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The Winter of the Year
I was ready to fall comfortably into despair today. I've been doing a lot of processing on despair, on the spiritual ramifications of winter--that for growth, we, like the seeds, need to fall and break in order to grow anew. I do believe that the freezes and thaws of life allow us to emerge from spiritual hibernation into pain, and growth, and eventual joy.
I am contemplating the death of an old friend...Kris Spooner, a talented writer and wonderful woman. About a year and a half ago, i had Jury duty; I wrote a 7 page Pern story, and a 4 page letter to Kris. And I actually sent it--the letter, not the story. Although she didn't write back, it didn't bounce, so I believe she got it, and knew I was thinking of her. And I'm glad, of all my old friends, that she was the one I wrote to that day.
I'm contemplating the decline of my mother. The bad times are more often, the good times rarer. Emotionally, I decided yesterday that we actually lost her in July, when she went into heart failure. We've had miracles since then, times when we talk to her and she is herself. It is precious, as a conversation with my Dad would be, who died almost 20 years ago. If I take every good moment as a gift, not as a hope or a promise, then I think i will get through this.
I was ready for despair today, for the chill of winter to fill my heart for a bit. Then i looked out my window at the falling snow...and it is beautiful. And there is, defiantly, hope in my heart, and the seeds of a wild and intemperate joy.
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sometimes it's so uncanny it's scary.
and i send you *hugs*
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(And it's so much faster to say UUA then "Judeo-Christian-Neo-Pagan-Wiccan with strong overtones of Secular Humanism and Eastern elements.")
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and yes, heck, that IS faster. :)
i wonder, sometimes, if most of us would fit that description...
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Unitarians believed that God is One, that the devision into Father, Son and Holy Ghost is artificial, humanity's struggle to define something greater than we can fully comprehend. Harvard University came up with it, and a minister of my acquaintance referred to Harvard as the Scarlet Whore because of it. :> Most of the NorthEast freethinkers of the 1800's were Unitarians, including Clara Barton, the Alcotts, and Emerson.
Universalists believed----that salvation was universal, a gift that only had to be accepted. Yes, this was a heresy at the time.
When they combined, they became something rather different than either parent--a place where individual spiritual growth is prized, there are no pat answers, and the principles that guide us do very little to constrain our spiritual journeys. It specifically includes the democratic principles in its mission statement, and the basic tenets deal with the inherent worth and dignity of human beings, and the obligation to strive for social justice in our lives and in the greater world. The symbols are the Cup and Flame. No longer, technically, a Christian sect, although many members incorporate Christianity in their beliefs.
I'm sure that's more than you ever wanted to know on the subject....
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