Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice and matches Description of Activity Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below. Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "freedom" in silence. After about fifteen...

Jalalud’din Rumi (!3th Century), translated by Kulliyat-e Shams, from Rumi's Divan of Shems of Tabriz: Selected Odes (Element Classics of World Spirituality). (England: Dorset Books, 1997) A moment of happiness, you and I sitting on the verandah, apparently two, but one in soul, you and I....

My dear, my dear, I know More than another What makes your heart beat so; Not even your own mother Can know it as I know, Who broke my heart for her When the wild thought, That she denies And has forgot, Set all her blood astir And glittered in her eyes. From The Wild Swans at Cooley (1919).

This poem is written in dialect. I will bring you a whole person and you will bring me a whole person and we will have us twice as much of love and everything I be bringing a whole heart and while it do have nicks and dents and scars, that only make me lay it down more careful-like An' you be...

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 2, "To a Young Girl," by William Butler Yeats Handout 3, ".05," by Ishmael Reed Journals and pen or pencils Preparation for Activity Photocopy Handouts 2, "To a Young Girl" and 3, ".05," one for each participant. Description of Activity...

Activity time: 15 minutes Materials for Activity Index cards and pens Newsprint or a dry erase board and markers Preparation for Activity Optional: Prepare a few index cards with love lyrics as an example for participants. Description of Activity Participants use the lyrics of popular songs to...

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 1, A Rumi Poem Preparation for Activity Photocopy Handout 1, A Rumi Poem, one for each participant. Description of Activity Participants read a poem and explore their own views about a common theme in love poems: merging with another versus...

Activity time: 30 minutes Materials for Activity Art supplies, including drawing paper, pencils, markers, colored pencils, and other materials Newsprint or a dry erase board and markers Journals and pens or pencils Optional: CD player and music Preparation for Activity If youth will be free to wo...

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice Singing the Living Tradition Description of Activity Use the Closing designed by your group or the one provided below....

Materials for Activity Books of children's poetry Arts and crafts materials Blankets, pillows, sleeping bags, and/or bean bag chairs Congregational calendar Newsprint or dry erase board and markers Optional: Hand puppets or materials for making simple puppets Optional: Snacks Preparation for...

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice and matches Description of Activity Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below. Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the word "love" in silence. After about fifteen...

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Copies of Singing the Living Tradition and Singing the Journey Description of Activity Participants search for hymns with poetry they find inspiring or beautiful. Pass out hymnals. Ask participants if they have favorite hymns. As they do so, ask...

Activity time: 30 minutes Materials for Activity Jazz poems created in Activity 2, Jazz Poems Various art supplies, including poster board, glue, scissors, and markers Old magazines Preparation for Activity Have arts and crafts supplies available....

Activity time: 25 minutes Materials for Activity One set of three different colored sheets of paper for each participant; or three sheets of white paper and three different colored markers for each participant Journals and pens or pencils Optional: Jazz CDs and CD player Optional: Scissors, glue,...

Activity time: 20 minutes Materials for Activity Handout 1, "Perhaps," by Shu Ting Preparation for Activity Photocopy Handout 1, "Perhaps," one for each participant. Description of Activity Give everyone a copy of the poem. Ask two or more volunteers to read it aloud, pausing for thirty seconds...

Activity time: 5 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice Singing the Living Tradition Description of Activity Use the Closing designed by your group or the one provided below....

Activity time: 30 minutes Materials for Activity Paper and pens or pencils Resources for interfaith prayers, including Singing the Living Tradition and books of meditation Description of Activity One mission that some Unitarian Universalists take on is to help make our world a place that is more...

Activity time: 10 minutes Materials for Activity Chalice and matches Description of Activity Use the Opening designed by your group or the one provided below. Gather around the chalice. As a volunteer lights the chalice, ask the group to focus on the words "life's mission" in silence. After about...

Gather the group in a circle. Ask everyone to sit on the floor or in a chair, in a comfortable but alert position (legs crossed or tucked under them, and back straight). The "alert" part of this instruction is important to prevent meditators from falling asleep! Invite participants to close their...

Al Zolynas (1945- ), from Kowit, Steve, ed., The Maverick Poets: An Anthology (Santee, CA: Gorilla Press, 1988).Afternoon. Across the garden, in Green Hall, someone begins playing the old piano— a spontaneous piece, amateurish and alive, full of a simple, joyful melody. The music floats among us...