 րᶉᶤᶕᶉᶼᶗᶕᶕᶕᶕᶯᶕᶕᶕᶕ. Ἄᶝᶗᶒᶼᶉᶕᶕᶕᶦᶕ things. ʔkärnʔesginga krimʔoperho– ʔaɾa � 셤ᴏaɾaɾaɾaɾaqs ʔˈdʺIʔn ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ʔr ˈiʔn ʔn, ʔiʔn ʔiʔn ʔiʔn ˔iʔn ʔeʔn ʔiʔn ʔiʔn ʔr ʔr 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 Carlos Moser, a proud member for over 50 years of this congregation, shows my age, doesn't it? And on behalf of said congregation, I'd like to extend a special welcome to visitors. We are a welcoming congregation so that whoever you are and wherever you happen to be on your life journey, we celebrate your presence among us. Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library which is directly behind you. Bring your drinks and your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. You may also look for persons holding teal, stoneware, coffee mugs. These are FUS members knowledgeable about our faith community and who would love to visit with you. Richard Miller is our experienced tour guide today. He'll be available to give a building tour after the service. So if you'd like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition to our national landmark meeting house, please meet near the large glass windows immediately after the service. We welcome children to stay for the duration of the service, but if a child needs to talk or move around, the child haven or commons are good places to retire. The service can still be seen and heard from these areas. And speaking of noise, this is a good time to silence your electronic devices. And this includes you listening at home also. I'd like to acknowledge the individuals who help our service run smoothly by volunteering. And if you have been a member for over a year and have not yet volunteered, speak to yourself. Our hospitality helper in the kitchen behind you is Jean Hills and our bookstore volunteers, where you may find books to expand your knowledge and spirituality immediately after the service are Douglas Hill and Karen Hill. Our ushers today are Chuck Evenson and Smiley and Lynn Scoby. And our greeter was Joan Heilmann. Please note the announcements on the red floor's insert of your order of service, which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities. Again, welcome. We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit. With thankful hearts, we come together to celebrate the bounty of the day, to bask in the warmth of this community, to share with friends the tides of our lives, to entertain perennially our hopes for a better future. We join together this day as always to resist injustice and inequality wherever they may be found. Our hearts are touched by the need we feel around us, whether far away or within reach of hand. We come here to be together because this is how we believe our lives are best lived, in questioning and in conversation, in compassion and in service, in gratitude and in joy, in companionship and in love. May we join together now in the spirit of gratitude, service and love. And if you will rise now and body your spirit to join together in the words of affirmation printed in your order of service as we light our chalice. For daylight and darkness, for sunshine and rain, for the earth and all people, we offer deep thanksgiving. We kindle this light in celebration of the life that we share. And before we join together in song, if you'll take a moment to turn and greet your neighbor. And I invite anyone who'd like to come up front and join me for the story to come on up. Ozen Eli, I'm looking at you. Rest with the over 10 crowd that can get back up. We'll see. Morris said we haven't gotten back up yet. Hi, guys. Come on. Thanks for coming. Rosie, pose you're not drinking coffee there, are you? No. Have we ever had a bad day? Yeah. What makes a bad day? Not getting to do what you want to do. Nothing's going your way. Anne said when you get a cat scratch. Or a sick cat. What makes a good day? Seeing a rainbow. There was a big rainbow on Thursday. Was it Thursday night? Thursday night. There was a big rainbow. Right. So when you've been sick and then you wake up and you're fine, that makes it a much better day, right? Well, our story today is about Georgie. And it is Georgie's best bad day. And you've got to see the pictures for this one because they're kind of funny. So Georgie's list of what makes a day the best day. Breakfast in bed. Taking a stroll on a sunny day. Humming his favorite song. These are some of the things that make a good day. But our story is about a day that Georgie woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Look at him. Where is he, the poor guy? He's so far on the wrong side of the bed that he's on the floor. And it looked like it was going to be just one of those days. What do you think happened there? Slipped on the banana peel. And it turned out that everyone was feeling the same. Feta sat in the wrong place. Can you tell what happened there? The dripping paint. Lester was running late. Sneakers forgot something important. Look at the picture. What do you think he forgot? Nope, look up. What's he thinking about? Sitting on the kitchen counter. Yeah, what did he forget to do that morning before he left the house? Eat breakfast. And Ferdinand was quieter than usual. His little sign says, do not disturb, thanks. I'm having a bad day, they all said. Me too, they all said. But Georgie wasn't ready to give up just yet. Maybe doing our favorite things will help fix this day. Well, I like to make pickles, said Feta. So they got to work preparing the perfect pickle. But pickles take forever. And they wanted to feel better now. Hey, Winnie, come on up. Sneakers suggested going outside to get some fresh air. So they tried gardening. But somebody got too excited with the scissors. Look at what happened to their elephant. Can you tell? No more trunk. It was already afternoon and they still hadn't turned their bad day around. I'm getting nervous, said Lester. Let's knit so I can relax. He's a mouse after my own heart. Carolyn too, right? That's how we relax, we knit. But what is Lester knitting with? Can you see follow the purple yarn? He's knitting with sneakers, sweater. Look at that, that's not going to make sneakers have a better day. But one knot led to another and they found themselves in quite a bind. Can you see him? Lester is smiling big, he's having fun knitting away. Look at everybody else. Not so much. Let's do something easy, said Georgie. How about baking a cake? Georgie knew cake, always made things right. Look at how happy they are. What could possibly go wrong? Any guesses? What could go wrong? He's going to, sneakers, a chew, set off a chain reaction. And just when things couldn't get any worse. Look at that, do you see all the things that happened? That is quite the story, isn't it? Just when they couldn't get any worse. Uh oh, uh oh, funk. They did. Look at Georgie. This is the worst day ever. Then the friends looked at Georgie and asked, Georgie, are you okay? Look at how they're all watery because he's looking at them through the glass. Then, suddenly, they all broke out into fits of laughter and helped Georgie get that jar off of his head. We ruined our bad day, they all said. Look at all the fun things. We sure did, said everybody else. All the fun things they decided to do together. And even the pickles were ready. And they spent the rest of the day having fun the way good friends know how to do. Making the best of what used to be a bad day. And that night Georgie fell asleep on the right side of the bed and dreamed of having another bad day together. So what helped them turn their day around? What helped it go from the worst day ever to the best bad day ever? Something really bad happened, right? But then what did that really bad thing cause them to do? Giggle. They all started to laugh. And I like to think that they turned it around because they realized that they were together with their good friends and that even on the worst day ever if we've got family and friends around us we can still find many reasons to be happy and we can always make a bad day, the best day ever. Thanks for listening you guys. We are going to rise and body your spirit if we can and sing you out to summer fun this morning from Harold Kushner. I was sitting on a beach one summer day watching two children a boy and a girl playing in the sand. They were hard at work building an elaborate sandcastle by the water's edge with gates and towers and moats and internal passages. Just when they had nearly finished their project a big wave came along and knocked it down reducing it to a heap of wet sand. I expected the children to burst into tears devastated by what had happened to all their hard work but they surprised me. Instead they ran up the shore away from the water laughing and holding hands and sat down to build another castle. I realized that they had taught me an important lesson all the things in our lives all the complicated structures we spend so much time and energy creating are built on sand. Only our relationships endure. Sooner or later the wave will come along and knock down what we have worked so hard to build. When that happens only the person who has somebody's hand to hold will be able to go on and laugh. And these thoughts from Robert Walsh. My earliest memory of a prayer is the table grace my grandfather used to say. I associate it with holiday meals with extended family crowded around a long dining room table. I remember the smell of turkey the sight of bowed heads and then the gruff voice of this old man delivering the prayer as if it were one long word accented on the first and last syllables. Lord make us thankful for these provisions we ask in Christ's sake amen. The last word sounded like gamen. I thought that was the way one ended a prayer. I remember years when I had no idea what he was saying. The prayer had meaning that did not depend on knowing. It was an invocation for the larger liturgy of the meal. Its meaning beyond language had to do with bonds. My bonds to the food, my parents and sister the aunts and uncles and cousins and grandparents there the warmth of the room the celestial and human rhythms that brought us to that table and other mysteries beyond these. There came a time when I figured out the words to Pop's prayer but that didn't seem to affect its meaning. It was much much later after turning this memory over and over until it was worn smooth that I realized something important about the prayer. I had thought it was a prayer of thanksgiving but Pop did not say Lord thank you. He said Lord make us thankful. It was a prayer of petition. We were beginning those special meals not with thanks for the bountiful gifts before us and around us but with a confession that we were not thankful enough. Make us thankful. Wake us up. Our gratitude is dulled by the very abundance of what we have. Bring us somehow to enough clarity of vision to see what a miracle is this creation in which we find ourselves. In truth we are not thankful enough a confession with which to bring every prayer. Amen. It was a fun service to put together because they picked the music first. In her poem entitled otherwise the poet Jane Kenyon writes I got out of bed on two strong legs it might have been otherwise I ate cereal, sweet milk, ripe flawless peach it might have been otherwise I took the dog uphill to the birch wood all morning I did the work I love at noon I lay down with my mate it might have been otherwise we ate dinner together at a table with silver candlesticks it might have been otherwise I slept in a bed in a room with paintings on the walls and planned another day just like this day but one day I know it will be otherwise Kenyon wrote this poem in 1993 upon hearing of her husband's cancer diagnosis yet it was Kenyon, not her husband who died a year later at the age of 47 from a fierce and swift onslaught of leukemia her otherwise came unexpectedly with the sunrise one day with no regard for the perfect peach the dog or the candlesticks her life suddenly became otherwise yet the poet found ways to remain grateful during her final days she wrote these words a poem called Twilight After Haying yes long shadows go out from the bales and yes the soul must part from the body what else could it do these things happen the soul's bliss and suffering are bound together like the grasses to the last Kenyon lived a life filled with humility and gratitude she found what some may call a life of absolute thankfulness the essayist Gary Roberts wrote about her in contemporary women poets that her poetry was acutely faithful to the familiarities and mysteries of home life and it is distinguished by intense calmness and gratitude in the face of both joyous times and immense tragedy in times of great abundance gratitude can come so easily that it seems like an effortless natural reaction when something wonderful happens it's difficult not to be thankful but such automatic gratitude such absolute thankfulness can desert us in times of adversity and loss suffering takes away the easy gratitude and we search to find ways to regain the ability to appreciate the good things we still enjoy the pleasures we once shared ways to ward off the depression, anger, resentment that could be so much easier there's a story that says the teacher in India was asked what is the worst karma a person can undergo what is the greatest difficulty and the teacher's reply was that the worst karma is to be ungrateful if you suffer from ingratitude then it won't matter what blessings and goodness are in your life you won't be capable of receiving it in contrast he said if you are grateful in the most challenging of circumstances you will be able to recognize the many gifts you are receiving I believe there's great truth in this teacher's statement but it troubles me we know that humans are hardwired to see the negative to focus on what is wrong in a situation to obsess over what we are missing what we lack instead of seeing the many blessings we are graced with each day neuroscientists tell us it is evolutionary safety if we didn't focus on the harmful or the dangerous our species may have died out long ago there are many jokes about this piece of being human Garrison Keeler tells the story of the grandmother who is walking her 5 year old grandson on the beach when suddenly a huge wave comes up and grabs the child and carries him out to sea she looks up to the sky shakes her fist and yells God this is unacceptable you cannot take an innocent child and just as those words come out of her mouth and other wave comes and deposits the child smiling right back at her feet she picks up the child in her arms looks up to the sky and says this child had a hat if this is our response to life circumstances then we are going to be living with the worst karma ever how we overcome this tendency to see and focus on what's wrong and find ways to live from a place of gratitude is a bit of a mystery so I went on a search for some guides those whose lives have held up under adversity or who realize that gratitude is more than an attitude but a practice, a discipline a way of being in the world that changes you and those around you Jane Kenyon is one and Ellie Vazelle is another he said no one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night he knew first hand the cruelties of loss loss of faith, loss of family loss of any semblance of humanity he was asked during an interview whether after all the tragedy that he had experienced and witnessed during the Holocaust whether he still had a place inside of him for gratefulness his words absolutely right after the war I went around telling people thank you, thank you just for living for being human and to this day the words that come most frequently from my lips are thank you when a person doesn't have gratitude something is missing in their humanity a person can almost be defined by their attitude toward gratitude for me every hour is grace and I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and see their smile for Vazelle gratitude is the key that helps us escape from the kingdom of night those moments of suffering that trap us in despair searching for and being thankful for what is positive he says breaks the stronghold of suffering he wrote this simple process has the power to transform you if the dust settles and you're still standing there's a reason for it now start walking you can leave the kingdom of night you can start toward those gates right now your freedom begins with being thankful for the small things gaining courage and strength to reach for the big things gratitude is the way the heart remembers remembers kindness cherished interactions with others compassionate acts of strangers surprise gifts everyday moments of beauty by remembering we honor and acknowledge the many ways in which who and what we are is connected to the gifts and the support of others how we have been shaped by those who have loved us how we have been guided by many hands Ellie Vizell reminds us that paradoxically in gratitude we must recall the bleak times as well as the good times our gratitude he says bears witness to the suffering that has taken place when suffering occurs our gratitude can take on a defiant character a vigorous determination to stay grateful in spite of what has happened this defiant gratitude is a gift that he and other survivors of atrocities give to each of us in coming close to death he shows us how to live in the midst of dehumanizing conditions he teaches us how to be human I also found the father of gratitude this week in rediscovering the work of brother David Steindl Rast a benedicting monk and scholar teacher, author his message is essentially very simple he says gratefulness, great fullness is the full response of the human heart to the grace of all that is his words echo that of Jane Kenyon and Ellie Vizell and he gives us a very easy way to remember he says that we learn gratitude just as we learned how to cross the street stop, look and go the first step is to stop or wake up cultivating gratitude begins with acknowledgement he writes to begin with we can never be grateful unless we wake up wake up to what? to surprise, to blessing, to life and then when we take that moment to pause we move on to step two which is to look what am I grateful for in this moment what can I find he writes that there's a simple question that helps him to remember this second step and that is what's my opportunity here you will find that most of the time the opportunity that a given moment offers you is an opportunity to enjoy to enjoy sound, smells, tastes, texture, colors and with deeper joy, friendship, kindness, patience all those gifts that soften the soil of our heart like a warm spring rain this step, look brings me back to Kenyon's poem and the recognition of awe and wonder and the knowledge that tomorrow might be otherwise enjoy this moment, this day simply enjoy I hold this vivid memory of my grandmother sitting at her kitchen table during some family holiday and she's looking at her seven grown children all bustling around with her 20 plus grandchildren and she's looking at the newest one maybe two weeks old and the absolutely exhausted parents and she's saying to them the days are long the nights even longer but the years are so very very short now in my mind, my young mind I saw this as some kind of Zen Cohen that I needed to work out some riddle my grandmother was giving me to solve it wasn't solved until I had children of my own and I had this moment of clarity where I thought whoa, she was very very right on Friday when our oldest graduated from elementary school and I wondered where had those years gone her words came back to me not as a riddle but as a reminder the days are long the nights are longer but the years are so very very short I'm imagining her now sitting at that table she thanked you for everything her life wasn't an easy one long hours in a factory coming home to seven admittedly unruly children taking care of an ill sister and aging parents all living under the roof of a teeny tiny house yet she was grateful it was a practice in her life to stop for just a moment and look for the good appreciate the relationships the simple pleasures, the love of family because no moment is a given it all goes by so very very fast step three Steindl Rass says is go or respond once we're in the habit of being awake to surprises and being aware that each moment offers us an opportunity it becomes possible and even easy to respond especially when we're offered a moment to enjoy something he says when a sudden rain shower is no longer just an inconvenience but a surprise gift you will spontaneously rise to the opportunity for enjoyment my simple recipe for a day is this stop and wake up look and be aware of what you see then go on with all the alertness you can muster for the opportunity the next moment will offer to experience absolute thankfulness you must develop a practice perhaps something as simple as stop look go without practice there's no development of skill only an idea you need to develop new habits of attention notice the concrete ways that others and the world support you every day write thank you notes to the people in your life and send them write silly thank you notes that you're never going to send dear sappy song on the radio thank you for coming on while I was in the car I needed a good cry dear headache thank you for kicking in today and reminding me of the importance of self care dear children's book authors everywhere thank you for writing books that make us laugh make us wonder and help me spend precious time with my kids dear dogs that are currently shedding all over the couch thanks for that extra energy today because I really needed the walk too dear parents, dear friends, dear coworkers, dear planet, dear universe who would you send a note to today? a life of thankfulness comes from putting ourselves forward in the world and seeing ourselves not as separate but as connected we see ourselves in relationship with everyone and everything we allow ourselves to embrace the mystery to see the beauty feel the pain stop, look and go and find ways to get up and be grateful again and again our final thoughts come from Anne Sexton who wrote this poem called Welcome Morning there's joy in it all in the hair I brush each morning in the cannon towel newly washed that I rub my body with each morning in the chapel of eggs I cook each morning in the outcry from the kettle that heats my coffee each morning in the spoon and the chair that cry hello there, Anne, each morning in the godhead of the table that I set in my silver plate cup upon each morning all this is God right here in my pea green house each morning and I mean though often forget to give thanks to faint down by the kitchen table in a prayer of rejoicing as the holy birds at the kitchen window peck into their marriage of seeds so while I think of it let me paint a thank you on my palm for this God, this laughter of the morning lest it go unspoken may we go forward each day uttering that one all-purpose prayer from the depths of a grateful heart thank you thank you for giving me this life in this precious moment good, bad, or otherwise and I now invite you into the giving and receiving of today's offering which during the summer months our offering goes to continue the work of this society and we thank you for your generosity to share pieces of our lives with one another we share our sorrows and our difficulties knowing that pain and loss come into each person's life knowing that together we offer comfort we also share our joys with one another knowing that joy comes into all our lives knowing that together our voices can rise and we share our sorrows of celebration this week we hold in our hearts Mary Jane Brummer and her husband Dave Zirath as Mary Jane recovers from heart surgery and please keep the family of Mary Paul in your thoughts and prayers Mary passed away after battling breast cancer and our great joy that someone wrote in the book that our former minister Karen Gustafson is with us this morning and that brings all of us great joy and I am sure many, many hugs in the next hour she'll be out there may we hold in our hearts gratitude for those things that bless us with their presence forgiveness for ourselves and others when we turn away from those blessings and the willingness to open ourselves anew to this beautiful and hurting world amen and blessed be and if you will rise in body or spirit our closing hymn is number 317 gratitude for the wondrous gifts that are ours and filled with the resolve to share them with all who are in need may we hold precious one another in the world which provides us with life and beauty and may a song of thanksgiving be on our lips today and always blessed be, go in peace and please be seated for the post-food