice — the quiet yet overpowering consciousness inside us of what is right, of what is real, of what matters in this life and what is essential for us to do. The still, small voice speaks the deepest truths we know. It comes to us at moments of intense joy and also in sadness, when we feel most alone. The still, small voice can lift us out of despair, as it did Elijah; it can remind us that our lives have meaning and purpose, and that there is work to be done in this world.