Be the Spark…

This year I will be leading several different workshops at Ferry Beach Conference Center. For those of you who don’t know, Ferry Beach was born out of Universalism and over the years became a Unitarian Universalist Conference Center. Today it still holds our Unitarian Universalist values, but is now a secular conference center.
Every year there is a theme for the summer. This year it’s “Brilliance. Be The Spark”

I was struck by the fact that all of us are the spark, we all have a beautiful light to share that burns within and shines outward on the world.

We are living through hard times and it is easy to become fearful and to feel as though things will only get worse.
And things could get worse but… and this but is a very important but…
We need to keep our light shining. We need to show the world that our light shines brightly on love, compassion, human rights, and the dream of a kind and equitable world. Our Unitarian Universalist light teaches us that love is what’s important. And everything we do to heal the world grows out of love.

We can fall into despair – but if we fall into despair our energy is depleted, we lose hope and our light dims.

We don’t want that. We want to keep our light shining brightly.
Because without our light the darkness can win.

There are hundreds of things we can do to keep our light shining.
I’ll list a few:
Keep making phone calls and writing postcards.
Talk to people you don’t know and learn their stories.
Share a meal with friends and have your friends bring their friends.
Go to marches, show up as often as possible and shine your light on the issues at hand.
Teach your children and grandchildren that what they have to share with the world is not only meaningful, but it’s important.
Keep learning…The more you can learn about the world and others the brighter your light will shine.
Don’t let fear win.

Share your talents. Don’t be shy, can you sing? Dance? Tell jokes? Read aloud? Do you know about a subject that would interest others? Do you know about birds, plants, places to hike, history, languages etc.? Share what you know and listen to what others have to offer!
Build community, be the spark that helps gets others to share their light.

Share your treasure: Many communities and groups need our support. Share yourself, invite new folks into your circle, and make the circle bigger and brighter.

The more we shine as individuals and come together as communities the brighter our light shines and the greater chance we have that love will win.