March 12, 2023 The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ Reverend Karen G. Johnston When Tony, my partner, wrote and published his first novel, he fantasized about who would play the lead should it ever become a movie. In his mind, it was the British actor, Clive Owen. Here is a photo of Clive from that …
The Life and Death of Lee Hawkins First Unitarian Church of Albuquerque July 14, 2019 A quarter century ago, I asked the coordinator of my grandmother’s hospice care, how my grandmother was doing – not medically, but spiritually. She said simply, respecting both my grandmother’s confidentiality and my grief-as-curiosity, “As we live, so we die.” …
The Unitarian Society, East Brunswick, NJ Our reading can be found here. Dylan Thomas’ most famous lines are these: Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. I come today to vanquish Dylan Thomas. At least those …
“Everything is mortal. It dies. But its parts don’t die. Its parts become something else. And we know that when we bury a dog in the garden. And with a rose bush on top of it.” (Mary Oliver, interview with Krista Tippett) Perfect inverse proportion: as your days wane, your hours on the grass increase. …
(This prayer was inspired by a poem from Mary Oliver, “The World I Live In,” a copy of which I have not yet found on the interwebs, and thus cannot link to it.) May the Spirit of Meditation and Prayer Touch Us Gently Now [chime] Divine Spark, Gracious God, Hope Renewing, We gather this day, …
Unitarian Society of Northampton & Florence August 9, 2015 (The Mary Oliver poem referenced in this sermon can be found here.) When I joined my first Unitarian Universalist congregation, this very one, nearly twenty ago, there was not much tolerance for the G-word (or the J-word) and there was a strong allergy to the p-word: …
It’s risky, writing about hope without being in touch with at least some semblance of it, particularly when one aspires to be a minister. My post yesterday for today’s Earth Day was not hope-giving. It was well-crafted. It was articulate. Someone even called it “compassionate.” But it was not hopeful. I was not hopeful. It’s …
I have been thinking about and reflecting upon and experiencing feelings of helplessness a lot lately. There’s good reason, some of which is too personal to go into here, but it’s been a major theme in my spiritual life this past year, made explicit during my ten-day silent retreat over the new year (my first). …
Over and over, the dangers of oversimplification rang forth. Participants maintained — indeed, they demonstrated — that all of us engaged in the struggle against racism and other forms of oppression — no longer need to fear or avoid conflict, for out of such tensions may come our most creative, collaborative, and productive efforts. Indeed, …
Soul Searching Ahead: Unitarian Universalist Conversations on Race Read More »
Not all that long ago, I flew to the West Coast to visit my mother. Originally, the tickets I had bought were superb: one layover for less than an hour. Just enough time so I didn’t have to worry about missing the connecting flight, but not so much time that I would be strung out. …