The Holiday Spirit

I've been trying to get into the holiday spirit lately. I rented Fred Claus, which I enjoyed far more than I should have. I just finished baking about six dozen cookies. I'm working on the tree part but have been hindered by the small apartment and the thought that it will be just a matter of time (i.e. probably seconds) before the cats manage to knock the tree over at which point I can imagine LuLu chomping down on the top and dragging it down the hallway.

And today I went to church. I've been going to the Universalist Unitarian church on and off since I moved to Philadelphia. My favorite thing about it is that every single Sunday is started off with the simple phrase "welcome home." For someone who felt a little lost during the summer, it was extremely comforting to hear every Sunday, especially when it was said without condition. In the fall I took a class there called "Writing as a Spiritual Discipline" in which we started each class with a breathing exercise to prepare our minds and bodies to be creative. It was hoaky and I loved it.

Today's sermon was especially nice and also helpful since UU is a somewhat confusing religion. I've been asked what it means to belong to the UU church and the best I could answer was that it was a religion where people could believe what they wanted and where they could come together to ask questions even if the answers to which they came were different. The sermon today was at least in part about coming up with a bumper sticker answer of what being a UU means. This is what the reverend came up with:

1. We believe that it is a blessing that each one of us was born
2. We believe it matters what each and every one of us does with our lives
3. What each of us knows about God is a bit of the truth
4. We don't have to do it alone

I haven't had enough time to really think it through, but I immediately liked the sentiment and thought I would share it.