Teresa Honey Youngblood

Teresa, wearing a large straw hat in the sun, is holding an enormous colorful bouquet of dahlias.

Teresa Honey Youngblood is a credentialed religious educator and the Family Ministry Coordinator for Soul Matters. She homeschools her children from a UU faith perspective, and you can download the free book she wrote in 2017 about liberal religious homeschooling. She loves hearing how folks—especially educators—are putting their UU values and learnings to work in their communities. And she loves the sweet peppers, bumblebees, and neighbor kids in her neighborhood community garden.

From Teresa Honey Youngblood

Displaying 1 - 10 of 13

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
Two children run -- one is mid-jump -- through an alley, smiling.

We could see the main path to the swimming hole ahead, but we had to pick our way through sand spurs to get there. Behind us were rattlesnakes. What did the youth do? They started playing.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | October 10, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Children, Choice, Direct Experience, Discernment, Earth, Joy, Nature, Playfulness, Salvation
The open back of a yellow moving truck, pakced with cartons and boxes.

People move places for jobs, relations, opportunities, escape, hindering our ability to put down new roots. And yet, we carry a constancy: the still, quiet voice within.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | June 6, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Change, Choice, Connections, Contemplation, Direct Experience, Home, Humanism, Nature, Personal Stories, Searching, Secular, Wonder
A hand, holding a safety pin, causes a water balloon to burst; background is a sunset.

I know deep in my spirit that I am held by the Mystery; part of the Mystery and witness to it; an agent of stardust whose perception of the world might not be all that there is to see.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | March 28, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
An outstretched arm, with dark skin, holds an orange.

Liking somebody, even loving somebody, is not enough to protect them from shade that you cannot even see, much less understand.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | January 10, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anti-Oppression, Character, Children, Coming-of-Age, Direct Experience, Humanism, Race/Ethnicity, Secular, Truth
From the back of an open vehicle, a man hands a swaddled infant into a woman's waiting arms. Photo taken post Hurricane Harvey.

Pray, if you pray. Send love and money, too. We will be rolled and covered, but we will rise and carry others with us. Watch for the opportunities to rise and carry. Watch for the holy moments where some people see God.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | August 30, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Brokenness, Caring, Community, Disaster, Healing, Nature, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism
A Black man bends over a raised bed filled with chard, with more garden beds visible in the background.

Light We Seek, wherever I am on the journey toward wholeness for all of us—that is, toward racial equality—help me to forgive myself and others for missteps and missed opportunities, and guide my efforts to build up the relationships where love, justice, and understanding grow.

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | June 21, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: Abundance, Direct Experience, Earth, Food, Food Justice, Generosity, Humanism, Nature, Race/Ethnicity, Stewardship, Work
Two artist's models (faceless wooden figures) caught frozen in a fight.

“We are not primarily put on this earth to see through one another, but to see one another through.” — Author unknown Standing roadside, stranded, watching thousands of dollars rise in the smoke coming from under the hood, it’s easier to fight about who forgot to put oil in the car than to...

Reflection | By Teresa Honey Youngblood | April 12, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
Tagged as: Anger, Community, Conflict, Self-Respect
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
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

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