Hi, Friends,

 

Congratulations! On August 31, 2026, our congregation received its Green Sanctuary renewal for having successfully fulfilled the requirements of the revitalized Green Sanctuary 2030: Mobilizing for Climate Justice program with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). To celebrate, we will be having a street party on Greenwood during Kinship Time this Sunday. It is Bike the Ridge Sunday, so Greenwood will be blocked off at Ridge, and the Green Sanctuary Network (GSN) will be hosting the party between Ridge and our driveway. We are still looking for 3 more volunteers to assist with our usual set-up of tables, awning, and water service for Bike the Ridge at 8:30 am. If you are available, please click here into SignUp.com and select the Set-up Awning role. Also, during Kinship Time, our Garden Team, in their new t-shirts, will be giving tours of our 13 gardens. I hope you will stroll around the gardens and then join us on Greenwood to celebrate. One of our guests will be the praying mantis living in our gardens. Rev. Eileen and I arrived at UUCE yesterday morning to find the praying mantis I am pointing to in the photo hanging out by the keycard swiper. 

 

There is much happening in our natural world. Several of you have asked me if I know where to send financial support to assist survivors in Nepal after the catastrophic landslides and flash floods that occurred along the Tibet-Nepal border on August 26th following what turned out to have been a massive glacier collapse and rock-ice avalanche rather than an earthquake. I have two suggestions. The retreat I attended in Nepal was at Kopan Monastery, which is a member community of the Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT). The FPMT has an Emergency Relief Fund, which is working on the ground with Kopan Monastery and Nunnery to support survivors and the families of the deceased. My other suggestion is World Central Kitchen, which is also currently on the ground in Nepal providing meals to the displaced.

 

The Autumnal Equinox was this past Tuesday, September 22nd. I often make time at the equinoxes (or equinoctes) to think about how I am engaging with the many pieces of my life. I have come to think about the equinoctes as a cycle through phases from daybreak to full sun to twilight to dark night, instead of engaging with them as a balancing act between two events of daytime and nighttime. What most of us are balancing in our lives is much more than two things. I am thinking about how I engage with service to my ministry, precious time with my spouse and family, volunteer work with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), taking care of my mental and physical health, resisting the authoritarian grasp on our country, and being on the Board of my condo association. How do I cycle through all that I am interested in doing, all that is necessary for me to do, and all that is asked of me by others? 

 

Life is full and complex, and there is no one way of being, doing, tending, caring, supporting, and engaging. I am someone who practices imbuing joy in whatever I am doing, even tasks I’m not super excited about doing. I find it more difficult to handle mistakes that I make when getting through the work there is to do. I practice being accountable for those mistakes, correcting them or making amends, working to restore relationship, and moving forward doing better. Whether it is being accountable for mistakes or cultivating joy, it takes intention and effort. Thinking about engaging with it all as cycling through one phase to the next helps me feel, and be, more centered in my life. And feeling more centered helps me be more thoughtful about how to engage with intention and effort.

 

Amnesty International has put out “A Guide to Fighting Authoritarian Practices in the U.S. Without Losing Hope” and after going through ways to educate yourself, protect the right to protest, and defend due process of law, it ends with “Don’t Forget to Create and Find Joy: … 

  • Take a moment to rest, relax, recharge—however you cultivate happiness for yourself and your community.
  • Find joy in meeting and talking to others who are similarly concerned and want to make a difference.”

 

I hope for you in the weeks leading up to our country’s November 3rd general election that you are able to honor the balance you currently have or you are able to make time to think about how to restore the balance to the many pieces of your life. Remember it is a cycle and the next phase is waiting for you. 

 

As our mission statement so beautifully states, we are “nurturing the human spirit for a world made whole.” We, individually and as a community, must continue to nurture our spirits – cultivating joy, restoring relationships when mistakes happen, honoring our grief – in order to have the capacity to continue to act for a world made whole. 

 

Yours in community,

Rev. Susan