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Rev. Renee Paddock

In for Winter Out for Spring

  • I've been revisiting some of the sermons I've written in the past few years, and will be posting some of them here to invite discussion.
    This one is called In for Winter Out for Spring and was written in 2014.

     

    I know you’ll all be surprised by this, but I’ve been running on empty. Between my job, my
    family, our musical involvements and my commitments here at the fellowship, my life has been full to
    overflowing. And then came the Dump situation; and then 3 people in my department quit….
    And that’s just the personal stuff.


    I don’t know if you’ve realized it but the world has been full of crazy lately too. Greed and fear
    are running rampant - A Meme about Fox News states: “Rich people, paying rich people to tell
    middle class people to blame poor people.” “Or, in other words – pay no attention to the man
    behind the curtain”; or the “Oldest trick in the book” – “Lookest thou over there” for the answer to
    your problem, do not look at its source. And it’s not just Fox news looking to pull some wool over
    public eyes.


    Between fracking issues, tar sands and their pipelines, lgbtq rights being denied, women’s rights
    being chipped away, religious organizations making a case for themselves that their right to
    religious freedom really means the ability to impose their views on others, and gun violence against
    children increasing…articles and fb posts hammering away at me daily telling me all about HOW MUCH
    I NEED TO DO NOW - and those are just some of the issues that have meaning for me.


    Issues such as deforestation, strip mining, slavery, ownership of genomes, mass production and
    inclusion of genetically modified organisms being part of our food chain, and WHAT DO WE DO WITH 
    ALL OF THIS PLASTIC GARBAGE we create, have not gone away.

    Some of my FB friends have been posting messages of intolerance to their follwers “Please
    stop posting pictures of abused animals – I can’t take it anymore” and I understand the
    sentiment! The bombardment of issues has left me feeling incapable, frustrated and ANGRY!

    Serendipitously - I have been teaching our 2nd-4th graders recently about anger.
    The lesson plans says to demonstrate to our children that anger, and holding on to anger takes
    a lot of energy ( no kidding). I was instructed to teach them about using tactile means to release
    energy, and meditative means – yoga – music etc.
    But we sometimes forget to use these means ourselves. I told the kids that their lesson was as
    much for me as it was for them, and I have made much use of my anger beads in the past few
    weeks.

    So – how is all of this relevant?

    Last autumn – I presented a service that talked about using the seasons to help us to navigate
    through life with a spiritual focus. That in autumn we could focus on/meditate about what we
    were harvesting; those things that we had previously planted and tended to in spring and
    summer, and that we should be getting ready to head “into a time of renewal and
    regeneration” a time when we could use the external darkness as an internal focus…a time
    to allow ourselves to “find our source” and consider what we wanted to plant for future
    harvests.


    Now – I’m not going to tell you that I have found a miracle solution to my issues, or any answers
    to yours, but – I can say that the extra burden of a 50 + hour work week to learn a new job, the
    defeat of the Dump activism around the fall election, the constant flow of information on
    how presumably smart people are standing on the side of big money rather than clean water,
    clean air, and safe food for all people, the siding for lessening the rights of women, the siding for
    denying the human rights of our LGBTQ brothers, sisters, sons, & daughters…
    That I have spent some time thinking about despair, and flirting with being IN despair - about
    whether or not what I could do as 1 person, even 1 family, 1 small community group, or 1 small
    fellowship, really even matters.
    And, I spent some time doing NOTHING about any of it.

    I was too tired, too cold, too frozen by being overwhelmed; too depleted.

    But now the season is turning…….

    We are, by and large, creatures who worship the light. And with the light’s return, the desire to
    be active, be activist, and be a part of the change has returned as well.

    In her book “Women’s Studies and Me”, Annis Pratt writes:
    “What you say is common clay,” my mother used to tell me, “what you do is you!” By the
    time I was 10 I had heard about Gandhi and thought that “nonviolence” must be a really
    powerful method for social change if he could take on the whole British Empire. At
    College I saw that Martin Luther King Jr’s concept of social justice was grounded in
    specific actions, and by graduation I had decided to accept as my personal credo
    Aristotle’s belief that a life should be based on actions rather than ideas.

    Sounds very Unitarian to me – and certainly, I believe, that is one of the reasons I found my way
    here. Unitarians have a history of making a ruckus. Speaking out against what is wrong in the
    world and speaking for the seeking of truth and justice.

    Is there a seemingly insurmountable list of problems, wrong action, wrong doings, greed-driven
    companies, power-hungry politicians? YES. And there is a list, just as long of people and
    organizations who are trying to do what they can to “Make it right”. But, no one can go it alone,
    no one can do everything, and everyone has a limit. The work that needs to be done in the
    world is important work – and will only be accomplished through the work of many hands &
    many voices.

    I have a list of activist friends and acquaintances – people who are making fighting back their
    life’s work.
    Two local friends – have joined the Dump fighters – and
    pretty much every other fight that they have been able – both local and national.
    Kenny personally went and took videos of sensitive areas of the water gap before the
    pipeline construction began; and has since taken video of the clearcutting and construction
    underway in flood-prone, sensitive wetlands areas.
    He also uses his time off of work to go and be part of rally’s; and helps keep people new to
    activism focused and directed in their efforts.

    A college student friend in Western Mass has devoted herself to climate issues and
    has worked for 350.org. A couple weeks ago she and thousands of college students zip tied
    themselves to the whitehouse fence to object to Keystone XL pipline and tar sands extraction.
    She and many others of these young people who are fighting for their – and our – futures were
    arrested for their efforts.

    What have you and I done lately?

    I try to remember to thank these fighters who I know frequently, because they need to hear it.
    They need to know that they represent real people – who are paying attention and admire them
    for what they are doing.
    I try to do my part with letters, petitions and other activism as I can, and when I have the time
    and energy, I try to up-the-ante.

    We have all heard many hands make light work – in the case of the issues that have meaning
    for us – many hands are what it is going to take to do the hard work…to “git er done” – and that
    will sometimes mean going out of your comfort zone. Doing a little more than you thought you
    could…

    I sent some videos along with the Sunday service announcement this week. Some ideas to get
    you started. Because I am going to challenge each and every one of you to do something this
    spring. To pick a cause something you’ve worked on before or something new – and “up the
    ante” a little – do a little more than you were planning on – or a little more than you had
    considered before – to try to push the cause farther. Send a personal message to your mailing
    list asking friends/acquaintances to join you in a letter-writing campaign. Submit a plan to help
    organize a Sunday service to educate us on a favorite topic – or better yet – host a Tuesday
    evening discussion group on it. Attend a rally. Physical presence of bodies is really really
    important. Do SOMETHING. You will give hope to others who have been working tirelessly,
    and you never know – you may tip the balance….


    But – always remember to take time out when you need it. Set your own limits. Pick what
    speaks to you loudest – ok and maybe what speaks to you second and third….but don’t try to
    do EVERYTHING – it’s too overwhelming and you might just succumb to the despair that I was
    mentioning earlier – and that is counterproductive. Find your own inner cycle or do what I have
    tried to do and follow the sacred circle of the year going In for Winter/Out for Spring.

1 comment
  • Auntie Moira likes this
  • Auntie Moira
    Auntie Moira Take care, Rev. Renee. Remember, "reduce your own suffering and you reduce the suffering in the world ". Sometimes this is the beat thing one can do. ~ love and light
    January 15, 2017