Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for December is Wonder. This month’s post is offered by Fred Hulting. 

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The Path of Wonder

I can still recall the experience of standing on an 18,500-foot peak in the Himalayas, at 5:30 in the morning, with Mt Everest towering more than 10,000 feet above me: the sight of dawn breaking over the mountains; the tingle of 10 degrees on my skin; the sounds of swirling winds; the rapid movement of heart and lungs from the high altitude and a steep climb.  And an overwhelming sense of wonder and awe.

Our Soul Matters theme for this month, “The Path of Wonder”, asks us to use these moments of wonder to move beyond feelings of being small and separate from nature, and to instead reflect on how these moments connect us to other people and to the world around us. Continue reading →

Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for November is Change. This month’s post is offered by Janna Sundby. 

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Building a trusting relationship with our developmental minister was just one of the goals that we set out to achieve when we signed our agreement in April 2020. I believe we’ve achieved that important goal despite there being a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that’s still circulating. Change remains our constant companion. The Minnesota seasons are our colorful annual roadmap for growth, change, death and it starts again. Moving, altering, familiar yet somewhat different with each evolution.

We thoughtfully chose a “Developmental Minister” hire back in 2018, following input from the Ministerial Troika, that never included an option for that person to be our settled minister due to the UUA’s guidelines. We agreed to choose between a contract, vs. a  settled, vs. a  developmental minister and selected the developmental as the best option for us. 

Hiring our Developmental Minister, Rev. Lisa Friedman, has been a wonderful successful change.  Yet this was not luck; we did the hard work of researching, refining, defining and recording our collective goals for developing ourselves, and seeking spiritual guidance from a new unknown ministerial leader. Continue reading →

Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for October is Courage. This month’s post is offered by Betty Hartnett. 

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Courage (Oxford Dictionary):
1. The ability to do something that frightens one.
2. Strength in the face of pain or grief.

I have never thought of myself as courageous. I always thought of having courage as being bold. And I’m not bold! But as I look at the definitions from Oxford, I see that I have done things that have frightened me, such as being the only child in a family of seven to go off to college at eighteen, basically cut off from family. I had no money or transportation, only a scholarship that covered tuition and books. I am a mother of two and all mothers know that giving birth and raising children involves pain and lots of frightening moments (but always worth it). I learned to ski in my late thirties and for a while I could say, “Black Diamonds beware!” (That thought no longer surfaces, but I still ski.) Continue reading →

Each month, a member of the board will share a reflection on the Soul Matters monthly theme. The theme for September is Belonging. This month’s post is offered by Board President, Becky Halat. 

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As the summer wraps up and a new church year starts, we’ll see more friends and members back at the church or on Zoom services. And even though I write that phrase “as the summer wraps up” with an intense feeling of longing to extend these longer days and the warmth of the sun that turn my tomatoes from a dull green to a bright and delicious red, I also relish the renewed sense of belonging that comes from meeting together as our UUCM community. Continue reading →