Braver/Wiser
Braver/Wiser
Braver/Wiser
Worship
Life is full of hard edges and complicated choices. Braver/Wiser gives you weekly message of courage and compassion for life as it is. Every Wednesday we deliver an original written reflection by a contemporary UU religious leader, and brief prayer, grounded in Unitarian Universalism. Join the Braver/Wiser community and sign up today!
Contributors
During the summer of 2017, our weekly Braver/Wise reflections will be written by a team that includes Unitarian Universalist clergy, religious educators, and music professionals. We're excited to announce that team of nine writers:
Aisha Ansano, UU seminarian
Tim Atkins, religious educator
Becky Brooks, religious educator
DeReau Farrar, director of music
Rev. Elizabeth Harding, community minister
Chaplain Seanan Holland, U.S. Navy
Rev. Elea Kemler, parish minister
Yuri Yamamoto, music director
Braver/Wiser is edited by Erika Hewitt.
Note: your email address will be used only for Braver/Wiser emails, although on occasion you may receive invitations to related projects from the Unitarian Universalist Association. WorshipWeb will never share your email address with outside organizations.
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Who We Can Turn To
Sometimes, being on social media is actually good for my self-care. In the days leading up to the white nationalists marching in Charlottesville, and during the weekend, and since, I have found myself comforted and empowered by being part of a community that stretches beyond...By Aisha Ansano | 8/16/2017 -
Blessed Curses, Cursed Blessings
In the summer of 2002, my partners and I found the best apartment in the entire East Bay. It was on Harrison street in Oakland, just a short jog uphill from Lake Merritt. We had the whole top floor of a triplex, with garages at street level. The living room facing the street was...By Becky Brooks | 8/9/2017 -
Grateful to Our Teachers
I had been at sea for ten days. I’d visited this city before—but not on a Sunday, so I’d never been to the UU congregation there. On Sunday morning, I walked into the sanctuary where a greeter recognized that I was a visitor and welcomed me with a friendly greeting....By Seanan R. Holland | 8/2/2017 -
Nourishing Our Whole Selves
It had been a long week, and I was so. tired. After being cooped up at work all day, my partner and I decided to take a walk to a local burger place to grab some tasty food that didn’t require much work on our part. As we were getting ready to walk out the door, I realized that...By Aisha Ansano | 7/26/2017 -
Love's Pronoun Is Plural
My son, Caleb, and I went to Starbucks on a recent Saturday morning. We often do this as a prelude to the weekly grocery shopping. It sweetens the deal, which is important, as he is about to be 14 and on the autism spectrum. Both of these factors contribute to his resistance to...By Elea Kemler | 7/19/2017 -
Love Always Protects
I have some problems with Paul, the writer of this letter. I also have some problems with the translations in the New International Version of the Bible. All that aside, there’s something deeply moving for me about the idea of a love that will always have my back. "Always"—...By DeReau K. Farrar | 7/12/2017 -
Becoming a "Real" American
When I took the Intercultural Development Inventory* assessment in 2014, my trainer told me that I had some issues with my own cultural values and practices. It’s called Reversal Orientation, she said. I responded, “Why do you think I came to this country? I hated it there!”...By Yuri Yamamoto | 7/5/2017 -
Life Tips from a Pottery Wheel
Over the past couple of years, what started off as a hobby has turned into a true spiritual practice: wheel thrown pottery. I would love to tell you that I picked it up immediately, that I’ve become an expert potter with showcases and gallery openings and… okay, I can’t stop...By Tim Atkins | 6/28/2017 -
Green Beans
I want to tell you something about the June garden. Not about the knee-high rainbow chard or the hot pink zinnias, though both are splendid. Look closer: beneath heart-shaped leaves, hiding parallel to their own twining vines, are the humble treasures of early summer: the green...By Teresa Honey Youngblood | 6/21/2017 -
Do the Next Thing with Love
By the time Karate class rolled around Monday evening, I was still dazed. The day before — June 12, 2016 — my kids wanted to know why the parents were so sad. I told them I was crying for a really big group of people who had died in the night: fifty people. We got out their...By Becky Brooks | 6/14/2017 -
Keeping Our Connections Strong
I feel like I'm on a constant hunt for hope these days. I have to be: every time I look at my phone or open my laptop, I’m overwhelmed by stories of violence, disrespect for life, greed, and selfishness. When I listen to my friends and loved ones or to conversations in coffee...By Sean Parker Dennison | 6/7/2017 -
To Be Suspicious
As a born traveler, I love the novelty of discovering a familiar thing in a new setting. And what’s more familiar than a white clapboard church building on the town green? On my time away from the pulpit I often go for long drives in the hill country around my home in central...By Daniel Gregoire | 5/31/2017 -
The Folded Lie
One of the fads that swept my school when I was in 4th grade was a simple type of origami we called “cootie catchers,” the purpose of which was to predict your fortune – 97% guaranteed! A series of banal choices (do you like chocolate or vanilla? two or twelve?) caused the...By Maureen Killoran | 5/24/2017 -
Delicious Ambiguity
How is it that I, a minister and known skeptic, am able to a) not run around screaming that the sky is falling and, b) do my job at all? This question perplexes those belonging to religious traditions that offer comfort in the form of certainty. For some, answers to life’s...By Marisol Caballero | 5/17/2017 -
What Do We Do with Our Pain?
People are in pain all around us, all of the time. How can we be companions to those in pain, and bear witness, so that pain can be transformed into something less harmful? Last week, the crowd on a New York City subway herded me into a corner against someone’s seat: a man in...By Erika A. Hewitt | 5/10/2017 -
Confessing Communities
"Uh, where’s the booth?” Having been raised by a Christian-on-the-periphery, New Age mom and a Buddhist-leaning dad, I was a little perplexed at my first confession. I was eight years old, attending a Catholic school. That’s a whole different story, but let’s stay with the...By Robin Tanner | 5/3/2017 -
Exuberance
Once, I worked in an aluminum building, scoring the standardized tests that they make children take. That year, fourth graders across North Carolina were asked to answer, in an essay, "What is your favorite kind of weather, and why?" You might imagine there would be...By Jake Morrill | 4/26/2017 -
Home Is Where We Feel Connected
I spent four years of my life living in New York City and a little over two living in California, and I am proud to say that I have lived every other year of my life in Texas. Texans are known for their arrogance about our home state, and this reputation isn’t untrue. In fact,...By Marisol Caballero | 4/19/2017 -
Infighting Is Easier
Standing roadside, stranded, watching thousands of dollars rise in the smoke coming from under the hood, it’s easier to fight about who forgot to put oil in the car than to hold one another’s shaking hands in the shape-shifting uncertainty of whether the three white boys we’re...By Teresa Honey Youngblood | 4/12/2017 -
Crossing Thresholds
At times in my life, I’ve had to step back to fully take in the puzzling enormity of some action or decision I’ve taken. In those moments I’ve instinctively reached out for some kind of comfort in the form of a self-embrace, hugging myself with my arms crisscrossing my belly,...By Daniel Gregoire | 4/5/2017
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