From a Buddhist perspective, this is the great conundrum of our lives: we are simultaneously one vast living organism and a distinct living person. And we are vastly more comfortable with those whom we perceive to be like ourselves, at least on the surface. There are powerful barriers to recognizing that we and others share the same universal […]
We are alive and we are going to die. Religion is our response to these two realities. We are, in fact, the religious animal. Death casts a mantle over everything we do. The answers we seek have to find meaning beyond our mortality. A major conundrum of our life is the tension between embracing the world […]
Curbing our impulse to buy too much as well as decluttering our homes is a path towards greater personal satisfaction. Let’s talk about living a life more congruent with our spiritual values. Dave Gerlach is a member of the Fox Valley UU Fellowship in Appleton and has spoken in the past to other Fellowships about […]
As Unitarians we are often uncomfortable with prayer. Who are we praying to? What are these prayers really for? To avoid any discomfort with these questions we turn to silent prayer or meditation. For me, this has always felt like a gaping hole in our services, instead of joining together we turn separately inward. Using Anne Lamont’s […]
On Mother’s Day, let us consider the actions that cultivate abundant life for Mother Earth and all our relations. What are the paths that energetically transform our relationships in ways that build understanding and life-giving community among earth’s diverse living beings? Carol Hackbardt grew up in an inter-denominational Community Church in California. She served as […]
“Belief” seems to be at the root of many of the ills of our society today as people use their “beliefs” to justify all sorts of damaging and unproductive behavior. This talk will look at the nature of belief and explore some of the distortions which have arisen over the last century. We will then […]
If you look in your Thesaurus, you will find dozens of words related to “earth”, “earthling”, “earthly”, and “earthy.” They are wonderful words that range from the soil to the biosphere, men and women to the goddess Gaea, the corporeal to the global, the folksy to the hard-boiled. Each poet has his or her own “take” […]
History tells us that war, politics, disease, deforestation, and drought have all contributed to societal collapses that punctuate human history. But there is another factor of at least equal importance. In fact, Wes Jackson of the Land Institute is persuaded that it may pose a more serious threat to human life than does climate change. Yet, […]
When a person with a great mind, heart, or message passes away, we find the fact of their death hard to process. This is particularly the case if their end was unexpected, violent, or at the hands of the enemies of justice. In a year which has seen deep and disturbing manifestations of death and […]
“Upward mobility—the American Dream—has become a myth. Concentration of wealth and power has skyrocketed. Dr. King’s dream of justice and equality has fractured. Half of all Americans are impoverished or struggling, as the middle class shrinks and billionaires take the profits. Where’s our commitment to the Common Good? Our Unitarian Universalist (UU) tradition places its […]