I hope your summer has had a few pockets of simplicity and freedom. Our world, our country, our habitual ways of being human together can sometimes take us very far away from those values cultivated by Shaker communities and much admired by others over the years. What I am coming to realize is that the gifts of being simple and free are not things bestowed upon us by external powers that be; they are possibilities available to us if we take care to recognize, cultivate, and appreciate them. And they don’t generally present themselves in any absolute or perfect form. For example, I am spending much of my summer helping my daughter prepare to leave for college, a project that mostly feels neither simple nor free, but we recently shared a hike in the rain on a familiar and beautiful state park trail that was both. We were mostly alone, the rain didn’t last long, and afterward, we counted hawks in the sky and studied mosses and marveled at the shades of green around us.

As you may have heard already, I plan to be away from GNUUC for the month of July. I’ll be busy resting and reading and enjoying time with my family. This will be time off work for me (thank you for being a good employer!), which means I will not respond to emails or other messages until August arrives. (Yes, I will miss you! And yes, I am looking forward to some time off!)

I am also looking forward to taking some vacation time this summer. In fact, I plan to be away from GNUUC for the month of July. I’ll be busy resting and reading and helping my daughter prepare to begin college at the end of August. It will be a full summer for me, and I appreciate working for a congregation that recognizes the importance of allowing me time to pause, process the year behind us, and prepare for the coming year. Your Board and I are already looking forward to the launch of the 2022-23 church year, with our annual visioning process plus the added bonus of a Startup Workshop (because I am still your “new” minister) with Southern Region staff in August. I can’t wait to see what awaits us!

Please email gnuuc@gnuuc.org if you need ministerial support during this time. You may also leave a voicemail and Kris will forward your request to either Cynthia S. or Michelle P.

The hillside next to my office window at church has become thickly green over the last few weeks. Looking out, I can now see the sky only in very small patches, and the hawks (there seem to be three living in close proximity to our grounds) I see only when I’m outside.

Dear ones, hello. I’m thinking of you and hope you are well.

It feels so long since I have written you a note like this. What a busy spring we have had! We have celebrated spring, had a rollicking good time raising funds at our annual auction, began work on various building projects, are watching things bloom and get very green on our grounds, are about to pause to recognize the graduating seniors among our youth (join us live in person or on Zoom this Sunday for that!) and have been mourning the death and celebrating the lives of congregational elders. (Read the Eblast for details about Charles Sumner’s Celebration of Life service coming up later this month.)

I hope you are enjoying this spring-into-summer time in middle Tennessee (or wherever you are). It’s always a beautiful time of year; this year, there’s something about the overlay of pandemic re-emergence that makes these days feel even more precious for being full of possibilities that we now know (more keenly than we did a few brief years ago) are still (and may always be) fragile.

As you move through these days of light & green & endings & new beginnings, go gently and remember to pause, breathe, and take it all in. When that “all” seems too much, remember we are here together and together we are big enough to hold it all, perhaps even to celebrate it all.

Yours in greenness and hope,

Rev. Denise
revdenise@gnuuc.org

"Please come to the auction; it will be fun!" ~Rev. Denise

Dear Ones,

How are you this mid-March day?

I am … feeling hugely grateful–for sunshine and for the beings with whom I share this life–and a little, well, soggy.

You may or may not have heard, but our church building had a water-logged weekend due to a plumbing problem in one of our restrooms.

The Soul Matters theme for this month is Widening the Circle, inspired by the title of the report released by the UUA’s Commission on Institutional Change not quite two years ago: Widening the Circle of Concern, which focuses on addressing racial discrimination and dismantling systems of white supremacy within our Unitarian Universalist movement. (It’s a big topic and a report worthy of study, if you feel called.) I particularly appreciate the title of this report because it feels both strong (centered, if you will) and compassionate–truly welcoming and offering an invitation into expanding our learning about systems and social/cultural dynamics which some of us have not recognized, understood, or considered until recently.

For what do you look genuinely and consistently? Or, for what do you intend to look? At the beginning of this church year, your Board decided to make connection our shared mission this year. And many of you have been genuinely and consistently doing the work of creating and strengthening our connections: phone calls to check in with each other, meeting with covenant groups, joining worship online or in the sanctuary, spending time with our young folks in Children's Religious Education, working together in the garden or on our new covered pavilion, planning service projects, and so much more.