From the WUUC Worship Team
The March 2020 theme for worship, RE, and small groups at WUUC is: What Does It Mean to be a People of WISDOM? Our monthly themes and resource materials come from Soul Matters Sharing Circle, a network of Unitarian Universalist congregations.  Following is a small sample of thoughts about wisdom:

Dictionaries give us definitions of wisdom saying that it involves knowing about veracity or truth. These are usually linked with action, especially achieving justice. When we read about wisdom, we see words such as enlightenment, understanding, sagacity, discernment, or insight – often as based on experience. Experience brings in the concept of self-transcendence and the matter of being reflected in, and reflective of, everything around us (recall the UU Seventh Principle of the interconnected web of all existence).

Wisdom does not mean being simply smart. According to author Louise Penny, wisdom involves being fully comfortable embracing and making statements such as: I’m sorry. I was wrong. I don’t know. I need help.

Some pertinent quotes:

— “Things are more integrated than they seem, they are better than they seem, and they are more mysterious than they seem; this is the vision that the wisdom traditions bequeath us.” – Huston Smith

— “[everything] is a microcosm representing in itself the entire all-inclusive universe.” – Alfred N. Whitehead

— “We speak of coming into the world. We didn’t. We came out of it…” – Alan Watts

— “So many people say that they have ‘fallen off the path.’ I say to them, ‘No, you didn’t fall off the path. This is all the path, and once you have begun to awaken, you can’t fall off the path. There’s no way. Where are you going to fall to? Are you going to make believe it never happened? You can forget for a moment, but what you think you have forgotten will keep coming back to you. So, do not be upset. Just go ahead and be worldly for a while.’” – Ram Dass

— “All the suffering, stress and addiction comes from not realizing you already are what you are looking for.” – Jon Kabat-Zinn

— “…. every being in the universe is universe-referent for its origin and destiny and its proper role in the great community of existence.” – Thomas Berry

Some worthwhile links related to wisdom (poetry, etc.):

https://www.uua.org/worship/words/opening/5449.shtml

https://www.unfoldinglight.net/reflections/tm75ebk9668x98fxcsbhrflm8gbgmj

For spiritual materials on our monthly theme, go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jHSi5u2KQYM2eqs65C-Nip8BpkKuPL2m/view?usp=sharing

For a Sacred Words supplement on Awakening go to https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YDUkuHY4p6yr_9fdVjQI3kc8bKewF28E/view?usp=sharing