With these tethers, we root ourselves.

Driving away from 34th and Portland on Wednesday morning, 

having prayed at the place where a mother, a neighbor, a partner, a friend was murdered by federal agents who cared more about a show of force than human life,

having witnessed the show of force—first by 50 or more ICE agents surrounding the scene and then by Minneapolis police, sherrifs, SWAT vehicles, FBI—none of them there to protect the neighborhood, the neighbors, the people,

my body and spirit both shaken and sure,

a song started on repeat in my mind. 

You gotta keep your heart wide open,
though the waves try to push you around.
Keep your heart wide open,
‘til your faith brings you back to solid ground.

A little later in the day, after a conversation with my teenage and young adult children, a conversation where I felt the weight of telling the truth as I see it in this moment and the responsibility of pointing a path forward, something else sprang up in my mind: the words of Sam Ames (they/them), a civil rights lawyer, policy advocate, and writer focusing on LGBTQI+ issues. They are also a lifelong Unitarian Universalist. I heard them whispering to me:

Listen. We cannot predicate fighting on winning. We’re going to lose a lot in the days to come, and if we’re going to make it through the nights, we need to find something to fuel us that runs deeper than hope. We’re past hope. We don’t fight because we think we’re going to win; we fight because it’s how we hold on to what makes us human. That instinct to take care of each other is the best of us…

We are defined by how we love each other… 

If we only fight because we think we’ll win, we aren’t going to last as long as we’re needed… We fight because we love each other too much to listen to reason. 

We don’t follow hope. Hope follows us.

This morning, as I sat in meditation I remembered the challenge I offered the congregation on Sunday morning: A spiritual practice I promised would ground us in resilience and rest as we make justice real. I asked us to root ourselves with three tethers. One that we tossed back into the past—to our ancestors; one that we sent flying forward into the future—to the people and beings for whom we will be ancestors; and one deep into the ground right here and now. 

Looking back, what would our ancestors be amazed at in our lives? As adrienne maree brown says, Your heartbeat is the sound of a thousand ancestors clapping. What are they clapping for in your life? Looking ahead, what will the children of the children present now wonder at from your life? What will they see and name as sustenance as they take up their own? And right here and now, in this present moment, what brings you comfort? Joy? Satisfaction? Care? And how can you notice and name those things—and maybe increase them?

Feeling all the things I feel in the swirl of this time, looking out at the day and the week and the months ahead from this place I found myself saying—

Thank god I went to church this Sunday.
Thank god for the song that stirred in me and I started singing in my head without even noticing.
Thank god for the words from the reading. Thank god for the spiritual practices that keep me grounded in love.
Thank god for the community and the shared commitment and the ways we strengthen each other by our presence.
Thank god we get to do it again this week—because I need it all over again. 

See you in church,

Rev. Jen

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We are not alone.

Messages of care and support have been flooding into staff inboxes from UUs across the country and abroad. Below is a message that we received from a Unitarian minister in the UK. Remember: You are not alone. We are, truly, holding it together.

As minister of the Unitarian congregations of Framlingham and Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, I want to send a message of solidarity to the diverse communities of Minneapolis and to UU communities. I have been shocked and saddened by the events that have taken place in the city over the last 36 hours or so. It feels as though the federal state is engaged in an exercise of provocation and systemic violence which has already tragically led to loss of life. I am sure I can speak for all Unitarians in the UK when I say that our thoughts are with you at this time. Stay strong. Yours in peace and fellowship, Rev Matthew F. Smith