God, who are you?

What is God? Nikos Kazantzakis said that "God changes appearances every second. Blessed is the man who can recognize him in all his disguises. One moment he is a glass of fresh water, the next, your son bouncing on your knees or an enchanting woman, or perhaps merely a morning walk."Walking through my garden today, God was the brilliant red and yellow cactus dahlia, and my puppy Angie running across the lawn with her ears flopping in her wind, and the pair of sleek great blue herons flying across my home in the close sky, and one of my husband's bright juicy red tomatoes picked from our garden, now lying sliced next to my poached eggs. God is the beauty and sensuousness all around us. Let us not be afraid to take it all in. May we be open to seeing, and holding and tasting God. What a marvelous life.Be well today, Peg
posted by Rev. Peg

Being Perfect

I have always struggled with perfectionism. It is definitely a spiritual malady. Who's to say that any one of us were not made good enough? Alice Walker speaks to this as she says:"I have learned other things: One is the futility of expecting anyone, including ourselves to be perfect. People who go about seeking to change the world, to diminish suffering, to demonstrate any kind of enlightenment, are often as flawed as anybody else. Sometimes more so. But it is the awareness of having faults, I think, and the knowledge that this links us to everyone on Earth, that opens us to courage and compassion. It occurs to me that often many of those I deeply love are flawed. They might actually have said or done some of the mean things I’ve felt, heard, read about, or feared. But it is the struggle with the flaw, surprisingly endearing, and the going on anyhow, that is what I cherish about them. Sometimes our stones are, to us, misshapen, odd. Their color seems off. Their singing … comical and strange. Presenting them, we perceive our own imperfect nakedness, but also, paradoxically, the wholeness, the rightness, of it. In the collective vulnerability of presence, we learn not to be afraid."May your struggles with your "flaws" be a source of grace, courage and compassion.In faith, Rev. Peg

Chanting

This Sunday the service at our congregation is going to be all about chanting. I'm looking forward to it. Our new Unitarian Universalist hymnal supplement has a wonderful chant set to music whose words are "When I breathe in, I breathe in Peace, When I breathe out, I breathe out Love." Whenever I am feeling tense, if I'm lucky I'll remember this chant, and begin singing it. Then is when I know that "all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well" (Julian of Norwich, 15th century mystic). So when I was figuring out what to call this blog, I decided to name it after my favorite, soothing mantra. Be well my friends.