Here’s a final look at our timeline that we did of Unitarian Universalism in general and our church and members in particular.

This month, I wanted to share the wisdom of poet, Linda Underwood.

Rev. Steve

Are You Saved?
By Linda Underwood

All this talk of saving souls.
Souls weren’t meant to save,
Like Sunday clothes that
give out at the seams.
They’re made for wear;
they come with a lifetime guarantee.
Don’t save your soul.
Pour it out like rain
on cracked, parched earth.
Give your soul away,
or pass it like a candle flame.
Sing it out,
or laugh it up the wind.
Souls were meant for hearing
breaking hearts, for puzzling dreams,
remembering August flowers,
forgetting hurts.
These folks who talk of saving souls!
They have the look of bullies
who blow out candles before you
sing happy birthday,
and want the world to be in alphabetical order.
I will spend my soul,
Playing it out like sticky string
Into the world . . .
So I can catch every last thing I touch.
Next time someone asks, “Is your soul saved?”
Say, “No, it’s spent, spent, spent!”

This month I would like to share with you this delightful poem by one of my
favorite poets, Mary Oliver, in which she calls us to imagine what wondrous
journeys may still be ours.

Rev. Steve

Last Night the Rain Spoke To Me
By Mary Oliver

Last night
the rain
spoke to me
slowly, saying,

what joy
to come falling
out of the brisk cloud,
to be happy again

in a new way
on the earth!
That’s what it said
as it dropped,

smelling of iron,
and vanished
like a dream of the ocean
into the branches

and the grass below.
Then it was over.
The sky cleared.
I was standing

under a tree.
The tree was a tree
with happy leaves,
and I was myself,

and there were stars in the sky
that were also themselves
at the moment,
at which moment

my right hand
was holding my left hand
which was holding the tree
which was filled with stars

and the soft rain—
imagine! imagine!
the wild and wondrous journeys
still to be ours.

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Dear Friends,

Many of us are shocked and disappointed at the outcome of yesterday’s election.  I know I am.  There will be much sobering discussion of the reasons for Vice-President Harris’s defeat and the change in the Senate majority, perhaps even in the House as well, and no small amount of finger pointing, as is always the case in the wake of such a defeat.

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