“Our human compassion binds us the one to the other–not in pity or patronizingly,
but as human beings who have learnt how to turn
our common suffering into hope for the future.”
~Nelson Mandela

Beloveds,

One of the wise people in my life recently reflected to me that I am feeling anxious. They’re right, and there are a number of factors both close and very far away contributing to this week’s version of anxiety. And I’m accustomed to recognizing my anxiety and inviting it to step back and give me some breathing space. 

Recently, I’ve begun to feel that we (people alive right now) are most closely bound by our anxieties; there is certainly plenty in our world and the unfolding of our leaders’ actions to induce anxiety. It’s not hard to see how anxiety and fearful concern bind us together, AND I wonder what possibilities might arise if we choose to turn our attention to the human compassion and hope that Nelson Mandela suggests can be alchemized in the service of a better future. Perhaps we are (or could become) more connected by our hopes than by our fears.

Yours in noticing our humanity and our hope,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“The ultimate form of preparation is not planning for a specific scenario,
but a mindset that can handle uncertainty.”
~James Clear 

Dear Ones,

I am ambivalent about uncertainty: surprises can be nice (especially when they are yummy) but it can take me a moment to recalibrate if I was expecting something else to happen in the immediate future. Sometimes it takes a loooong moment…

I am a planner, a system-builder by nature, and I appreciate structure, especially if I have the feeling that it is or can be controlled (not necessarily by me). In other words, rolling with uncertainty is perhaps not my strongest personality trait. 

And yet, our resilience and survival depend on some degree of tolerance of and skill with uncertainty. You know what they say about death and taxes being the only sure things in life, right? As a planner and system-builder, I would rather believe that good planning could keep me and those I love safer, but that would require that I ignore a good deal of evidence to the contrary, I’m afraid.

So as we wrap up our monthly theme of embodying resilience, I’m wondering if March’s theme of paying attention might be just what we need right now, as the world seems to be changing faster and in more frightening ways. Putting my fingers in my ears and singing “la, la, la, I can’t hear you!” may not in fact make us particularly resilient or happy in the face of life as it is. And life–however it is–is what I want us to share.

Yours in the embodied resilience and love of community,

Rev. Denise

RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“ I want to dance with everybody who came through that door” 
~Drew Holcomb & Ketch Secor, Dance with Everybody

Beloveds,

How are you this grey February day? I am all over the place, finding plenty of things about which to feel anxious, unsettled, and unhappy (to be honest, angry and dismayed are more accurate), but I am also settling into the reality that the members of GNUUC have called me to be their “settled minister”--which makes me want to dance! 

I may have played the song linked above a few times before settling down to write. It’s a song that has always reminded me of our congregation, with its commitment to welcoming and and enjoying every person who walks in our doors, and this week I am celebrating having been invited on a more permanent basis into our dance of shared ministry. I may be imagining a big dance party with y’all.

I am grateful to all our members, and especially the members of the Contract to Call Task Force, for having undertaken the careful process of deciding to “call” me from my status as a contract (employed year-to-year) minister into the position of being a settled minister. This is one of those things that changes nothing and everything: our day to day life and work together will continue much as it has been, but the covenant between us has and will be deepened and strengthened. 

Yours (along with all the people who walk through our door),

Rev. Denise

RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“There’s so much to do. We need everyone to be healthier. Trusting each other
 - individually, as a congregation, as a larger system of congregations and communities - is the only way we’re gonna get it done.” 
~Kimberly Debus

Dear Ones,

The quotation above landed in my inbox this morning, courtesy of my colleague Kimberly Debus’ blog “Hold My Chalice”. This week’s post considers trust in the context of covenant.  (You can read it here, if you like. It also features some pretty funny “Puritan Valentines”!) 

Kimberly has me thinking about the necessity of trust for doing the “so much to do” that surrounds us more than ever right now. I can barely (indeed some days I just cannot!) face the news and opinion feeds on my electronic devices without trusting in the presence and support of many others in my life. And that’s just about knowing what is going on in the world beyond my direct experience, nevermind thinking about what might be mine to do by way of responding! For that, I definitely need good company.

Together, we are healthier (living organisms simply don’t do well in isolation!) and being healthy together requires that we trust each other to provide mutual support, clear and honest communication, and a place to practice tolerating how vulnerable we human beings are. Not easy, but doable, if we are willing–and I hope we are, because I suspect that my colleague is correct that trust is the only way we will be able to do what will be ours to do.

Yours in faith and love,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“I have come to believe that we are all rather like tree rings and shell patterns…” 
~Anngwyn St. Just

Beloveds,

I hope you are finding this week warmer than last!

One of my favorite Christmas presents this year was a lovely little book entitled How to Be More Tree (by Liz Marvin, illus. Annie Davidson), and my attention has been more focused on the trees around me in recent days than usual. Consequently the sentence above stood out to me as I was reading last week. Here is the rest of it & a little more: 

I have come to believe that we are all rather like tree rings and shell patterns in that what has happened to us leaves a permanent record. The goal of trauma work, therefore, as I see it, is not to erase or cure but rather to expand and include and grow larger than whatever has happened to us. If one thinks in terms of integration and resolving rather than eliminating trauma, then there is a possibility of guiding a multidimensional human organism toward an experience of relative balance and resiliency. (St. Just, Relative Balance in an Unstable World)

I am not a trauma expert, but I see the wisdom in approaching the inevitable experiences that do not serve to create joy and peace in our lives (like being cold or afraid of damage to our homes or harm to our loved ones) as invitations offering a possibility (wanted or not) for expansion and inclusion. This is, I think, a bit more than a restatement of the old adage “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” It is an invitation to know ourselves not just as strong, resilient beings, but also as deeply connected to all that is and embedded in connections that offer healing and enlargement, even in the face of threats of all kinds. This way of seeing a human being focuses on resilience, our ability to acknowledge and work with even the lessons, experiences, and facts of life we might choose to escape if we could. 

Yours in love and being like a tree,  
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S.  If any of you are still without power, please do check-in by email if we can help. Email directory@gnuuc.org to send messages of need and/or encouragement and offers of help to each other.

Jan. 21, 2026

If you find yourself lost in the woods, … build yourself a house. 
“Well, I was lost, but now I live here! I have severely improved my predicament!” 
~Mitch Hedberg (comedian)

Beloveds,

Do any of you feel like we are all lost in the woods? I wasn’t aware that I’ve been feeling this way until I read the quotation above in Oliver Burkeman’s book Meditations for Mortals. 

The other random input that arrived this morning (on my phone) was a lovely video of dozens of people in Minnesota engaged in a coordinated, nonviolent, and very creative protest against Target’s cooperation with ICE (in allowing them to target employees and use parking lots as staging areas) by standing in line with their carts at the Customer Service desk to return the single cardboard canisters of salt each had purchased. (Because salt melts ice!) This made me happy and is, like Hedberg’s joke, a good reminder that being lost is far from being powerless. 

We may be lost in the woods, and we may be right in suspecting that we’re stuck here for some time to come–but that doesn’t mean we have no power to “severely improve” our predicament. Humor, cooperation, imagination, community care–these are some of the ways we can resist and live where we are now in the best possible style–maybe even with a punchline!

Yours in love and creative resistance,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. The weather forecast for this weekend is exciting! We have decided NOT to try to meet in person on our campus (see announcements below for rescheduling of this weekend’s events), but we plan to meet on Zoom for worship at our regular time (11 am) on Sunday. 

Jan. 21, 2026

If you find yourself lost in the woods, … build yourself a house. 
“Well, I was lost, but now I live here! I have severely improved my predicament!” 
~Mitch Hedberg (comedian)

Beloveds,

Do any of you feel like we are all lost in the woods? I wasn’t aware that I’ve been feeling this way until I read the quotation above in Oliver Burkeman’s book Meditations for Mortals. 

The other random input that arrived this morning (on my phone) was a lovely video of dozens of people in Minnesota engaged in a coordinated, nonviolent, and very creative protest against Target’s cooperation with ICE (in allowing them to target employees and use parking lots as staging areas) by standing in line with their carts at the Customer Service desk to return the single cardboard canisters of salt each had purchased. (Because salt melts ice!) This made me happy and is, like Hedberg’s joke, a good reminder that being lost is far from being powerless. 

We may be lost in the woods, and we may be right in suspecting that we’re stuck here for some time to come–but that doesn’t mean we have no power to “severely improve” our predicament. Humor, cooperation, imagination, community care–these are some of the ways we can resist and live where we are now in the best possible style–maybe even with a punchline!

Yours in love and creative resistance,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. The weather forecast for this weekend is exciting! We have decided NOT to try to meet in person on our campus (see announcements below for rescheduling of this weekend’s events), but we plan to meet on Zoom for worship at our regular time (11 am) on Sunday. 

Companies achieving outsized results have designed their cultures 
to help as many people as possible deploy their “zone of genius.”
~Edward Sullivan & John Baird, Leading with Heart

Dear Ones,

Sullivan and Baird (quoted above) define a “zone of genius” as any ability that feels effortless but seems extraordinary to others. In many ways, we are a small congregation that achieves outsized results, and our leadership is pretty constantly on the lookout, perhaps not for sheer effortlessness, but for ways to deploy our energy, talents, and other resources that move us in the direction of justice, inclusion, and love–without draining our energy and spirit. Our wisest moves are not always effortless, but they do lead to excitement, funds raised, bodies and spirits nourished and encouraged to engage in reflection and further action. And they also, not incidentally, make us glad to be together in community. 

Yesterday, Sandy and I joined a group of Tennessee faith leaders gathered at the Tennessee Capitol building to mark the opening of the General Assembly. Among other things, we learned that a relatively small group standing in the rotunda can make a mighty good sound, singing surrounded by all that stone! We enjoyed our bus ride to and from the capital (parking is so much easier at the mall!), met some good folks on the bus and at the action, saw some old acquaintances, and lifted our voices in “our house” on that big hill downtown. 

In this time that calls for resistance as the only responsible reaction to so much happening from day to day, it was good to be part of a faithful gathering of Tennesseans committed to fairness, justice, and care for all our neighbors. And yes, I found it easy to sing in that place, and if the results weren’t necessarily “extraordinary”, we did sound pretty good!

Yours in resistance with joy and good company,
Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

“We seldom admit the seductive comfort of hopelessness.
It saves us from ambiguity. It has an answer for every question: 
‘There’s just no point. It’s just not worth the effort.’”
~Jarod K. Anderson

Friends,

During the month of January, we are working with the theme of “Embodying Resistance.” (We are one of a few hundred UU congregations who participate in the Soul Matters program, in which we lean into monthly themes/ideas closely related to and/or explored through our shared UU values.) 

Today, I am struck by what an interesting theme resistance presents following December’s concentration on “choosing hope”: Resistance isn’t always/only about a stance toward forces and events in the external world; it is also a skill we exercise in cultivating our worlds. Cultivating or choosing hope requires us to resist hopelessness, which is such a broad and open-ended way of thinking about changing the world. 

No matter the headlines, no matter how many and difficult the choices we need to make in response to the world around us, in our own little community, we already have a jumpstart on January’s work of resistance. We have been practicing choosing hope, and not being hopeless is absolutely essential to action in the world. It is a refusal to believe that our actions, along with our willingness to make choices and act, to be present despite discomfort and ambiguity, make a difference. (Resistance is not, in the end, futile!) Hope and resistance are important tools for showing up over and over to create a life and a world shaped by our deep needs and values and concern for the wellbeing of all that is.

Yours in faith, love, and resisting hopelessness,

Rev. Denise

RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. Our administrator, Kris, will be on medical leave starting on January 22 and continuing until February 10. While we have plans for covering essential functions while she’s recovering from her procedure, you may wish to submit announcements and address other administrative needs before she leaves, if possible.