Centering (5 minutes)

This is a time to make the transition from the busy world to the group experience. A member of the group may read the original version of the Serenity Prayer which was written by Reinhold Niebuhr:

God give us grace to accept with serenity the things which cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

Check-in (10 to 25 minutes)

Each person in the group has the opportunity to share something about his or her life. What significant events have taken place recently in your life? Have you accomplished something meaningful to you? Have you experienced any losses or setbacks? Have you had any insights or new ideas?

Group Discussion (45 to 70 minutes)

Our spiritual theme for this month is Letting Go. The traditional Christian calendar includes a period of seven weeks leading up to Easter known as Lent. This season begins with Ash Wednesday. The spiritual practice traditionally associated with Lent involves giving something up, or relinquishing, or letting go. When he built a small cabin at Walden Pond, our Unitarian ancestor Henry David Thoreau sought to simplify his life and thereby make more room for his own spiritual development. What would you like to let go of to make your life more spiritually fulfilling? What ideas or beliefs are you ready to let go of, even though you may have held them for a long time? What social privileges would you be willing to relinquish so that those benefits might be more evenly distributed in our society? Or is there a better path toward a more just and equitable society?

For group discussion, please consider the questions associated with one or more of the following numbered sections. You need not address all of these sections, and you need not address them in this order.

1. Our Unitarian ancestor Henry David Thoreau lived alone in a cabin at Walden Pond for two years. Although he made frequent trips into nearby Concord, Massachusetts, he nevertheless managed to remove from his life many things which he believed were unnecessary and thus he was able to have a more spiritually fulfilling life. Have you ever tried to follow Thoreau’s example in one way or another? Do you aspire to follow Thoreau’s example?

2. Despite one’s sincere hope that one could have enough beneficial influence to mend a troubled situation, sometimes the only course of action may be simply to do one’s best and then let go. It can be very challenging to accept one’s limitations. It can be very challenging to let go of control (or the illusion of control). Can you recall an instance where you needed to accept that you had limited influence in a troubled situation?

3. What resentments or hurts or regrets would you like to let go?

4. Catherine Whitmire, a Quaker, has offered this observation: “It has never been easy to lay down an encumbered lifestyle. In the 1600s William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, struggled with ‘cumber’ during his conversion from English aristocrat to plain Quaker. He began attending Quaker meetings in courtly apparel, wearing a powdered wig and carrying a sword. The more time William spent with the plainly dressed Quakers, however, the more uncomfortable he became with the clothes he was wearing and the way he was living. Legend has it that that when William asked pacifist George Fox, the founder of the Quakers, what to do about carrying his sword Fox replied, ‘Wear it as long as thee can.’ Fox believed that William would know when it was time to choose a plainer and more peaceful way of living. Later on, according to an old journal, William was on horseback riding with a Friend when ‘he suddenly pulled off his (courtly) wig, dropped it on the road, and did not look back to see what became of it.’”

What would you like to drop on the road behind you without looking back? Can you recall an occasion when you willingly let go of something that was once very important to you?

Have you ever “downsized” your living space, moving, for example, from a house to an apartment? Was it challenging to let go of some of your possessions? Was it liberating?

5. What social privileges would you be willing to relinquish so that those benefits might be more evenly distributed in our society? Or is there a better path toward a more just and equitable society?

6.Delegation implies letting go. What are the potential rewards and the potential troubles of delegating? Do you have trouble delegating? Why? Do you know someone else who has trouble delegating?

Conclusion (5 to 10 minutes)

What will you take away from this discussion? What would have made this time together more meaningful or satisfying to you? What did you enjoy? A group member may share this poem by Philip Booth entitled “First Lesson”:

Lie back daughter, let your head
be tipped back in the cup of my hand.
Gently, and I will hold you. Spread
your arms wide, lie out on the stream
and look high at the gulls. A dead-
man’s float is face down. You will dive
and swim soon enough where this tidewater
ebbs to the sea. Daughter, believe
me, when you tire on the long thrash
to your island, lie up, and survive.
As you float now, where I held you
and let go, remember when fear
cramps your heart what I told you:
lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.