[UUCP] Letter regarding recent events in Washington, DC

[revpauld444]

*Dear friends, I’m sure that many of you have been having the same or
similar thoughts that I’ve been having about the events in our nations
Capitol over the past two days. Thoughts like, “I never thought I’d see
this happen in my lifetime” or “Why has this been allowed to go on for so
long?” Like me, perhaps you watched the news reports in utter shock and
dismay, even fear. Like me, perhaps you became angry . Like me, perhaps,
when you went to bed you couldn’t sleep and lay awake wondering how this
could possibly happen. All of those and more. It feels like we are standing
on very shaky ground, on shifting sand, we’re fearful, and we are losing
our balance. We need something to hold on to. In times like this, I reach
out to the wisdom of the many teachers I’ve had in my life. People like
Pema Chodron who writes: “**No matter whom you are or what you do,
the ground is always shaky. And, the really good news is that shaky
ground is fertile ground for spiritual growth and awakening.”*




*Fear is a natural response to the unknown and, certainly, we don’t know
what lies ahead, at least for the next few weeks. We are all standing, as
best we can, on shaky ground. So, I want to encourage you to take the words
of Pema Chodron to heart and consider just how this shaky ground can be
fertile ground for your own spiritual growth and awakening. Just as we have
all been helping and caring for each other this past year during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and continue to do so, I encourage you to hold onto each
other while we are standing on this shaky ground. Hold each other in your
hearts and in your prayers, and in your thoughts. As the Hebrew Scriptures
remind us, “Weeping endures for a night, but joy comes in the morning.”*




*Peace and Light, Rev. Paul *

-- 
Rev. Paul S. Dodenhoff
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the Palisades
Englewood, NJ 07631
uucpalisades.org
revpauld444 at gmail.com
551-427-2648
*“For my part the only religion which I believe in is the recognition of
the Divine in Man and Nature. The Good, the Beautiful, and the True is the
Holy Trinity which commands the consent of my intellect and the adoration
of my heart. Hence, I can love and worship all True, Good, and Beautiful
men and women as Incarnations of the Ineffable, Inconceivable Godhead. The
adoption of this faith seems to me the turning point of humanity. When men
and women receive this as a Living Faith, the millennium will dawn upon the
nations, social harmony will be inaugurated, and this nasty world will be
Transfigured into the Heavenly Zion.” -- George Ripley, Unitarian minister,
Transcendentalist leader, and founder of the Brook Farm Community, Roxbury,
Mass. 1843*
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