Theme for January
The intention of the themed year is to help Unitarian Universalists build a robust spiritual and ethical vocabulary. The themes are points of departure for religious liberals seeking to think, speak and act theologically, prophetically and prayerfully. The themes reclaim religious language, casting old terms in a new key to deepen spiritual grounding and sharpen moral reasoning. More at: wbuuc.org/themes or sign up for a circle at wbuuc.org/classes.
Download 2020 Jan Resilience – Trusting.pdf Packet
QUESTIONS
- Is resilience a learned skill or an ingrained trait?
- Has there been a time in your life when you thought your resilience had failed? When you thought you could not go on? How did you find a way to go forward?
- Can trust in other people be recovered, once lost? How?
QUOTES
“The human capacity for burden is like bamboo- far more flexible than you’d ever believe at first glance.” ― Jodi Picoult
“Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” ― Nelson Mandela
“Resilience is very different than being numb. Resilience means you experience, you feel, you fail, you hurt. You fall. But, you keep going.” ― Yasmin Mogahed
“Barn’s burnt down…now I can see the moon.” ― Masahide, Japanese poet, 1657-1723)
“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.” ― Maya Angelou
“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” ― Confucius
“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ― Helen Keller
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.” – Ernest Hemingway
POETRY & LYRICS
mud mothers BY LENELLE MOÏSE
the children of haiti
are not mythological
we are starving
or eating salty cakes
made of clay
because in 1804 we felled
our former slave captors
the graceless losers sunk
vindictive yellow
teeth into our forests
what was green is now
dust and everyone knows
trees unleash oxygen
(another humble word
for life)
they took off
with our torn branches
beheaded our future
stuck our breath up on pikes
for all the world to see
we are a living dead example
of what happens to warriors who
in lieu of fighting for white men’s countries
dare to fight
for their own lives
during carnival
we could care less
about our bloated empty bellies
where there are voices
we are dancing
where there is vodou
we are horses
where there are drums
we are possessed
with joy and stubborn jamboree
but when the makeshift
trumpet player
runs out of rhythmic breath
the only sound left is
guts grumbling
and we sigh
to remember
that food
and freedom
are not free
is haiti really free
if our babies die starving?
if we cannot write our names
read our rights keep
our leaders in their seats?
can we be free? really?
if our mothers are mud? if dead
columbus keeps cursing us
and nothing changes
when we curse back
we are a proud resilient people
though we return to dust daily
salt gray clay with hot black tears
savor snot cakes
over suicide
we are hungry
creative people
sip bits of laughter
when we are thirsty
dance despite
this asthma
called debt
congesting
legendarily liberated
lungs
READINGS & EXCERPTS
Resilience and Failure from Psychology Today https://bit.ly/34LCAUs
What Is Resilience?
Adversity is a fact of life. Resilience is that ineffable quality that allows some people to be knocked down by life and come back at least as strong as before. Rather than letting difficulties or failure overcome them and drain their resolve, they find a way to rise from the ashes.
Psychologists have identified some of the factors that make a person resilient, such as a positive attitude, optimism, the ability to regulate emotions, and the ability to see failure as a form of helpful feedback. Research shows that optimism helps blunt the impact of stress on the mind and body in the wake of disturbing experiences. And that gives people access to their own cognitive resources, enabling cool-headed analysis of what might have gone wrong and consideration of behavioral paths that might be more productive.
Resilience is not some magical quality; it takes real mental work to transcend hardship. But even after misfortune, resilient people are able to change course and move toward achieving their goals. There’s growing evidence that the elements of resilience can be cultivated.
When Things Fall Apart – Heart Advice for Difficult Times, Pema Chodron
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”
“When inspiration has become hidden, when we feel ready to give up, this is the time when healing can be found in the tenderness of pain itself… In the midst of loneliness, in the midst of fear, in the middle of feeling misunderstood and rejected is the heartbeat of all things.”
Grace By Joy Harjo for Darlene Wind and James Welch
I think of Wind and her wild ways the year we had nothing to lose and lost it anyway in the cursed country of the fox. We still talk about that winter, how the cold froze imaginary buffalo on the stuffed horizon of snowbanks. The haunting voices of the starved and mutilated broke fences, crashed our thermostat dreams, and we couldn’t stand it one more time. So once again we lost a winter in stubborn memory, walked through cheap apartment walls, skated through fields of ghosts into a town that never wanted us, in the epic search for grace.
Like Coyote, like Rabbit, we could not contain our terror and clowned our way through a season of false midnights. We had to swallow that town with laughter, so it would go down easy as honey. And one morning as the sun struggled to break ice, and our dreams had found us with coffee and pancakes in a truck stop along Highway 80, we found grace.
I could say grace was a woman with time on her hands, or a white buffalo escaped from memory. But in that dingy light it was a promise of balance. We once again understood the talk of animals, and spring was lean and hungry with the hope of children and corn.
I would like to say, with grace, we picked ourselves up and walked into the spring thaw. We didn’t; the next season was worse. You went home to Leech Lake to work with the tribe and I went south. And, Wind, I am still crazy. I know there is something larger than the memory of a dispossessed people. We have seen it.
MUSIC
Resilient by Rising Appalachia: https://bit.ly/2Qi3zBK
I am resilient
I trust the movement
I negate the chaos
Uplift the negative
I’ll show up at the table
Again and again and again
I’ll close my mouth and learn to listen
These times are poignant
The winds have shifted
It’s all we can do
To stay uplifted
Pipelines through backyards
Wolves howling out front
Yeah I got my crew but truth is what I want
Realigned and on point
Power to the peaceful, prayers to the waters
Women at the center
All vessels open to give and receive
Let’s see this system brought down to its knees
I’m made of thunder, I’m made of lightning
I’m made of dirt, yeah
Made of the fine things
My father taught me
That I’m a speck of dust and this world
Was made for me so let’s go and try our luck
I’ve got my roots down down down down down down deep
So what are we doing here
What has been done
What are you gonna do about it
When the world comes undone
My voice feels tiny
And I’m sure so does yours
Put us all together we’ll make a mighty roar
Hold On by Alabama Shakes https://youtu.be/Le-3MIBxQTw
Bless my heart
Bless my soul
Didn’t think I’d make it to twenty-two years old
There must be someone up above saying
Come on Brittany
You got to come on up
You got to hold on
Yeah you got to hold on
So, bless my heart and bless yours too
I don’t know where I’m gonna go
Don’t what what I’m gonna do
Must be somebody up above saying come on Brittany
You got to come on up!
You got to hold on
Yeah you got to hold on
Yeah, you got to wait
But I don’t wanna wait
I don’t wanna wait
So, bless my heart
Bless my mind
I got so much to do
I ain’t got much time
So, must be someone up above
Saying come on girl
You got to get back up
You got to hold on
Yeah, you got to wait
But I don’t wanna wait
I don’t wanna wait
You got to hold on