RE Newsletter: Living with Intention

January 14th, 2022

Religious Exploration

January's Theme is Living with Intention

Hello Families,

I hope that this new year has brought you new perspectives, joy and maybe even hope. I know hope might feel hard to hold right now, but I still choose it every time. I choose to live with hope and love, intentionally putting it out into the world and watching it come back to me. I hope you feel it.

So as we ride these waves of changing tides, I hope you find some joy in these offerings below. And I hope to see your smiling faces in person sometime soon.

Sending you so much love.

Pictures from this month

We've just had one gathering this month, so not many pictures. But we had lots of fun in the snow!

The ducks were waddling on the frozen pond!

Nadiya and Star Elizabeth enjoyed our new play structure with its awesome swings!

Our snow person got lots of love. Not only did it get hugs, it also was surprisingly strong enough to hold James on its head and it gave Zayn a piggy back ride! What a super snow friend :)

Here's the crew (minus a few) with our new snow friend.

Soul Matters Offering

Soul Matters Sharing Circle is a compilation of resources for RE, Ministry, and Small Groups that UU Congregations across the country use, following a new theme each month.

This is from the Soul Matter's team: "The theme this month is Living with Intention. Living with intention takes persistence and patience. It takes persistence and patience because living with intention is hard. Fulfilling our intentions often takes a long time. And what happens when we try to do something that is hard? When we try to play a musical instrument, or fold origami, or try to memorize a poem? We have to take baby steps! We have to remind ourselves not to give up.

Living with Intention also takes accepting mistakes because mistakes are part of living. We need to acknowledge that good intentions can sometimes cause harm. We need to know how to accept that we have caused harm without defensiveness. We can hope that when we make a mistake, we can apologize sincerely, and hope that we learn from our mistake. Or to put it another way, we also have to be intentional about fixing our mistakes! We can all trust that the beauty of wholeness will be the gift of learning from our mistakes. "

I am Jazz, by Jazz Jennings. Read by the author, this book is about a young person who was born in a boy's body, but knows she is a girl. So beautiful to hear it read by the author.

We Are Water Protectors, by Carole Lindstrom. When we care deeply about something, it can drive our intention to do amazing things. This story about the Ojibwe people who pledge to protect the water from pollution

Higgins, A Drop with a Dream by Rev. Christopher Buice. This sweet story is about a water droplet who wants to help the parched land. It shows how it takes persistence and patience to live by our intentions.

Story and Song of the Week

The Cricket and the Coin

told by Lea Morris

I Hear Life

Are you listening to the falling leaves

Are you listening to the calling trees

What do you hear?

I hear days come and going

I hear babies growing

I hear clouds as they silently float by

I hear time as it's slowing

And one thing I know is

I hear life. I hear life.

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