UUCGT FLASH NEWSLETTER

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
It is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you everywhere
like a shadow or a friend.

"Words Under the Words: Selected Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye."

(1995)

Sunday Service

Sunday, February 10 - Amanda Mangiardi, coordinator

10:30 AM: "Giving and Accepting Kindness"

"If we all do one random act of kindness daily, we might set the world in the right direction." Martin Kornfield, UUA

This is our hope.

Children & Youth Programs

PreK-5th grade and Youth (5th-8th grade)

Nursery c hild care for infants through age 4

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!Recycling & Repurposing!

The RE Program is switching to mugs instead of disposable plastic cups!

If you have any extra mugs to donate,

please drop them off at the RE classroom any time!

Thank you!

Susan Holmes-Glazier, PreK-5th Grade Teacher

Pledge Drive Season Begins this Sunday!

February 10th is kick-off day for UUCGT's

2019-2020 Building Momentum Pledge Drive!

You may start the Momentum going by filling out your pledge form today! Click on 2019-2020 Pledge Form here , complete form and mail to UUCGT or drop off at the UU office, attention Accounting.

The campaign will finish on March 17 with a

Celebrate the Green Special Potluck Lunch!

Help save our Michigan environment

Our elected Governor made an Executive Order that helps restore the DEQ - which the lame duck session had desecrated.

Please call these Senators : Urge them to VOTE NO on HCR (House Concurrent Resolution) #1, a bill that would allow the Fox to Stay in the Henhouse when it comes regulating our environment.

Schmidt, 517-373-2413

Bumstead, 517-373-1635

Zorn, 517-373-3543

Lucido, 517-373-7670

Bizon, 517-373-3426

Victory, 517-373-6920

Johnson, 517-373-1636

McGregor, 517-373-0797

UUCGT Social Justice Action Team, Emmy Lou Cholak

UUCGT Bulletin Board

Link to February Beacon here

There has been a delay in processing year-end giving statements as a result of our recent accounting system software conversion. We will keep you posted. Karl Keinath, Board Treasurer & Finance Committee

A note for Congregants who signed up for a "Donated Dinner"

Please either mail your donation check to the UU office, or drop it off on Sunday. Be sure to specify "Donated Dinner" on the memo line of your check. If you are not sure how much you owe, please contact John Hoffmann.

Please welcome UUCGT's new Bookkeeper, Glennda Corning. Glennda brings decades of experience in bookkeeping and computer skills, and we are happy she has joined the UU staff. Please stop in to say "Hello!"

The UUCGT Website is currently under construction - please bear with us as updates and formats are in process. Thank you!

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