tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72817666800518205892024-03-13T12:06:52.836-04:00UUXMNR [ u·u ex·am·in·er ]Thoughts & examinations, some serious & some not-so-much, about my life & spiritual journey here on planet Earth.UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-5324621863586814772024-01-06T21:41:00.000-05:002024-01-06T21:41:01.380-05:00Epiphany 2024: A New Year's Message from the BirdsIn the spring of 2023, I was going on a little walk through
the woods with one of my friends (hey, Chrystie!) when she took out her phone
to use an app to identify some plants that sparked her curiosity. We did that a
few times, and I didn’t think too much of it, because usually when I’m curious
enough about a plant to know something more about it I just ask my husband Joel,
because he knows UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-25013337375172135842016-02-12T22:48:00.000-05:002016-06-07T15:34:25.463-04:00Seeking Sanctuary
In my experience, when people are asked why they became
Unitarian Universalists, or why they remain Unitarian Universalists, one of the
reasons most often cited is community. We seek groups of people who are like-minded,
or who have similar values, with whom we can connect and to which we might
belong. It’s a perfectly human desire, and Unitarian Universalist congregations
provide that UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-56648073866714920252016-02-01T16:42:00.000-05:002016-06-07T15:43:33.052-04:00Drinking from Deep Wells: A Candlemas Reflection
I was a faithful member of the United Methodist Church from
the age of 12 until I was 18 and in college. When I left, for good in my mind,
at the age of 19, I told myself that I was a leaving behind a church that
condemned me, a religion that left me malnourished, and a God who had forsaken
me for eternity. In a period of less than two years, my spiritual journey led
me along a path from UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-63940810112135576712015-02-06T17:58:00.002-05:002015-02-06T22:12:41.320-05:00Should all Unitarian Universalists embrace a neutral humanism?
This morning I received a message from a friend who recently joined a Unitarian Universalist congregation for the first time a little under a year ago. The message asked for my take on an article posted on the Huffington Post titled "Welcoming Unitarian Universalists Home to Humanism", by the executive director of the American Humanist Association, Roy Speckhardt. At the time, I thought that UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-23874588808222212152015-01-06T08:33:00.000-05:002015-01-08T10:18:20.666-05:00Resolutions 20:15It's 2015 now, and a question that's asked over and over this time of year is "what are your new year's resolutions?" Generally, my response has been something along the lines of, "I don't make new year's resolutions". This year, however, I decided to set several goals for the year and so I have shared those with people instead of resolutions. But the more I think about it, the more I realize howUUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-33177207641293837142014-11-25T20:54:00.002-05:002014-11-26T09:20:02.803-05:00Do Black lives really matter in America?
If, God forbid, I were to be killed by an officer of the
law, I wonder what types of things would be alleged about me in public
conversation.
I wonder what sorts of opinions would be shared by the
public at large. How would my character be maligned? What misjudgment would I
have made that would turn out to be the ultimate cause of my justified killing?
How would everyone come to believe that UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-21077392703646307012014-06-09T22:56:00.000-04:002014-06-09T22:56:48.250-04:00#tigers4loveDuring the work week, I usually set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. My commute is a rather long one, generally lasting at least 90 minutes, but more often than not around 2 hours or more. Each way. I try to use all of this travel time productively—by reading, listening to interesting podcasts, meditating, writing, learning new languages...it's time well spent! And I love my job, so it's all good. In any UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0Tenleytown, Washington, DC 20016, USA38.946 -77.07900000000000838.9336505 -77.09917 38.9583495 -77.058830000000015tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-67811450062494604622014-06-04T22:20:00.000-04:002014-06-04T23:38:06.315-04:00I Got A New NameUntil 2008, when I formally requested that the state of Florida issue a corrected birth certificate, my legal name was not Adrian. Never mind the 29 years before then when everyone called me Adrian. Never mind every single form of identification I have ever had in my life. Never mind the fact that someone very obviously made a typographical error when issuing my original birth certificate (not toUUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-64804566965814086832014-06-01T13:35:00.000-04:002014-06-04T23:28:50.398-04:00Wedding RingsIn many ways, my husband Joel and I are very conventional, if not traditional, in the ways we choose to live our lives — our lifestyle. Sure, as gay men in the 21st Century, we might occasionally like to think of ourselves as counter-cultural, cutting-edge, trend-setting, even radical — and in some very important ways, these are all true — but when it comes to most things, we can be downright UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-32290879634552076272014-05-25T18:09:00.000-04:002014-06-01T13:36:26.703-04:00May 17I have been married for one week and one day.
On May 17, 2014, exactly two months ahead of the nine-year anniversary of the day I fell in love with my partner, we were finally, beautifully, joyously, and legally married at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore, surrounded by about 250 of the people we most care about and who love us with a boundless love. It was miraculous — a dream come UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-49569989319166143412014-01-25T09:07:00.000-05:002014-02-01T21:27:17.799-05:00Unitarian Universalists Believe What We MustI'm tired of people claiming that Unitarian Universalists don't believe anything, or that we are just a social—or worse yet, political—club. Where does the notion come from, and why is it so easily perpetuated? Every Unitarian Universalist that I have ever met has either known precisely what they believe in, or have been somewhere on the path of discernment, discovering just which beliefs UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-82203286934887209042014-01-20T20:16:00.000-05:002014-01-25T09:46:01.506-05:00Why does this blog exist?I created this blog years ago, purportedly to flesh out my interest in becoming a UU seminarian some day, and to just post my thoughts about religion and life in general. I had the idea that it would be a place where I could think my deepest thoughts, albeit in the open, and engage in conversation with other people with similar thoughts or interests. I have always been one to think deeply about UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com3Baltimore, MD, USA39.2903848 -76.61218930000001139.0937408 -76.9349128 39.4870288 -76.289465800000016tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-88874296633658361192013-10-29T22:43:00.000-04:002013-10-29T22:43:34.475-04:00Multicultural Ministries Sharing ProjectI just finished taking this survey put out by the UUA's Racial Justice and Multicultural Ministries. It was looooong, but I think your input could be very informative and helpful. Besides, they are asking for help getting the word out for the survey, and here I go spreading the word!
SO - if you self-identify as a Unitarian Universalist who is "historically marginalized by ability (including UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-56798977422417189552013-05-04T12:27:00.000-04:002013-05-04T12:38:33.949-04:00Union Sunday 2013Are you in the Baltimore area? Come to the Union Sunday service at the First Unitarian Church of Baltimore tomorrow morning, May 5, 2013 at 11AM!
This special service commemorates the sermon given in 1819 by William Ellery Channing at the ordination of our first minister, Jared Sparks. The sermon, titled "Unitarian Christianity" and popularly know as the Baltimore Sermon, was essentially the UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-53135867014480444582013-04-15T21:49:00.001-04:002013-04-15T22:06:07.170-04:00Meditation On PrayerWhat is prayer?
Is prayer the corpus of statements, learned by rote in my childhood, spoken to a God up in heaven and in the name of Jesus and by the medium of the Holy Spirit?
Is prayer the emptying of my mind, so that I might become the receptacle of wisdoms passed down by sages across time, understood through the lens of my experience and made incarnate in my life through decisions I make UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-79105419794992836502013-03-25T21:48:00.001-04:002013-08-24T21:01:08.358-04:00Palm Sunday in the ELCAYesterday, on Palm Sunday, I attended a service at a Lutheran Church for the baptism of my partner's and my newest nephew. Over the years that I have been with my partner I have changed a lot, and my feelings about Christianity have evolved and broadened. Still, the only times I set foot in Christian churches for a service over the past decade have been for weddings, funerals, and for the past UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2Connoquenessing, PA, USA40.8178427 -80.014225740.7938082 -80.0545662 40.8418772 -79.9738852tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-44626472898707055302013-03-02T15:37:00.000-05:002013-03-02T16:00:53.615-05:00Stealing Jesus: to claim, or not to claim, my Christian heritage?So - working in a synagogue has given me new perspective on the value of scripture, heritage and tradition. Although I briefly thought of myself as an atheist after leaving the United Methodist Church I was raised in, God has never really been far from my heart, and certainly has never been far from my mind - I'm for all intents and purposes obsessed with theological reflection. I once had a UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-39363367738967250382013-02-04T13:05:00.000-05:002013-02-16T23:13:20.227-05:00Sports and Spirituality, or "GO RAVENS!"I am not much of a sports fan. And although basketball - and to a slightly lesser extent, football - played a role in my youth, I have always been more of an "arts & humanities" lover than a sports fan. As a kid, I would almost always prefer to play than to watch a sport. In school, kickball was the most popular game, and I was pretty good at it! My father played basketball, and I think my UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-11840326968057201442013-01-25T07:51:00.001-05:002014-02-01T21:56:40.506-05:00Time for WonderWhen I started working in DC, I decided to use my 90- to 120-minute journey (each way) as productively as I could. I would have so much time available for reading, writing, and meditation. At first, being a newly minted commuter, I tried hard to pay attention to my surroundings, and landmarks. Everything was fresh and new to me, and because I have to make two connections, I wanted to avoid UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-59345155784253903402012-05-30T17:58:00.000-04:002012-05-30T19:31:46.016-04:00Sunshine in my Soul: My reaction to "Ain't No Homos Gonna Make It To Heaven"When I was a kid, I can remember going to church and doing lots of things that made the adults in the congregation ooh and aah with delight. My siblings and I played in a hand-bell choir, we sang or played instruments, we ushered, put on plays, served food on Mothers' Day, and did tons of other things, participating fully in the life of The Church. Many years before all that, in a different UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-10566898365032881072011-12-24T16:55:00.001-05:002012-05-30T22:21:26.440-04:00formspring question: What holiday traditions do you and your family celebrate?
This time of year my partner and I celebrate the Winter Solstice at home. Then we celebrate Christmas together with each of our families. I am thinking about observing Kwanzaa; I also plan to be more intentional about observing the natural cycle of seasons. My favorite holidays are Thanksgiving and Passover!
Ask me anything cultural, especially about language, music, sexuality, religion and UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-64701275892745136742011-12-22T14:41:00.002-05:002011-12-22T14:44:32.840-05:00How I came to celebrate the winter solsticeWinter and I have never quite succeeded in getting along with each other. Every year, the days grow noticeably shorter. The temperature drops. Everything slows down except such year-round obligations as, say, going to work and paying bills. Included among the things that slow down are my energy and the capacity to deal with all the things that seem to speed up in comparison to my spirit’s attemptUUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-60416998644373603732011-11-24T12:12:00.001-05:002011-11-24T12:12:19.347-05:00Thanksgiving PrayerO God - Source of all, Dear Spirit of Life, We are thankful for this day of gathering, feasting and celebration; for the opportunity once again to sit and eat and be with one another. We are appreciative of all hands that made today's meal possible - those that planted, those that tended, those that harvested and prepared, those that cooked and those that served. We are grateful for the UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-68391379312085582602011-11-13T18:19:00.003-05:002011-11-17T16:16:15.473-05:00CredoI believe that Life is a process.I live in order to make progress.I am here to grow and to learn.I do not presume to know all the right answers. I believe in learning from past experience to inform the present and create the future.My choices inform me, and I learn from mistakes, moving continually into the next level of consciousness.I believe that Reason is practical, but Myth is UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7281766680051820589.post-85800106394960960962010-11-29T21:04:00.001-05:002012-05-30T22:20:22.928-04:00What's a Uvangelist?
Uvangelism is a word I first saw online maybe a decade ago on a Unitarian Universalist website called UniUniques (see http://www.uniuniques.com/Uvangelist/Uvangelism.htm). It's usually spelled UUvangelism, due to the quaint habit we UU's have of doubling the letter U in funny acronyms etc.In any case, the original word is evangel, which comes from the Greek 'εὐαγγέλιον' whose roots mean "true/UUXMNRhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08908072434424121268noreply@blogger.com0