Embodying all of me is the best way I know to love the world.

We—you and I—are in-between right now

May we each find the balance point we need

Dying is scary, but we are brave, and we can talk about it together.

We don’t need to understand why someone sets a boundary to respect it.

Your minister is not, cannot be, your friend.

If I want well-being to be my truth, I must reclaim and protect it.

We already have everything we need within us to meet the life that is before us.

My inner compass reminds me of the power we’ve been given to create a new future.

I learned that love and support can be expressed in many different ways by different people.

"There are two moments that matter. One is when you know that your one and only life is absolutely valuable and alive. The other is when you know your life, as presently lived, is entirely pointless and empty. You need both of them to keep you going in the right direction. Lent is about both. The...

I feel disoriented when I’m in a new place or situation and can’t figure out whether the rules are real or imaginary.

Sometimes, I know I'm hanging onto a part of my life that I'll eventually need to let go of...but not just yet.

I take care of myself first, because I am deserving of exquisite care. I take care of myself to maintain the capacity to help others. I move and stretch my body every day. I spend time in nature, attuning my senses to the earth's wisdom. I ration my daily exposure to the news....

Although the German word Giftschrank sounds like a quirky holiday tradition, the term is really a combination of the words poison and cabinet....

Sometimes people show up fully and be with me. And sometimes they cannot, even if they really care about me and want to help.

When I internalize cultural messages about the definitions of success or failure—or anything, really—I undermine my own sense of self-worth.

In real life, sometimes grief looms largest in December. Sometimes there's one too many dress-ups and the gold tulle makes your legs itch. “I just needed it to stop for a minute. Next time I will take calm breaths.”

This is a story of in-the-middle for those wondering how their story ends.

I wanted so badly to break free and let loose—but I just couldn't. I was stuck in my own false ideas of the congregation's expectations of me. Luckily, there’s still time.

Good morning! Do you notice anything different about me today? That’s right, I’m wearing glasses. Have you seen glasses like these before? Any idea where I might have gotten them? They came from a 3-D movie theatre and a movie where, if you put on these special glasses, some of things you see...

Failing to use a microphone is a form of exclusion. “When I’m excluded, I feel weary, frustrated, and invisible."

One: It may be the hardest thing we will ever do, Many: Caught up in our self-righteousness, honing our pain. One: The one who offended may not deserve forgiveness Many: And we are not obliged to offer it. One: Why, then, should we forgive? Many: Because we have all caused pain....

To prepare, you'll need a few inflated balloons -- and to gird yourself for the improvisation required! Let’s play a game! Everyone knows how to play this game. All you have to do is get this balloon to the back of the room as fast as you can! Go!...

I have a voice. It is a small voice, perhaps, but it will not be silenced. When you call for black people to be beaten, and excluded, and even removed—I will say no. When you attempt to silence Latinx voices—I will say no. When you mock the disabled and threaten the oppressed—I will say no.

Come one, come all! Come with your missing pieces and your extra screws Come with your hard edges and your soft spots Come with your bowed heads and upright spines Come all you flamboyant and drab verbose and quiet fidgeting and lethargic All you with large vision and tender hearts All you with...

Six weeks into the church year, I have realized that I am the minister of a church where things usually go wrong. This morning the copy machine jams repeatedly. The bulletin describing the order of worship has been copied with the second page first and also upside down....

Inexplicable. How we rise each morning, instead of burying our heads under bedcovers, sewing them shut. Why we keep on welcoming babies with bone-deep joy to this sordid world. How we fill burlap sacks with grit and gratitude, our hands shredded as we drag one over the other....

May I move gently through this cloudy, murky, gray day. May I remember that this is just one day, and that showing up is at least half of what is asked of me. May I set aside my underlying anxiety that I will not get to everything and put my trust and faith onto the riverbank of human community —...

We gather together this morning, Because others came before us. Some have left examples for us to follow, Others lessons for us to learn from, and the paradox is that many have left both pain and joy. We honor our ancestors this morning, not because they are perfect, But because, without them, we...

I am so tired and weary, So tired of the endless fight, So weary of waiting the dawn And finding endless night. That I ask but rest and quiet— Rest for the days that are gone, And quiet for the little space That I must journey on.

We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; Therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; Therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; Therefore, we are saved by...

Dear great lathe of heaven, O foundry of souls, You churning, burning cosmos which has wrought me on the infinite loom of your celestial body. Spinning stars and indifferent stones: hear my prayer. Do not curse me to perish with all my dreams fulfilled....

In the midst of the whirling day, In the hectic rush to be doing, In the frantic pace of life, Pause here for a moment. Catch your breath; Relax your body; Loosen your grip on life....

Each moment of our living brings us closer to our dying. Young or old, the knowledge of life’s end is with us, growing more real, more familiar through the experiences of time and of loss. Yet what is to keep us from frittering away what time is left to us, Making it almost a matter of...

I have learned some things about life from canoes. I’m not saying I know how to paddle. I have been in canoes twice, and both have been learning experiences. The second time was fun. The first time, a friend and I decided to take one out on a lake. We slid the canoe into the water. She hopped in.

The universe does not revolve around you. The stars and planets spinning through the ballroom of space dance with one another quite outside of your small life. You cannot hold gravity or seasons; even air and water inevitably evade your grasp. Why not, then, let go?...

When I was a child, I would stand and gaze at the starry firmament and contemplate infinity. As I stood there, the boundary that is time dissolved; I expanded my Spirit to fill the boundary that is space. My being stilled and all fear, anxiety, and anguish disappeared....

The universe sings no less because time and space wear us thin. The music calls us to recognize our limitations, to recognize that the song is best sung with others.

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....

Overview: A Soulful Sundown worship on abundance, exploring the interwoven nature of emptiness and fullness Theme or Background: spiritual abundance and the cyclical paradox of emptiness and fullness Materials Involved/Altar: set in our usual way with fabric and strips....

Overview Appropriate for up to 20 people. Everyone comes into the space, and there is a box waiting with instructions for taking worship "out of the box" Theme or Background A boom box, readings, altar materials, etc. are contained in a box in the middle of the room....

Let there be a quiet time among us. Spirit of life, in us and around us, here is our chance—once again—to live like we wish the world would live. May we find within ourselves the courage to be who we are. May we know when it is time to listen and when it is time to speak. May we trust ourselves...

Enter into the communion of flowers with joyful hearts. Enter with reverent thoughts. It has taken long months beneath cold ground for these flowers to prepare their blooming. It has taken each of us long times of growth through sorrow and joy to prepare for our living now. The blooming season is...

In sightless night, terrors draw near Nameless fears of talon and tooth Hopelessness yawns before us—an abyss Alone and unknown in the gloom, longing for the dawn O sacred flame blaze forth—wisdom brought to life Guide us— With the light of hope The warmth of love The beacon of purpose and...

A voice screeched gate assignments through a nerve-jangling public address system. Even if the announcements had been in English, I doubt that I’d have been able to make sense of them. But whatever was being broadcast to the cavernous waiting area of the Moscow airport prompted mobs of people to...

Look well to the growing edge! All around us worlds are dying and new worlds are being born; all around us life is dying and life is being born. The fruit ripens on the tree, the roots are silently at work in the darkness of the earth against a time when there shall be new leaves, fresh blossoms,...

Waiting is a window opening on many landscapes. For some, waiting means the cessation of all activity when energy is gone and exhaustion is all that the heart can manage. It is the long, slow panting of the spirit. For some, waiting is a time of intense preparation for the next leg of the journey.

The concern which I lay bare before God today is my need to be better: I want to be better than I am in my most ordinary day-by-day contacts: With my friends— With my family— With my casual contacts— With my business relations— With my associates in work and play. I want to be better than I...