Month: December 2019 (Page 1 of 2)

When Ingrid Encalada Latorre came to our congregation for sanctuary in 2017, she knew her case was a long shot. The more work we did with her – reaching out to attorneys, talking to legislators – the less sure we were about what the path forward could be for her.

Since Ingrid left sanctuary with us in December 2017, she and her children (Bryant, Anibal, and new baby Elizabeth) have been in sanctuary at the UU Church of Boulder. And this whole time, Ingrid has never lost the faith – she’s always held on to the expectation that a path would emerge. And this week, those expectations finally paid off.  

Just in time for Christmas, Governor Jared Polis – who has visited with Ingrid a number of times since she’s been in sanctuary – granted Ingrid a pardon for her felony charge (resulting from using another person’s Social Security Number to work – she long ago paid all the required fines). 

This is a huge step forward for Ingrid, as having a felony charge on her record makes any progress in her immigration case impossible.  

There are still a number of steps ahead for Ingrid in order to secure legal status in the US.  And the best thing we can do for her – and for the millions who seek legal citizenship in the US – is to join her in expecting that a path is possible. 

Don’t give up. Keep calling our representatives. Keep working locally with our partners that support immigration justice – Alianza NorCo, Fuerza Latina, La Cocina, ISAAC and its Emergency Immigration Fund, and the Immigrant Freedom Fund supported by Namaqua UU. Volunteer, give money, stay engaged. 

As I said on Sunday – expect the miracle – and by expecting it, make the miracle possible. 

Ingrid’s story – and the courage and resilience she continues to show – is such a good reminder at Christmas time – with this story that reminds us all of the need to welcome in the stranger, and to open our hearts to the arrival of love’s warmth and healing in the midst of the cold, silent night.  

We are planning 4 awesome services exploring this story for Christmas Eve – and we hope you’ll join us at one or more! Services at 3, 5, and 7 are interactive and 9 is our service of contemplation and carols.  It’s a beautiful night to gather together in community at Foothills – and I hope you and your family will be there for the magic once again. Because we want to make sure we have room for you, let us know by signing up, so we can – fitting for the season – make sure there’s enough room!

Wherever you are, and however you celebrate Christmas (or don’t), I hope you are finding ways to (re) connect to stories of hope, and joy – and unlocking the power of your expectations so that in the year (and decade) ahead, we can continue to work towards a greater liberation for all. 

In partnership,
Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Slow Down: Week 4 – What Were You Expecting?  

Listen to the message
Read the text of the message

Text

Vanessa Southern’s prayer, Even this is Enough

Music

We sang our series theme song Will Carry On
We sang Freedom Is Coming at 10 & 11:30 – check out some background here.  

Resources

Erik Vance’s facscinating book is called Suggestible You (he grounds it in his experience being raised as Christian Scientist)
On Being interview with Erik Vance
Mind Over Mind by Chris Berdik
Counterpoint: Don’t Think Positively

Remember

Unlock the power of your expectations. 

Get more conscious about what you are expecting, and actively work to draw on experiences from the past that affirm our capacity to change, to heal, to forgive. 

Especially do this collectively – draw on a collective courage to create a collective liberation. 

Expecting the miracle makes the miracle possible. 

What are you expecting for the days, the year, the decade ahead?

I couldn’t be at Foothills on Sunday because I was at a family wedding in Austin, Texas.  (But I did love staying connected through the livestream.)

As my cousin made her way down the aisle, I could feel time slowing down.  I remembered rubbing my hand over my aunt’s belly, when she was pregnant.  I was transported back to my awkward, 14-year-old self, unsure what “birth” even meant.  And I was overcome with love remembering holding my cousin for the first time – tiny, vulnerable, everything possible. 

Weddings are one grand way to slow time down. Like the “time warp” Sean described on Sunday. 

Rituals always work like this – when we put a semblance of formality, structure, and communal tradition into play, we activate something in our brains, our bodies, and our hearts that helps us connect to the greater arc of time in a deeper way. 

Unitarians have often resisted ritual – at least, when it’s been forced, or false. And yet, science has repeatedly shown the value of ritual to help us connect in-time. 

Rituals help us connect the past to the present…I think of the relatives I saw this weekend that I have not seen in decades.  Coming together, all the stories of the past came into clearer focus. 

And, rituals free us into bigger dreams for our future.  One by one, my family members articulated their hopes for what the couple will be up to next; and for what we, collectively, might be up to next – what we might heal, question, resist, forgive, hope…

For Jewish members of our community, this Sunday marks the beginning of an annual ritual that marks time: the start of Hanukkah.  This Sunday I’ll be telling the story of Hanukkah, as we explore together the power of expectations.  Hope to see you this Sunday at 8:30, 10, or 11:30. In person, or if not – online!

In partnership,
Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Slow Down: Week 3 – Time Warp
Listen to the message

Text
Jan Richardson’s Dailiness of Grief
“It will take your breath away,
How the grieving waits for you
In the most ordinary moments.”

Music
We sang our series theme song Will Carry On
Check out the classic Johnny Cash version of the song Christopher offered, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Resources
Physics explains why time passes faster as you age (article)
This interview with David Whyte is the perfect follow up to Sunday’s message
“One of the things the Irish say is that ‘The thing about the past is, it’s not the past.’ It’s right here, in this room, in this conversation.”

Remember
Being present isn’t simply attentiveness to what is in front of us –
as the “present” can’t be found on any clock. 
Unwrapping the present is surrendering to what is true in this moment, 
opening ourselves to acknowledge and move towards
all that exerts gravity – all that has pull on life. 
Regardless of its chronological position. 
Thus, being in time necessitates being out-of-sync
with the chronological – dwelling in pasts, loitering with futures, wandering in myth. 

How are you present to the past, and to the future, as you find yourself showing up in-time during this last week before Christmas?

I received a few notes this week that said basically, “My life can’t get any slower“ – with various reasons attached. “So, what does this series mean for me?”

I so appreciate these messages. I appreciate the trust to say – this isn’t working, and I wish it did. And the dialogue that we then get to have where can both learn, and grow. It’s our covenant in action.

The invitation of the season is to slow down. What slowing down means, however, depends on you, your life, and the life around you.

Consider: what does it mean for you to align with time – in that sense of coherence that Christopher spoke about on Sunday? To show up fully in the times we are living in, in this time of your life – to be present to time in a deeper sense and to feel – not in tension with it, but at home?

For some, slowing down in this sense might actually mean speeding up.  Stepping up, and reaching out. Learning something new, embracing imperfection, risking new relationships – doing more, not less.

We will each have a different way to move in time – and across our lives, these ways will change, as we change. It’s another gift of this season, that we can ask ourselves once again: what does it mean to be fully in time, now?

This Sunday, Rev. Sean will delve into the role of holiday traditions and the way drawing on the past expands our sense of the present, and the future.  And bonus! Our youth group will be holding a holiday cookie sale all morning! Hope to see you 8:30, 10, or 11:30. 

In partnership,
Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Slow Down: Week 2 – Move In Time

Listen to the message

Text

Here’s a little background on and the text of “Night Before Christmas”

Music

We sang our series theme song Will Carry On

Our Adult Choir offered Fum Fum Fum and O Magnum Mysterium

Foothills member James Mitchell offered Everything is Music

In 11:30 the Shady Ukeladies offered Dolly Parton’s In the Meantime  

Resources

Here’s some great background on coherence and the brain / heart connection And here’s an FAQ with a little more info

My first memory of Foothills is in late 2013, when as a visiting seminarian from St. Louis I was invited to help lead worship and workshops for a UU youth conference held at the church. I was so impressed by the vibrant community that I found. Foothills reminded me of my home congregation in Tennessee, whom I soon learned housed the sister chalice to this community’s own, gifted to us by Foothills after a tragedy.

Not long after, I moved to Fort Collins and was privileged to have Marc and Gretchen as mentors in my early stages of ministerial formation. Through seminary and my employment as Children’s Music Coordinator and Young Adult Coordinator, Foothills has been a place for me to learn, grow, and feel held in Beloved Community. It is for this reason I requested that Foothills consider co-ordaining me along with my home congregation the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church.

Last year I had the chance to serve as the Ministerial Intern at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Boulder. Under the Rev. Kelly Dignan I learned the ins and outs of congregational ministry, including preaching 12 times, leading our Racial Justice ministry team, implementing an innovative newcomer curriculum, creating a new mid-week worship series, and training a cohort of pastoral care associates.

Now as a recently fellowshipped minister, I am grateful to have a landing place at Foothills as I consider where my call to ministry might next take me. I believe in our denomination, and currently serve as vice president of the Mountain Desert District chapter of the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association and as the Ministerial Formation Network Liaison for our chapter. I am not convinced, however, that congregational ministry is my path. I am actively pursuing my ministerial calling as an “eco-chaplain” and seek new ways to bring our Unitarian Universalist message to a changing world. 

Your support is so meaningful to me as you exercise the power vested in you, the congregation, to ordain Unitarian Universalist clergy. 

In Gratitude,
Christopher

To help us all stay a little more “in time” this season, I want to offer just a few follow ups to Sunday – in these days of often overwhelming days of advent, and December, and wintertime – experiment with these ideas as ways of feeling more connected, more present, and more aligned with the invitation of this season to slow down….

1. Do a little.  You know that big thing you’ve been postponing but that you need and/or want to do? Do just a tiny bit of it.  Starting something at all engages the Zieigarnik Effect and your brain’s desire to finish it, and will enhance your natural motivation to keep at it. 
2. Don’t do everything.  It turns out that just 20% of the things we do end up having 80% of the impact.  So, brainstorm all the things you could do to move forward on some bigger project or goal then pick the 20% of things that you think will have the most impact.  Skip the rest. Engage in nonconsumptive, nonproductive delight as Ross Gay encouraged in our reading on Sunday.
3. Slow Down.  While rushing through a massive to-do list keeps our lives in the anxious place of the short-term memory, slowing down and breaking up larger goals into smaller pieces with lots of breaks in between – moves our experience of these things into our long-term memory. 

This Sunday is one of the best Sundays all year at Foothills – our holiday Music Sunday – not to be missed. Christopher Watkins Lamb will be reflecting on how music helps us feel “in time.” Can’t wait to celebrate with you this Sunday – 8:30, 10, or 11:30.

In partnership,
Rev. Gretchen

Notes from Slow Down: Week 1 – Lose Your To Do List
Listen to the message

Text
Most of Ross Gay’s essay, “Loitering” can be found in his interview with Krista Tippett
The whole text is in his book The Book of Delights
Here’s the Carrie Mae Weems photograph Ross Gay references in his essay

Music
We sang our new theme song Will Carry On
Deep Water Singers sang The Fray’s Be Still

Practices 
Kristen led us through a Grounding Meditation in the 11:30
All services kicked off our invitation to Coloring as a spiritual practice this series

Resources
For a wonderful engagement with Advent, check out Jan Richardson’s The Advent Door
Here’s just one overview of the fascinating Zeigarnik Effect – and here’s one more

Remember
This invitation of this season is to mark time with intention – in a way that connects when we are with who we are.

Unfinished business is a reality of life, and even a sign of a good life – as any work worth doing cannot be achieved in a single lifetime. 

What is the work that is worthy of spending the rest of your life leaving unfinished?