UU Grass Valley On the Go!

Kurt Gray claims, in his book Outraged, that across the socio-political spectrum we share the same moral foundation – an ancient psychological need to protect the vulnerable from harm. It’s just that we have differing perceptions as to who is being harmed! Let’s examine our own moral outrage and surface our compassion at the same time, even as we learn to set fiercely compassionate boundaries to prevent the harm that we perceive.

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Randy McKean, Worship Associate

This Sunday, beginning our month-long invitation to “pay attention,” we celebrate the nature and power of community and the rising, nay surging and converging waves of energy and possibility being generated these days. 

Kristin Neff advocates Fierce Compassion: balancing tender self-kindness (yin) with assertive strength (yang). We’ll draw on Neff’s insights to help us cultivate our resilience for the sake of our personal lives and the sake of the world we seek. Plus, the UUCM choir, under the direction of Ingrid Holman.

Rev. Kevin Tarsa, with the UUCM Choir, Marlene Bottenfield, Worship Associate

The whole idea of “resistance” pushes people’s buttons. Sometimes our response comes from a discomfort with or rejection of the idea of resistance, and sometimes the button that’s pushed is a “Hell yes, let’s go!” button. Together, we’ll dive into the complexities of “resistance,” framing resistance not as rebellion for its own sake, but as an expression of faithfulness to our shared values. 

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Carol Nimick, Worship Associate

For the past several years Rev. Kevin has invited people to choose a word for the year. Some of us travel with the word all year, engaging it in active conversation with our lives. Others of us forget our word within a few weeks. This year, in the swirl of “resolutions” energy, we’ll be invited to enter the next 12 months with a question for the year, a question that meets your life where it is and asks for an ongoing conversation. 

Rev. Kevin Tarsa

As our Soul Matters authors write, “Hope doesn’t just whisper ‘It will be different,’ it also shouts, ‘It should be different’ and ‘It can be different.’ . . . In other words, hope doesn’t just promise us that change will come in the future; it also changes who we are in the present.” Come celebrate the possibility of choosing hope, and honor the Holy Impatience and hope in you. 

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Cheryl Morris, Worship Associate

Transitioning from the gifts of November’s focus on cultivating gratitude, to December’s theme of choosing hope, we draw on the tradition of Advent (meaning “arrival”), a season of anticipation, reflection, and preparation in various Christian traditions, to check in with our own personal and collective anticipations. What arrivals are you awaiting? 

One year out from the 2024 presidential election, many of us feel the weight and the worry of the unmaking of so much of what evidenced or supported, if often imperfectly, our values in the life of the nation. We like to say and believe that disintegration, though painful, can open up rare space for something powerfully new. Are we there yet? 

Rev. Kevin Tarsa

Thich Nhat Hanh stated: “To look deeply into the suffering of those who have caused us to suffer is a miraculous gift.” Gift?  

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate

Both empathy and compassion begin as inside jobs, empathy being our feeling of what someone else is feeling, and compassion being the action we take in response to those feelings. This Sunday, we cultivate our self-compassion, powerful medicine for good within and without, and we notice some of what gets in the way. 

Rev. Kevin Tarsa with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate