Lots of Holidays and a Blessing Tree

Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving, probably one of my favorite holidays, is over. The day was well enjoyed, even with sick children, and thus the last minute change of plans. We still had a great dinner and had the chance to help our daughters practice our rituals of gratitude. 


I enjoy Thanksgiving. To me it seems a holiday with no cultural hang-ups. It may have a varied history, pilgrims or Lincoln, secular, spiritual, whatever. What I appreciate about Thanksgiving is that it seems to be the holiday Americans live out the most. Regardless of religious background, political persuasion, or cultural history, this day is one where everyone goes out of their way to be together, to share food, to practice gratitude. I love that this holiday is the one that immigrants so widely embrace and bring their own cultural flavor to. I love that the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and the Sunday after are two of the busiest travel days in this country. In fact, I remember traveling from Boston to LA after 9/11. I was grateful to be able to travel again, that the country was taking the first steps to put itself back together again, but was saddened a bit by how empty the airports and the airplanes were.


But now Thanksgiving has passed and the next round of rituals go into place. This is the big one. The winter holidays begin. Well, for my family, this is Christmas time. Unfortunately, Christmas feels more intellectually and spiritually challenging. Don't worry, this isn't a dig on Christmas. I loved Christmas, as a kid, and now that I have children, I really love it. It's definitely a time for magic. I am, without a doubt, a huge fan of the secular christmas (yes, little "c"). I even believe in Santa Claus. 


Yet, as I got older, and more mindful of the religious significance of Christmas it became too disingenuous for me. I even have a hard time with so many of the carols. As beautiful as they are, it sometimes feels odd to sing such Christian music, when I am not one. As a lay Buddhist and now Unitarian Universalist, there seemed something wrong with participating in a holiday tradition with so much Christian importance, yet I wasn't quite ready to give up Christmas. I love the giving of gifts, I love the generosity that is inspired by the seasons.


So, taking the Unitarian Universalist side more seriously, a number of years ago I put serious thought into this time of year. What is meaningful, for me and others, about this time of year? What are the metaphors that our cultural histories give us for this darkest time of year? 


The winter solstice is around the corner. Its not just the shortest day of the year. It's a turning point. It's a time, by my personal calendar, when the year begins again. Our natural world (at least here in New England) is covered in a frosting of glistening ice. My buddhist lessons were giving me greater appreciation of the simplicity of natures metaphors. 


Given the darkness of the time, how much I miss the light, and how grouchy I can be in the deepness of winter, I actually find myself seeking out anything to be grateful for. Any blessings I can find are important and wonderful. And that's when it all came together. 


A way to help keep the holiday simple, bring light into my home, acknowledge my own history (growing up with Christmas), and create some new rituals for blessings. Welcome our blessing tree. Something I've been doing now for about 10 years. And with the girls all excited about the next few holidays, Cynthia and I decided that the this post Thanksgiving weekend would be a great time to start our ritual decorating and preparation. 


The Blessing Tree is decorated simply, with white lights and lots of ribbons. On the ribbons are written our blessings for the year. When friends come to the house, we ask that everyone add to the tree. They can write a blessing, a poem, joke, or even just their name on a ribbon and add it to the tree. This way, the blessings of the people, ideas, and experiences in our lives become part of the tree. When I got married and started to have a family, we've continued with the tradition. Now, instead of pulling out ornaments (those get used around the house instead), we pull out our bag of blessings.  We get to read them, tie them to the tree decorate the tree not with fancy trimmings but the expressions of our lives. Each year we add new blessings to the tree.


Thanks for letting me share this little winter ritual of our family, as we count down these last nights to Winter. May you enjoy the last few days of the dark. It's just 23 days to the Solstice, 14 days to Chanukah (I love that it's the Festival of Light, at a time when we so need it), December 8th is the Bodhi Day (celebrating Buddha's day of enlightenment), the Islamic new year is on the 18th, and yes just 27 days to till Christmas.

Muppet Rhapsody

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

What is there to say? The Muppets, Queen. A quiet day at home with the kids. I can't decide if my favorite bit is Animal or Beaker hitting the high note.


"Any way the wind blows..."

Open Up Your Writing

For those who feel writing is as much about the experience as it is for the words, there is OmmWriter from the digital creative team at Herraiz Soto & Co. OmmWriter (for Mac OS X), is less a word processor and more an isolation tank for word extraction. The screen capture shows, what is probably the most complex experience of the application, a few buttons only the most minimal of controls needed.

I'm a big fan of writing to the blank screen, and have appreciated word processors that have given me that option to remove everything else from my view, only to be left staring at a blank page. And then ... to be left staring at the blank page.

What caught my attention, after the minimalist environment that spawned me to download this was the notice that I would find a better experience with my headphones on. Playing engaging, but not distracting environmental music, quiet audio feedback for my keystrokes, and an undistracted view of my writing. For anyone who finds the constant distractions of the various email, twitter, and IM clients floating around the screen an opportunity for interruption then here is a tool for that extra Spaces desktop that is rarely being used.

The application is still in Beta and is being distributed as a freeware. I was very happy to just start writing. The feature geek in me was quickly quieted (as there were only 6 buttons to push) to make room for the person who wants to write. The only thing I would add to this is the ability to change the background image. Sometimes I just want a different scene for my writing Zen. For those who are brave enough to poke around inside the .app container it looks like you can easily replace the image options.

If the music options aren't working for me, then it's easy enough to play iTunes in the background with something more suiting to my creative needs in the moment.

I even like the name of the application. Omm... Take a deep breath... Omm... Let the words flow... Omm...

Nantucket Sleigh Rides

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Ok, this one goes into the category of truly surprising and completely cool. Thanks, Jon for sharing this story of a sea fisherman.

So imagine this, you're sitting in a kayak out on the ocean. When suddenly you have a hankering for sushi. No worries, drop a line in the water, take a ride, and later you can take your 150 pound bluefin down to your favorite sushi chef.

This New York Times article tells it all.  http://bit.ly/86bS8j

What blew me away was envisioning this man trying to bring down the "800 pounder" that got away. It may just be a fish story, but it definitely got me dreaming.

Back in the pulpit...

Monday, November 23, 2009

My family has been attending our local UU church (First Unitarian Universalist Society of Exeter - FUUSE) for about three years now. While, Cynthia has been a pretty active participant and leader in that time, I've been doing the "Daddy Patrol". Basically that means keeping my eye on the twins while they were in either the nursery (or staying home with them) while Cynthia did the church stuff.  But now that the girls have gotten a bit older, I'm finally getting to participate again. Having done the operations thing in the past, it was time to flex my more spiritually inclined muscles and get back in the pulpit.  Since our minister is taking a sabbatical this year, I joined the Worship Committee.

All I can say is... Yeah!   It has been almost 6 years since I've been in the pulpit or done much worship leading (if I don't count the Shaman work with Men's Divisions and the Legacy Discovery). This was definitely the right choice for me and I'm glad to say, well received. Not just by the congregation, but by myself. I find my spiritual work seems richer when done in front of the world. Almost like asking at any moment, "What would (Jesus/Buddha/Mohammed/Einstein) do?" But then sharing that experience with others. Seems to make it more real. Maybe that's the other side of why the evangelical christians testify. It's not just spreading the word of their truth, but the joy that comes from sharing experience.

For a link to the sermon, and the audio from the service, click here.
   "The Transient and the Permanent" 2009, William Young & Rev. Kendra Ford

The sermon, The Transient and The Permanent, was actually based on another sermon, given in 1841 by Theodore Parker. Parker was a Unitarian minister who was examining the nature of Christian practice at his time. He was proposing that many of the practices and doctrines of faith that people were treating as "permanent" or important were in fact transitional, transient; dogma that shifted from generation to generation. Yet there was/is a permanence in christian teaching, that the words and lessons given to us by Jesus have value, regardless of the dogma, practice, or changes that were being used to define the faithful.

I've also captured Parker's sermon here.  It's a bit more of a read. But for the liberally religious, it's quite a landmark sermon and good reading. You can see, from it, why so many decided that maybe he wasn't Christian anymore.
  "The Transient and the Permanent" 1841, Rev. Theodore Parker

William

Lego leaguing...

Saturday, November 21, 2009

My daughter's big day starting in Jr. Lego League. Team Horses is getting their chance to show off their work. They've been learning about transportation with cats and dogs and then building something around that with Legos.

I've started do a bit more reading about the Lego Leagues. We have a man in my church who is leader up here in New England. It's' a very impressive group.

The mission of FIRST is to:  "...to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership."

In a time when it seems that science and math education have been slipping, it's great to see programs like this coming about to inspire, teach, and encourage our children. The kids in my church have a Lego League team, and they actually did a research project that did a great job of helping our congregation get clarity on where and how we can improve communications, but with technology and process. It gave all of us great food for thought. And I can't help but admit that I was really proud of the work they did.

Then, with all of that, there's still the playing with Legos, and building robots. How cool is that?!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, my daughter's team won the Animal Lover's award for their competition. Go Horses!