Dear Friends,
I’m sharing the introduction for this month’s Soul Matters packet, written by the Rev. Scott Tayler, because I really needed to read it. I hope it offers you something meaningful too.
In faith and love,
Karen
Welcome to Celebrating Blessings
A Soul Matters facilitator once shared, “I guess after plan A fails, I need to remember there’s still a whole alphabet out there.”
Who of us doesn’t need a little help remembering that? Especially after enduring Covid for so long. And the ongoing reckoning with racism. And the world’s inability to deal with climate change. And political division. You get the point. It’s easy to feel demoralized, daunted and defeated these days. With so many things going wrong, it’s easy to overlook the many things going right.
For Unitarian Universalists, this tunnel vision is the central tragedy of the human condition, not just of our times. We respect those who frame the human problem as sin or twisted wills, but it’s nearsightedness that our religion is most worried about. Which is also why blessings are so core to our faith. They are our way of widening our view.
You see, unlike some of our sibling religions, we don’t say a lot of blessings. But we do point to them. For us, blessings are not so much about giving something to each other as they are about helping each other notice all that’s already been given.
And it’s not just about widening our view to see the gifts and blessings themselves; it’s about widening our understanding of life. Pointing to blessings repairs our relationship with life, allowing us to see it as generous instead of indifferent or threatening. And that’s no small thing. Because when the world seems stingy with us, we start getting stingy with others. In contrast, those who feel blessed have little trouble passing blessings on. Life spills into us and we spill into others.
And in that overflow, it does indeed get a whole lot easier to notice that there is, most certainly, a whole alphabet out there.
Reverend Karen’s Office Hours & Availability
Please reach out to Karen via email, phone, or text if you’d like to connect individually – she’s happy to set up a time to meet with you! And, as always, please call or text her if you have a pastoral emergency. Please note that Karen doesn’t check email on Mondays (her rest day) and Thursdays (her writing/study day) and will reply to your non-emergency messages the following day.
Virtual Office Hours on Tuesdays at 4:00-6:00 pm
Rev. Karen will continue to hold virtual office hours as part of our multiplatform future! She opens a zoom room, and you’re invited to join her when you can for as long as you can. See your weekly email for the Zoom link.
Coffee with the Minister on Wednesday at 10:00-11:30 am
Rev. Karen will be at the Victory Café on Atwood Ave (across from A Room of One’s Own Bookstore) – stop in and join her!
Office Hours at Reeb on Fridays at 1:00-3:00 pm
Karen would love to see you there, or meet you there for a walk around the neighborhood! Please contact her by phone or email to let her know you’re coming and what you’re comfortable with.