Finally, some real snow! And maybe some messier stuff later today into tomorrow… We’ve noticed a great trend when it snows in our neighborhood. We help each other clear driveways and walkways, sidewalks and stairs. We commiserate or even just visit a little bit more than when we are not clearing snow, often hurrying inside to get out of the cold. Ellie von Wellsheim wrote a lovely poem which we shared on Sunday about this phenomenon.

This neighborliness we do not take for granted. There are at least three houses that have flown flags during past election seasons that feel like a disconnect from the neighborliness we feel when greeting them as we walk our little dog. It reminds me that we are people, trying to make sense of a world that makes little sense, with the knowledge and experience that we have. If our minds are curious and open, we see the world a particular way. If our minds are afraid, we view the world another way. If we are actively being taught that one way and one way only is superior, we view the world a very different way. The world is and many words are full of context and nuance and culture. Let us lean in towards curiosity not superiority.

It is not too soon to cultivate relationships with neighbors, including the ones we suspect do not think like us. Authoritarian regimes utilize tactics that sever relationships between neighbors and even families, creating suspicion, and a sense of ‘otherness’ about those people, and a sense of entitlement and superiority in the dominant group. We can do something about that now before the wrath, lies, and paranoia, that may be the essence of the election season, makes that harder.

Cultivating a sense of peace within, grounded in the Love that will not let us go, is also an excellent practice as we head towards honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, jr’s birth. His thoughts on love profound. If UUs could conjure that level of a commitment to love, a universal practice of transformational love in action, the world would indeed be a different place. This is an excellent resource for a lot of King’s work: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/

May love move in, through, and to all of us!
With faith,
Rev. Wendy and Rev. Lynn