 Just watch me when I'm dead. Just watch me when I'm dead. So folks will come up, the microphone's right there next to the plant. Folks will come up, they'll grab that and then instead of lighting a candle, they'll just pick up a stone and put it in the fire. That's it. That's instead of your candle. That's easy. And smoke doesn't have a fire and no dripping wax, so let's try that first. I don't know. They won't. They're here. I get a little bit. That's all that's going to happen. Okay. Check check. Good morning Mr. 2. Good morning. I know you've been. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. We have the camera here. We have the camera here. Yeah, I can't see it. You can go over here. Okay. I see it. Yeah. I would like to invite you into a few moments of centering silence. Now please remain seated and join in singing our in-gathering hymn which is found in your order of service. Good morning. Welcome to the first Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Dorrit Bergen and on behalf of the congregation I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation so whoever you are and wherever you are on your life's journey we celebrate your presence among us. Visitors are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and look for people carrying teal, stoneware, mugs. These are FUS members knowledgeable about our programs and community life and they look forward to the chance to speak with you this morning. You can also stop by our information table outside of the library where you can find more information about our upcoming events and programs. In this lively acoustical environment it can become difficult for those in attendance to hear what is happening in our service. So we remind you that our Child Haven and Commons area are excellent places to go when anyone needs to talk or move around. The service can still be seen and heard from those areas. We do also have hearing assistance devices available. Please see one of our ushers if that would be helpful for you. And this would be a good time to turn off all electronic devices that might interrupt the service. Experience guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service. If you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition or our National Landmark Meeting House please meet near the large glass window on the left side of the auditorium. I'd now like to acknowledge those individuals who help our services run smoothly. On sound this morning is Mary Manoring, your greeters were Anne Smiley and Claire Box, and your ushers were Marty Hollis and Brian Chanis. Please note the announcements on the red floors insert in your order of service which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities. And I do have one special announcement. The music director search committee is beginning the process of finding our new music director and they want to know your thoughts regarding the music program and its role here at FUS. There is a table set up for you to visit after each service today. Please feel free to stop by discuss your thoughts or fill out a note sharing your ideas and wishes. Again welcome. We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit. We come together as rivers seek the sea, bringing with us the waters of the earth. We begin as tiny springs in far off places, gathering strength as we plunge down rough ravines and flow through peaceful valleys. Always there are other living streams that join us flow through us sharing their strength. Then ultimately all of us flow into the great ocean of being. We are like the waters of the earth. We seek the peacefulness of a still glimmering lake. We search for the strength of the raging river. We long for the freshness of a mountain spring. And so from the springs and streams, lakes and oceans, we mingle these waters in a cup of beauty. We pour out the moments of our lives into a container that gives them shape and substance, knowing we are part of that great ocean of being. We treasure the fragile droplets that belong with us. Here and now we give thanks for the cup of beauty that is ours to create, ours to behold, ours to enjoy. And if you will rise in body or spirit to join together in the words of Chalice Lighting and so we gather from the ebb and flow of our lives thirsty for connection to ourselves, thirsty for connection to others, thirsty for connection to the larger life. As we light this Chalice, may all who gather here be filled, filled with joy and hope, filled with compassion and love. Here may we be filled so that we may pour ourselves out into the world. And before we join our voices and song, if you'll take a moment to turn and greet your neighbor, please be seated. Welcome to our annual Water Communion Service. This morning we join together and gather the waters of the world as we rejoin in community, renewing our spirits and our commitment to the waters of this glorious planet. For almost 40 years now, UU congregations have been holding these services that honor and celebrate and give thanks for the water. Perhaps it is because water has been an important symbol throughout human history. This is so because it points to a fundamental truth. Without water, there is no life. Lauren Isley once said that if there is magic to be found on this planet, it is contained in the waters. For millennia, the religions of the world have used water to points to the power of the divine and the mystery of life. Hindu priests pray that the waters will bring us well-being and new life. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, regarded rain as the most obvious and direct symbol of God's mercy. Many ancient cultures from India to Peru associated their goddesses with rivers, lakes and other bodies of water. We do well to remember that our destiny is woven with the destiny of the waters. All life comes from water. Life started in the ocean where it began to take its many and amazing forms. Babies are cradled in water before they are born. Everything that lives needs water, from the smallest plants to the largest whole. From the beginning of history, humans have built their homes and their lives around water. And so it becomes a fitting symbol of all that sustains, nurtures and supports life. Today we bring our waters which have touched the West, North, South, the East, which come from the sky, the surface of the earth, and from deep wells and springs within. We bring water that belong to lakes, streams, reservoirs of fresh water that quench our thirst. We bring water that is a part of the great oceans and the seas that circle the globe, teeming with life the source of all life. We bring water to this place of meeting and sharing. In this water, there's new water formed in the atmosphere daily. There's old water, water as old as the earth, water from which life has evolved over the ages. This is the stream of life from which all life flows. All people are connected by this stream for it runs through our veins and courses through the stems and leaves of plants. It is the symbol of the cleansing power of forgiveness and the faithful promise of healing love. It is the symbol and the reality of the oneness that unites humankind and all life. Today we bring water to honor the earth that gives us life, to honor the community of all life, plants, animals and people. Today we offer thanks for the gift of water and also for the web of life we all share near or far. May our separate waters join into one sacred stream as we add our lives into the stream of living souls who live from a place of love, work for a world of justice and hunger for a time of peace. In a moment we will invite you to come forward with your water. Whether water you brought this morning or water from one of our pitchers, which will symbolize the water important to you, come forward and pour it into one of these large green containers. We're going to ask you to come forward in five stages representing the four directions and the center. We're going to start with east, south, west, north and finally our center, the waters of Wisconsin. And as you come forward TK and I will be reading your cards, those index cards you wrote on, letting everyone know where these waters originated. So we are going to begin with water from the east. We have the archipelago of Stockholm, Sweden, the Gherranger Fjord in Norway. There you go, pour some right in there. The river Seine in Paris, Reykjavik in Iceland, a spring in Tennessee, the cold Atlantic at Bahaba. Not even close. Everybody together Bahaba. New Meadows River, West Bath, Maine, the Amuse Camp, the Amuse Camp in Sawyer, Michigan. And now the waters from the south. The Caribbean in Puerto Rico, South Africa, Panama, the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Table Rock Lake in southern Missouri. From my home, rain from one overnight collected, I live south of here in Oregon. And now the west, waters of the west. Glacier Bay, Alaska. Estes Park, Colorado. San Francisco Bay, waters of the north. Lake Superior, two harbors, Minnesota, and Kiwinaw Peninsula in the upper peninsula of Michigan. We have the International Crane Foundation. Who do lake in Brule National Forest? The Boundary Waters in Minnesota, a Fjord in Norway, and my backyard in Middleton. And now the waters of the center. We've said some, but more waters of Wisconsin. Everett Lake, near Iron River, Wisconsin. Tenney Park Lagoon. Wisconsin River in Muscaday. The Yehara River in Stouton. A Rain Gauge in Madison. Houdu Lake, Brule National Forest in Brule. And Seven Island Lake in Harrison Hills, Wisconsin. From our play space. And from Madison. Nice. Thank you all. Bless this water. We are many. Bless this water. We are one. Spirit of life and love ever flowing throughout our community and our world. Shape us. Move us. Guide us to find the courage and the wisdom to create a better way. Bless our hearts with love's welcoming embrace. Bless our minds with openness and curiosity. May compassion flow through us like water and find a love within resounding strong. May our gathering together this morning be a blessing for one and all. May it inspire us to a year of hope and love and courageous faith. And may we walk this year in the full awareness as often as possible of the blessed ties that bind each to all. Bless this water. We are many. Bless this water. We are one. And now we're going to have our first story. And so if anyone would like to come up closer and sit up here with me, now's that time. Hello. How are you Finn? Good? Good summer? Did you guys have a good summer? Have any of you ever been afraid of water? Water with sharks in it? I think a lot of us are afraid of water with sharks in it. I'm with you on that one. Alligators? Mm-hmm. Piranha? Yeah, me? Never mind. I'm not going to tell the story. Never. We should be a fr... Oh, no, wait. Electric eels? All right. There it is. That's our story. Do you see that boy up there? The story's called Water Boy. And it's about that boy up there who overcomes a fear of water, and we're going to see him go on a fantastic journey. No, there's no tidal waves. I prom... Well, there is a wave, but wait, do you see what happens? You are water, the boy's teacher told him. Mostly. This information fascinated the boy, though at the same time, he found it a bit unsettling. He wondered, what would happen to him? So he thought, what would happen if he was mostly made of water? Would he dissolve in the rain? Would he turn to ice in the winter? If his cat scratched him, would all the water leak out and leave him lying flat on the sidewalk like a punctured balloon? Would any of that happen? No. But once he could swear that his bathwater was trying to wrap itself around his toes and tug him someplace far away, so he refused to take a bath at all. And when his mother asked why, he said what the teacher had told him. Well, his mother explained, water is part of all of us. It's a good thing. We can't live without it. Now, after that, the boy was less afraid, and he went back to taking baths, but he clung to the sides of the bathtub the whole time. Now, that's silly. As the days went by, water started to become more and more like a friend. When it rained, he put on his boots and he went outside to play in the puddles. If it didn't rain, he would fill up his boots with water and slosh around the house. Do you see his boots up there? What do you think? What would happen if you did that to your boots and you came inside? What would happen? She's sitting right next to you. His mother asked him to stop. Finn, would your mother ask you to stop if you kept bringing in buckets of water? Yeah, boots of water. I think she would. Yeah, she said, I think I would do. The boy was visiting his grandmother when she asked him what his favorite color was. Blue, he said. So she knit him a sweater, the color of the ocean on a cloudless afternoon. He wore it nearly every day and then strange things began to happen. One evening as he was helping with the dishes, the water from the faucet curled into letters that spelled his name. Then when he walked along the beach near his house, the seabird circled the boy and brought him treasures. When he stood on the cliffs, the waves sang to him. And in the bath, the boy could push all of the water to one end of the tub where it would stay until he nodded his head. Now, how cool would that be? It was a trick that came in handy on a school field trip to a world famous waterfall when a little dog fell into the water and was in danger of being swept away. And at the pond in the park when his sailboat tipped over and began to sink, a water spout picked it up, carried it back across the pond and gently placed it at his feet. The boy spent a lot of time practicing water tricks. After much trial and error, he was able to toss water from a glass and have it come snapping back like a yo-yo. But the boy's favorite trick was to balance a drop of water on the tip of his finger. When he held it up close, he could see everything that lay at the bottom of the ocean. The boy discovered that he could squeeze gallons of rainwater into an old baby food jar. And he placed the jar on his window sill so the water could absorb energy from the sun. And then he began to conduct experiments. The boy found that just one drop of water from this jar could clear up a bottle of the darkest ink. Two drops would clean a large mud puddle. He took the jar to school one day to demonstrate the water's strange powers. On his way home, the boy was crossing a bridge when he heard a voice calling for help. The boy looked around. He was all alone. Then he heard it again. He looked over the side of the bridge. There was nobody there. The cry was coming from the river begging to be made clean. So the boy removed the jar from his school bag and he carefully poured out one gleaming drop. When it splashed into the river, that single drop formed a sparkling blue ring that rippled steadily outward. The boy poured another drop and another and now the shimmering ripples reached from bank to bank. Slowly the boy emptied out the entire jar and watched as the river ran clear all the way to the ocean and beyond. Later as the boy walked along the shore, a bottle washed up at his feet. Inside the bottle was a note with his name on it. Thank you, the note said. The boy slipped the note into his pocket and continued on home. His bath would be waiting. Now we don't have a magical bottle of sun filled gleaming water. But what can we do to help the waters? Anybody have any ideas? We can clean up trash. It's a great idea so that it doesn't end up in the water. It also helps the sea creatures, right? If there's if there isn't trash in the ocean, that's really helpful. What else can we do? What can we do at home to help the waters? Finn, you got an idea? Make it clean. How can we make the waters clean? Try to work with the yucky water. Yep. Put it in a jar and then put it in the sun. I wish it was as easy as our story, right? And we all had magical powers. What about when you're washing your hands or you're taking a bath or you're brushing your teeth? Do you leave? Oh, flush in the toilet lots of times. What do you do? Mom. Now, what about when you're brushing your teeth? Do you leave the water run the whole time? No, why not? You guys got it. We don't want to waste the water, right? That's right. Watering or the, yeah, the fish. That's what we say at home. The fish need the water, right? What about do you know that there's there's organizations in town that have river cleanup days? Have you guys ever gone on a river cleanup day? Those are super fun. Rivers. I like that show too. Nature Cat and he was stuck in trash on a river. All right, that's right. Another thing you could do when you go home today is that you could look at the cleaning products. You can do this with your grownups. Look at your cleaning products. Are they full of harsh yucky chemicals? Can you find some that are environmentally friendly better for the waters? So there's lots of things we could do. You use vinegar. Awesome. Finn. Nice job, you guys. Thanks for being such good listeners. Thanks for coming up for our story. And you can head back to your seats. The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day runs through the world and dances and rhythmic measures. It is the same stream of breath and hope of love and memory that runs through each one of us here. And it is the stream of shared memory of shared belief in a living faith that gathers us back here together into our community. As we gather here today, we bring with us our hopes and our joys. And also our disappointments and our sorrows. We bring with us the ebb and flow of life. We come here to share with one another a special event or circumstances in our lives or the lives of a loved one. If you feel so moved, I invite you to come forward and pick up one of these stones as you share your joy or sorrow with this community. When you are through, place the stones into this water, knowing that as the water holds the stones, the community holds your concerns and your joys. You may also come forward and wordlessly drop a stone into the water and return to your seat. I now open our time for the sharing of these important matters of our lives. I'm putting the stone in the water because my very first member of our next generation was born a couple of weeks ago, and his great grandmother, my mother, who is no longer with us, loved stones. It was recently my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. This is for my friend, Rose Marie, who's struggling with pancreatic cancer. This is in memory of Flo Shields, Jen Jankowski, Terry Meyer, and Janie Glover. Today, I'm starting kindergarten and I'm really excited to do it. The last four days, I've been with my Native American friends the first time they had ever experienced the Mississippi River, and we had a water ceremony. So it was a total joy. We hold in our hearts any unexpressed joys or sorrows. Hold them for a moment of silence. We'll now sing him 1007, there's a river flowing in my soul and the teal. Try something a little new. So if all the kids could come back up and maybe helpful parents, we're going to do a little art project in front of everybody. Yeah, no pressure at all. We're going to go on a journey with our little blue boats. But first we have to make our boats. Alright, so everyone gets a piece of paper. It doesn't have to be blue. You can pick a different color if you want. Okay, let me grab one too. And I can show you how we're going to do it. It's going to look like this. First, we're folding. What's this hamburger? Hot dog? Hamburger. So long ways and a fold. Yep, got it. Next, we fold in. Well, you can either fold it in half again to get a line. But we're folding in the two corners. Make a meat. The two that are on the fold, not the two that are open. Got that. So just the two tops and then leave some bottom. So it's all the way over. All the way over this way. Now the way over that way. Good, good. You take these top here. Fold it there. Maybe the next service I would just bring a bunch of boots. Oh, we just use these boats again until second service. Alright, now we're going to fold up these corner in the bottoms, one on one side, and one on the other. You still working? Looks like a little hat. Good. Yeah, the other one goes the other way. That's good. Good old Parker. Got it. Good. Good. Looking good. All right. This is the little tricky part. So you grab here. And you and you close it. So where it's closed, where the line comes down, you grab it and you open it up. And you fold it again. Practice this. Lift the middle and push the sides together. I forget. Who's an expert getting under pressure? All right, we're gonna we're gonna get this. A lot of you here with a video as opposed to a little piece of paper. Lift the middle and push the sides together. That's not it. All right, you got it? Who's got it? Okay, what am I missing? Where's my next step? Where am I missing from here? We're just gonna go with this. We're gonna go with that looking like that. Okay, good enough. Just go and go in here. It's a boat. Everyone gets a hole punched in the front and the cleaning crew is not gonna be happy with but I'll clean it up myself. Can you do it? Thanks. All right, and everyone gets some string and the string goes through here. Everyone gets a string and hole punches. The string just kind of goes through. Jump me to one string here. One string here. Okay, and the hole punch goes down this way. Yep. One more string. Pull that and I'll pull this and got a string. Everybody got a string. Still waiting for the hole punch. Punch here and a hole punch here. String coming through here. It's a little tricky to get the string through but it's not too bad. Not a little knot. And we're good to go. All right, everyone feeling good? I'm feeling good. All right, the journey of the blue boats. Can we get the the spread? Where'd that go? Oh, great. Okay, everyone boats on the mat here. This is gonna be our cove. Okay, there was once a group of little boat friends for their entire lives they had lived in the harbor at the base of a giant red mountain. It's got a screen. They were all good friends and they were but they were tired of floating around and around in their little harbor. So one day they got together and all agreed that a journey was in order. They talked to the wisest boat and said we decided that we will take a trip and that you should go with us and that you should take us. Absolutely, said the wisest boat and where's my right there? And off they went. Let's go. Where's my forest? Oh, going this way. Other way. You don't have a string yet? Yeah, one for you right here. Oh, we're still short on strings. So I should have double checked before we left. Where's the other? Oh yeah. Sorry, sorry, bud. Yeah, well, let us see. You want to use my boat? You want to use this one? To the forest. They sailed along the shore for several miles and they came to an old barren forest full of fallen trees. What a sad place, said one of the boats. What an awful way to start our journey, they said. But the wisest boat was also very wise and said without trees like these there would be no paper and there would be no us. And so the year old barren forest became a special place for the boats and they each took a small piece of wood to remember to stick it in your boat. Still working over there? You got one? Yep, perfect. He has it not holding on to the tree super well. You can stick it. Alrighty, and they continued on their journey. We're going to go out the door and around this way. We made it. The string came undone. Next, in a place where the high cliffs had been completely broken down by the waves, there was a lonely, sad beach. Now this really is a dreary place, said one of the boats. Indeed the land is always so much worse than the sea, said another. But the wisest boat was very wise. Without the land there would only be endless sea and that would be very dull indeed. So the beach became a special place for the boats and they each took a seashell to remember and continued. We're getting it. You lost your wood? We'll find your wood. Nice. And they continued on their journey. Going too close to home. That's not the story. Who lost their wood? I think he did all the way in the back there. Was it the lost there? Was it you? No, you got it. You got yours? Somebody's lost theirs. Got it? All right. There you go. Next all the boats got caught in a cold, drizzly rain. How dreadful, said one of the boats. If we were at home we could hide in the red mountain caves and stay dry, complained another. Yes, said the very wisest boat, but if we did not know what it felt like to be wet and miserable, we would never appreciate how wonderful it feels to be dry and comfortable. And so the rain became a special rain for the boats. Everybody got rain? And so the rain became a special rain for the boats and they each kept a raindrop to remember and continued on their journey. Going back to the harbor. All the way back. At last they returned home after their very long journey. We really liked the forest and the beach and the rain, said one of the boats. But we are glad to be home, said another. The wise boat remained silent because she realized that the boats had learned their final lesson all on their own. It takes a journey far from home to make us realize how special home really is. We'll now have the offertory that will benefit. Oh, thanks. You can keep the boats or you can not if they were. Not fun for you. Okay, you can keep whatever you want and get rid of whatever you want. Okay, cool. Yeah, you can come and meet me after and we'll learn how to really make the boats good together. We'll now have the offertory benefiting Wisconsin wetlands. Please be generous with your offerings. Thank you. Well mother daughter duo's this morning for the gorgeous music. The time has almost come for us to leave this place but before we go we would like to invite you to come forward to take some of our mingled waters home with you. Take these waters with the recognition that our planet flows like a soft blue sapphire in the darkness of space because of water. Take these waters knowing that they are made of our loves and dreams, adventures and sorrows, hopes for a better future and prayers for today. Remember that due to the polluted state of many of our waters we must advise please don't drink it. Please do not mingle it with any of our lakes rivers or streams. Use it to water a favorite plant or put it in your garden. Mingle it with watercolor paints and create a beautiful image. Save it in a jar where you can see it and be reminded of this place and these people. We do have containers here for you if you did not bring one with you this morning and I invite you to come forward while we rise in body or spirit for our closing hymn number 1064 Blue Boat Home. Please be seated. It starts with a drop then a trickle, a burble, a rush of water burbling toward its destination and finally the wide endless sea. All rivers run to the sea. Today you brought water ported into a common bowl though our experiences have differed. These waters mingle signifying our common humanity. Today you came and shared in this sacred community. May you depart this space with your hearts filled with hope for new beginnings of fresh start. Go forth but return to this place where rivers of tears may be shed where dry souls are watered where your joy bubbles where your life cup overflows where deep in your spirit you have found in this place a home for all rivers run to the sea. Amen and blessed be and please go in peace.