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 religious leader, and brief prayer, grounded in Unitarian Universalism. Join the Braver/Wiser community and sign up today!
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God Manifest
I saw a woman surrounded by the pressures to conform to adulthood, being the adult she always wanted to be when she was a child. She was as God made her, not who everyone else wanted her to be.By Nathan Ryan | 3/20/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Another Human Miracle
What could you accomplish this week if you knew you had a ground team wishing you well? Who are the other explorers around you, needing a word of encouragement that would mean so much coming from you?By Monica Dobbins | 3/13/2019Average rating:0/5 -
This Is What We Do Here
Despite being warmly welcomed over and over by the greeters, by the family sitting behind me, and by the lead pastor, I couldn’t shake that “guest” feeling.By Erika A. Hewitt | 3/6/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Trying Something Different
Over the years, I’ve built up an impressive array of tools for meetings: I-statements, being assertive, and all of that stuff. What I could improve on, though, is knowing when to switch tools.By Liz James | 2/27/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Your Soul's Address
It is deeply spiritual work to learn to treat ourselves with compassion; to learn to see ourselves, if only in moments, the same way we look at something or someone we find beautiful: a newborn baby, the ocean, a sunset.By Elea Kemler | 2/13/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Here. Now. You.
Outside of the meditation hall, we plan for the future and think of the past. But so often we replay past regrets and worry about future events to the point where we’re no longer present in the present.By Kat Liu | 2/6/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Where the Action Is
Love without justice is not love. Compassion without deeds is not compassion. Faith without action is not faith. And religion without politics is not religion. In my view, people of faith are not entitled to avoid politics for the sake of a short-lived spiritual high.By James Gertmenian | 1/30/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Finding Our Way Out
Surrender is the last thing, often the only thing, available. And so we give ourselves to it. We fear it is our end. Sometimes—with grace or luck—we find it is our liberation.By Karen G. Johnston | 1/23/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Big Shoes to Fill
Traditions and habits can be changed or broken and that’s not always bad. It doesn’t mean we didn’t learn or like what we did in the past, it just means that we moved on to something else and that’s okay too.By Rayla D. Mattson | 1/16/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Love's Hiding Place
My soul nudged me from a hiding place to confess and to seek forgiveness, and only through the grace of the Great Mystery of Life unfolding around us did I receive the blessing of journeying with a beloved, grieving friend.By Rebekah Savage | 1/9/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Quitting
Once I quit drinking, my inner voice and I began the harder work: that of creating a life from which I do not need or want to escape.By Alix Klingenberg | 1/2/2019Average rating:0/5 -
Too Much of Everything
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.”By Misha Sanders | 12/19/2018Average rating:0/5 -
Hope Is Currency
There's nothing simple about the holidays. Joy can feel empty when it is compulsory. The promise of liberation is hard fought and well earned.By Alex Haider-Winnett | 12/12/2018Average rating:0/5 -
Radical Expectations
Advent is about expectation—radical expectations that undo the status quo—and anticipation: a skillful search for the places where liberation rises from the ashes.By Robin Tanner | 12/5/2018Average rating:0/5 -
To Break Our Hearts Open
What, exactly, are we doing when we invite love into our lives? Surely we know that it's much tidier without it, when things stay at a distance.By Amanda Poppei | 11/28/2018Average rating:0/5 -
A Cause for Thanksgiving?
Something new could come out of this moment of discomfort; something like healing. This is our opportunity to reimagine what Thanksgiving could be — and who we could be.By Daniel Gregoire | 11/21/2018Average rating:0/5 -
The Kindness of Others
A white woman pulled over and ran over to me with a shopping bag. She noticed that I never have on a coat and I often stand in the rain. She didn’t know if the things would fit, but the receipt was in the bag. She smiled and drove away. As I looked down at the bag, I had very...By Rayla D. Mattson | 11/14/2018Average rating:0/5 -
Love Does Not Disappear
In the eighteen years I’ve served as minister of my small-town congregation, I have led 96 memorial services, most for people I have loved. The longer I stay, the deeper I love and the more I grieve.By Elea Kemler | 10/31/2018Average rating:0/5 -
Out of the Spiritual Fog
God is not a distant force, far away. God is in the beating of our hearts and the backbeat of a funky baseline. God is in a four-on-the-floor drum fill, and in the achy joints and sore muscles the day after.By Alex Haider-Winnett | 10/24/2018Average rating:0/5 -
Worthy of Love
What had to die was my shame: my belief that I was not worthy of such love. I discovered a greater love within myself as a creation of God, worthy of these gifts.By Rebekah Savage | 10/17/2018Average rating:0/5
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