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 and brief prayer, grounded in Unitarian Universalism. Join the Braver/Wiser community and sign up today!
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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.Reflection | By Amanda Poppei | November 28, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Animals, Direct Experience, Love, Parents, Relationships, Vulnerability -
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.Reflection | By Daniel Gregoire | November 21, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Indigenous American, Responsibility, Thanksgiving -
A white woman pulled over and ran over to me with a shopping bag. As I looked down at the bag, I had very mixed emotions.Reflection | By Rayla D. Mattson | November 14, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Caring, Connections, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Faith, Generosity, Grace, Gratitude, Kindness, Parents, Race/Ethnicity -
In my small-town congregation, our beloved dead seem to linger with us for a little while.Reflection | By Elea Kemler | October 31, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), All Souls Day, Awe, Death, Día de los Muertos, Direct Experience, Generations, Grief, Love, Memorial Services, Mystery, Remembrance Day, Sorrow -
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.Reflection | By Alex Haider-Winnett | October 24, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Arts & Music, Awe, Body, Culture, Direct Experience, God, Immanence, Joy, Letting Go, Spiritual Practice, Young Adults -
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.Reflection | By Rebekah Savage | October 17, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Death, Direct Experience, Islam, Love, Pain, Relationships, Self-Respect -
We could see the main path to the swimming hole ahead, but we had to pick our way through sand spurs to get there. Behind us were rattlesnakes. What did the youth do? They started playing.Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | October 10, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Children, Choice, Direct Experience, Discernment, Earth, Joy, Nature, Playfulness, Salvation -
Emotional tempests aren’t always easy to weather — pain, grief, disappointment, even love — but the flatness of life without such currents is the slow silence of drowning.Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | October 3, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Hope, Pain -
I trusted the woman at the pharmacy to be capable of hearing hard truth. Bless her wounded heart with its internalized misogyny. She just wants women to love and support each other. Thank you. Me too.Reflection | By Misha Sanders | September 26, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anger, Anti-Oppression, Body, Direct Experience, Fat Liberation, Men, Mothers, Self-Care, Violence, Women -
Our family prays at mealtime to practice gratitude in our lives. I love that my children are taking it as their own, finding their own meaning.Reflection | By Christian Schmidt | September 19, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Children, Direct Experience, Parents, Playfulness, Unitarian Universalism -
Who are the angry birds in my life? What are the sticks I carry in my heart so as not to be hurt again?Reflection | By Yuri Yamamoto | September 12, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), America, Animals, Anti-Oppression, Community, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, Fear, Inclusion, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Self-Respect -
It's an impulse of the human self to be known fully, and that’s almost never possible unless we risk the conversations that help us see past our initial impressions.Reflection | By Amanda Poppei | September 5, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Anti-Oppression, Connections, Direct Experience, Empathy, Family, Humanism, Humility, Identity, Individualism, Listening, Playfulness, Secular -
This is a story of in-the-middle for those wondering how their story ends.Reflection | By Robin Tanner | August 29, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Choice, Direct Experience, Fear, Hope, Humanism, Illness, Limitations, Parents, Psychology, Searching, Secular, Solidarity, Worry -
Black people are so accustomed to being ignored and invisible that a simple acknowledgement—a simple I see you—from a peer goes a long way.Reflection | By DeReau K. Farrar | August 22, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), America, Direct Experience, Fathers, Friendship, Identity, Parents, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity -
May we find unexpected ways to remember where we came from and imagine where we may go next. May we find touchstones of our pasts, and may they become a foundation for the future.Reflection | By Alex Haider-Winnett | August 15, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Body, Change, Direct Experience, Earth, Home, Nature, Sadness, Searching, Secular -
If a friend were in my situation, I would have seen their failings as human. So why hold someone to an unforgiving standard just because that someone is me?Reflection | By Kat Liu | August 8, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Character, Children, Compassion, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Friendship, Humility, Kindness, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Self-Care, Self-Respect -
It is my only memory of a lesson from Kindergarten Sunday School class. Maybe it’s the only one that counts.Reflection | By Misha Sanders | August 1, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Acceptance, Children, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, God, Grace, Imagination, Love, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism -
Almost every person I told about my family's near-accident told me that it was God intervening. But that’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to God.Reflection | By Nathan Ryan | June 13, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: God, Gratitude -
People move places for jobs, relations, opportunities, escape, hindering our ability to put down new roots. And yet, we carry a constancy: the still, quiet voice within.Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | June 6, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Change, Choice, Connections, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Home, Humanism, Nature, Personal Stories, Searching, Secular, Wonder -
I’d gotten in the habit of keeping my head down and hardly noticing where I was or who was around me. On this day, I decided to greet the world differently.Reflection | By S.J. Butler | May 30, 2018 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Acceptance, Children, Compassion, Direct Experience, Humanism, Mothers, Multiculturalism, Parents, Secular