From Your Minister

Dear Ones,

As we move towards October, I’m enchanted by the changes in the natural world around us: the ping of acorns, the thunck of black walnuts, and the plop of crabapples falling; the lengthening shadows and changing sky; the cooling days; the animals collecting food for the winter; the bounty of gardens.

I have the opportunity to notice these things and many others, particularly my relationships with friends, family, congregation, and community, on my morning walks while I’m engaging with my prayer and meditation practice. Appreciating how joy and wellbeing enter my life is part of my practice.

The other day a minister friend and I ended up talking about how in the evenings they have begun noticing how joy and gratitude have entered their life that day. Their new practice is helping them find resiliency in these challenging times. I shared my morning practice with them and how it’s affected me. And our conversation made me wonder: How does having a morning practice of joy and gratitude affect me differently than an evening practice would?

I will admit that I came to my morning practice after routinely failing to keep an evening practice for more than a few days. For some reasons related to how I’m made and how my life is structured, mornings work better for me. But I’ve always suspected that an evening joy and gratitude practice would support my spiritual, emotional, and physical wellbeing.

And so, this month as we begin our Soul Matters theme of Nurturing Gratitude, I’ll be trying out adding that evening gratitude practice – I’ll be intentionally noticing how joy has entered my life each day. I’m looking forward to finding out how the practices feed me in different ways.

As we explore Nurturing Gratitude this month, how are noticing joy and gratitude already a part of your life? What new practices will you be engaging with?

Among them, I hope you’ll engage with our stewardship theme of A Home for Hope. We’re inviting people to share how UUS has become A Home for Hope for them. Members and friends will be filling out cards for a community art project and recording reels sharing your endings to this sentence: “UUS is a home for _______.”

I’ve loved seeing the responses that some of you have already given. Your answers reflect the beautiful diversity of this congregation. I can’t wait to hear more!

As we move into October, may this be a time of expanding your and our collective practices of nurturing gratitude as we continue to widen the circle.

Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana