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Growing up on Star Island
Looking back on my summers spent at a beloved UU retreat.
Quietude
We cannot hear unless there is silence.
The soul's address
Why do we discount our bodies as unworthy of reverence?
Two prose poems
I have my way of praying, as you no doubt have yours.
A nation of immigrants
I couldn't help but connect the plight of these migrants to my own family history.
My home, your home, our home
What can we do to help others feel at home?
Mi casa, tu casa, nuestra casa
¿Estamos dispuestos a incluir personas de diferentes culturas en nuestras congregaciones?
Surviving, without a memorial
Where are the tangible memorials to what survivors have lost?
Quilt: Into the mystery
A dead child's clothing transformed into a quilt.
Painting: Totems
'All have come from a star nursery.'
The dark llama
Standing in the shadow of the nebulae.
Good works
If our beliefs have meaning, we must act as if our souls depend on it.
Photograph Visual music
Capturing the music of the slot canyons of the Southwest.
Crying out for justice
Everything is perfect, and needs a lot of work.
Poem: Words
They tumble forth.
Painting: Dew drops
The artist invited poets to respond to her work.
There is enough
There's enough for you. There's enough for me. We don't have to throw anybody under the bus.
Black humanism's response to suffering
Suffering is not redemptive; we must take human responsibility for eradicating it.
We are already in paradise
There is no land promised to any of us other than the land already given.
Textile: Pulpit hanging
Symbols of the world's religions.
Sculpture: In Between
Can there be such a thing as 'Unitarian art'?
The ways of the forest
Everything has a job in the forest.
Finding spirit in the sundown
The only way to prepare for facing Alzheimer's is to remain attentive to the present moment.
Creations: Chalice cable hand warmers
Knitter's work reminded her of the flaming chalice.
Who are you?
Do not be afraid of self-examination.
Creations: Pendant
Artist learned to make her own chalice pendant.
Creations: 'Journey of the heart' stole
The chalice and the labyrinth.
Creations: Ostrich egg chalices
'Precious and delicate.'
Painting: My goddess, my love
From the stage to the canvas.
Holy family
A family holy enough to merit the highest forms of reverence.
Poem about light
You can try to strangle light.
The cathedral of the world
A twenty-first-century theology, based on the concept of one light and many windows.
If there is a God . . .
As an agnostic, I'm definitely an atheist about some gods. But what kind of God might be possible?
Painting: Blue tree
Painting brings balance into my life.
Painting: Chestnut fences
A connection to the 'stream of life.'
A spark of understanding
My first encounter with Unitarianism.
Be the change
We must become, and learn to think of ourselves as, forces of history.
Death barged in
He has been here ever since.
Practice gratitude
Like hope, trust, and love, gratitude is both a feeling and a spiritual practice.
Growing up in a UU family
People probably thought my parents were hippies because we were out-of-the-closet Unitarian Universalists.
The human condition
If the ego is about how we are separate, then the spirit is about how we are connected.
Lessons from an elephant sage
Speak from a place of distraction, and the elephant will not move.
Painting: Blue agave
Abstractions in nature.
Sabbath, an ecological spiritual delight
Slow down and walk lightly on the Earth, even if just for a moment.
Serving Dionysus
I worshiped the gods of comedy and tragedy long before I worshiped Jesus's God.
Totem games
Guess who I am.
Painting: Low hanging fruit
Painting is where I struggle to see the world as it is.
A little of that human touch
Relationship insights from the Boss.
A broken hallelujah
Praise in the midst of a broken world and a broken heart?
Print: Dawn on the Stono
Any ambiguity is deliberate.
Imagination and the wild
Crane your neck. Worm your way. Wolf it down.
How it feels to be 80
The only really upsetting thing about being old is realizing that I'm not going to see how everything comes out.
Poem: Bad news in the ER
'Your son was at a concert when he collapsed.'
Painting: Song Sparrows in the Hosta Forest
Familiar growing, living things.
Poem: Rain on water
The sky echoes the underwater world.
Painting: Carnival in Trinidad
Inner journeys.
Though Jesus did not rise from the dead
Jesus died and decomposed, and yet he was right: Nothing is utterly lost.
The call of self
Finding my path when the choices I made in my twenties didn't work out.
Reading for the day
Love the gift of your life and do no harm.
Love and death
Facing cancer with lessons learned from my parishioners.
Quilt: Dominion
The aquarium is submerged, its captives free.
Photographs: Hospice
Photographs of the final days of a man's life.
Universal love
'And what church did you say you attend?'
Ceremonies for everyday life
Establishing connections with self, family, and the earth.
Praying as Unitarian Universalists
How can we pray with integrity, grace, power, and purpose?
Painting: Perspective of the self
'A purposeful focus on what is most vital.'
Meditation, Spring 2008
A family meditation.
One thing I am sure of
A chaplain's counsel to a grieving brother.
What is sacred?
The relationship of all living things.
Feeling like an exile
Do you live in a kind of Babylon?
What is evil?
A view of human nature grounded in human possibility rather than pathology.
Painting: My Ostraka: History I
Reinterpretations of Athena.
On the death of a child
Buddhist wisdom honors a brief life.
Photograph: Chairs at Bodie
Capturing a human absence.
Four haiku
Natural moments in seventeen syllables.
Sitting between the extremes
Why a journalist writes haiku.
Confessions of a prodigal volunteer
Life after burning out at church.
Once and for all
Watching a loved one fade into dementia.
Painting: The collector
Personal iconography.
Painting: Sacred words imperfect #4
Distorted, hidden, but sacred.
The death of li'l Anthrax
A more vicious little creature you could hardly imagine.
Reading our lives
Take time to read the story of your life.
Collage: InterdepenDance
Found objects, discovered meanings.
The spiritual practice of hospitality
Welcoming people to our congregations is a way to encounter the mystery and wonder of life.
Montage: Ascending
Montage of earthy spirituality.
Don't be stingy with your faith
Unitarian Universalism saves lives. Don't keep it to yourself.
What membership means
Our covenant is open to all who will enter it with us.
Great art and the gods
Five-year-olds in a fine art museum.
From fear to eternity
Learning to walk backward down a cliff.
Painting: Don't fence me in
Narrative symbolism on large, colorful canvases.
Quilt: Great Blue rising
A heron at sunrise.
Finding a talisman
A gift brings healing and unexpected loss.
The emerging religious humanism
What is humanistic religious naturalism?
What demythologizers tell their children
Stories are for everyone.
Writers, join the planet's rescue team
Don't turn language into a weapon.
Fortune cookies for the soul
If I owned a fortune cookie company.
Painting: Stargazing
A painting is transformed in the process.
A community bound by love
An affirmation.
Painting: Dancing Joy
The artist seeks to "breathe out peaceful uplifting imagery."
Painting: Millennial Hope
"The hope for harmony with our diversity."
Only forward
Time and the human spirit.
Poem for an inked daughter
A mother reaches across the generations.
Painting: Revelation
Truth revealed through human experience.
Can Unitarian Universalists talk about failure?
Original Sin isn't a good idea. Expecting perfection isn't, either.
Miracle flowers
The persistence of beauty in New Orleans.
Sculpture: Tower of peace
A sculptor responds to 9/11.
Pilgrimages: Places that touch the spirit
Glory be to time and to water.
Learning to resist reasonable atrocity
Too often 'commonsense' truths lead people into calamity.
Photograph: Dreamer 1
Nineteenth-century technique gives photo dreamlike quality.
Love as a way of life
Love your neighbor, even before disaster strikes.
Poem: Those days
Summer memories.
Sculpture: In praise of lesser gods
Inspired by humanity.
Poem: Kingfisher
Feeding the birds.
Unitarian Universalists and Pentecostals sing together
A chance encounter in a hotel lobby leads to new understanding.
A ritual is born
Once, twice, ritual!
Learning to raise lifelong UUs
We're not just a religion of exiles.
Poem: Flowering
Grow a life here.
Sculpture to remember
Symbolic richness in mixed media.
Nature reliquaries
Artist's assemblages honor nature.
Many religions, but only one earth
Can reverence for the earth bring us together across religious differences?
Thomas A Baillieul's paintings
Thomas A. Baillieul's paintings tempt viewers to tell a story.
Celebrate the Winter Solstice
Meditation for the longest night.
Creche surprise
Dramatis personae, wrapped in old newsprint.
What do Unitarian Universalists believe?
Unitarian Universalists hold many beliefs in common.
Why liberal religion offers a better way
Liberal religious people need to reclaim the moral agenda.
Dawn meditation for the fall equinox
Fall equinox sunrise meditation.
Repression of the sublime
To realize your potential you must recognize your gifts.
Hope in an unmarked envelope
A request for liberal religious contraband.
Meditations on our cosmic significance
Who hasn't felt tiny and insignificant?
Ganges dawn
India's Ganges River at first light.
Into the Light
An artist reflects on the view from an abandoned cellar.
Midlife spirituality for women
Drawing closer to the sacred at middle age.
El sueño final (The final dream)
Laurel Garcia Colvin creates dreamlike images using underwater photography.
Beltaine (May 1)
Make an altar to celebrate the senses.
Bubbles of Earth
'Dust thou art,' joyfully recast
The ceremony of innocence
A ceremony of innocence is a statement of faith and an act of hope.
Church of all sorts
Some faiths focus on all saints and others on all souls, but Unitarian Universalism is a faith of all sorts.
Was Thomas Jefferson really a Unitarian?
What makes someone 'one of us'?
Playing with the Italians
Despite my father's fears, those men were not the enemy.
A religion of exile and personal choice
Unitarian Universalists aren't strangers to exile.
Human rights and the evil of terrorism
Terrorists commit vicious human rights crimes. But they also thrive on the crimes of others.
We need more patriots
Nationalism threatens the true meaning of American patriotism.
Philip Simmons, 1957-2002
A tribute to Philip Simmons by his editor at UU World.
Against vengeance
Witness for the things that make for peace.
Passover: A meditation
The terrible blessing of the journey.
Unshakable foundations
What endures in a time of terror: A sermon from the week of 9/11.
Pacifists and pragmatists
We are not a peace church. We are not a war church.
Bearing witness to human diversity
A visit to Auschwitz.
