Greetings on this day of the Autumn Equinox!

In pagan traditions, this is often a good day to pause and reflect, taking notice of the temporariness of life, acknowledging that neither the light nor the dark reigns over the other for long, and that no season of our lives lasts forever. This is a time to pause and be grateful for all that becomes of our lives.

When my daughter was a young child, I noticed how enthusiastic she was about nearly everything! From bugs and flowers to robotics and now into history and politics. I am so grateful that she has a deep passion for learning. One of the adventures that has been fueling her love of history has been that of discovering her own family’s genealogy. As many Americans who have descended from people of different races, it’s a complicated history for her that involves much reconciling. But it is a rich history that is helping her discover who she is and how she can shape her own purpose in this temporary world.

Poem: honor the roots by rupi kaur

remember the body of your community

breathe in the people who sewed you whole

it is you who became yourself

but those before you are a part of your fabric – honor the roots

I cannot speak for all that is my daughter’s becoming as she uncovers and honors her roots, but I certainly know that my own adventure into my family’s past has contributed greatly to, and even shifted, the way I reflect upon who I am and how I want to continue to become a part of the transformation towards goodness/god/goddesses/the divine. My most recent trip to Chicago/Wisconsin (for school and family) has magnified this shift as my father invited my daughter and I to go through boxes and bins of photographs and documents and other artifacts that have been saved for over 100 years now.

A couple things continue to resonate for me as I emerge from this experience. One is the brilliant smiles on the faces of my ancestors, especially in the photos in which they are together. It is obvious that they loved one another and were very intentional about gathering together over the years. Their smiles are now a permanent fixture in my mind as I continue to travel this path of life and carry on their legacy. A second resonation is the character of my grandmother and her very obvious enthusiasm for nearly everything! From horses to fashion design to politics and the Chicago Cubs, she jumped right into life at every turn, savoring every part of it, especially the people that she travelled with on her own life path. This is the legacy that I want to continue.

Remember the recent worship service about our UUCL history? As we carry out our own personal histories we, as members of a community that endeavors to transform, weave together the paths of our ancestors, intertwining them with those of the people that built UUCL and creating the path forward towards more love, more hope, and more justice.

Life may be temporary, but the character and quality (is god an adjective?) of our lives is not.