Generosity
Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. —Ralph Waldo Emerson Generosity is often...
Musings of the Spirit
Fall, 2023: The season of marigolds, at least in my extended family
I share my life with a household that started in Baltimore but which has grown and moved as the laborers with whom I have shared my home...
Getting to Know You
It’s a pleasure to be writing to the UUCSR community for the first time as your Associate Minister for Member and Community Engagement....
When To Contact a Minister
As we begin another congregational year, your ministers want you to know that we are here with you. Sometimes people have said that they...
Work-ism
I read a recent article in The Atlantic which noted that about 40 million Americans, 12 percent of the population, had stopped going to...
Love Is at the Center
The recent Annual Meeting of our Unitarian Universalist Association—we call it General Assembly or “GA”—decided by an overwhelming...
On Grace
I made a mistake: I was speaking about someone and I used a pronoun which does not match their chosen identity. It was in a public space. I...
A Departing Touchstones Message from Rev. Jaye Brooks
Bittersweet. It’s one of those words we can’t really understand until we experience it. When sorrow mingles with appreciation and...
I Brought My Spirit to the Sea
I am delighted, these days, to take a walk around the Town Dock in Port Washington, to be just-a-little-jealous of people walking their...
Welcoming Creative Spirits, by Rev. Dr. Natalie M. Fenimore
In this season of Membership Renewal, we acknowledge and celebrate the unique creative energy which each person brings to the life of this...
Creative Conversation, by Rev. Jaye Brooks
May is just around the corner—and with it the month’s learning and worship theme, Creativity. At Shelter Rock, creativity is present in...
Touchstones: Delight, by Rev. David Carl Olson
I was recently reminded that an early proponent of Unitarianism in our country thought that we should practice “charity, forbearance, and...
Resilience, by Rev. Dr. Natalie M. Fenimore
Forsythia, crocus, daffodils… spring is here. True, it may snow again but spring will not retreat. And we must not retreat either—we...
Open Heartedness
“Connection is why we’re here,” says author, researcher, and storyteller Brene Brown. Human beings are hard-wired to connect with one...
Almost Spring, by Rev. David Carl Olson
Have we had the worst of the cold for this winter? I’m used to there being a mid-winter thaw around the time of my birthday (last week),...
All You Need Is Love!, by Rev. Dr. Natalie M. Fenimore
While the Beatles song is lovely and catchy and optimistic, it is not really true. People do need love—but also—food and water and...
To subscribe to this blog feed, add the following address to your RSS subscriptions
https://www.uucsr.org/category/touchstones/feed/