Community Starts in the Kitchen
Our WUUC annual pledge drive is underway. Visit www.wuuc.org/cooking for all the details and pledge now!
Helping the Helpers
WUUC members and friends contributed $2,135 to our Helping Hands Fund during our 2020 Christmas Eve service and in the month after. Because of the many dire needs in the age of Covid, Rev. Dan Lillie decided to split the receipts between our Helping Hands Fund, a discretionary fund administered by Rev. Dan, and Compass Housing Alliance.
Thus, $1,067.50 will go to Helping Hands to assist individuals and families in need, and $1,067.50 will go to Compass Housing Alliance, which provides permanent, supportive, affordable housing and emergency services for those experiencing homelessness and income instability in the Puget Sound region.
Thank you all for your generosity!
ASJ Update: Next Up: Serving Justice
by Cora Goss-Grubbs, ASJ Co-Chair
Sunday Special Collections
January’s special collection raised $425 for NAMI Eastside. The National Association of Mental Illness is a community-based non-profit organization committed to improving the quality of life for those impacted by mental illness through advocacy, education, and support.
Our next special collection, during the service on March 21, will go to JUUstice Washington, which strives to inspire, educate, empower, and nurture the capacity of Unitarian Universalists (UUs), as well as our community allies, to collaboratively advocate for and undertake social and environmental justice initiatives. They support legislative change that aligns with our UU values in Washington state and beyond.
The ASJ Committee thanks WUUC members and friends for their generous support of our monthly special collections, which take place during services on the third Sunday of every month. Instructions for giving are posted during the service, and you can also donate anytime the following week at https://onrealm.org/wuuc/-/give/now, or by sending a check to WUUC at P.O. Box 111, Woodinville, WA 98072. Please make checks out to WUUC and write “ASJ Special Collection” in the notes.
Theme: Commitment
By Linda Sherry
(adapted from Soul Matters, March 2021)
Huge payoffs come when we keep our commitments. Maintaining loyalty to healthy habits not only lengthens our lives but enriches them. Faithfully following through on our relationship commitments allows us to fully realize ourselves, as well as increases just about every metric of happiness, meaning and success out there. And keeping the promises we make to ourselves ultimately gives us the strength needed to follow through on all those promises we make to those around us.
Add it all up and what we get is a picture of commitment that looks a lot like climbing a mountain. What’s needed most in our backpacks are the qualities of endurance, focus, determination and grit. And of course a handful of coaches offering us motivational words and strategic tips and encouraging shouts of “You can do it!”
There is no doubt that such climbs are worth it. All of us certainly need a few of these successful journeys to feel fulfilled. But what about those we notice along the way? What about those we see sitting on the side of the trail, bruised and tending to their wounds?
There’s the friend whose marriage was good for so many years, but that relationship has now just grown thin. There’s also the co-worker that is proud to have maintained a successful career for 20 years that supported his family, but who — because of that commitment to stable work — had to turn his back on an earlier dream of being a writer. Then, of course, there many who bravely remain committed to the long-haul goals of health and security, but who walk wearily because addictions or bad luck have turned their journey into one of “one step forward and two steps back.”
All of which is to say that maybe what’s needed most this month is for us to tone down all the motivational talk so we can make at least a little room for mourning.
Not every path of commitment is clear and long, with a reward waiting at the end. Some just lead to dead ends. Some trails are simply too steep and must be abandoned, not just for our safety but for the safety of those we love. And almost always there’s that fork in the road. We want to travel both, but we are forced to choose. So commitment to one necessarily means traveling with regret and “What ifs.”
In such woods, our backpacks need to be filled with more than just endurance, focus and grit. Self-forgiveness, acceptance, and the ability to let go or admit “I was wrong” need to be tucked in there too.
In such woods, people need us to be willing to offer them repair and rest. We need to remember that for every person wanting to hear “push through the pain,” there are two needing someone to say, “It’s OK to tell me about your pain.”
Less shouting “You can do it!” from the sidelines, and more whispering “I’m here to listen.”
Yes, there’s no doubt that’s exactly what so many need this month. And maybe that’s exactly what you need too. …
We need to do a better job of putting ourselves higher on our own ‘to do’ list.
Michelle Obama
Say Yes. Whatever it is, say yes with your whole heart & simple as it sounds that’s all the excuse life needs to grab you by the hands and start to dance.
Find the Soul Matters packet for March here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uRX8z56a_xyw7ilhpL99qR6X4nj7G0f9/view?usp=sharing
The Sacred Word supplement for March on Awakening is here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ZPvcO55u0RRD25EuROEVKQdjlHMAh7YA/view?usp=sharing
Worship Team Update: Poetry as Worship
Pamela Denchfield, Meriaten Long & Donna Johnson
“Poetry is so important because it helps us understand and appreciate the world around us. Poetry’s strength lies in its ability to shed a “sideways” light on the world, so the truth sneaks up on you. No question about it. Poetry teaches us how to live.” — Alice Osborn
Poets like inaugural poet Amanda Gorman speak truth, power hope, and fuel activism. Poets like Lin-Manuel Miranda excel at storytelling bringing History to life.
All poets benefit by expressing themselves in a unique and authentic way.
Did you know that the WUUC community has its own Poetry Group? Meriaten Long and Pamela Denchfield facilitate the WUUC Poetry Group. We meet on fourth Sundays, from 4-6 p.m.
All are welcome! We usually have a mix of WUUC members and the public. Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84161717606?pwd=aXowc3FrbHRJRHVTVjNvTmVYNVF3Zz09
What happens at the WUUC Poetry Group? In each session, you have the opportunity to:
- Share work with a supportive audience (it could be yours or someone else’s)
- Generate new work by following group exercises
New to poetry? So are we! While we have been haunting readings for some time and sharing poems on occasion, we are learning the forms, too. We take turns bringing the exercises. We have been working through the alphabet in finding forms. Our next meeting is March 28. Pamela will explore a poetry form that begins with R.
For more information about the WUUC Poetry Group, contact Pamela at pdenchfield@yahoo.com
Poetry enhances the experience of worship. Like the visual art and music that is provided for our services by our friends and members, poetry can give voice to a variety of people and perspectives that reflect the rich differences in our congregation’s demographics. This spring we welcome poetry contributions on the monthly worship themes of Commitment, Becoming, Story, and Play. Poems that address these themes can help to unify the service as they are included as a Call to Worship, Chalice Lighting, Reading, or Benediction.
Please send poems to Donna Johnson at djohnyh@yahoo.com. Poems and artwork will be used in worship if they are a good fit with the service being planned.