A centering practice for meetings, gatherings or worship in person or online.

What “toast, boast, and oath” might you offer this January?

The journey toward inner truth is too taxing to be made solo.

We must unstick our minds if we want to bring change into the world.

Ultimately it will be the small things that unite us...

There's an older rhythm calling us to rest.

Life doesn't have to be ever-upward in order to be well-lived.

We need places where we can come and find our grounding once again.

Advent encourages us to be present in each moment of waiting.

When the holy month of Ramadan approaches, it becomes a beautiful reminder to return to myself.

Though we experience discomfort, we are excited to give birth to a new, just world.

I want to be shaped in a way that lets me serve the eternal.

I believe in your grace and protection and cannot imagine them slipping through the cracks.

The words we cast to fill the silence left by one we loved never are enough.

Spirit of Life and Love, help me to notice when I am hooked.

Maybe hope is fleeting. It leaves and returns again; there’s beauty in its impermanence.

"Most of us have been led to believe that prophets 'foretell' the future. That is true, and it is also misleading. It is not the point here. Prophets are seers of the big patterns; they see what is always and forever true. Prophets like Isaiah know how God acts by watching and listening, and they...

The wilderness alongside every moment, sprawling in each direction, holds more than the silence that theologians imagine of God.

Let me find peace within So that I may be calm throughout. Let me find silence within So that I may find compassion throughout. Let me be reminded that some things Are worth waiting for. Let me be reminded that the journey Is more important than reaching the destination. Let me see that the...

What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on trying to make the world different than it is. Sing. Pray. Touch only those to whom you commit your life. Center down. And when your...

Goddess, Make me an instrument of peace Where there is hatred, let me know love Where there is injury, healing Where there is doubt, reassurance Where there is challenge, compassion Where there is pain, rest O Divine Mother, Grant that I may Not so much seek to control as to co-create, To be...

Spirit of Life, ancestor of the stars and the sun, you who embrace the vastness of space and us along with it, be with us today. Hold us in our worry, our exhaustion, our grief. Keep us close as we sit with our truth, whatever that may be....

Can we just sit here for a minute, Holy One? Some of us are carrying pretty heavy stuff. . . . . . And we could all use a moment of peace. To count our breath. To quiet the noise. To let our spirits be still. . . . . . Perhaps as we sit, we will count our blessings. Name them, one by one. . . . . .

We pause as the path of the sun reverses, seemingly holding its place for a moment of turning. Let us delve into the gifts of darkness at the winter solstice. We follow curiosity and contemplation down into the cold earth, taking a journey to the world below the surface....

Spirit of Life that goes by so many names… Spirit of Love that has taken so many shapes on our earth over the millennia of human habitation here… we open our hearts to make room for you. With the innocence and imagination of a child, help us to hear the beauty and the magic in the Christmas...

What is it That calls you here That calls you onward That calls you inward That leads you homeward? What is it That gives you the power To make that change To ask that question To take that journey?...

We feel the season turning. The early sunset glancing through the red-tinged leaves. The newspaper arriving in the cool morning air. The flock of migrating swallows. A feeling of being on the edge of something new. These are the Days of Awe. A time to welcome a new year and a time to make the old...

Everything is about to change. And it already has. It will be. It was. It is. The dawn you eagerly await to end the long, cold darkness is already full sun far off in the east. Yet even after light’s return spring is months away. Thirty long years pass after His birth before the Messiah comes.

In this time of waiting, may we hold the world in our hearts. In this time of waiting, may we hold each other's hands. In this time of waiting, may we be thoughtful and introspective. In this time of waiting, may we delight in the darkness and all it teaches us. In this time of waiting, may we...

A white woman pulled over and ran over to me with a shopping bag. As I looked down at the bag, I had very mixed emotions.

"We can change. People say we can’t, but we do when the stakes or the pain is high enough. And when we do, life can change."...

In the unity of the spirit, in the sanctity of this gathering, let us quiet ourselves as we settle into a meditative moment, a time when we can each listen to that still, small voice within. All our souls speak to us, if we trust ourselves to hear them. What do they tell us this day, in this very...

On my worst days, it is gravity I am most grateful for: the way the earth pulls at me from her core, yearns for me, keeps me pressed tightly against her surface. When my own core is hollowed out, when I have no more mass than a leaf dead on the branch, still this is enough for the earth to find me.

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not, God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is...

Leader: In this sacred space People: Let us be still in the quiet. Leader: In this sacred space People: Let our hearts open as a butterfly’s wings. Leader: In this sacred space People: May the glow of this light shine within us.

People move places for jobs, relations, opportunities, escape, hindering our ability to put down new roots. And yet, we carry a constancy: the still, quiet voice within.

I give thanks for all it takes to be a healing presence, and also how simple it is. I confess that I want to be seen as (especially) good (especially) right (especially) useful. I confess that I'm still learning an artful skill....

In real life, we can only place the pieces, one by one, and see what kind of picture we create. Sometimes we turn out to have chosen the wrong piece. Sometimes the picture is wildly unexpected.

Let this be a place of warm and gentle silence: the silence that soothes and comforts the wounded, the silence that yields insights into heart and soul, the silence that calms, the silence the listens, the silence that speaks, the silence that renews. Let this be a place of warm and gentle silence.

As we come together, let us pause to take stock of the year now concluding: its moments of happiness and hurt, its times of accomplishment and failure, and its occasions of inspiration and fear. We add these experiences to the tapestries of our years, and look bravely towards a new horizon.

I invite you now into a time of meditation. You may wish to adjust your position: your feet flat on the ground, your body resting easily against the back of the chair, your hands gently open, palms up, resting on your thighs, your eyelids relaxed and half-closed, your breathing soft and easy.

The Congregational minister stopped me in the aisle of the supermarket a few months after I had unexpectedly recovered from a serious illness. With a gentle but slightly teasing smile he asked me, “How does a Unitarian deal with a miracle?” It was a good question, one which I thought about a...

Rest now, Rest in the peace of this moment. Be at ease. Look up at the stars, and down at the grass: Imagine the stars looking back at you over years and centuries, across oceans of empty space. Imagine the feel of the grass on your bare feet and feel it—dry and crunchy, soft and supple....

"Love, once again, break our hearts open wide." Thanks to Rev. Jason Shelton for providing the sheet music (PDF) for this song.

For the setting sun from an airplane window; for the rising sun from a train window after riding all night; for the rising sun and setting sun in directions that feel foreign; for the sunlight even when we are lost. For the times the heart has longed to be alone. For the times the heart has ached...

I invite you to join me in a time of prayer, meditation, and reflection—to be fully present here and now, in this sacred time and space, with ourselves, with each other, and with that which is larger than ourselves....

“Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” —Alice Walker I had finally begun to relax—a bit. We were en route to Pennsylvania. My friend, a formal part of our “framily,” was visiting. We decided a visit to a crayon factory was the perfect winter outing for toddlers. The day was clear...

“Everything around us and within us is made up of energy particles that are woven together into a universal tapestry. Since everything is connected, there is an intimate relationship between the atomic space around and within me, and the atomic space around and within you — regardless of where...

I understand participation in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a spiritual practice or discipline. While the word discipline may want to make us run and hide, a spiritual practice or discipline is meant to help us find our center. Approaching my participation in the CSA as a spiritual...

“We want to give you an update on our progress,” the captain said over the PA. A silent groan went through the passengers: the word “update” meant the problem wasn’t fixed. I was on a plane sitting on the tarmac trying to get to the East coast where I was officiating at my nephew’s...