Inspirational Talks

I wasn’t here last Sunday. Instead, I was in Atlanta, putting snakes into bags, then into buckets. You may have just said a little “what?” to yourself, but it gets better. My “final exam” snake that day was a grumpy Eastern Diamond Rattlesnake named Roger, who was making it very clear with all the rattling and striking, that he did…

At summer’s end, I was out on the lake on my paddle board early one morning, when a thick fog rolled in. My vision was limited to just a few feet. I couldn’t see the sun or the shore, so I drifted, uncertain where I was in the lake and in which direction I should paddle. I didn’t panic. It…

Note: This talk follows the reading of "John Barleycorn Must Die" by Scottish poet Robert Burns, written in 1782. It is just one version of a folk song with English origins. You’ve probably figured out by now that the character, John Barleycorn, represents a plant – barley in this case – but he could be any of the grains grown…

I started thinking about what to say today the same way I prepare all of my talks – by asking myself some questions. The first question I had was: why water? Water communion is a common ritual for this ingathering service among the UUs, but as I thought back on those I’ve participated in, I couldn’t remember ever hearing how…

A love letter to the Earth - how to begin? Dear Sir or Madam? Wait, is Earth a sir or a madam? Dear Sir AND Madam? Thich Nhat Hahn started his love letters with “dear Mother Earth.” Numerous cultures consider Earth mother and the sky or the sun as father, recognizing the dual energies that fuel creation. But is Earth…

Not long ago I watched a grey squirrel perched high on what seemed like a way-too-thin branch. The way it was bouncing and waving around made me nervous for the squirrel, but he calmly grasped the branch with his back legs, held a peanut from the feeder in his front paws and ate his breakfast. You probably know I’m a…

I’d like to start with a story that isn’t about me, though, the story of Grey Owl. If you’ve never heard of him, I’m not surprised. I hadn't heard of him myself until very recently when I came across a social media post that mentioned him. I never just believe anything I see on Facebook so I was happy to…

As last summer began, I paid the final month’s rent on a lease on a building that had been empty since March of 2020 because of the pandemic, and watched the yoga studio I had started from nothing and expanded into two locations, fade again into nothing. Back pain that had been intensifying over a few years had gotten to…

The next few days are a sacred time – Halloween, All Hallows Eve, All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos, Samhain. The veil between worlds is thin, and that lack of border brings ancestors closer to us. It’s a time to honor those who have passed over, remember lost loved ones. What we don’t often do, though, is acknowledge entire…

During my second year of seminary, one of our monthly assignments was to pick a person off a list of religious and spiritual “big names we should know” to research more. Being who I am I looked for the environmentalist on each month’s list. One of the first I found was Reverend Sally Bingham. She really inspired me. Reverend Bingham…