After the past year, we are all very much due for some playfulness, even as the ongoing challenges of the world call for our care, concern, and attention.
Think of those times when, in a tense conversation, someone cracks a joke that breaks the tension. In the wake of the laughter and relief, new ideas suddenly surface, opening possible ways forward.
Or imagine those times when you’ve been straining without relief to accomplish some vital task, and when by invitation, or accident, or grace you spend time completely immersed, losing a sense of time, in a joyful hobby or favorite interest or outdoor activity, during or after which you have breakthrough idea or insight.
This month we’ll let playfulness invite us into not only respite for our spirit, but also the insight and openness that can help us see in new ways.
The world is both familiar and new.
Let us play!
(For food for thought and reflection on the theme, see the end of this page.)
June Sunday Services at UUCM.
10:30 AM Pacific via Zoom
June 6 Deep Play Rev. Kevin Tarsa, with Beth Karow, Worship Associate
We enter this month’s theme of play guided by Diane Ackerman’s notion of deep play, “when acting and thinking becomes one, (and) there is no room left for other thoughts.” After fourteen and a half months of navigating pandemic life and death, we search this month for play that is liberating, revealing, healing, and transcendent.
June 13 Handfuls of Insight Rev. Kevin Tarsa, with Gail Johnson Vaughan, Worship Associate
We continue our exploration of play, and all things real and important, with the help of a few very special friends.
June 20 Dancing at the Edge of Summer Rev. Kevin Tarsa, with Jeff Stone, Worship Associate
The summer solstice arrives on this Sunday, Father’s Day, a handful of days after California is scheduled to “fully reopen its economy.” We’ll all be dancing at more than one important edge as summer arrives and we try to sense the road ahead. Let us welcome it with open eyes, open minds, and open hearts, even though we will not know exactly where the moment leads.
June 27 Circle ‘Round for Justice, Healing, Courage: UUA General Assembly
More than 10,000 screens tuned in last year to this largest annual gathering of Unitarian Universalists in worship. This year’s online service is led by the First Universalist Church of Minneapolis, which has been a model of shared ministry and what it means to put the work of dismantling white supremacy and building anti-racist, anti-oppressive practices at the center of their ministry.
See you online!
Please “JOIN WITHOUT VIDEO” (with your camera off) when you join the service.*
Join Sunday Zoom Services
https://zoom.us/j/746107217?pwd=a0VRT2JwckJZVjUrV2hYOHh0MHlRZz09
Meeting ID: 746 107 217
Passcode: 688010
Join by phone
1 669 900 9128
Meeting ID: 746 107 217 #
Passcode: 688010
Food for thought from Soul Matters
What Does It Mean To Be A People of Play?
We all are playing.
Playing it up, playing it down, trying to play fair.
Playing for keeps, playing favorites, playing it safe,
sometimes too safe.
He plays hardball; They’re playing house; I’m playing it by ear,
or at least learning to play it by ear.
She’s tired of playing second fiddle; He’s playing right into their hands.
Please God, can’t we all just throw out the playbook and start again?
Sometimes we’re just played out; it’s not always bad to play possum.
And what about playing with fire?
Let’s hope so friends.
Don’t you want to feel again that burning within,
and let it loose?
Welcome to the month of play. May we all take it seriously!