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Braver/Wiser: Courage and Compassion for Life as It Is

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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Displaying 1 - 20 of 32

  • Above a cityscape, in a black-and-white photo, a lone crow or corvid spreads its wings mid-flight.
    Crows found ways to adapt to our concrete forests but we have not yet found ways to make sure we are in balance with the rest of creation.
    Reflection | By Christine Slocum | April 17, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Nature, Worship
  • A person with white skin holds, in their upturned palms, a strand of help. Beneath their hands we see the person's feet standing on sand.
    This is my favorite thing about seaweed: it feels so much like my neurodiverse brain.
    Reflection | By Quinn Gormley | March 20, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Honesty, Imagination, Nature, Personal Stories, Self-Care, Worship
  • In a spring garden, dark purple peony shoots rise from a flower bed while a person in gardening gloves works.
    Self-compassion was one of the best gifts I gave myself.
    Reflection | By DanaLee Simon | September 6, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Change, Earth, Healing, Nature, Patience, Personal Stories, Self-Respect, Stewardship, Worship
  • A person's hands scoop green material into a full compost bin, filled with flowers, eggshells, and colorful vegetable matter.
    The miracle of grace is available to us even when it has been left untended.
    Reflection | By Jennifer Hundley-Batts | May 3, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Abundance, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Food, Grace, Nature, Patience, Stewardship, Summer Solstice, Worship
  • A tiny chickweed seedling still has the cap of its seed pod, while the tiny seedling next to it is unfurling its tiny green leaves.
    Remind me that life is magical and mysterious.
    Reflection | By JD Stillwater | April 19, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Awe, Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth Day, Earth-Centered, Nature, Stewardship, Wonder, Worship
  • From behind, a child holds a camera at the edge of a river. In the distance, and through the camera screen, there's a heron faintly visible.
    May we remember the belonging that is ours simply because we were born.
    Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | April 12, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Earth, Imagination, Nature, Worship
  • The hands of a Black person cradle the new lettuce leaves growing in their garden.
    Growing connects me to ancestors who had their hands in the dirt because it was keeping them alive.
    Reflection | By Melissa Jeter | May 25, 2022 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Abundance, Earth, Earth-Centered, Family, Food, Food Justice, Generations, Growth, Humanism, Nature, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Spiritual Practice, Worship
  • Bright red-orange kokanee salmon swim in the water of a shallow stream flanked by foliage
    We already have everything we need within us to meet the life that is before us.
    Reflection | By DanaLee Simon | November 10, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Animals, Character, Earth-Centered, Growth, Limitations, Nature, Purpose, Worship
  • A hand with red nail polish cups a compass, above the mossy floor of a forest, and the other hand points to moss or another object on the ground.
    My inner compass reminds me of the power we’ve been given to create a new future.
    Reflection | By Mariela Pérez-Simons | July 14, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Earth, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Limitations, Nature, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Worship
  • Hanging underneath an outdoor surface is a new green chrysalis, a clear one that’s about ready to emerge, and a butterfly that’s already come out.
    Emergence, becoming, is inherent in each of us.
    Reflection | By Kimberlee Anne Tomczak Carlson | June 30, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Change, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Growth, Nature, Patience, Transformation, Worship
  • At the edge of the woods, with bare trees, the back of someone's head as they hold binoculars up to their face.
    Maybe hope is fleeting. It leaves and returns again; there’s beauty in its impermanence.
    Reflection | By Jessica Clay | March 10, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Contemplation, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Presence, Secular, Winter, Worship
  • Swimmers in the waves of the sea look to a pink sky, where a murmuration of starlings forms a striking shape.
    The wilderness alongside every moment, sprawling in each direction, holds more than the silence that theologians imagine of God.
    Reflection | By Jake Morrill | November 25, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: #COVID19, Contemplation, Death, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, God, Imagination, Nature, Transcendence, Worship
  • A baby turtle on a beach, with the ocean and two blurred humans in the background.
    Arm's length: What was once a defensive or suspicious expression has now become a gesture of care, an indication of love and protection.
    Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | October 14, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Caring, Direct Experience, Environment, Humanism, Interdependence, Nature, Climate Justice, Worship
  • Two cats look curiously at a food bowl being set down by a person.
    Part of being in community is noticing what's needed. Part of being in community is doing what is necessary but unclaimed.
    Reflection | By Christine Slocum | September 16, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Animals, Caring, Community, Conscience, Generosity, Humanism, Interdependence, Nature, Responsibility, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Worship
  • A view of the starry sky at night, straight up, through the silhouette of trees around the edges.
    What once seemed certain is now unpredictable, even dangerous.
    Reflection | By Leslie Ahuvah Fails | September 2, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Challenge, Change, Children, Direct Experience, Earth, Humanism, Nature, Parents, Spiritual Practice, Worship
  • In a suburban neighborhood, a girl lies stomach down on a lawn, holding a camera up to her face.
    I hope that this Great Silence, which has come alongside the suffering, holds the beginnings of our healing.
    Reflection | By Elea Kemler | May 6, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Balance, Beauty, Body, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Hope, Humanism, Imagination, Nature, Presence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular, Spring
  • A small child, back to camera, in a garden.
    There is relief and remorse equally in my heart as the growing season comes to a close.
    Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | October 23, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Abundance, Animals, Caring, Creativity, Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Secular, Stewardship
  • The Kanuti River winds through banks of golden trees in autumn on the Kanuti National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
    There are so many spiritual lessons from the natural world and—in a season filled with Ingatherings and Water Communions—this is one for me: oxbow lakes as a beautiful combination of resiliency, strength, and flexibility.
    Reflection | By Tim Atkins | September 11, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Beginnings, Direct Experience, Discernment, Earth, Earth-Centered, Environment, Homecoming / Ingathering, Journey, Nature, Power, Strength, Water Communion
  • Tall thistle stalks reach up to a blue sky.
    It was my inadvertent letting go that made this wild, interdependent beauty possible. And at that very moment, I knew I didn’t need that sort of control anymore.
    Reflection | By Tomo Hillbo | September 4, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Direct Experience, Earth, Earth-Centered, Humanism, Letting Go, Nature, Secular, Work
  • A flock of gray geese, one of which is in mid-honk.
    If justice is to be realized, our voices must speak loudly—even boisterously—of love.
    Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | June 5, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), America, Animals, Community, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Globalism, Humanism, Interdependence, July 4th, Justice, Love, Nature, Purpose, Relationships, Secular
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