What if our lives were precious only up to a point? What if we held them loosely and understood there are no guarantees? What if when you got sick...you were identified as someone in the middle of a transformation that could deepen your soul? Eve Ensler

Meditation

For the voyage of life from seed to harvest, the kiss

of rain and sun and growth, the gifts of the earth given

into the hands of strangers, friends and family

whose efforts now bring such bounty to this table.

Thanks for the soft animal body that carries each life

here present, so sturdy and so fragile;

thanks and praise for fellowship, and for the lives

of those now absent who yet linger among us;

thanks for the complex ways we each continue to seek

and find our place, unique like everyone else.

Lead us to the gift of regular silence until it silences us;

bring us to choose gratitude until we are truly grateful;

fill us with praise until we become ourselves

a constant act of praise.

So we give thanks for all things, including joys

and sorrows deeply felt but left, here, unspoken.

Carol Bindel 

Published in UUWorld, Winter 2012, 22.

Life lessons travel two-way streets.

JFK, fifty years and...

Certainly, I remember. I was a freshman in college. I feared America would soon go to war with "the Reds," for how could this not be sabotage? But I went to work that evening serving food.

Fifty years later, serving food continues to be a worthy endeavor.

Innate Courage

We spent the day yesterday with our Lucy who will turn 16 months next week. She has a riding toy that she likes to climb on, holding onto the steering handles while she steps onto the seat. She then lets go the hand-holds and straightens, all the while saying aloud to herself and the world, "Get down, get down, get down..." and grinning her biggest, most joyful grin. She didn't hear "get down" from us, and I doubt her parents sing-song it at her, either. I think it's coming from her deepest self, that sense of danger and courage to try anyway. May we continue to have the courage.

Over quiet water a leaf falls toward its own reflection.

Researchers have found that intense engagement in and commitment to an activity is a proven route to happiness and well-being. Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Crown Publishers, New York, 2012. 259