December 2011
128 posts
1 tag
How are you living artistically today?
“May we bury our weapons of war
So they may be transformed into flowers of...”
– Sant Rajinder Sigh Ji Maharaj, Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious & Spiritual Leaders, August 2000.
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Kwanzaa Day 6 - Kuumba
Our sixth day of Kwanzaa invites us to Kuumba, creativity.
A quote:
Cease to be a drudge; seek to be an artist. – Mary McLeod Bethune
“Suddenly again it came to me to see that Love is greater than Knowledge; that it...”
– Frances Power Cobbe (Unitarian, philosopher, social reformer)
“To be free is not to be exempt from laws, but to be under those which are based...”
– Otis Ainsworth Skinner, “Christian Liberty,” Universalist Quarterly (October 1849) p. 371 (Universalist, minister, President of Lombard University, educator, editor, author)
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How have you helped someone else embrace their...
“Be like the bird,
That, pausing in her flight
Awhile on boughs too slight,...”
– Victor Hugo
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Kwanzaa Day 5 - Nia
Nia - purpose - is the Kwanzaa principle today.
A quote for today:
We have to improve life, not just for those who have the most skills and those who know how to manipulate the system. But also for and with those who often have so much to give but never get the opportunity. – Dorothy Irene Height (educator, activist, received Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994)
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How are you supporting a local economy?
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How are you supporting independent...
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Kwanzaa Day 4 - Ujamaa
Today in the Nguzo Saba we focus on Ujamaa, cooperative economics.
A quote for today:
Every man’s burden is our own. Where poverty exists, all are poorer. Where hate flourishes, all are corrupted. Where injustice reins, all are unequal. - Whitney Young (President National Urban League 1961-1971, civil rights leader, social worker, educator, Unitarian Universalist)
“Human minds are more full of mysteries than any written book and more changeable...”
– Louisa May Alcott, Abbot’s Ghost: A Christmas Story (Unitarian, author)
“The religious need of any time is its vital need.”
– Anna Garlin Spencer, Bell Street Chapel Discourses 1889-1899, p.30 (Unitarian, minister, reformer)
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How are you sharing responsibility & working with...
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Kwanzaa Day 3 - Ujima
Today is the 3rd day of Kwanzaa. The third of the Nguzo Saba is Ujima - collective work and responsibility.
A quote for today:
The world is before you and you need not take it or leave it as it was when you came in. – James Baldwin
“It should be the province of religion to unite, and not to separate, men and...”
– Fannie Barrier Williams, speaking about churches closing their doors to African Americans (Unitarian, educator, social activist, clubwoman, journalist, founder of the National League of Colored Women)
“Although Jesus told the Roman governor that he was born and came into the world...”
– Hosea Ballou, “Suggestions Concerning the Teachings of Jesus Christ,” Universalist Quarterly (july 1849), p.264 (Universalist, minister)
“Blessed are those who dream, for some of their dreams will come true.”
– Harry Meserve (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
“You can’t do good with a bad action.”
– Julia Ward Howe (Unitarian, author, social reformer)
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Spiritual Resource Sharing 2012
Each evening on Twitter (RevNaomi) and Facebook, I post a piece that invites us into spiritual growth, whether learning something new or revisiting a beloved story or spiritual practice. I always choose a focusing theme that allows us to grow stronger by attending those themes week after week for a year. Two years ago the theme was shaped by Unitarian Universalism’s six sources. In 2011 the...
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How are you practicing self-determination?
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Kwanzaa Day 2 - Kujichagulia
Today is the second day of Kwanzaa. The principle to focus on is Kujichagulia - Self-Determination.
A quote for today:
Freedom is never given; it is won. – A. Philip Randolph
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How are you practicing unity?
“So many kinds of love. When we are courageous we enter each day, each...”
– Merle Feld, A Spiritual Life, p.87
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Kwanzaa Begins - Umoja
Kwanzaa begins today! The first of the seven Nguzo Saba is Umoja - Unity.
A quote for today:
The more we pull together toward a new day, the less it matters what pushed us apart in the past. - Johnnetta B. Cole (educator, Director Smithsonian National Museum of African Art)
“Quote for the 8th Night of Hanukkah - Just as Hanukkah candles are lighted one...”
– Judah L. Magnes
“Help us be brave enough for life and love, and guide us in our search through...”
– A. Powell Davies (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
“I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year.”
– Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (Unitarian, author, reformer)
“To me every hour of the light and dark is a miracle,
Every cubic inch of space...”
– Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
“I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old familiar carols play,
When wild...”
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Unitarian, poet)
“Yet with the woes of sin and strife
the world has suffered long;
Beneath the...”
– Edmund Hamilton Sears, It Came Upon A Midnight Clear (Unitarian, minister, poet)
“The nicest gifts people have given me have been enabling, confirming gifts,...”
– Clark Dewey Wells, Sunshine and Rain At Once (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
“The innkeeper did not know his great chance was coming. We do not always...”
– Albert F. Ziegler (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
“A candle is a small thing.
But one candle can light another.
And see how its...”
– Moshe Davis & Victor Ratner
“There is nothing sweeter in this sad world than the sound of someone calling...”
– Kate DiCamillo, The Tale of Despereaux (Unitarian Universalist, author)
“Let us open our hearts to Christmas. Open them to all the hope that stands...”
– A. Powell Davies (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
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What virtues have you learned in community?
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“Community is where one learns virtues, not where one chooses values”
– David Augsburger, Dissident Discipleship, p.73
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What are the blessings of darkness?
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“Winter is on my head, but eternal spring is in my heart.”
– Victor Hugo
“Against the darkness nature brings
We bring our light,
Our tallest candles...”
– Ernest Sommerfeld (Unitarian Universalist, minister)
“To feel compassion is to become kin to all humanity.”
– Regina Cary Lapoint, 1953 Advent Meditations (Unitarian Universalist, Universalist, educator, lay leader)
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Remembering Commodore Levy
Tonight, after I offer the traditional and interfaith blessings and light my menorah, I’ll be thinking about Commodore Uriah P. Levy. To me, he’s a kind of latter-day Maccabee, a hero of faithful dedication and integrity in often terribly challenging circumstances.
He isn’t much known or talked about in American history, but Americans of all sorts and Unitarian Universalists who...
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How do you feel about not knowing?
“The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.”
– Ralph W. Sockman
“Miracles are to come”
– e.e. cummings (Unitarian, poet, painter)
“Christmas is not so much a matter of explanation and interpretation as it is a...”
– Gordon B. McKeeman (Unitarian Universalist, minister, educator)
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What prayer are you offering today?
“The miracle, of course, was not that the oil for the sacred light –
In a little...”
– Charles Renzinkoff, “Meditations on the Fall & Winter Holidays”
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“What is a prayer? A prayer is the articulation of something very particular at...”
– Merle Feld, A Spiritual Life, p.54