This month we’ve been exploring the theme of become, a word from the OUUC mission to wonder and welcome, embrace and empower, bridge and become.
We started the month with Rev. Carol’s McKinley’s message about the Equal Rights Amendment and women’s rights, titled “Are We There Yet?” No, but perhaps becoming.
The Stewardship Drive kicked-off with a service titled, “Becoming Community.” It was also the two-year anniversary of COVID shutdown. We celebrated all the ways OUUC has grown and changed in the past few years and revisited our commitment to each other and to our community.
This past Sunday I spoke about how becoming means growth and change, which requires risk. I named that these past two years have been hard on our bodies as our survival brains have alerted us to danger all the time. I named five ways that we can calm our bodies and brains, to remind ourselves that we are safe: breathing, moving our bodies, crying, laughing, getting affection like a hug from a friend, and being creative, like singing, drawing, cooking. And I spoke about the need for risk.
This coming Sunday, Rev. Kari Kopnick returns to OUUC for a service on “Life in the Labyrinth: Coming Home to Ourselves.” Another voice on “become.”
This week, I invite you to notice the ways that you are safe and remember to breathe. To help, I offer this meditation: Breathing Meditation | UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center
Last, consider this poem from the prolific author, Anonymous:
“To Do Is To Be”
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.
To reach out for another is to risk exposing our true self.
To place our ideas—our dreams—before the crowd is to risk loss.
To love is to risk not being loved in return.
To hope is to risk despair.
To try is to risk failure.
To live is to risk dying.
Blessings on your becoming,
Rev. Mary