STORIES THAT ECHO  Sometimes a tune gets stuck in our brains.  So, too, do stories from long ago.  Two stories I revisit again and again have to do with crimes: murders, trials, juries, and verdicts — and how they affected my personal and professional lives even though I was neither...

BE MY VALENTINE Robert Johnson, the Jungian Analyst, says that romantic love is the single greatest energy system in the Western psyche. He believes that it has supplanted religion as the primary way we experience ecstasy and wholeness. The gods have left the temple, migrated. But love can never produce...

AN INFINITE EXPECTATION OF THE DAWN “We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,” wrote Thoreau, “not by mechanical aids but by an infinite expectation of the dawn.” How do we awaken hope in times of loss and winter’s darkness, while cultivating the inner transformation we will need for...

GIMME SOME LOVIN’: THE NEW SCIENCE OF SELF-COMPASSION The idea that you should love yourself has been around a long time, but new psychology research shows that this actually is a smart thing to do. Although often confused with self-esteem, Self-Compassion is a separate approach and has significant advantages. This...

GIFTS OF DIFFERING MEASURE, HEARTS OF ONE ACCORD Every New Year provides us with the opportunity to recalibrate our lives. Our hymn #114 Forward Through the Ages reminds us “Not alone we conquer, not alone we fall; In each loss or triumph lose or triumph all.”  What might this mean in...

LETTING GO, STARTING OVER As we move into 2014, how many things will be left undone from 2013? Is there such a thing as beginning again? Ralph Waldo Emerson advised: Finish each day (year) and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have crept...

BEING CENTERED, BEING ONESELF As somas, each of us is already meaningfully structured in relation to our changing world – in other words “able to adapt.”  This meaningful structure is “ourselves” – it already exists beneath all of our searching and rational thinking. From a somatic perspective, we are suffering...

THE POWER AND POTENTIAL OF CONSCIOUS COMMUNICATION Do we create an instantaneous resonance with people? A resonance that simultaneously acknowledges them and their reality and expresses ourselves? We create a mutual understanding in very few words when we consciously communicate. Carol Hackbardt served Calvary and Zion United Methodist Churches in...

CHRISTMAS STORIES: OTHER No Santa, no Jesus, no happy family gatherings. But Christmas stories, nonetheless. Rev. Joan Shiels is a long-time friend and frequent speaker at UUFDC. She likes to share familiar things in new ways. Music: Ellen Shahbazi Service Leader: Bob Lindahl

IMMIGRATION UPDATE: POLICIES AND PRACTICES News on immigration policies discussed in the past, recent developments, and the practical realities of how immigration policies are being implemented. Attorney Luca Fagundes, whose legal practice in Sturgeon Bay specializes in the problems of Spanish-speaking immigrants, is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. As an...