Friday, December 23, 2005

Something for you to read

Thank you all for visiting my blog. It's been a fun year.

While I'm caught in the tannenbaum tornado these next few days, I'll leave you with this.
(The entire document is much longer and has other elements I didn't even touch on in this excerpt. Please read it all. And thanks to Poly for passing it to me in the first place.)

Excerpted from: http://www.uucb.org/sermons/2005081401 August 14, 2005 Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley © Rev. Barbara Hamilton-Holway


I would like to have it a little more together.

I’d like to meet my challenges, find my way, keep the faith.

I’d like to be more certain of what I’m on earth for and not be so ready to bag it all when push comes to shove.

So I’ve been thinking, what on earth am I here for?

What are we here for?

Imagine seeing yourself and your purpose as assisting, supporting, and encouraging creation.
And witnessing to it

Your purpose is to notice the color purple in a field somewhere.

Life is here to support life. We are to encourage others to be their fullest selves.

Right now someone needs you - your listening ear, your supportive hand.

What a purpose you and I have — to reach out to shape a loving and just world, to nurture one another’s best self, to nurture the best selves of every one, family, friends, and strangers.

We have received so much. From all that we have, we give back, we turn our gifts and passions into work in the world. Not only our gifts and passions, even our sorrows, challenges, weaknesses, and losses can abet creation.

Perhaps even in our suffering and challenges, we can begin to ask, “What can I do with this?” What you do with your gifts and your hardships reflects your priorities, hopes, and dreams; what you do with your life tells who you are.

There is something that is uniquely yours to do. It is truly possible for us to make it through hard times, help others through theirs, and give to make the kind of world we long for.

We are here on earth not to busy ourselves, not, as the Chinese pictograph for “busy” admonishes, to kill the heart. Our purpose is to heal the heart. We are here right now to live with heart in the heart of life.


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3 comments:

onescrappychick said...

Merry Christmas to you also. Loved the family photo. Best wishes to you all.

Sarah said...

Merry Christmas, Carly! I hope it's wonderful!

Johnny Virgil said...

Merry Christmas, even though you delete my comments. :)


bzuca!

Things will get better... right?

I distinctly remember a day in... maybe February?  I remember the moment, but not what day it was. I was sitting at work thinking about plan...