wrapped in a blue cloud cloth

Langston Hughes writes..."Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers,
Bring me all of your heart melodies,
That I may wrap them in a blue cloud cloth
Away from the too rough fingers of the world."

The winter days seem to stretch out in long and endless minutes for many people. It is not an easy season. And it reminded me of the "rough fingers of the world" that Hughes writes of. We have to wrap our dreams carefully and take good and gentle care of ourselves in these long days of rain, of cold, of ice and snow, and wrap ourselves in care for the even longer nights. These words go out to a friend whose night may seem very, very long. May she know that the morning will come. That she is not alone. And that she has given the world some melodies from her heart. A bit of humor too!

January 15 - A New Birthday for my Father...

Dear friends,

In just a few days, it will be a year since my dad's health crisis. A year ago, on January 15, he was rushed to the hospital for emergency, life-saving surgery and then began a harrowing journey of 53 days in ICU and step-down recovery and then a month of rehab. Recently he decided to claim a New day of birth - January 15 and celebrate beginning again, being saved, being offered the rare opportunity to live a new life.
I am grateful that my father is alive and with us still. He has a gentle spirit and a big heart. Thank you Sweet William! To a good New Year for us all...
May it be ever so.

oh, how the world still dearly loves a cage...

Maude (Ruth Gordon) in the amazing movie Harold and Maude says a few things worth quoting and one of them is to say something like the "zoos are crowded, prisons are overflowing, oh how the world still dearly loves a cage." And she says it in such a way that you can feel her frustration, her realization that people cannot let it go. They cannot embrace true freedom. they still need to keep themselves and each other captive. Let us all, this day decide that Yes, it is time to embrace our freedom and by doing so, allow others to be free. Because in essence...to quote Marge Piercy:
"We seek not rest but transformation. We are dancing through each other as doorways."

blessings, Telos

a new era...

What an inspiring week it has been! As I watched and listened to President Obama, the words of so many people echoed in my mind..."I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. I never thought we would have a black president while I was alive." And we do. It is a new era where we can have renewed faith in our leaders, in our government and trust that they will lead. The time has come. In the words of poet Derek Walcott: "The day will come when with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile at the other's welcome saying sit here, eat. You will love again the stranger who was yourself." Let us love and embrace the strangers we have been to each other and to ourselves and usher in a new era together.

the time for Hope is now...

It's true. The forces of hope and goodness in the world are stronger than fear. Our Tuesday election of our first African-American president, a person of integrity proves it. I feel blessed to be living at this moment in history.

Returning Home Again...

The leaves are changing here on these hills and the geese are flying above and calling out their dramatic songs. We remember our roots in the Jewish tradition in the celebration of the Holy Day, Yom Kippur this past Friday. We also honor our source of earth-centered wisdom in celebrating the Fall Equinox – a balancing of light and dark on that same day. It is time to return home again, to our congregations and to ourselves. It is a time of remembering and a balancing of our actions. Have we said or done things that we regret? Are there areas of our lives that need to be examined? This is a turning of the year and a time for reflection.

balancing change and constancy...

There is something infinitely healing
in the repeated refrains of nature –
the assurance that dawn comes after night,
and spring after the winter.

~ Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder ~

Spring did come. Actually summer has arrived in Vermont...and it is hot! And it is beautiful. We are involved in a continual changing process within ourselves and all around us. In just a matter of days or sometimes what feels like hours, plants have grown and flowers have bloomed. I was reminded recently that Rachel Carson, the scientist and writer who invigorated the environmental movement with her book Silent Spring, was a Unitarian Universalist. Yet another leader and activist in our midst! The UU Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee is on the path to becoming a Green Sanctuary and has been holding an annual Rachel Carson Memorial Dinner and interfaith gathering each year as part of this effort. Rev. Patricia Cahill, the local Episcopal priest who will be speaking at the event this year says that ‘As we cope with the environmental effects of dramatic climate change, people of faith need to become beacons of hope in the world. We can respond to the call of God’s spirit in actions that help to mend Creation; a good place to light that spark is through Rachel Carson’s writings especially Sense of Wonder.’

Every piece that we work on, no matter how small it seems, does matter. We are involved in an interconnected and intricate web of creation that needs our care and attention. Rachel Carson wrote that “it is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.” As our physical senses are heightened on these beautiful spring days, let us also allow our sense of both wonder and humility to emerge as we walk through the daily ritual of our days.