The practice of doing our inner work is about wakening our souls and tuning in to the wisdom and gifts that abide within us. Our souls remember our dignity and worth. Not over and above someone else. Not in spite of someone else. Not in comparison to anyone else. Our soul is that aspect of ourselves that always remembers our ultimate significance and our connection to the vastness of the cosmos. Our soul is in touch with our inherent somebodiness, and the inherent somebodiness of others.
It’s hard to be a human being. We can easily lose our vital connection to our deepest Self — especially in cultures that do not value the inherent worth and dignity of each person. We all forget our deepest knowing sometimes. We all get activated and thrown off sometimes. Doing our inner work includes finding and engaging in practices that help us return to our best selves.
Being part of a community such as a congregation means taking seriously the way we show up in collective space. It is our responsibility to tend to the places where we are either looking down at or looking up to others. It is the responsibility of religious community to help us remember we belong to one another as equals — all somebodies with gifts and purpose — and to help us remember that we are connected to the web of Life and Love that came before us and will remain after us.
“Doing Our Inner Work” Posts From Our Practice Makes Possible Blog
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Recently, I gathered around our dining room table with my daughter and her 7-year-old to play a game of Right, Left, and Center. It’s a portable game involving dice and chips that get shifted to the right, left, or into a center pot. As bedtime neared, we packed the dice into their box and my…
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | June 16, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
There are lots of things in congregational life that can cause big feelings. In a recent webinar, we asked participants to name some of these things, and they did!…
By Erica Baron | April 26, 2022 | From Doing Our Inner Work -
Last year, at their request, I met with Follen Responds to Racism (FRR), an anti-racism team at the Follen Community Church in Lexington, MA. We had an animated conversation. They told me about their work and the many ways they are addressing racism within and beyond their congregation. I was…
By Meck Groot | March 22, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
“Hello, who are you?” “I don’t know; I’ve never met me before!” This dialogue is from a comedy skit a friend and I wrote for an elementary school talent show. My comedy career never took off, but this dialogue resonates with me these days, as we collectively emerge from two years of…
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | March 15, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
At the beginning of 2020, we didn’t know what was coming. At the beginning of 2021, we had hope on the horizon. Now, at the beginning of 2022, our hope is tempered by a healthy respect for how quickly things can change, and some trust in our ability — and flexibility — to faithfully respond….
February 15, 2022 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
According to Movement Strategy Center (1), community transformation depends on: power analysis: understanding who has access to resources; who influences and participates in decision-making; and whose standards, stories and worldviews are valued; community organizing: working together across our…
By Meck Groot | November 22, 2021 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
Opening words from Artist and Vibe Curator Eso Tolson: I don’t know who needs to hear this but rest is not a reward. You don’t have to earn rest. You need rest. You deserve rest. You are worthy of rest simply because you are a living being. And don’t ever feel guilty for taking time to rest.
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | November 22, 2021 | From Doing Our Inner Work -
Here I was thinking everything had already been said. That there were no other words to say (again) what we all already know: here we are, still in pandemic life. And yet, a shift has arrived and there are ideas being shared that can bring comfort, illumination, and insight. So, I wanted to share…
By Hilary Allen | September 22, 2021 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
September is County Fair season in much of New England. In our UU congregations, September is also Ingathering time; water communion time; returning-to-church-time after far-flung summers laden with small jars of water from our travels and foot-long zucchinis from overflowing gardens….
By Wren Bellavance-Grace | August 23, 2021 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog -
A congregational board member called to ask what their church might do about their building. Like so many New England churches, theirs is old, labyrinthine, mostly inaccessible, and larger than they need now….
By Meck Groot | July 22, 2021 | From Practice Makes Possible Blog