Loving and Loathing a Miracle
This being human is not easy. Habits (good and bad) form. Thought patterns shape us. We neglect parts of ourselves and they drift away. Or, we wish certain parts of ourselves would drift away. We slip into autopilot. Later, pieces of ourselves drift back, tectonic plates of the spirit shift within, and we’re delighted to discover a new continent has emerged internally. Being human means we shift between loathing and loving the miracle that is our life, and the miracle that is this planet. How do we hold the beautiful mess of it all and say, “Here is where we are. Now is what we have. This is how we start”?
Join us for worship on Sunday, Sept. 23 at 9:30 or 11:15 a.m.
We’ll enjoy music by the Soul Band during worship this Sunday!
Order of Service: September 23 Order of Service
Listen to the Sermon Podcast:
Offering Recipient: First Universalist Racial Justice work (give here)
September Worship Theme: Here…Now…Start
In the Buddhist tradition there is a concept called “maitri.” Buddhist monk and writer Pema Chödrön calls it the basis of compassion and the seed of joy. Maitri is a sanskrit word meaning an unconditional friendship with oneself. We spend so much of our time wishing we were someplace other than where we are, wishing we were something other than what we are. What if we made a steadfast commitment to be in friendship with where, what, and how we are, right now? When we are not so preoccupied with getting rid of our “bad” traits, or denigrating our ways of being, perhaps we would be able to see our defense mechanisms more clearly, or the ways in which our negative beliefs about ourselves manifest in our lives. Perhaps, we would also see our wisdom, our bravery and our kindness. What if we said: “Here is where we are. Now is what we have. This is how we start.”
