We are Unitarian Universalists   Who put love at the center of our lives  We light this chalice today, to practice Listening to the wisdom within us This quote comes from the Soul Matters Deep Listening theme for October, specifically as a chalice lighting for children.  This resonates because October is a feast for all the senses.  Listen to Mother earth as she gives way from summer to winter—the crunch of leaves beneath our feet, the last songs of crickets before the first frost, the bugle call of elk.  These quieter sounds are an invitation to listen more deeply to one another and to ourselves. Kids Faith Formation in October  Fall Festival Oct 13.  Everyone is (that means you!) invited to join the Faith Formation team, staff, UUFD kids and their parents for this fun event that will be immediately after service:  11:30 – 2:00.  This year, the festival will be held on the UUFD campus with Columbine House as the hub.  This kid friendly event will include pumpkin and cookie, face painting, a possible pumpkin throw, relay races, and more.  Faith Formation will provide hamburgers and hotdogs plus condiments.  We gratefully accept your potluck contributions to go with this picnic.  Please RSVP so we can correctly plan for food.  For more information, click here. Adult Faith Formation There are nine participants in the current book study of Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown.  These small-group discussions provide a venue to delve more deeply into UU values and how we live this faith in the world through lively discussion of the books. Coming soon, a book study for What We Say Matters by Judith Hanson Lasater and Ike K. Lasater and Christ for Unitarian Universalists: a New Dialogue with Traditional Christianity by Scotty McLennan.

Personal Faith Development – October:  Deep Listening  If you’ve been part of a covenant group here at UUFD or another UU congregation, you’re already familiar with the practice.  Deep listening is more than something we do during a covenant group gather.  It can be personal practice that opens avenues of intuition and guidance. Imagine what happens in your life if you have this shift, explained by Rev. Scott Taylor. “We don’t have conversations; we are our conversations. Who and what we listen to is who and what we become.” To listen deeply to that “still small voice within,” here’s one practice to try out.  Begin by choosing a poem or essay that is evocative to you in some way.  If you need a suggestion, here are two poems from this month’s Soul Matters Deep Listing:  The Birds Wrote me a Poem or Alone. For the first reading, read the text aloud and focus on the feelings it evokes. Don’t rush for an answer.  Just feel with your emotions and your body. For the second reading, focus on a phrase or line “pops out” at you or “shimmers” as you read it.  What is it that makes this line or phrase stand out.  Perhaps, is your inner voice rising to the surface with something to tell you? For the third reading, focus on any memories that arise. Are these recent or old?  What is it about this text that stirs the past? For the fourth and final reading, ask yourself, “How is my inner voice and deepest self trying to offer me a message of comfort or challenge through this text?” The manner in which we listen makes a difference.  As you contemplate this notice the differences within yourself if you’re aware of background noise that snags or attention—a TV or music or silence. How is your contemplation affected?  If you chose to have on music or the TV, try this in the silence. Deep listening is one of those practices that can feel strange in the beginning, but that can become a comforting, wise friend whose voice is heard only within the silence. In closing, this quote from Parker Palmer. “Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”  May your own deep listening fill you with peace and love.

The Pine Song Retreat Team is excited to announce that Julie Wolfrum will be joining us as one of our retreat leaders. She is a teacher and spiritual guide who uses movement and dance to enhance spiritual growth and connection. Appropriately, her work fits with this year’s retreat theme, “Forging Connections.” Click here for her bio and photo. More information will be coming soon. In the meantime SAVE THESE DATES: July 12- 14th.

Faith Formation Plans for Welcoming Rev. Jamie Jamie Boyce Sunday, April 21, 2024: Immediately after service there will be a congregation-wide pot luck with Rev. Jamie. The important part, of course, is ice cream. At 1:00 that same day, Rev. Jamie is invited to join Faith Formation families, youth, and kids for an Ice Cream Social. This will be held in the Columbine House classroom space. We look forward to seeing you there. Tuesday, April 23, 2024 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Families, youth, and kids. Come after school to an open house at Columbine House to spend time with Rev. Jamie. There will definitely be snacks, and there might be left-over ice cream from the Sunday Social. After the open house, everyone (the whole congregation) is invited to a pot luck in Bowman Hall. We look forward to seeing you then.

Meet Rev. Jamie Boyce We have the most lovely opportunity to welcome Rev. Jamie to the joys of Southwestern Colorado. As you will see in her bio, she has lived mainly in the northeastern parts of the United States and Canada. This is our first opportunity to learn from her — what draws her to our area and what her hopes are — and her first opportunity to learn from us and what we love about living here and what our hopes are. There will be numerous opportunities for faith formation families, children, and youth to meet her. Please take advantage of these.

Interdependence, the Theme for April April 7, The Web of Creation, Part 1 April 14, The Web of Creation, Part 2 April 21, Caring for the Web of Creation April 28, How the Web of Creation Cares for us.

Interdependence, A UU Value In the flower that proposed as a symbol for the UU values recommended by the Article II Commission to be voted on at the GA in June, Interdependence is at the very top of the flower. It’s easy to see why when we contemplate how all of nature and how communities are interdependent. The simple idea of children needing teachers and nurturing immediately expands to all the things needed in a community from places to live, shops that provide goods and services, hospitals and doctors needed for healthcare, firefighters needed for emergencies, places of employment, opportunities for enrichment by the arts and music and recreation, and on and on. During this month when we acknowledge the transition between Rev. Barbara’s ministry and the welcoming of a new settled minister, contemplating how all these things work together is natural … along with a sense of gratitude for all that is unfolding.

Mark your calendars for Upcoming Events

End of School Year Bowling & Pizza May 22 All UUFD kids, teens, and parents are invited to a bowling and pizza party to celebrate the end of the school year. When? May 22 at 5.m. Where? Rolling Thunder Lanes 14324 Highway 172 North Ignacio, CO

Pine Song July 12-14 Faith Formation is thrilled to announce that we are putting together plans for the children and youth who will accompany their families to the Pine Song Retreat. Watch this space for details to come for the day’s activities. If you have suggestions about what you’d like to do during the retreat, send them to Sharon.

Adults, What is Your Passion? Crafters, Candlestick Makers, Potters, Artists, Gardeners, Bakers, Photographers, Storytellers, Nature Enthusiasts Do you have a passion that you would like to share with the children of UUFD during a Sunday service sometime during the summer? You might be a carpenter who could help them build a bird house, or a baker with a favorite cookie recipe that needs helping hands, or potter who could help them make a cup or a coaster, or FILL IN THE BLANK. We want to offer the kids a wide variety of experiences and explorations that expand their imaginations and allow them to experiment with new skills from painting to nature walks. This is also an opportunity for kids and adults to get to know one another better. Sharon Mignerey, the Coordinator for Faith Formation would love to hear from you.

Faith Formation Seeks Teacher Are you an active, personable person who likes kids of all ages? If so, The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Durango is looking for you. We are seeking a teacher for Sunday programs for elementary and middle-school age children. Prior teaching experience is awesome, but not required. A back-ground or familiarity with Unitarian Universalism and its guiding principles is preferred but not required. Must be at least 18 years old and pass a background check. For details and more information, send Sharon Mignerey, the Coordinator of Faith Formation an email. (Feel free to share this notice with anyone you think might be interested.)

Our Whole Lives (OWL) — Facilitator Training Lifespan Sexuality Education This summer (July or August), Formation at UUFD would like to host OWL training for facilitators-to-be who would like to be part of this vital program for our children and youth. Though we have a few people trained at the elementary and middle school levels, we need a deeper pool of facilitators. Teaching experience is not required, but an affinity and comfort with kids is a must. We will be reaching out to other congregations in our surrounding states to meet the minimum enrollment, but want to make this available to members of our congregation first. If you are interested in becoming a trained facilitator for OWL, please let Sharon Mignereyknow. If you are not trained but would like more information, please click here for an overview of the OWL program.

Soulful Families Who Brings a Smile to your Face? Remember and Discuss With One Another I was lucky enough to have grands in my life whom I remember fondly. Grand parents and great aunts and uncles. Some of those memories are full fledged stories, and some are wispy bits that flutter through my mind like a sheer curtain in a soft breeze. Watching stars with my granddad on a dark summer night … following my grandmother down the rows of her garden while planting beans and corn … walking through a blooming peach orchard with my great uncle. Within these memories, I realize more and more how interdependent we all are. Within my family there was the exchange of vegetables and peaches and farm-raised meat shared as things came into season. Now we might experience those connections in a potluck meal, such as those we will get to have in a couple of weeks. We know who the wonderful bakers are and we look for their offerings. We know who the fun story-tells are, and we seek out their company. We know who needs a little extra help to participate, and we ensure they have it. And, all of us are richer because of the connections … and the sweetest of memories that follow us through life. I invite you to share this month with one another over dinner or during a picnic … who do you remember as having an influence on you? What are the accompanying stories? How are you enriched by the relationship or the lessons learned? As you explore, imagine all the connections and the interdependence we have with one another. We each bring strengths and gifts that make our neighbors richer, and they do the same for us, making us richer in return. Imagine how these lessons get passed along to your children and grandchildren, to the others who are within the circle of your life. The Soulful Family packets we receive each month have ideas and activities to help you have richer conversations with your family members, suggestions for activities that go beyond watching TV together, If you would like to have Soulful Family packets each month, let Sharon, the Coordinator of Faith Formationknow, and she will ensure you receive these each month. T

From the Mailbox (April Soulful Home) Dear travelers and homebodies, bell hooks beams at me from the stage, me and a thousand other people who came to bask in her life-giving radiance. Of all her deeply synthesized philosophy and original wisdom about gender, class, race, politics, and intersecting identities, it’s her thoughts on coexisting in community that move me most. “We best realize love in community,” she says. “Our interdependence is the staff of life, our capacity to feel both with and for ourselves, and other people.” hooks understood power better than maybe anyone else alive in her time. And her message? Share power and apply it to justice. Use power to build community. Uplift others as you rise yourself. With whom will you share power today? What deep truths inside you can create more freedom and understanding all around you? How will you strengthen the fragile parts of our interconnected web? Love, the Awaiting World ps. PBS Newshour recorded a tribute to bell hooks’ life after her death in 2021. You can watch it here: A Tribute to Bell Hooks on PBS

From Dependence, to Independence, to Interdependence  “Breathe with me. Know that with each breath we take in molecules of air that were breathed by every person that ever lived… Breathe with me, and know that we are all interdependent… Breathe with me,as we come together to do the holy work of interconnection and relationship…” ~Rev. Matt Aslpaugh As Mother Earth reawakens and the snowy cold of winter gives way to burgeoning blossoms of spring flowers and the return of seasonal birds, it’s easy to see how all of Creation is interdependent. The single symbiotic relationship between bees and dandelions illustrates. They are the first food of bees in spring.  Those bees can then flourish and spend their next many weeks pollinating all the plants we humans find useful and depend upon for food. That first interdependent relationship between bees and the lowly dandelion sets in motion the cycle we each depend upon.   Faith Formation in April Sunday Faith Formation Focus April 7.  The Web of Community. Delivery of the Grub Hub donations. Interdependence reminds us that we are not alone in this world.   April 14. Interdependence. We honor the interdependent web of all existence. With reverence for the great web of life and with humility, we acknowledge our place in it. April 21. Caring for the Web of Creation.  Celebrate Earth Day. April 28. How the Web of Creation Cares for Us. We are part of the Earth and It is part of us.   Thank you, UUFD.   The donations you each provided for the Easter Food Drive for Grub Hub was a great success.  Thank you for your generosity.If you missed out on the drive, Grub Hub has posted a wish list on Amazon.

Book Study Begins April 15: Scripture Unbound by Rev. Jonalu Johnstone Many of you have expressed  an interest in developing your own theology. This book study is a foundational study that helps provide a historical look at sacred texts from many faith traditions. This book draws upon many sacred texts beyond the Holy Bible. Included are readings from The Analects of Confucius, Nehemiah, the Qur’an, I Ching, Dhammapada, Tao Te Ching, and Black Elk Speaks.Along the way of this study, we will discover how other religions and their sacred texts have many the same foundational principles we embrace in UU even though the cultural trappings may be unfamiliar. This book study will run on Monday evenings beginning April 15 for six weeks and ending on May 20. The time will be from 6:30 to 8:00, meeting in Bowman Hall. Scripture Unbound is available at both InSpirit UUA Bookstore and Amazon where is also available as a Kindle ebook. Click here to register.  Personal Faith Development  — the Gifts of Interdependence “Namasté. I honor the place in you in which the entire universe dwells. I honor the place in you that is of love, of truth, of light, and of peace. When you are in that place in you, and I am in that place in me, we are one.” The mystics of all religions come to this same core idea after all the trappings of culture are eased away.  We are one. This includes anything and everything we can imagine, from a light-years-distant nebula to the frog singing at night outside your window. We are one. The second we begin living as though that were true is the second we begin to see the interdependence of all life. When we see the oneness and interdependence of a couple dancing a waltz to beautiful music, we open space to see the beauty and wisdom of nature. And how, then, can we not be better stewards of nature? When we see this in nature, it’s less of a leap to see it in our relationships with one another, whether family or a group we’re tempted to label as enemy. We are one. Interconnected and interdependent.   To deepen your own relationship with this principle of interdependence: Take pictures of as many different animals, including insects, as you want, from a pill bug to your own dog or cat.  Imagine how each one contributes in some way, whether it is the joy your pet brings you or the way the pill bug contributes to the soil’s health by eating decaying leaves. Write a thank you letter to a good friend, telling how the qualities of the friendship enrich your life and about the meaningful times you’ve had together – both good and bad. Have a conversation with your children or grandchildren about the evolution of dependence to independence to interdependence in their own lives. Look for examples of being stronger, more happy, more productive when using different skills working together. In closing, this lovely African proverb: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Sharon Mignerey, Coordinator of Faith Formation (faithformation@durangouu.org)

“Fairness does not mean everyone gets the same. Fairness means everyone gets what they need.” ― Rick Riordan, The Red Pyramid The concept of fair gets to the heart of proposed Article II values of justice and equity and also to the Golden Rule, which most of us learn soon after we learn to talk – to treat others the way we would like to be treated. Regardless of how we identify ourselves by ethnicity, religion, gender, identity, or any other criteria, we want to be seen for ourselves. It’s so clear, so simple. And yet, granting to everyone the justice and equity that we want for ourselves is at the root of almost every conflict we have with one another. This is true at the personal level and in our larger communities. Since this is true at the personal level, we might be left with this troubling and empowering realization: the change for a more equitable and just world begins with me. Faith Formation in February Sunday Faith Formation Focus February 4 – Equity, equality, and justice February 11 – Building better relationships February 18 – Building a better community February 24 – Living with one another in fairness, love, and joy Faith Formation on February 11 Please join in the fun for a Valentine’s Party after service and before the town hall on February 11.  The children participating in Val Pals will find out who their secret Valentine is. This program is a fun way for children to develop relationships with adults in UUFD beyond their immediate circle.  In a word – new friendships. Then, please join the Faith Formation Team and Staff at 11:30 for a town hall.  This is your chance to find out everything you ever wanted to know about faith formation programs for both children and adults. Bring your questions and your ideas. OWL Plans to offer OWL for elementary students has been put on hold until we have additional trained facilitators.  If you are an OWL trained facilitator for the Elementary Grades and have an interest in this program, please contact the Coordinator of Faith Formation, Sharon Mignerey. Circles of Trust – Exploring “Habits of the Heart” began January 27 If you missed this and are still interested, please contact Rev. Barbara Coeyman at intmin@durangouu.org. Personal Faith Development – the Gifts of Justice and Equity “Suppose you had the revolution you are talking and dreaming about. Suppose your side had won, and you had the kind of society that you wanted. How would you live, you personally, in that society? Start living that way now!”  ~ Paul Goodman This quote from writer and activist (during the 1960s) Paul Goodman directly addresses the affirmation we in UUFD acknowledge each Sunday with being an open and inclusive congregation.  Goodman invites us to walk our talk, and he offers specific suggestions.

• Write down 8 things that would characterize the revolution and kind of society you dream about.
• Write down 8 ways you would live differently than you do today in that dreamed of society.
• Of those 8 ways you’d live differently, pick one and figure out a way to “start living that way now!”

Many of us in UUFD are involved in social justice—our walking of the talk.  I think Goodman’s invitation encourages us to go deeper into our personal practices and become more mindful in our daily living.  May it be so.