ewsletter
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ewsletter
Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Lafayette
November 29, 2023
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Our theme for December is Wintering
Maria Popova wrote in an article about self-renewal,
Rainer Maria Rilke reverenced winter as “the season for tending to the inner garden of the soul.” He wrote, “Suddenly to be healed again and aware that the very ground of my being — my mind and spirit — was given time and space in which to go on growing.”
Popova also quotes Albert Camus,
In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus wrote about winter in his stunning essays about travel, which are really meditations on homecoming to our strength. “We are not invincible. But in how we garden the winters of the soul, we find the summer of our strength and the bloom of our fragile aliveness.”
Katherine May, in her meditative book, Wintering, offers ways of appreciating that winter is “a season of the natural world, a respite our bodies require, and a state of mind.” The Solstice is a reminder that our lives are indeed not linear but cyclical. Recognizing our needs for replenishment, rest and retreat can occur in any season of our lives.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Please join us on Saturday, December 2nd from 10 am -12 pm, as we winterize the fellowship building and clean up our flower beds. Also, we hope you’ll join us for lunch, as we plan to eat together afterwards, either eating at our fellowship building or going out.
ALERT! Rain is in the forecast. If it is raining on Saturday, we will postpone until Saturday, December 9.
The Inn Ministry: UUFoL continues its support of the generous effort to feed the hungry and homeless. Pick-up days are December 3 & 17. The Inn Ministry is especially asking for donations of fresh produce, especially fruit, such as apples and oranges, but vegetables, also. They continue to need powdered milk, peanut butter, and protein. Cash donations are always needed for bus passes. And, now, with cold weather, any sweaters, jackets, coats, socks, gloves, sleeping bags (for the homeless) are greatly appreciated.
Several families at the Inn may lose their housing and be out on the street. They could use “foods for the road”: foods like dry cereal in a container to which milk can be added; fruit in a cup with a pull off lid; granola & protein bars. Their friends at the Inn may let them come in to use their microwaves, so packs of oatmeal and grits, canned chili, ravoli are good items.