Celebrate!
April offers us opportunities to celebrate everything from the silliness of April Fool's Day to the stories and feasting of Passover, from Ching Ming's focus on tending graves to Easter's celebration of life reborn. And, of course, whether it's spring or fall where you live, we can all celebrate earth day and do something to care for our precious planet
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We Honor… |
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| Pete Seeger, singer, songwriter and activist, who is a member of Community Church (UU) in New York. Seeger was born in 1919, and is still very much alive, as those of us who saw him performing "Abiyoyo" at the UU General Assembly last summer know. The son of two music professors at Julliard—one of the finest music schools in the US—Pete Seeger discovered his true love, folk music, when he was 16. Although he started college at Harvard, he left to travel around the country, listening to the music people played and learning to play it himself. In 1948 he started the folk group The Weavers, who recorded many hit songs, like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." Throughout his long life, Seeger has never stopped listening and playing. But more than that, he came to understand that music can be a power and a voice for justice, and a way of helping people feel their own power to work for justice. One of Seeger's many efforts to improve the world was the Hudson River Sloop Restoration project, in which he raised $60,000 to build a sailing ship that he rode up and down the Hudson River in New York, singing and talking to people about the need to clean up the tremendous pollution in that river. Thanks to his efforts, the Hudson river is much cleaner today, and thousands of people are familiar with Pete and his banjo, ringing out fun songs and serious songs, songs for kids and for grownups and for everybody who cares about building a better life for all. |
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Act!
On this month when we celebrate Earth Day, why not do something to care for our planet?
You can do an audit of how you use energy in your house and find out ways to conserve energy. (You'll probably need a grownup for this one, but it would be good to have everyone look at ways to save energy together.) Now that spring is here (at least in the Northern Hemisphere) maybe your family could choose one day a week to be "Park It Day" and leave the car at home while you walk or bike or skate or ? to get where you need to go. For a fun project you could get plain canvass bags and decorate them with fabric paint—then remember to bring them to the grocery store to use instead of paper or plastic bags. If you live not too far from your school, maybe your family could organize a "walking school bus." You can find out more about the idea here, but basically, a walking school bus is when families who live near each other agree to coordinate walking to school together. Adults can take turns leading the "bus" and everyone helps the planet by not driving all those trips to school. And there's the added bonus that everyone gets a little exercise and a chance to chat with friends.
April 28th is Arbor Day, so how about planting a tree? Trees do many wonderful things for our planet, from holding the soil in place to making the oxygen we breathe to using up some of the carbon dioxide that causes global warming. You can not only find lots of great information about trees, and about what you can do to help the planet, but also lots of nature-themed games at arborday.org. |
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Nurturing Your Spirit
Many people use spiritual practices in order to feel "grounded"—centered and calm and connected. And what could be more grounded than a tree? Here is a tree mediation that you can do by yourself while reading it, or have someone lead as a guided meditation:
Stand in a way that is relaxed, but upright and not slouching.
Notice your feet, the way they bear your weight, the way they connect you to the ground.
Imagine that roots are growing from your feet, connecting you deep, deep into the earth.
Feel the way your roots connect you the planet, to the enormous strength and steadiness beneath us.
When you can sense your roots reaching and branching deep in the earth, then imagine those roots are feeding you, drawing nourishment from the earth.
Imagine that nourishment as a kind of light, or energy, flowing up from center of the earth to flood your body with a green or golden light.
Feel that light coming up through your trunk, the sturdy center of your body.
Feel that light, that energy, that nourishment from the earth, moving up and up, through your shoulders and your head.
Imagine that you have branches sprouting from your shoulders and head, reaching out and up, reaching toward the sun.
Imagine your branches filled with leaves, rustling and shimmering, releasing the energy from the earth out into the air.
Imagine that your lower branches reach out and down, so that the energy of the earth runs through your body, and then connects back to the earth.
Feel the energy of the earth move through you, and your energy through the earth.
Feel how you are strong, calm, energized, connected.
When you are ready, thank the earth, take a deep breath, and open your eyes.
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Practicing the Principles
Our fourth Unitarian Universalist principle is a "Free and responsible search for truth and meaning." This means that we think each person needs to work out for themselves what they believe about the big questions of life. It is a "free" search because we think that everyone should be free to make their own decisions about what is true. And it is a "responsible" search because we believe that it is just as important to respect the opinions of other people, and to seek out what we feel is really true, not just to choose answers that are easy or convenient for us personally.
One way to see and honor the different things that people believe is to play "Take a Stand." To play, one person is in charge of reading the questions below (or other questions that players make up). Each question invites the players to choose where to stand—all the way to the right side of the room, all the way to the left, or somewhere in the middle. For instance if the question was, "Do you think that people mostly kind and thoughtful, or mostly greedy and out to get what they can for themselves?" then players who think that people are usually kind would go to the left side, players who think that people are basically selfish would go to the right side, and players who thought people were sometimes kind and sometimes selfish would have to choose what place in the middle best showed their view.
Coming up with your own questions is great, but here are a few to get you started:
It's important to have clear rules (right) or People should be free to do whatever they want (left)
People go to heaven when they die (right) or People just stop when they die and there's nothing more (left)
People are in charge of the earth and should do whatever they want with it (right) or All living beings have the same worth and the same rights (left)
People should mostly base their choices on what they think (right) or People should mostly base their choices on what they feel (left)
You may want to take time to talk about why players chose the places they did – but remember that a "free and responsible search" means that we listen carefully whether we agree or not, and don't make fun of anyone for standing in a different place than we chose. |
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Ask CLiF
Ask CLiF any questions you have about religion or living
a good life.
Do Black people have any holidays? And how do we recognize them?
—(No name given)
Dear Writer,
Interesting question. Yes, there are some holidays that are special celebrations for the Black community. I really only know about African-Americans, but maybe someone out there can fill us in about celebrations of Black communities in other countries.
Perhaps the best known "Black" holiday is Kwanzaa, which runs from December 26th – January 1st. Kwanzaa was invented by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966 as a special time with rituals, symbols and principles that affirm African identity and help to strengthen Black families and communities. You can find out more about Kwanzaa and how to celebrate it in the December issue of KidTalk.
But you don't have to wait until December for a special African-American celebration. Juneteenth is celebrated on June 19th, and honors the day when Black slaves in Texas finally received word that they had been freed from slavery. Visit the official Juneteenth website and learn more about this holiday.
—CLiF
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