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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Every relationship is an ongoing story that unfolds between people.Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | June 28, 2023 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Forgiveness, Healing, Relationships, Worship -
We are an angry and beautiful people.Reflection | By Laura Solomon | June 1, 2022 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Humanism, Love, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Worship -
I learned that love and support can be expressed in many different ways by different people.Reflection | By Ndidi Achebe | July 7, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Community, Compassion, Direct Experience, Fear, Humanism, Limitations, Love, Relationships, Worship -
May we be with one another in solidarity and struggle.Reflection | By Tuli Patel | April 21, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Family, Hope, Secular, Solidarity, Worship -
My broken is what makes me who I am today.Reflection | By Paula Gribble | February 24, 2021 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Beauty, Brokenness, Wholeness, Worship -
Uncertain as the world feels right now, love will bear whatever lies ahead.Reflection | By Julie Fanselow | November 4, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: America, Body, Brokenness, Democracy, Direct Experience, Healing, Health, Humanism, Marriage, Secular, Worship -
A lot of us feel like our lives should have come with instructions. Or maybe they did, but we lost the only copy a long time ago.Reflection | By Elea Kemler | February 12, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Caring, Change, Direct Experience, Friendship, Humanism, Interdependence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Trust, Vulnerability -
Surround yourself with skillful teachers. Let them teach you, but don't let them do it for you. That learning is yours to do.Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | January 22, 2020 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Arts & Music, Beauty, Brokenness, Creativity, Direct Experience, Growth, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular -
Every year, I tell the congregation not to worry about mistakes because there aren’t any; there is only us, telling an old story about love getting born into this aching world.Reflection | By Elea Kemler | December 18, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Love, Playfulness, Tradition, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism -
The crisis was an opportunity to learn to be fully me and love it, inner turmoil and all. I learned that strength comes from authenticity, never from perfection.Reflection | By Tomo Hillbo | November 27, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Brokenness, Conscience, Direct Experience, Family, Grief, Healing, Love, Mothers, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Vulnerability -
As a hospital chaplain, I often listen to painful stories. We call it compassionate presence, but I may be crying inside. When words fail, I pray and sing.Reflection | By Yuri Yamamoto | June 12, 2019 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Arts & Music, Brokenness, Challenge, Despair, Direct Experience, Faith, Fear, God, Presence, Unitarian Universalism -
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 -
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 -
"How complicated it is to break silence: to open all of the secrets in all of our broken hearts. But silence does break; truth seeks the light. We're unraveling silence because we have determined that our power with one another is greater than the power someone once had over us."Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | November 15, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Direct Experience, Gender, Healing, Humanism, Men, Power, Silence, Truth, Violence, Women -
Pray, if you pray. Send love and money, too. We will be rolled and covered, but we will rise and carry others with us. Watch for the opportunities to rise and carry. Watch for the holy moments where some people see God.Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | August 30, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Brokenness, Caring, Community, Disaster, Healing, Nature, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism -
”If we don’t find a way to transform our pain, we will always transmit it to those around us or turn it against ourselves… If your religion is not teaching you how to recognize, hold, and transform suffering, it is junk religion.” —Fr. Richard Rohr People are in pain all around us, all of...Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | May 10, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Brokenness, Buddhism, Compassion, Connections, Direct Experience, Healing, Mystery, Pain, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Unitarian Universalism -
We are sometimes selfish, sometimes complicit with systems that do harm, sometimes the cause of pain and injustice. Until we can hold compassion for ourselves and others—until we can be forgiving when we fall short—our love is incomplete.Reflection | By Sean Parker Dennison | March 29, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Brokenness, Compassion, Conscience, Direct Experience, Disability, Growth, Honesty, Humanism, Multiculturalism, Secular, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability -
“Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we kept fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.” —John Updike, “Tuesday, and After,” The New Yorker, September 24, 2001 We sat on the back steps watching transfixed as hundreds of rust-red spiders, big as thumbs, dropped...Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | January 18, 2017 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Balance, Brokenness, Courage, Despair, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Hope, Nature, Solidarity, Unity, Violence -
December 7, 2016 “Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.” — Natalie Goldberg I know a little about "merry" meeting "mess" at the holidays — and by a little I mean How much time have you got? Four Christmases ago, a painful break-up sent me spinning into a long...Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | December 7, 2016 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Commitment, God, Healing, Hope, Pain, Sadness, Spiritual Practice -
Those of us with some privilege in this empire may be tempted to seek refuge in it, as if privilege was ever going to save us. But who’s to say whether you’ve come to this place and position for a time such as this?Reflection | By Jake Morrill | November 9, 2016 | From Braver/WiserTagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), America, Brokenness, Commitment, Despair, Direct Experience, Humanism, Integrity, Judaism, Politics, Secular