Tapestry of Faith: A Place of Wholeness: A Program for Youth Exploring Their Own Unitarian Universalist Faith Journeys

Taking It Home: Wholeness

The mechanics of the Mobius strip are mysterious, but its message clear: whatever is inside us continually flows outward to help form, or deform, the world — and whatever is outside us continually flows inward to help form, or deform, our lives. — Parker Palmer, Quaker educator and spiritual activist

In Today's Workshop...

We looked at what wholeness means in our lives. We explored wholeness from two angles. The first was through the image of the Mobius strip. A Mobius strip is interesting because the inside is constantly moving to the outside and the outside is moving to the inside. The same can be said about our spiritual lives—our inward beliefs and feelings can have a transformative effect on our outward actions and ways of being, and our outward actions and ways of being can affect our inward beliefs and feelings. To be whole, we should pay attention to integrating our inner and outer selves.

We also looked at what wholeness means in a community. We explored what our responsibilities are to others in the community and what we might expect or need from the larger community. In this way, wholeness can be seen through how we are integrated into our larger faith community.

Explore further with family and friends...

  • Get involved in your congregation's pastoral care committee. Even if they do not call it that, most congregations have a group that responds when people in the community are in need. Identify that group and offer to help. Pastoral care groups often focus on older populations in the congregation. Having a young person involved can help them better understand and serve younger age groups. Ask them to plan a pizza dinner study night the week of school finals for the youth. Youth involvement in the committee will also help young people connect to older members of the congregation and understand their needs.
  • Take your Mobius strip home and show it to your family. Have them think about their internal beliefs and feelings as well as their external actions in the world. Then show them how to make their own Mobius strips. Are there similarities between yours and theirs? What is different?
  • Put together a jigsaw puzzle—a simple one or the most difficult one you can find. As you put the pieces together, be mindful of how each piece is integral to the whole. In what ways does a puzzle represent personal and community wholeness?
  • Use the directions from Alternate Activity 2, Painted Stones and host a stone painting party for friends or family. You do not have to use the theme of the "Five Smooth Stones of Liberal Religion." You can ask your friends to paint an image from their religious tradition and talk about what that image means. Or you can pick another theme.