Building relationships requires the risk of being open and curious.

Every relationship is an ongoing story that unfolds between people.

We are learning to regroup and remember perfection was never the point.

Start by telling the story of your mistake. Keep practicing! This is a tool you can use in many different situations.

May I have the wisdom to be curious when I find myself grumbling about “them.”

So much held in a heart in a lifetime. So much held in a heart in a day, an hour, a moment. We are utterly open with no one, in the end—not mother and father, not wife or husband, not lover, not child, not friend. We open windows to each but we live alone in the house of the heart. Perhaps we...

"Rarely, if ever, are any of us healed in isolation. Healing is an act of communion." from https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/All-about-Love--New-Vis… about Love, p. 215.

This message for all ages involves two people, one of whom will need to bring forward a broken mug, plate, or bowl. These two leaders might hold a private rehearsal so that, in worship, this feels natural and playful — and yet meaningful....

The 7 Jobs Capitalism Asks of All of Us: 1. Measure Self Worth by Work: Don’t believe in the inherent goodness of people. Instead decide that everyone’s worth is only as much as they achieve. 2. Accept that Oppression is the Norm: This starts with adultism the moment we are born and conditions...

I invite you into a period of quiet meditation. Close your eyes if you wish, and get comfortable in your seat. Think about the father-figure you carry in your heart. I invite you to remember the gifts and the wounds you received from that person or persons. If any feelings come up, just breathe...

On this Father’s Day, we recognize the vast spectrum of experience and the often-complicated feelings that surround such a celebration. We honor those fathers and father figures in our lives who have loved, supported, encouraged and instructed us, and we seek to share these gifts with others. We...

Open your hearts, my friends, And let yourself feel the reality of absence. Open your hearts, and acknowledge That we gather in the presence of death. Open your hearts. Make room For the healing balm of connection, the release of forgiveness. No matter what pain dwells within your spirit, Or how...

Worship Leader: In this moment of worship we call to mind those times of failure and regret common to all of us. We remember first, in silence, those times when we have failed to do all that we meant to do, or through our actions failed to be all we were meant to be....

October 5, 2016 "The heart was made to be broken." ― Oscar Wilde I'm sitting here broken-hearted. I could try to convince you that it’s about the state of the world with its tragedies, suffering, and seeming lack of compassion, but it’s not. I’m broken-hearted because a relationship that had...

For those we have hurt in any way, whether through words or deed or thoughts. Here is a place to forgive and to be forgiven. For the excuses we have made, just to be right. Here is a place to forgive and to be forgiven. For the blame we have placed on someone else, again and again....

Holy God, hear our prayer. There is pain and there is sorrow, there are broken relationships and broken hearts. Sometimes we are the cause of those things. We have caused pain. We have broken the relationship....

Imagine this. On the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, every fall, every year, the people make their peace with anyone they have wronged or slighted or injured or in any way neglected in the past twelve months....

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...

Mother's Day is complicated. Joyful for many, yes, but complicated. It's right there on the calendar, even if your mother has died....

Holidays are complicated, especially the ones named after roles. Human relationships are messy, including relationships with people who are honored by holidays. For a lot of people, Father’s Day brings up feelings of grief for fathers who were lost, or who couldn’t be there, or who chose not to...