The Soul Matters theme for this month is Holding History.
What does history mean to you in the month of November? For me, it is the American colonial story of Thanksgiving. And the awakening call to a more inclusive story of contemporary democracy – beyond the colonists and dehumanizing of indigenous peoples and those abducted and brought here into slavery.
As the daughter of an immigrant who fled an expanding Soviet Union, I was raised with democracy as religion. It has been a journey to acknowledge and lament the brutal reality obscured by the sanitized fiction, without forsaking the vision of a democracy we have yet to create together.
I treasure a national day of Thanks-giving that acknowledges the “full catastrophe.”
I treasure Thanks-giving as a holiday ritual for families and close friends, to reflect on the turning year, on that which passes away and that which endures. And for congregations and wider communities to celebrate the common good we create together.
Re-visioning our stories is part of our shared spiritual practice as UU’s, our commitment to Truth, emerging through all voices.
It is hard work to bring ourselves to the messy work of community – in our congregations, our families, our neighborhood associations, our democracy. May we be a blessing to each other, living into our values, showing up at the table, bringing our whole selves, lamenting the losses, learning the lessons, receiving the blessings of a shared, inclusive and ever-evolving history.
Rev. Mary
