Friends, it’ll be late this afternoon before I am able to post; I had to hit the road early to arrive at the Unitarian Fellowship of Northern Westchester, and singing today’s doxology before I left just wasn’t in the cards. Stay tuned!
Category: Musings
Kindness over Niceness
A casual conversation with UU World editor Kenny Wiley led to my saying “I need to write about this” and Kenny saying “do it and I’ll see if we can publish it.” So I did, and he did, and now it’s been published online and in print. Read it here.
Big Day.
Seven years ago, I was trying to figure out what direction I was headed in, trying to hear God’s voice, trying to figure out what was actually next for me. I look back at those posts from 2010, and I see a younger me trying to let the process unfold as it should. At every […]
STLT#232, The Hills Are Bare at Bethlehem
I hardly have words this morning – this carol is simply beautiful. Set to the tune Prospect, one of my very favorites from Southern Harmony, these lyrics by Royce Scherf are melancholy and holy and full of whatever it is that hearts are full of in that moment of exhaustion when something like a miracle […]
Hymn by Hymn Event: Sing with Kimberley at General Assembly!
While I know there are readers who are not Unitarian Universalists, most of you are. And of that group, some of you will be attending General Assembly in New Orleans this June. And of that group, some of you don’t mind getting up early for something cool, especially if it’s just for one morning. And […]
The First Fifty: A Meta Post
I just wrote my 51st entry in this crazy Hymn by Hymn thing, and there are actually people reading it. Whodathunkit? I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the practice itself, having gotten into it and into the habit. This kind of reflection – processing the process – is common in UU Wellspring […]
Hymn By Hymn: Introduction
Why this, why now? I realized that I feel most connected to myself when I take up a special project as a spiritual practice – something with a particular scope and time limit. I’ve previously spent a year studying a particular pantheon, or spiritual path, or in the case of my 50th year, the project […]
The Unexpected Hiatus and a New Project
Somehow, this blog was forgotten in the fray. I stopped blogging about anything – theology, art, justice – because life had gotten the better of me. It was all I could do to write sermons and newsletter articles. Perhaps this was my downfall – I feel best when I write. But I let a million […]
What I Missed Yesterday
If you read yesterday’s blog post, you might think I am too much of a pessimist, that I can’t celebrate victories without bringing everyone down. I guess that is what I did; I have been long cognizant of the “middle class white” nature of the marriage equality fight, and I let the bigger picture take […]
Overload
There is so much.. too much, really. Too much bad news, too much good news. Too much stimulation. Too many articles to read. Too many new ideas. Too much movement to respond to. Too much death. Too much hypocrisy. Too much change. Too much…too much… And yet as intelligent, thoughtful, awake people, we are called […]
How Have We Failed Them?
Ever since the shootings in Santa Barbara, California that sparked the powerful hashtag #YesAllWomen, I’ve been paying more attention to the so-called men’s rights movement; men who follow this perspective believe we are actually in a matriarchal society, that women have significant control over men, and that women should abdicate authority – particularly when it […]
Confessions of a Usually Sexual Being
For much of my adult life, I’ve been a consciously sexual being. I recognize in myself an enjoyment of the human body – mine and others – and have had a number of satisfying (and a few unsatisfying) sexual relationships. I love that part of our being human that makes us both sexual and aware of our sexuality. […]
Considering the Bucket List
Last Monday at our weekly Theology on Tap gathering, we discussed death. Cheery topic, I know, but we had a wonderful conversation about funerals, memorial services, preparing wills and other documents, and how we perceive our own impending deaths. Someone mentioned the idea of living each day as if it were your last, and another considered […]
Remembering
My memory is a little messed up. In 2007-early 2008, I had severe back problems and was on pretty heavy pain meds for about 18 months. Within that year, I had three surgical procedures, each one requiring general anesthesia. As I came out of that time period feeling much better and reemerging into the world, […]
I really care about this.
For several years, I have known that my master’s thesis would be a launching pad for my eventual book on theatricality in Unitarian Universalist worship – my general idea is that we can learn something from our performative cousin, theatre, in terms of how we approach everyday worship. Every time I mention the project to […]