Everyday UU

What does it mean to walk our faith in our daily lives? This is a question that I often ponder as I struggle with a perpetual sense of not living authentically enough. Mindfully enough. It is so easy to put my energy into thinking about my UU faith and not enough doing it. And then there is of course the question of what does doing it really mean? For a UU. Answering that for myself is only part of the picture. I have yearned for more opportunity to explore that with other UUs. While individual contemplation and analysis is necessary, our shared exploration of our religious identity and values is equally important. Human beings reach their full potential as part of a collective. We need the synergy and the mirror that being with others provides. My vision of an ideal spiritual life balances both solitary retreat and active participation in society.

Our busy modern over-stimulated lives themselves are a distraction. It is just so easy to rush through your day without focusing on how you are living it. You might think that working for a church, my own church, would lead naturally to a more spiritually focused life. I thought so when I took the job. However, even in the running of a religious organization, you can be so busy with the tasks at hand that you forget to live the life you believe in. It is a struggle inherent in our culture and times. Slowing down and paying attention is like swimming upstream. It requires constant reminders and intentional weaving of mindfulness into your life. I wonder how we can learn to do this better as UU congregations, since the whole is mightier than the one. As for me, a small manifestation of my exploration has appeared on my blog’s sidebar as a collection of links titled Everyday UU: Living My Faith. I have thought about creating a separate blog with that title a number of times and then said to myself, “How many blogs do you plan to start in one year!!” However, if I find someone else who would like to do it with me, I just might