15 years ago, I started a regular meditation practice that completely changed my life.  Not quite a year prior,  we had welcomed our first child into our lives. As a young first time parent, I didn’t know what to expect. And, as a just plain “young” person, I didn’t have any of the tools I have now to help me negotiate all this.

And so, I screwed up in more or less all of the ways one might. As a new parent I was angry and frustrated and in retrospect embarrassingly full of ego and blame and an inability to give voice to my real feelings, needs, fears, and doubts. I knew I wasn’t showing up as the parent or spouse I wanted to be, and I felt terrible. As my daughter’s 1st birthday drew near, I was more and more convinced that things needed to change.  Continue reading →

My friend and colleague, the Rev. Elizabeth Nguyen, has a saying.  “For some people, it’s a news story.  For others, it’s our families.” This is true about all the news stories that involve people, whether about tornadoes, immigration raids, or transgender rights.  Or, this week in Minneapolis and across the country, about police violence and systemic racism.

For the troika, for Rev. Lisa, about to arrive to be with you, and for Paul Winchester, the events of these past weeks have been about our families, our neighborhoods, the air we breathe, whether we sleep at night or keep patrol of our neighborhoods, the helicopters circling overhead and the choices we make about how and where to take positive action. The burnt out hull of South Minneapolis that some watch on the news represents the places I shop, eat, fill prescriptions, feel most at home. For Paul in North Minneapolis, Terri, and Arif in St. Paul, there are similar stories of loss and disorientation. Lisa’s kids go to school with George Floyd’s fiancé’s kids and his fiancé is her barista at the coffee shop she frequents. For some, it’s the news. For others, it’s our families. Continue reading →

An introduction from Rev. Meg Riley:

Rev. Terri is on vacation this week.  In her stead, we share these words, which were a public Facebook post from Carin Mrotz, Executive Director at Jewish Action Center.  The synagogue referenced is Shir Tikvah, which for decades has gathered in the building at 50^th and Girard which used to house First Universalist Church. Plenty for us UUs to think about! 

Art by Paige Ingram (@seriouslypaige) found via @BlackLivesUU.

Carin wrote:

This evening, I attended the rally in South Minneapolis at the site of the murder of George Floyd. The crowd, when I was there, was peaceful. A woman wove through socially distanced protestors handing out free masks to those who needed them, though everyone I saw was wearing their own. A tall black man was spraying the ground at our feet with essential oils – lavender and rosemary. He read my sign (I am a Jew marching for George Floyd) and asked if I’d been to Israel. I told him no, and he responded that he’d lived there for 3 and half years, he told me that in Israel rosemary like we were smelling just then grew in enormous bushes. Continue reading →

This weekly pastoral message by the Interim Ministry Team comes out on Wednesdays. Rev. Meg, Rev. Terri and Arif will take turns writing or recording a video. 

The poet Nayyirah Waheed writes:

“feel it. the thing that you don’t want to feel. feel it. and be free.”

Waheed’s work often cuts right to the heart of things, and here, to me at least, it’s a bit like she’s reaching in and shaking me by the shoulders saying feel it. Not necessarily in a hard way, these words of hers can just as easily be soft, gentle, like a friend or loved one helping us connect to and give voice to our yearning.  

So many of us are impacted by this pandemic in so many different ways. As I’ve noted recently, this pandemic is hyper-local. Our worlds are smaller – shrinking down to the places we live, the ways we get necessary supplies, the shift in how we do or do not see other human beings. In some ways, each of us is living a slightly different pandemic as we each make choices, discern what is “right” for us, and do our best to keep ourselves and the ones we love as safe as possible. 

It is no surprise then that there might be things that we don’t want to feel. Things that we’re holding back, holding at bay, holding away from our hearts because we can’t imagine our hearts carrying any more. And still there’s the invitation from Waheed. 

Feel it. Let it in. Let it move through, so that in the moving through we can get a little more free. 

May we all find ways to get a little more free. 

— Arif