Theme: Renewal
(some ponderances from Linda Sherry, largely adapted from this month’s Soul Matters theme, What Does It Mean to Be a People of Renewal?)
As I begin to frame the September Soul Matters theme of Renewal, I find that I have become resigned to a bit of humdrum; that the ongoing struggle to stay safe in this time of COVID has dampened my enthusiasm for Doing and that the current state of affairs in our country and world have made me very weary.
September is a season of homecoming for us UUs. And renewal is central to that. At the opening of each new church year, we renew our commitments to each other and our church community. We renew our energy for another year of journeying together.
In our culture and secular lives, the questions we ask about renewal focus mainly on health (Are you drinking enough water? Are you getting enough sleep?”) and work/life balance (Are you making enough time for family, play and rest?). Those are fine questions, but they don’t take us very deep or push us very far.
This month’s theme of Renewal prompts us to renew our very questions about renewal. Perhaps we need to be asking:
Are you sure it’s your body that’s tired, or could it be your soul?
What if “time away” isn’t about restoring ourselves in order to return to our work, but instead about making space to decide if it’s time to reconfigure ourselves and re-imagine what our true “work” is?
Is it time to renew your responsibility to those who will come after you?
Is it time to renew your commitment to carry on the work of those who came before us?
What if you saw your daily living and loving as an opportunity (even a calling) to renew others’ faith in humanity?
Could it be that continual self-improvement is not the path to renewal but instead compassionate acceptance of who you already are, warts and all?
What if renewing our common future isn’t just about moving forward, but instead requires a return to an honest telling of the past?
And that’s just a few questions that are sitting on top of the pile!
So friends, this month let’s dig in together and deeply examine the ways and reasons we might find and live Renewal.
Let’s renew and refresh the renewal questions we ask.
Meeting The World
There is a wind that keeps blowing since the beginning of time, and in every language ever spoken, it continues to whisper, you must meet the outer world with your inner world or existence will crush you. If inner does not meet outer, our lives will collapse and vanish. Though we often think that hiding our inwardness will somehow protect or save us, it is quite the opposite. The heart is very much like a miraculous balloon. Its lightness comes from staying full, meeting the days with our heart prevents collapse.
This is why 90-year old widows remain committed to tending small flowers in the spring; why 10-year olds with very little to eat care for stray kittens, holding them to their skinny chests; why painters going blind paint more; why composers going deaf write great symphonies. This is why when we think when we can’t possibly try again, we let out a sigh that goes back through the centuries, and then, despite all our experience, we inhale and try again.