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  • A close-up of a yellow stripe painted on rough asphalt. In the yellow stripe is embedded a heart-shaped stone.
    “Expect nothing. Live frugally on surprise.” —Alice Walker I had finally begun to relax—a bit. We were en route to Pennsylvania. My friend, a formal part of our “framily,” was visiting. We decided a visit to a crayon factory was the perfect winter outing for toddlers. The day was clear...
    Reflection | By Robin Tanner | March 1, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Atheism, Conflict, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Faith, Humanism, Humility, Personal Stories, Searching, Secular, Wisdom
    Page/Article
  • As choir members clap in the background, a choir member sings into a microphone
    Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time when particular songs get sung; one of them is "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It gets sung in school, in church, and at various MLK day celebrations or over the course of Black History Month....
    Reflection | By Aisha Ansano | February 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), America, Anti-Oppression, Arts & Music, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, History, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Pain, Privilege, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
    Worship element
  • A small child, seen in profile with a huge smile on their face, runs through soap bubbles in a back yard.
    I've come to view playing—intentionally seeking joy—as a means of radical resistance.
    Reflection | By Marisol Caballero | February 22, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
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  • A row of checkout lanes at a grocery store, with -- in the foreground -- a blurry shopping cart moving by.
    With whom do you believe your lot is cast? From where does your strength come? —Adrienne Rich Ethical question (although this really happened): You are in a local grocery store. An elderly, poorly-dressed white lady is pushing a cart, moving with obvious difficulty as she adds to her hoard first...
    Reflection | By Maureen Killoran | February 15, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Page/Article
  • A view, straight upwards, of the skyscrapers around Rockefeller Center. In the negative space between buildings, a blue sky with clouds is visible.
    Over my head, I hear music in the air; over my head, I hear music in the air; over my head, I hear music in the air; there must be a God somewhere. —from "Over My Head," an African American Spiritual When you grow up in New York City, as I did, you'll learn one cardinal rule: to never look up.
    Reflection | By Daniel Gregoire | February 8, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
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  • a cluster of wooden matches, tips in the same direction, are alit. A large orange tongue of flame trails into a blue plume of smoke.
    It's in one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine Burn away the darkness You've got one tiny moment in time / for life to shine to shine To burn away the darkness I will be light. — “I Will Be Light” by Matisyahu About six months ago, I got a new tattoo. It’s a lit match on my...
    Reflection | By Sean Parker Dennison | February 1, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Activism, Anger, Anti-Oppression, Arts & Music, Despair, Direct Experience, Humanism, Identity, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular
    Page/Article
  • A mother, visible only from the legs down on a sidewalk, bends toward her toddler, who's on his knees, face buried in her legs, mid-meltdown.
    “Empathy is not finite, and compassion is not a pizza with eight slices. When you practice empathy and compassion with someone, there is not less of these qualities to go around. There’s more. Love is the last thing we need to ration in this world. The refugee in Syria doesn’t benefit more if...
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | January 25, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Abundance, Caring, Compassion, Direct Experience, Humanism, Listening, Love, Pain, Secular, Self-Care, Sorrow
    Page/Article
  • A delicate spider web stretches across the frame, as a blurred person is visible in the background.
    “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/Wiser
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Balance, Brokenness, Courage, Despair, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Hope, Nature, Solidarity, Unity, Violence
    Page/Article
  • Opus sectile detail from the apse of St Mary's church in Balham, London: Mary cradles baby Jesus on her lap, holding a dove in one hand, while Joseph stands nearby holding a bundle of wheat for the cow in the background.
    In times like these, we may seek a new word. But perhaps, in times like these, more than new words, we need old words. We made the journey back to Bethlehem; to the old story of a young, unwed, pregnant girl and her fiancé, Joseph, a poor, young carpenter. The Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus,...
    Reflection | By Teresa Schwartz | January 18, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Anti-Oppression, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Courage, Fear, Journey, Tradition, Twelfth Night / Epiphany
    Worship element
  • Through a plate glass window at night, a person ducks through rainy weather with their coat pulled over their head.
    .I want liberty and justice for all in my country. That will ask of me—and of many of you—the discipline of discomfort.
    Reflection | By Jake Morrill | January 11, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), America, Challenge, Change, Democracy, Direct Experience, Humanism, Integrity, Politics, Secular, Strength
    Page/Article
  • An adult hand gently holds an infant's hand.
    “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” ―Albert Einstein This was not my plan for January 1st, 2017: disheveled, wearing a pair of pajamas, and with unbrushed teeth at the pediatric urgent care in New...
    Reflection | By Robin Tanner | January 4, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
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  • I have never been particularly attached to the idea of family. Do you know The Swiss Family Robinson? It's the story of how a family worked together and survived. It never reached beyond a story for me. It never occurred to me that some people actually felt this way towards their blood line; that...
    Reflection | By Emma Merchant | December 29, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Commitment, Community, Covenant, Family, Humanism, Interdependence, Living Our Faith, Love, Relationships, Unitarian Universalism
    Worship element
  • Gathered around large bowls of masa (cornmeal dough) and filling, four women make tamales.
    I am ever grateful for the friends who are my family; who have pieced me together each time I’ve fallen apart; who laugh, cry, dream, and age happily by my side.
    Reflection | By Marisol Caballero | December 28, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Acceptance, Caring, Child Dedication, Children, Family, Fathers, Forgiveness, Generations, Humanism, International, Mothers, Secular
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  • Against a rough plaster wall, about 19 empty picture frames -- each unique -- hang in an informal arrangement
    This is the solstice, the still point of the sun, its cusp and midnight, the year’s threshold and unlocking, where the past lets go of and becomes the future.... — from "Solstice Poem" by Margaret Atwood Here we are on the cusp of the Winter Solstice, when the light comes back! To celebrate, I...
    Reflection | By Daniel Gregoire | December 21, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Earth-Centered, Humanism, Secular, Unitarian Universalism, Winter Solstice / Yule
    Page/Article
  • With performers on a stage in the distance, audience members (seen from behind) raise their arms in joy.
    An awakening passed through the whole theatre, and as if touched by some invisible hand, the people stood, clapped, shouted with joy, laughed, and wept… It was blessed to be connected to—no, to be a part of a community—a people. —Volker Kühn, in his essay about a cabaret performance during...
    Reflection | By Sean Parker Dennison | December 14, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Arts & Music, Community, History, Personal Stories, Power, Responsibility, Self-Respect, Suffering, Tradition
    Page/Article
  • A classic red Christmas ornament -- a glass ball -- sits shattered on a white surface.
    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/Wiser
    Tagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Commitment, God, Healing, Hope, Pain, Sadness, Spiritual Practice
    Page/Article
  • The edge of a shopping cart in the foreground, as if taken from the handbar, and blurry shelves of groceries on either side
    “Did that man just strap a gun to his belt?” My 10-year-old squinted, looking across the parking lot of the grocery co-op. I had seen it, too: a middle-aged white man had stepped out of his pick-up truck, taken out a black holster, and strapped it on, pulling his shirt down over it. “I think...
    Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | November 30, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), Direct Experience, Unitarian Universalism
    Page/Article
  • Figures from a nativity creche, including an adult figure gazing at the infant Jesus
    God has a fondness for what is fragile. This means us. Advent tells us that God came to us—and comes to us still—with complete vulnerability. Christ is to be found among what is fragile—including us, ourselves, when pain and loss have left us feeling less than whole. In coming to us as a...
    Reflection | By Jan Richardson | November 28, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, God, Immanence, Relationships, Vulnerability
    Worship element
  • From a small crack in pavement, the green leaves of a tiny seedling emerge.
    May we give thanks always, believing that, even in the world’s bleakest moments, the dance of life is always underway.
    Reflection | By Maureen Killoran | November 23, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Balance, Despair, Earth-Centered, Hope, Nature, Thanksgiving
    Page/Article
  • With blurred multicolored Christmas lights in the background, a small Jesus-in-the-manger from a nativity scene is in half-light.
    Christmas doesn’t wimp out when times are hard – it comes anyway, even if there are hardly any presents.
    Reflection | By Kendyl L. R. Gibbons | November 22, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, Advent, Anti-Oppression, Change, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Creativity, Direct Experience, Hope, Tradition
    Worship element