News: November 15, 2024
Dear Members and Friends,
I was saddened that I could not be here in community with you the day after the election. Like many of you, I was stunned, and it led to the perpetuation of the grieving I have been enduring this year. I would have appreciated being surrounded by those beloved who came to the church with similar feelings.
Since then, while preparing for something unrelated, I will stumble upon a poem, reading, or song that resonates and in some way helps. Various pieces of art like this, by stirring our imagination or emotions, can reveal profound truths about the universe, ourselves, or our place in it. Or even allow us to take a step back and re-frame our emotions, perhaps encourage us, and even invite healing to begin.
This quote by L.R. Knost came across my social media feed:
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
Later, I was reminded of “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” This piece seems more relevant today than it was in 1973 when Wendell Berry wrote it. This line jumped out at me:
“So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.”
Previewing our readings for the Newcomer Covenant Group this week, I found “The Wellspring of Moral Action” by Sharon D. Welch. I had chosen this piece a few years ago when I wrote the curriculum, but it resonated with me differently this time. Friends let me know about two songs for these times: Betty Buckley singing “Hope” and “Dear Hope” by Sara Bareilles.
I invite you to turn off the news and read some poetry and listen to some music. Even – perhaps especially – those pieces you are familiar with which may strike you in a new way. Only read the encouraging posts on your newsfeed. Call a friend and ask how they are doing. And really listen.
I leave you with another piece I saw and shared on social media.
“Continue” a poem by Maya Angelou
My wish for you
Is that you continue
Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness
Continue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender hear
Continue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter
Continue
To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined
Continue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you
Continue
To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely
Continue
To put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless
Continue
To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise
Continue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected
Continue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good
Continue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit
Continue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing
Continue
To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name
Continue
And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally
Holding you in love,
Rev. D. Scott Cooper Associate Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston scott@firstuu.o
I was saddened that I could not be here in community with you the day after the election. Like many of you, I was stunned, and it led to the perpetuation of the grieving I have been enduring this year. I would have appreciated being surrounded by those beloved who came to the church with similar feelings.
Since then, while preparing for something unrelated, I will stumble upon a poem, reading, or song that resonates and in some way helps. Various pieces of art like this, by stirring our imagination or emotions, can reveal profound truths about the universe, ourselves, or our place in it. Or even allow us to take a step back and re-frame our emotions, perhaps encourage us, and even invite healing to begin.
This quote by L.R. Knost came across my social media feed:
“Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world. All things break. And all things can be mended. Not with time, as they say, but with intention. So go. Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally. The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.”
Later, I was reminded of “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” This piece seems more relevant today than it was in 1973 when Wendell Berry wrote it. This line jumped out at me:
“So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.”
Previewing our readings for the Newcomer Covenant Group this week, I found “The Wellspring of Moral Action” by Sharon D. Welch. I had chosen this piece a few years ago when I wrote the curriculum, but it resonated with me differently this time. Friends let me know about two songs for these times: Betty Buckley singing “Hope” and “Dear Hope” by Sara Bareilles.
I invite you to turn off the news and read some poetry and listen to some music. Even – perhaps especially – those pieces you are familiar with which may strike you in a new way. Only read the encouraging posts on your newsfeed. Call a friend and ask how they are doing. And really listen.
I leave you with another piece I saw and shared on social media.
“Continue” a poem by Maya Angelou
My wish for you
Is that you continue
Continue
To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness
Continue
To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender hear
Continue
In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter
Continue
To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined
Continue
To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you
Continue
To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely
Continue
To put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless
Continue
To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise
Continue
To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected
Continue
To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good
Continue
To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit
Continue
To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing
Continue
To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name
Continue
And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally
Holding you in love,
Rev. D. Scott Cooper Associate Minister
First Unitarian Universalist Church of Houston scott@firstuu.o
