Descent into JFK
Descent into New York airspace is hard.
… Languages crisscross
from polyglot to melting pot.
As the cabin pressure changes,
the world shifts its weight
to the other foot. Great care
is required now in opening
the compartments of the mind.
What’s Broken is Brilliant
Rather we are called to transform the painful and harsh realities of our lives into as much beauty as we can. We are called to create mosaics known as community, as family, as congregations. And we are invited to bring our broken selves into relationship, and find ways to help each other heal.
Read MoreCome, Ye Disconsolate
Maybe because I was born 1954, the same year as Brown v. Board of Education, I have always known that brokenness is not only individual, but also social and collective. I learned that religious community and theology often hold a people struggling with brokenness, suffering, and injustice.
Read MoreHow Does Our Faith Hold Brokenness?
The early Universalists did believe that every person is redeemable, salvageable, possessed of worth and even dignity, no matter what—but this was less a statement about human nature than about the nature of God, who was Love and nothing else for them, understanding and nothing less for them, forgiveness absolutely, if one would be forgiven.
Read MoreFinding Healing Through the Mail
Then two years ago I was matched with Alex, who is in prison in Texas. Alex is extremely verbal, very bright, and almost a poster child for how to raise a career criminal. It is possible to look up a prisoner’s conviction record, but I never felt it was relevant to do so. I wanted to be free to relate to a person, not an “offender.”
Read MoreFrom Your Minister
This was in 1993. At the time, I had a picture of Harriet Tubman on the wall behind my computer screen. Her courage and tenacity spoke to me as I was becoming visible in ways I had never dared before, inspired to free my own people.
Read MoreREsources for Living
How do souls get healed? Well, there are plenty of different answers for that one. Some Christians would say that the way to heal souls is simply to accept that Jesus has saved you. But UUs tend to expect that each of us is more involved in our own healing, and in the healing of the world.
Read MoreMending
How shall we mend you, sweet Soul?
What shall we use, and how is it
in the first place you’ve come to be torn?
Come sit. Come tell me.
We will find a way to mend you.
Friend
2011-02-01 Friend by Kim K. Crawford Harvie, Senior Minister, Arlington Street Church, Boston, Massachusetts Water, shelter, food … and a friend. A friend can save your life. Rev. Dan Kane was cooking, I was washing, and what happened next was definitely my fault, although he says “we” broke it. Drying on the counter was a…
Read MoreStanding on the Side of Love
2011-02-01 Standing on the Side of Love by Elizabeth Lerner Maclay, Parish Minister, Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring, Maryland May 28th, 2008 was a beautiful day. Tim and I were away on a scuba diving vacation. We went diving that morning and he seemed especially tender in the boat as we were riding back…
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