Denial Isn’t Only a River in Egypt (sermon)
Let us choose to be like the lover of Skeleton Woman, perhaps afraid at first, but willing, in time, to embrace mortality, that life might be sweeter, fuller, fleshlier.
Spiritual Practice
Ritual for Re-Opening Space
As all kinds of folx move into re-opening space that was closed during the pandemic, it can help to bring intentionality, and even ritual, to this process. We have all been exposed to trauma in the form of a global pandemic. This trauma has different manifestations depending on one’s social location and context, but no …
Keep Going On (sermon)
Thanksgiving is not as we imagined or hoped it would be. This will likely be true for Christmas and New Year’s. So much loss, sacrifice, change. And still, we keep going on. Some of us have lost loved ones – some due to covid, others due to our general mortality; some of us fear losing …
“Oh, Honey” Healing Practice
I want to invite you into a healing practice I’m callig the “Oh, Honey” practice, inspired by the poem, “Self Compassion” by James Crews. I invite you, as I am speaking, to bring your attention to your body and its various sensations. If you feel a bit shy about doing this in front of all …
The Impossibility of Universalism
Reverend Karen G. Johnston The Unitarian Society East Brunswick, NJ September 27, 2020 While Buddhism asserts that we all have Buddhanature – that at our core can be found a golden goodness – the roots of Unitarianism or Universalism does not make this claim. Not quite. Historically, Unitarians claimed that we have within us the …
Growing Equanimity: Via Rumi’s Guest House (sermon)
Do you know that old, and perhaps tired, and perhaps true, cartoon about Unitarian Universalists? There are two doors. Each has a sign over it. The first door says, “Heaven.” No one is going through that door. The second door says, “Seminar about Heaven.” All the Unitarian Universalists choose that one. I want to begin …
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Awestruck (sermon)
It is said that in each of his pockets, Rabbi Simcha Bunim carried a slip of paper. On one was written: f or my sake the world was created… How awesome is that?!? On the other was written: I am but dust and ashes… How awful is that?!? Both messages he carried with him, living …
Failure is Our Only Option (sermon)
The Unitarian Society East Brunswick, NJ March 11, 2018 In the 1960s, the Unilever corporation, in their quest to make and sell laundry detergent, encountered a problem. Now, remember, this is more than fifty years ago, so the ubiquitous form of laundry detergent in our homes was…powder, that came to us in rectangular cardboard boxes. …
#metoo prayer ritual
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ Remembering to breathe and to breathe deeply and then once more, to take the breath in and let the breath out, we pause, poised as we are, at a point of risking, at a possibility of courage: #metoo. Risking vulnerability Risking pain Risking being known Risking being not believed …
A Compass, Not a Map (sermon)
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ March 19, 2017 A compass, rather than a map. Last week I told you that I have been reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Its subtitle is “Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.” Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, a …