There in the deep sack of night, a tiny Hope was born. 

I hope that this Great Silence, which has come alongside the suffering, holds the beginnings of our healing.

See how the winds have shaped her hands to hold hope? So tenuous, it trembles like a hummingbird’s heart. She gently carries hope to a nest in the midst of the maelstrom and tilts it into the bowl of tiny feathers and mosses. Hope is so hard to cup. She might need your help when it seeps through...

We light this chalice to remember the miracle of the oil that burned for eight days.

On this, the longest night of the year, we are warmed by the certain knowledge that tomorrow will welcome more light than today. As it has for eons—for billions of years—the coming of light brings life. May we be awed by the great miracles of light and life, and faithfully nurture the mystery...

At last, we are here. After a long winter, we can say enthusiastically and without second thought, alleluia! Alleluia, spring is here in all her glory. New life begins, the earth and its creatures are resurrected from their dens of hibernation and dark slumber....

Spirit of Hope, settle into our bones on this Easter morning. Remind us once again that the dawn light is never a gamble; If there ever was a sure bet, it is the sunrise. Even stones crumble even grief changes and shifts and death is a mystery that is certain but not solid; But hope is like the...

The road that lies ahead of us is a long one, and the pace of progress will sometimes feel glacially slow. Never forget that glaciers over time can carve out grand canyons and great lakes. Moving tectonic plates can rise up mountains over millennia, or they can explode awe-inspiring volcanoes in...

“Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we kept fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.” —John Updike, “Tuesday, and After,” The New Yorker, September 24, 2001 We sat on the back steps watching transfixed as hundreds of rust-red spiders, big as thumbs, dropped...

As December opens up before us, we welcome in the gift of reflection.

May we give thanks always, believing that, even in the world’s bleakest moments, the dance of life is always underway.

When all around us voices are raised in anger, hatred spilling into the streets and sparking more hatred, sometimes the best we can do is to sink our hands into the soil. Let the fights over abstractions ebb away, flow like water into the earth....

Leader: Quick! Look about you! The snows of Winter are gone and the Earth has awoken once more! Congregation: Hail the Spring in all her green glory! L: The brave small flowers push up from the warming soil; birds return from their southerly homes; the first buds appear on the trees....

This ritual was designed as part of a worship service/fire communion. Please see that holiday description for more details. Leader: Today’s service is about letting go, metaphoric cleansing and quenching of thirst, setting of intentions, self-anointing, healing, new beginnings and possibilities.

If we lived in another climate Our souls might speak other languages We might speak oasis or permafrost, dry season or monsoon But our souls speak spring Our souls speak green shoots pushing through last year’s leaves Our souls speak flower buds stretching to sun Our souls speak mud puddle and...

Holy grandparents of the Universe...energies of creation...endless mysteries of life: You are the music that sounded before our world was born, sound and silence woven throughout the ages, far beyond the most profound wisdom humanity has been able to touch....

In the bleak and cold winter, We gather ourselves in To light the fire to warm our spirits, To kindle the flame of love and hope.

I’m going to talk about something really powerful today: HOPE. And first, I have a question. Have you ever hoped for something? … and did the thing you hoped for happen? [Take responses.] I think that hope is kinda like these: [Pass around basket of acorns and invite children to take one to hold...

Come we now out of the darkness of our unknowing and the dusk of our dreaming; Come we now from far places. Come we now into the twilight of our awakening and the reflection of our gathering. Come we now all together. We bring, unilluminated, our dark caves of doubting; We seek, unbedazzled, the...

As frozen earth holds the determined seed, this sacred space holds our weariness, our worry, our laughter and our celebration. Let us bring seed and soul into the light of thought, the warmth of community, and the hope of love. Let us see together, hear together, love together. Let us worship.

The journeys of our lives are never fully charted. There come to each of us deserts to cross—barren stretches—where the green edge on the horizon may be our destination, or an oasis on our way, or a mirage that beckons only to leave us lost. When fear grips the heart, or despair bows the head,...