If you would like to have the 3 packets in full for this month, please join one of our small groups. Contact Rev. John T. Crestwell, Jr. at:

jcrestwell@uuannapolis.org 

FAITH FORMATION PACKET:

Wonder Box options and activities. These are the weeks that are included:

• Lesson A: Step Away from Busyness
• Lesson B: Listen for the Voices of Angels
• Lesson C: Rekindle Hope by Watching for the Light (6th UU Source/Winter Solstice Focus)
• Lesson D: Wait for Freedom (Anti-Racism, 8th UU Principle/ Watch Night focus)

SMALL GROUPS PACKET:

What does it mean to be a people of STILLNESS?

Often when stillness weaves its way into our discussions, it’s framed as a retreat strategy. A balm from the frantic and frequently wounding world. But as wise ones like Rev. Unger remind us, that’s not quite right. It’s less like a locked room that keeps all the enemies out and more like an oxygen mask that brings us back to life, that fills us with power. Stillness doesn’t simply slow our breath and energy; it fills us with it.

As Unger suggests, we don’t really want to be told to be calm these days. There is indeed so much to be angry about. So much that needs defended, resisted and restored. Which means that there’s a lot at stake in how we talk and think about stillness.

Option A
Let Lectio Divina Lead You into Stillness

This year, one exercise each month will draw on an ancient Christian spiritual practice called Lectio Divina,
translated literally as “divine reading.” The basic idea is to deeply listen to a text by reading it multiple times, through a different reflective lens each time. Think of it as bringing different discernment questions to the text, with each question inviting you to listen to the text in a new way.

Option B
Take a Pic of Your Calming Place

We all have one, even if we don’t realize it or think of it this way. Our calm place. Some place or space that
moves us into stillness as we move into it. A favorite bench overlooking a favorite view. That unique trail in the woods by our home. Some body of water that has our heart. For some, it is a corner of our house. Our study where we get to be alone. Or even our bed, all by ourselves, in the first 15 minutes of our day. For some it’s an emotional not physical space created by listening to a piece of beloved music, like Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Bach’s Prelude No.1 or Bill Evans’ Peace Piece.

Whichever it is, deepen your relationship with your “calming place” by capturing it with a picture.

Option C
Find Stillness in Gratitude

Some say we sit in stillness in order to clear away our thoughts. But others remind us that certain thoughts are the doorway into stillness. That’s exactly what Carrie Newcomer tries to get us to understand and experience with her poem Three Gratitudes. In this poem, she helps us notice how filling our heads and hearts with gratitude “softens our lives” and opens a still space free of worry and want. Or to put it another way, sinking into gratitude stills us.

Option D
Sit Still with a Loved One in View

We watch our loved ones all the time. Our kids playing a sport. Our loved one making dinner or sitting in a chair reading while we cook. Our parent playing with our kids. Our significant other breathing quietly as they sleep. Our loved one pulling weeds in the garden. Our child sitting at the piano learning a new tune.

But let’s be honest, how often are we really looking? How often are we fully present? Are we pausing long
enough to let the wonder of who they are wash over us? Or are we simply glancing at them while our real
attention is on the worried or busy thoughts in our head?

So this month, take the time.

Option E
Sit Still and Stare at Another

This one may be the most challenging and intimidating exercise of this month: Spend a minute or two staring into the eyes of a family member or friend.

Option F
Find Stillness in Our Recommended Resources

Our recommended resources are full of wisdom about what it means to be a people of and a person of stillness. Engaging these resources and finding the one that especially speaks to you is a spiritual practice in and of itself. So, if none of the above exercises call to you, engage the recommended resources section of this packet as your spiritual exercise for the month.

WORSHIP RESOURCES PACKET:

Here you will find resources for chalice lightings, meditations, music, prayers, poetry, and sermons.

When we hear the word “stillness” we immediately think of it as the opposite of movement – but stillness is something quite different altogether. Stillness is an energetic quality of being… Stillness is a choice. It can be felt by living in a state of presence where we remain connected to ourselves and are completely present in our body… In this quality of presence there is something that ‘stands still’, but it is not absent of physical movement. Rather, it is our beingness that remains unaffected by any movement, action or doing even though it moves, acts and does. It is the depth of the ocean unaffected by its waves. It is the ability to surrender to our innerheart and live from here in all that we do. Therefore, Stillness is not something we have to go in search of nor is it a journey into escapism or numbness. It is where we come from and what we are innately made of and thus it is our natural state of being.

~ Serge Benhayon