News – March 17, 2023

Dear Members and Friends,

Sometimes it is good to take a moment to reflect.  Get quiet, reflect, breathe.  There are many ways to do this.  One way is to schedule “Renewal” on your calendar.  It’s a real thing, this “renewal” time.  A real need.  So if you are a calendar person, put it on there.   I know it is difficult to find this time, especially for parents.  And even for folks with less busy schedules, it can be difficult, finding yourself flitting from project to project, filled with multiple distractions from every direction.  So, I’m doing it this week.  Scheduling “renewal” on my calendar wherever I can and I invite you to do so, right now.

If you want more inspiration on renewal and to do a bit of research…check out Tricia Hersey and her Nap Ministry.  She urges people “to use the time they might otherwise devote to extra work to sleeping instead…the stretches they’d spend staring at a screen to staring into space; rest instead.  Tense moments given to worry about disappointing others would be better spent reflecting on our own needs and comforts.  It’s about collectively refusing to run ourselves into the ground.  It’s about divesting from corporate and academic pressures and freedom from grind culture.”

Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto:“Grind culture has normalized pushing our bodies to the brink of destruction.  We proudly proclaim showing up to work or an event despite an injury, sickness, or mental break.  We are praised and rewarded for ignoring our body’s need for rest, care and repair.”  I will be offering a workshop on Nap Ministry at our Spring Retreat, which you can still register to attend.  From March 31-Apr 2, we will be hanging out, enjoying each other’s company in the Texas Hill Country at the UBarU Camp and Retreat Center - near Kerrville, TX: https://www.ubaru.org/   How to register?  https://forms.gle/B7yzN18iC43bAhMB9

And I also plan to offer a Nap Ministry book discussion on Trisha Hersey’s book in the near future. Watch for details.

AND we have an offer for reflection of a different kind THIS Sunday. If you’d like to reflect in community and build relationships with other church members, plan to join me this Sunday.  We offer you an opportunity, after each service…for you to reflect on your values, to make connections with others gathered and share your reflections.  We need time to reflect and share with others too.

What are your core values? How do they inform you in your own life? These are the personal reflections.  Then as a community, we can wonder…how could these values guide us in our future work together? We plan to start with these values, shared with us from the Unitarian Universalist Association as part of the Article II project:  Love, Interdependence, Pluralism, Justice, Transformation, Generosity and Equity.  We will consider how these values dovetail with our own core values, the 7 UU principles and the newer 8th principle.

Hope to see you.  And hope you find ways to allow for REST and RENEWAL in your life this week and going forward, knowing that these practices make our lives better and offer us the self-care we need to be our best and healthy selves.

Carol Burrus