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Displaying 1 - 20 of 23

  • A person's hands are clasped in prayer in what appears to be a church pew.
    Every relationship is an ongoing story that unfolds between people.
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | June 28, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Forgiveness, Healing, Relationships, Worship
  • a pink heart, apparently drawn on chalk, on a badly cracked concret surface
    We are an angry and beautiful people.
    Reflection | By Laura Solomon | June 1, 2022 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Connections, Direct Experience, Disaster or Crisis, Fear, Humanism, Love, Suffering, Unitarian Universalism, Worship
  • Two hands, of dark skin color, reach to each other. Each hand holds a jigsaw puzzle piece with half of a red heart on it, suggesting that the two pieces fit together perfectly.
    I learned that love and support can be expressed in many different ways by different people.
    Reflection | By Ndidi Achebe | July 7, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Community, Compassion, Direct Experience, Fear, Humanism, Limitations, Love, Relationships, Worship
  • A scattering of hardware--nuts, bolts, screws, and washers--on a surface, and some of them clustering around a large circular magnet.
    May we be with one another in solidarity and struggle.
    Reflection | By Tuli Patel | April 21, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Family, Hope, Secular, Solidarity, Worship
  • On a bed of rocks, an empty pink snail shell has a small hole. Purple flowers rest nearby.
    My broken is what makes me who I am today.
    Reflection | By Paula Gribble | February 24, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Beauty, Brokenness, Wholeness, Worship
  • The Statue of Liberty, as seen from behind and from the waist up, against a grey sky.
    Uncertain as the world feels right now, love will bear whatever lies ahead.
    Reflection | By Julie Fanselow | November 4, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: America, Body, Brokenness, Democracy, Direct Experience, Healing, Health, Humanism, Marriage, Secular, Worship
  • A silhouette of two people reaching out their hands to each other.
    A lot of us feel like our lives should have come with instructions. Or maybe they did, but we lost the only copy a long time ago.
    Reflection | By Elea Kemler | February 12, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Caring, Change, Direct Experience, Friendship, Humanism, Interdependence, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Relationships, Trust, Vulnerability
  • A close-up of green strips of broken glass, as if petals of a flower.
    Surround yourself with skillful teachers. Let them teach you, but don't let them do it for you. That learning is yours to do.
    Reflection | By Karen G. Johnston | January 22, 2020 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Acceptance, Arts & Music, Beauty, Brokenness, Creativity, Direct Experience, Growth, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Secular
  • On a church chancel, children dressed as sheep and cows kneel during a Christmas pageant
    Every year, I tell the congregation not to worry about mistakes because there aren’t any; there is only us, telling an old story about love getting born into this aching world.
    Reflection | By Elea Kemler | December 18, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Community, Direct Experience, Forgiveness, Love, Playfulness, Tradition, Transcendence, Unitarian Universalism
  • A mother bear with three bear cubs, on a river bank.
    The crisis was an opportunity to learn to be fully me and love it, inner turmoil and all. I learned that strength comes from authenticity, never from perfection.
    Reflection | By Tomo Hillbo | November 27, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Brokenness, Conscience, Direct Experience, Family, Grief, Healing, Love, Mothers, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Vulnerability
  • Clouds swirl against a blue and orange sky.
    As a hospital chaplain, I often listen to painful stories. We call it compassionate presence, but I may be crying inside. When words fail, I pray and sing.
    Reflection | By Yuri Yamamoto | June 12, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Arts & Music, Brokenness, Challenge, Despair, Direct Experience, Faith, Fear, God, Presence, Unitarian Universalism
  • In a kiln, a red glow of fire holds the shape of a ceramic pot.
    What had to die was my shame: my belief that I was not worthy of such love. I discovered a greater love within myself as a creation of God, worthy of these gifts.
    Reflection | By Rebekah Savage | October 17, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Death, Direct Experience, Islam, Love, Pain, Relationships, Self-Respect
  • A large wave crashes against a metal structure, with icebergs in the distance
    Emotional tempests aren’t always easy to weather — pain, grief, disappointment, even love — but the flatness of life without such currents is the slow silence of drowning.
    Reflection | By Lindasusan Ulrich | October 3, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Hope, Pain
  • On a cobblestone surface, disembodied hands write signs with #METOO at the top.
    "How complicated it is to break silence: to open all of the secrets in all of our broken hearts. But silence does break; truth seeks the light. We're unraveling silence because we have determined that our power with one another is greater than the power someone once had over us."
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | November 15, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Direct Experience, Gender, Healing, Humanism, Men, Power, Silence, Truth, Violence, Women
  • 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
  • On a New York City subway (black and white photo), passengers sit. In the foreground, a man cradles his face in one hand.
    ”If we don’t find a way to transform our pain, we will always transmit it to those around us or turn it against ourselves… If your religion is not teaching you how to recognize, hold, and transform suffering, it is junk religion.” —Fr. Richard Rohr People are in pain all around us, all of...
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | May 10, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Brokenness, Buddhism, Compassion, Connections, Direct Experience, Healing, Mystery, Pain, Spiritual Practice, Spirituality, Unitarian Universalism
  • Six steeply-banked rows of red velvet theatre chairs, flanked by similarly steep staircases.
    We are sometimes selfish, sometimes complicit with systems that do harm, sometimes the cause of pain and injustice. Until we can hold compassion for ourselves and others—until we can be forgiving when we fall short—our love is incomplete.
    Reflection | By Sean Parker Dennison | March 29, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Brokenness, Compassion, Conscience, Direct Experience, Disability, Growth, Honesty, Humanism, Multiculturalism, Secular, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism, Vulnerability
  • 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
  • A classic red Christmas ornament -- a glass ball -- sits shattered on a white surface.
    December 7, 2016 “Use loneliness. Its ache creates urgency to reconnect with the world.” — Natalie Goldberg I know a little about "merry" meeting "mess" at the holidays — and by a little I mean How much time have you got? Four Christmases ago, a painful break-up sent me spinning into a long...
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | December 7, 2016 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Commitment, God, Healing, Hope, Pain, Sadness, Spiritual Practice
  • Figures from a nativity creche, including an adult figure gazing at the infant Jesus
    God has a fondness for what is fragile. This means us. Advent tells us that God came to us—and comes to us still—with complete vulnerability. Christ is to be found among what is fragile—including us, ourselves, when pain and loss have left us feeling less than whole. In coming to us as a...
    Reflection | By Jan Richardson | November 28, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Advent, Brokenness, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, God, Immanence, Relationships, Vulnerability