Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground. —Rumi By Karen Bellavance-Grace Thirty-one. Not Baskin Robbins flavors. Not Heinz varieties. Not even the number of Sources of Unitarian Universalism. That number represents our families. Last year a…

“Will you be part of the Gay-Straight Dialogue group?” It was the mid-1980s and I had just become the Director of Religious Education (DRE) at the Universalist Unitarian Church of Haverhill, MA. The Reverend Janet Bowering, after deep reflection, had decided that her Universalist faith called…

Must we strive for excellence in everything we do? Is there a downside to the message our kids receive that they should always do their best?…

“So, what are we supposed to do?” My 13-year-old daughter mumbles the question. It’s a fresh, almost-summer day and we’re parked at the entrance to Den Rock Park, car doors flung open as we wait for the others. She and her friend slump in the back seat of my car, noodling on their electronic…

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I love to play Sims. In Sims 3, you sometimes find an Unknown Seed. If you have enough gardening skills, your Sims can plant the seed and see what grows. It might be a money tree! In real life, we also plant seeds without knowing what they will ultimately become. In 2012, I facilitated a…

Storytellers make choices all the time. We choose which parts of a story to lift up and which to downplay or omit; which characters to develop, and how; and which dilemmas to emphasize. This is especially true when it comes to stories from the Bible. It was so with the great biblical films and…

I am taking a UU history class with the Starr King School for the Ministry. But to you, my colleagues and friends, I’ll admit a secret: I’ve never been fond of history. In high school, history seemed to be a long list of dates and monarchs and wars. Classes improved in college when, forced to…

The family is a huge factor in a child’s faith development. Reverend Makanah Morris has likened family life to a ground in which seeds of a child’s faith are planted. She writes, “The seeds are planted in the early environment, but the ground can also be prepared for spreading roots and welcoming…

Ramon Selove and his wife, Shellie Selove, are Our Whole Lives sexuality education facilitator trainers. They are members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley (VA)….