Text from "Love Will Guide Us," by Sally Rogers, #131, http://www.uuabookstore.org/Singing-the-Living-Tradition-Hymnal-P16918… the Living Tradition.

When my youngest daughter was about two years old she came across a tattered paperback on our bookshelves, Ten Thousand Baby Names, and for a little while this was her favorite book. Drawn by the shining face of the baby on the cover, she brought it to me over and over and demanded that I read...

Spirit of Life and Love, dear God of all nations: There is so much work to do. We have only begun to imagine justice and mercy. Help us hold fast to our vision of what can be. May we see the hope in our history, and find the courage and the voice to work for that constant rebirth of freedom and...

May you be brave enough to expose your aching woundedness and reveal your vulnerability. May you speak your deepest truths, knowing that they will change as you do. May you sing the music within you, composing your own melody, playing your song with all your heart....

By the time I was in my late twenties, I was convinced that I would never find love. I had had a few boyfriends, but over and over again, I was exiled to the dreaded Friend Zone. I always suspected that it was because I was “too much”: too smart, too feminist, too radical, too fat, too...

New ­People came this time, and we shared our stories, the familiar truths, about shock and healing and being glad that at last our children can say who they are, and we know them now, love them more. Funny stories and good news ripple around, and smiles about lesbigay ways, and jokes, against...

Be ­gentle with another— It is a cry from the lives of ­people battered By thoughtless words and brutal deeds; It comes from the lips of those who speak them, And the lives of those who do them. Who of us can look inside another and know what is there Of hope and hurt, or promise and pain? Who...

Love is knotted and gnarled, like an old tree fighting with the wind, like branches too brittle for their own good, like roots that relentlessly inform how deeply we can trust and how freely we can forgive.

The history and legacy of Unitarian Universalism are shaped as much by Emerson, Fahs, and Channing as it is by the ancestors in our congregations. We come to it through different avenues: the Internet, an invitation, reading the Transcendentalists, or as babies or ­little kids. I came as a fourth...

I lift my eyes up to the hills from where will my help come? My help comes from Love abundant. my help comes from the hills my help—my help, it comes from ancient Mothers whose hearts beat in mine. It comes from the trees that sway and the breeze that sways them . . . my help comes from all that...

Let us enter into a time of meditation, contemplation, and prayer. Feel the earth beneath your feet as it supports you. Feel the love of this community as it surrounds and enfolds you. Feel your breath as it flows in and out of your body. Listen to your heartbeat. Listen to your heart . . ....

Forgive me dear father For all the trouble I caused The missed curfews The missed classes Your unfulfilled dreams for me Forgive me dear father But your dreams are not my dreams Forgive me dear father And I will forgive you For missed moments That you sacrificed So that one day I could follow my...

To those who gave birth this year to their first child—we celebrate with you To those who lost a child this year–we mourn with you To those who are in the trenches with little ones every day and wear the badge of food stain–we appreciate you To those who experienced loss through miscarriage,...

Ground of all being, Great Nurturing Spirit, This morning especially, we give thanks For beautiful days right in between spring and summer, For flowers and green trees and freshly cut grass and lazy lakeside afternoons, For the sound and sight and heart-swell of being together in this place made...

On Father’s Day we honor those people who have been teachers, confidants, and friends. We acknowledge that it is not biology that makes a parent, But love and attention. For those of us that have lost a father, or a child, we hold their memories in our hearts....