From Your Minister

Dear Ones,

Outside my office window, dramatic late October storms are causing trees and grasses to ripple and sway, helping leaves change color, and sending many of those same leaves cascading to the ground in piles that crackle delightfully as we walk or roll over them and that kids and dogs are throwing themselves into.

And it calls to my mind our November theme of Cultivating Compassion. While we may associate developing compassion and empathy with quiet and gentle practices like the Buddhist lovingkindness meditation that many of us (including me) practice daily, actually developing compassion and empathy in relationship looks more like what I’m witnessing through my window.

It’s turbulent, it stirs us up, it perturbs us, it causes us to bend and maybe lose some no longer useful branches and leaves that once served a purpose but now can best find new life as compost. It’s work as we adjust our minds and lives to new ways of being in relationship. And it’s playful, beautiful, awe-inspiring, joyful, and can make us laugh out loud.

Contrary to an opinion that is making the rounds on the news and social media this year, developing more empathy, growing it ever deeper and wider, makes us much stronger and enriches us as individuals, communities, and societies. As we learn to listen, understand, and adapt to others, we learn about ourselves, too. Compassion is key to all of our core values: Pluralism, Generosity, Transformation, Interdependence, Justice, Equity, and, of course, Love.

And we can cultivate it in the context of history, in relation to cultures that are different than our own, in our relationships, in our communities, with people who we hold as enemy images, and with ourselves. We’ll be exploring all of these in worship services, classes and workshops, and special events in November. If you want to work ahead a bit, you might enjoy listening to these recent Hidden Brain podcasts on “Love 2.0,” exploring these UU World articles about the Black empowerment tragedy, decriminalization, and Indigenous rights, participating in our Social Justice Day of Service on November 1, or registering for our Responding to the Anti-Trans Movement class on November 23.

I’m excited to Cultivate Compassion with you this November and beyond!

Love and Blessings,
Rev. Diana