Today CAM explores The 3rd Testimony in honoring the earth. Come to celebrate and learn about the wonders around us and initiatives to protect our planet.

Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and editor-at-large of the award-winning YES Magazine, which nationally recognized for leading-edge solutions to major ecological and human challenges of our times.  In August of 2015, Sarah embarked on a road trip to Native reservations, Rust Belt cities, small Appalachian towns, and ranching communities.  Her book, The Revolution Where You Live, is the story of that trip.  She also writes for other magazines, websites, and newspapers and speaks as a guest on radio and TV.

Sarah lives on the reservation of the Suquamish Tribe, where, along with a tribal elder, she founded an organization to combat anti-Indian hostility.  As co-chair of that group, she collaborated with the tribe to win the return to the Suquamish of the land where Chief Seattle once lived.  She currently serves on the board of the tribally chartered Suquamish Foundation and participates in the tribe’s canoe family on the annual canoe journey.

The Rev. Jane Dwinell and Sky Yardley will speak about their personal experience Living With Dementia. Sky was diagnosed with probable early stage Alzheimer’s disease in the summer of 2016. Since September 2017, they have been speaking at UU churches around the country with hopes to erase the stigma and misunderstandings around dementia. They also have a blog: alzheimerscanyon.blogspot.com. Jane is a retired UU minister and author, and Sky is a retired family mediator. They currently live in Burlington, VT with their son, Sayer, and his partner, Emma. The family enjoys gardening, doing things in and on Lake Champlain, playing interesting board games, and taking in a round of disc golf whenever possible.

Today CAM explores The 3rd Testimony in honoring the earth. Come to celebrate and learn about the wonders around us and initiatives to protect our planet.

Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and editor-at-large of the award-winning YES Magazine, which nationally recognized for leading-edge solutions to major ecological and human challenges of our times.  In August of 2015, Sarah embarked on a road trip to Native reservations, Rust Belt cities, small Appalachian towns, and ranching communities.  Her book, The Revolution Where You Live, is the story of that trip.  She also writes for other magazines, websites, and newspapers and speaks as a guest on radio and TV.

Sarah lives on the reservation of the Suquamish Tribe, where, along with a tribal elder, she founded an organization to combat anti-Indian hostility.  As co-chair of that group, she collaborated with the tribe to win the return to the Suquamish of the land where Chief Seattle once lived.  She currently serves on the board of the tribally chartered Suquamish Foundation and participates in the tribe’s canoe family on the annual canoe journey.

April is National Poetry Month and we want to hear from East Shore’s poets. This Sunday we celebrate our creative writers.

Hope.

Has it burned out on its stage,

Or is there one last breath

Can we stop competing for

Where are you Universalist?

Where are you Unitarian?

Will hope rise again in this age of narcissism?

Our heritage has a burning ember –

We must decide to be good,

The biggest challenge is to face our own mortality,

Beware the one ring that united them all

Wealth, power, privilege, and our

Of Hope?

That woman over there is planting

Presently she’ll stand and

Things grow. Given water

Understanding racism is like peeling an onion

moon shines

…. where wise men fear to tread.” The Fool- too often dismissed as impractical, silly, irresponsible and illogical is really quite the courageous character. We risk looking “foolish” when we take a chance, play or try something new. To really fulfill our destiny- sometimes we have to take risks. Easter and April fools Day come together as we reflect on how to get the most out of our human capacity and rise to life. Today is the day.

So often our world view is based on fear and scarcity. How would our lives differ if our lives and choices were based on our faith and trust in abundance? Today, we will reflect on shaking out any fear of scarcity from our hearts and minds, making room out for a belief in enough, a theology of abundance, and an opening to new life.

Notice how time seems to warp and weft? Too slow… too fast… and then gone. Today we look at birth to mortality and the dash in the middle.

We all have one- a moment when someone told us we can’t sing, or can’t dance- maybe your moment was when you realized you are different. How do the messages, our moments, impact us as we grow up believing them, trying to hide them or denying them? Today is about reclaiming your personal freedom.

Join us for a special Sunday morning worship service. High school youth have organized a well-rounded service, inspired by a button Reverend Elaine wears which quotes Dorothy Parker. The Children and Youth Choir will be debuting as well! During coffee hour, the youth will be available for socializing and this is a great opportunity to make connections across the ages. We really look forward to sharing our words, sense of humor, and spirits with you all.

SERMON

What is normal?  Should we all try to be normal? Is it possible for all of us to be normal?

In a world spinning with madness striving for normal seems to be a safe way to get through it, but what does that mean?

If I were to tell you how to be normal and you choose to follow my instructions then you will need to go home and dye your hair your favorite color, or your least favorite color, or whatever color happens to be cheapest when you go to the store. Then when we get back together next week here at church we will all be wearing jeans with holes in them, a shirt with some witty saying on it and singing Broadway show tunes, and everything would be great because we’d all finally be “normal”

What if we chose to be normal like my dad, we could wear jeans, a polo shirt and a zip up hoodie to every event we go to. Every single one. No matter how fancy or sophisticated it may be.

And if we were normal like my mom, each of you would carry yarn in your bags and you’d talk to every little kid you met, because that would be normal.

We could even be normal like my brother… Or maybe not him…

Look at your neighbor right now, they are here dressed as they normally would, which one of them is actually normal.

The point is, everyone – even in my own family – has their very own definition of “normal.”

Have you ever walked into a preschool room and saw a dinosaur driving a dump truck. We don’t rush in and tell that child to stop that, that isn’t normal, we embrace their creativity and their imagination. When do we stop doing that and why do we stop doing it? When do we start telling children and young people that now it is time to be normal?

We can all aspire to be like someone, me I want to be Neil de Grasse Tyson, does that mean the normal should be Neil de Grasse Tyson, no, although we would have less trouble getting environmental legislation passed if it were, it means that we each need to find our own normal. We can look to others to find our own normal but we can’t look at others and impose our own normal on them.  I really don’t want to see my dad with pink hair and ripped jeans.

Even in our everyday life, normalcy is affecting our perception of the world and the people around us. Thirty years ago, where my mom was growing up, it was completely normal to drive to school with a gun in the backseat of your car. Nobody would question you. Today, you see school shootings happen practically once a week, because our normal has changed, and guns pose a threat in a way they never have before.

Our divides right now between race and gender, white supremacy, and black lives matter, they all start with wanting our normal to be everyone’s normal.  Rather than trying to find the right words to line us all up, maybe the words to embrace all our normals is the way we need to go

On March 14, students across the nation will stand up and walk out of their classes. We are going to walk out to say we have had enough of the normal way the government is doing things and we want a new normal. A normal that finds better ways to protect us against gun violence.

Adults are saying it isn’t normal for young people to have to protest for their own safety. Yes it is. Young people have been banding together for a long time simply to say “your normal is no longer acceptable”. Adults like the phrase “in my day” and one day we will say it as well. It simply means that at one time normal was diffe