Audio Video Meditation (Sabbatical Poem, 7/31) Traveling through the forest After the fire The hillside looks like giant shins covered With thick, black stubble. Yet somehow, Even stripped of branches, twigs, Needles and bark, The trees retain their dignity. Straight as arrows Unbowed Unbent Rooted deeply in the soil of home. Draw near. Feel…
Audio Video Opening Words There is a scene in the second Harry Potter movie where Harry and Ron Weasley receive the cryptic message, “follow the spiders.” “Follow the spiders?” says Ron, a renowned arachnophobe. “Follow the spiders? Why couldn’t it be follow the butterflies?” Well, from the time I left on my sabbatical, I…
Audio: Being a Human Being Video: Being a Human Being Readings Theodore Roethke, “Being not Doing” From Sabbath: Finding Rest, Renewal, and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller Sabbath time offers the gift of deep balance; in Sabbath time, we are valued not for what we have done or accomplished, but simply because we…
Keep on Moving Forward UU Church of the Palouse · January 20, 2019 Audio: click here Video: click here Opening Words Earlier this month, a friend of mine (Heather Rion Starr) invited us to offer up one-sentence summaries of our life’s mission. Hers was, “energetically participating in & carrying forward a Unitarian Universalism that is a vibrant,…
Each Day, One More UU Church of the Palouse · January 13, 2019 Audio: click here Video: click here Opening Words Everyone has habits and preferences and particular ways of being human, and inevitably, if you put more than a few people in a room together, those differences are going to bump into each other. The bigger…
The Parable of Maybe UU Church of the Palouse · January 6, 2019 Audio: click here Video: click here Opening Words If we were to think of our lives are a story, we’d like to think we have some control over the plot as it unfolds. Sadly, life does not work that way. We do make choices,…
The Burning Service UUCP · December 30, 2018 Audio: click here Video: click here Opening Words by Amy Bowden Freedman Our service this morning is an annual tradition…a time of reflection on the year past leading into a ritual space where we let go of some things, and hold onto others. We call it the burning service,…
The Challenge of Christmas Christmas Eve 2018 · 8 pm Audio: click here Opening Words We gather at this late hour With only darkness to mark our path A time when most days we would be pulling the covers up around our bodies preparing for rest Or, checking the day’s news shaking our heads, sighing heavily,…
Holy Night, Holy Child Christmas Eve, 2018 ·4 pm Welcome On this night held sacred by so many around the world, we gather and invite into our midst, into this place, and into each individual heart, the Christmas Spirit…A spirit of generosity, and caring, of hope and of promise. Young and old, male and female,…
Remembering Thomas Merton UU Church of the Palouse · December 16, 2018 Opening Words On a bulletin board inside my office, I keep certain sacred objects. There’s the card from my women’s group, and the picture a chaplain colleague gave me that asks, “Does this pulpit make my behind look big?” Only it doesn’t say…
Heard and Held UU Church of the Palouse · November 18, 2018 Audio File: Click here Opening Words It’s been a rough couple of weeks for me, personally. My husband and I separated after 25 years of marriage, precipitating all kinds of loss and turbulence. My grandmother caught pneumonia and went on hospice. We are still…
That Which is Worthy UU Church of the Palouse · November 11, 2018 Audio File: That Which is Worthy Opening Words Todays service grows out of the intersection of our New Member Ceremony and Veteran’s Day. You know that I love making connections and weaving themes together. Well, in this case, when I reflected on why…
