Dear Members and Friends,
International Trans Visibility Day is March 31st. I am delighted that UU Westport shall honor this day. On Saturday, March 29th, at 4:00 PM, our Gender Equity Team shall host a special recognition of how our congregation can support our trans siblings in the wider community. Rev. Aaron Miller, a trans minister from Hartford, will join us for this important event. So put March 29 on your calendar, and let your trans friends and family members know of this gathering—more information will be in Soundings.
Incidentally, the Unitarian Universalist Association’s “Common Read” is currently Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families. I encourage you to get a copy either online or at UU Westport. Our Gender Equity Team has bought twenty copies at $19.75 apiece. It would be meaningful to read prior to our March 29th gathering to honor International Trans Visibility Day.
Interested in Poetry for the Spirit? This Wednesday, tomorrow, at 11:00 AM, you are welcome to join me on ZOOM. This is an opportunity to share how you are, hear the poems below spoken aloud, and then listening to one another sharing what comes up for each of us us. The ZOOM link is HERE.
Our next in-person “Spiritual Ground for Navigating Challenging Times” will be Saturday March 15, at 2:00 PM, in the Meeting House.
I look forward to being in person with you the next three Sundays!
Warmly,
Alan
from Bianca Sparacino as shared by Katherine Weinmann
The truth is — the amount of days we have here is actually not so large.
So if you have the opportunity to wake up tomorrow,
to let this world age you and weather you
and meet you where you are
for even just one more golden minute —
I hope you show up for it.
Do as much as you possibly can with your time here.
Risk your heart.
Express.
Take care of others, leave them better than you found them.
Give yourself permission to take up space.
Be all that you are.
Love the way you hope to love, and love people on purpose, with depth and intention.
Keep rescuing those younger parts of yourself.
Forgive.
Put every ounce of your patchwork soul into this world, crack tenderness into all of its dark corners.
Stay soft, stay curious, but most importantly – just hold on to your hope.
from “A Slower Urgency, We Will Dance with Mountains” by Bayo Akomolafe
Slowing down is about lingering in the places we are not used to.
Seeking out new questions.
Becoming accountable to more than what rests on the surface.
Seeking roots.
Slowing down is taking care of ghosts, hugging monsters, sharing silence, embracing the weird . . .
The idea of slowing down is not about getting answers,
it is about questioning our questions.
It is about staying in the places that are haunted.
“Let There Be an Opening into the Quiet that Lies Beneath the Chaos” by Jan Richardson
Let there come silence.
Let there be
to all that is chaotic
in you,
a calming
of the clamoring,
a stilling
of the voices that
have laid their claim
on you,
that have made their
home in you.
Let what distracts you
cease.
Let what divides you
cease.
Let there come an end
to what diminishes
and demeans,
and let depart
all that keeps you
in its cage.
Let there be
an opening
into the quiet
that lies beneath
the chaos,
where you find
the peace
you did not think
possible
and see what shimmers
within the storm.
— Jan Richardson, from “Blessing in the Chaos” in The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief (Wanton Gospeller Press, November 15, 2016)
