Marriner's Compass | Take the Wheels off

REV. GAIL LINDSAY MARRINER

​UU Santa Fe Minister

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When I was a kid, I remember someone explaining the advent wreath to me this way:     
In Scandinavia, where the snows get deep, people routinely took the wheels off the wagons and replaced them with runners to turn their wagons into sleds for the winter. One of the wagon wheels was taken indoors and decorated with candles – voila – the advent wreath. That’s the part I remember – and something about wrapping straw around some other  wheel, lighting it on fire and rolling it down a snowy mountain on the longest night, but I digress…

As we all know weather is fickle and the timing of the wheel to runner changeover must have been  tricky. There could be a few wheel-less weeks before the snow got deep. Think a moment about what that would mean – you couldn’t go anywhere! You didn’t-have-to-go-anywhere!  Like the sun which stands still at the solstice – you could stand still too!  What a concept!  You could be still and enjoy the place where you were.

We thought we would try it this holiday season. For the month of December we are (metaphorically) taking the wheels off  at UU Santa Fe. We are inviting all the committees to forgo their December working meetings – no program council, no board of trustees, no personnel committee, no facilities, no operations team, etc. Instead, in this season where the sun stands still, we invite you pause with us and focus on the deeper things: gratitude and generosity, relationships  and meaning .

We have a host of activities and events through New Year’s Eve – a steady stream of opportunities to connect and reflect. We hope you will stay home with us for the holidays, or come home to UU Santa Fe for the holidays, or in some way make yourself at home here for the holidays.

• December 1 | The service will explore the idea of taking the wheels off long enough to experience awe at the wonders of the season. After the service we will hang the greens  in the courtyard and decorate for the holidays.
• December 8 | This Sunday service is a music service and we will be the choir, or at least one of the choirs! Join us and some of our musical friends  as we create some harmony and craft a UU soundtrack for the season.   
• Friday, December 13 | Stars, saints, snowballs and holiday cookie decorating enliven our annual all congregation party. It’s a potluck so check the foyer for sign-up sheets!
• Holiday Camp! (you gotta be a kid for this one) | Explore the festivals of light that happen in this season: create tiny lamps for Diwali, build a gingerbread henge for solstice, learn Hanukkah songs and make latkes, listen to stories  of the old new Mexican Christmas and bake bischochitos. This is a joint venture with Joy Montessori
• December 15 | Candidate for ministry Dan Lillie is a guest in our pulpit.     
• Friday, December 20 and Sunday, December 22 | We host the Upstart Readers for two reader’s theater performances of Dickens’s Christmas Carol with a Christmas Tea at intermission. A Christmas Carol was Dickens’s first published  work after he became a Unitarian.   
• Saturday, December 21 at 5:30 | On this winter solstice we welcome the darkness with a Solstice Shadows service acknowledging some of the  difficult truths we live with: climate change, racism, violence, inequality. If people are willing, some of us may sit with those difficult realities through the night awaiting the sun’s return. Will you come tend the solstice fire with us?   
• December 22 | Still There is Hope. This  Sunday morning  we welcome the sun’s return after the long dark night. A great metaphor for  holding on through the tough things life throws at us and rejoicing in the good gifts we still have.
• Tuesday, December  24, at 5:30 pm  | Love is Born Again. We celebrate Christmas Eve with a candlelight lessons and carols service that pairs old and new readings to explore the  evergreen message of this holiday.   
• Wednesday,  December 25  | If you are looking to celebrate with friends today sign up in the foyer for midday dinner at an Indian restaurant with new friends and old from UU Santa Fe.
• December 29 | Just Breathe We pause to catch our breath, light the Hanukkah candles, and  bid the old year farewell in this contemplative exploration of meditative disciplines. Get a head start on your new year’s resolutions as we sit and walk and bend and breathe and sing in a restorative gathering .
• Tuesday, December 31, at 5:30 | The Cosmic Walk. Come walk the spiral labyrinth from the great radiance to the present moment as we mark the end of one earthly orbit around the sun and the start of another. It is an awe inspiring story.

​Don’t even try to do all of these things. Pick and choose the UU Santa Fe gatherings that feel like they will feed your soul, weave them together with family celebrations and Santa Fe traditions for a holiday season that is uniquely yours.

I’ll be home at UU Santa Fe for the Holidays – where will you be?

Blessing, Gail

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