Minister’s Message
The Soul Matters theme of the month is “Belonging,” and this beautiful poem by Jan Richardson reminds
us that belonging can be a double-edged sword.

You hardly knew
how hungry you were
to be gathered in,
to receive the welcome
that invited you to enter
entirely…
You began to breathe again…
You learned to sing.
But the deal with this blessing
is that it will not leave you alone,
will not let you linger…
this blessing
will ask you to leave,
not because it has tired of you
but because it desires for you
to become the sanctuary
that you have found…

In the words of the Rev. Scott Taylor, “Richardson begins with hunger. [. . .]
The primal hunger to be included. But [. . .] Our own belonging is only the
beginning. [. . .] In other words, this is no gentle invitation, friends. No
sweet reminder to think of others. It’s a warning. [. . .] If we find ourselves
being invited to linger rather than leave, alarm bells should go off. We need
to be weary of those who welcome us with a club jacket and a soft couch.
They may have let us in, but soon they will enlist us into the work of keeping others out. There will likely
even be a part of us that wants to keep others out. After all, closed circles don't just set us apart, they sit
us above. [. . .] Circles that keep others out also keep the air out. No one inside a closed circle truly sings;
they only suffocate, slowly. It’s all one big reminder that the true blessing of belonging is not that you
get to come inside the circle; it’s that you get to participate in expanding it. Again, as the circle grows, so
do we.”
So may you enjoy the circle of UUFM that you also work to make wider and more inclusive, as you
remember, today and every day, that you are loved, you are worthy, you are welcome, and you are
needed. May you feel it so, and may it be so.
With blessings and best wishes, Rev. Rita