Finding our Anchors Within

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May 13, 2020

Beloveds,

This week, my head is spinning, as I continue to grapple with the rapidly changing environment of both the science of Covid-19 and the government policies that also by necessity take into account economic and social realities. For a laugh, check out this video, and you’ll get a glimpse into my brain, and perhaps yours too!

Each of us is making daily decisions about how to live our lives in a rapidly changing and sometimes contradictory environment.  When is it OK to go out?  Gloves or no gloves? Can I take a run without a mask? Such constant external change and shifting messages is exhausting, so please do go easy on yourselves.  The fatigue, the brain fog is real, and your best bet is to honor your body’s messages and go at a pace you can sustain.  

How does one find and keep one’s center when the rhythms of our external lives have been disheveled?  Certainly, developing new patterns that help anchor you is important.  The time I’m not driving kids around is now recouped for a more intentional quiet start to my day. And my daughter and I have started doing a yoga video every afternoon  – we are on Day 46!

But the one big spiritual lesson of this time may be learning to loosen our hold on seeking security in our exterior environment, and finding our anchors within.  One approach to this is affirmations. Affirmations are an ancient spiritual practice — especially within Buddhism.  They reorient the mind towards right-relationship and right action. 

In all activities, train with slogans.

Atisha Dipankara

 In the 11th century Atisha Dipankara brought the complete bodhichitta teaching from India to Tibet. After his death, they were kept secret until the 12th century, when Tibetan Geshe Chekawa organized them into 59 slogans. In Pema Chodron’s book The Places that Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times, she helps make these ancient teachings even more accessible to a western audience.  (I highly recommend that book for these times.)

Kelly LoGuidice offered these affirmations for the time of Covid-19 to our office manager Carol, who shared them with me. I found their sentiments quite powerful. You may want to develop your own affirmations as well, and repeat them daily.  

Beloveds, let’s remember that even though we are physically distanced, we are in this together.  There are many ways to reach out for support, and the Fellowship will be here for you through this, and beyond. 

Practicalities 

Connecting via Zoom 

We continue to keep our community together through Zoom. 

All Fellowship Sunday Services can be found at:  https://uuma.zoom.us/j/993783355

or call in at: 1-346-248-7799 Meeting ID: 993 783 355

There is also a link on the home page of the Fellowship website.

Meetings with me will be on my personal zoom link. If you get stuck, remember that the meeting IDs for meetings with me are the same as my cell phone number.  

All School of the Spirit events can be found at: https://zoom.us/j/552956886  

Check out our Fellowship google calendar for all our activities. 

For security reasons (who wants a Zoom-bomber in the middle of a covenant group?) we will no longer be putting these zoom links on our Fellowship calendar. If it is helpful, you can bookmark them on your browser. 

Sunday Services

Sunday Services on Zoom are our primary way to gather the whole community together. 

Starting May 24th, our services will start at 10 am, with a 9:55 am tech talk. 

This Sunday . . .Karin Griglak and Irene Faivre will lead us in a service entitled:  We are still ourselves on this side of a Threshold.   While many of us have been staying home for these last several months in order to” flatten the curve,” it is easy to feel like we’ve lost ourselves on this side of the threshold. As I was watching the movie “Hook,” I realized that we may feel like the older Peter Banning, stuck where we are and lost to the magical people we were. Please join with us as we explore how to reconnect to our Peter Pan and the promise of the future.

Next Sunday, Rev. Lydia and Pete Wernick will be leading a service entitled: “Layers of Loss”  For this year’s Memorial Day service, we’ll be exploring the complex grief that accompanies war losses.  What similarities and differences are there between war losses and the immense loss of life we are experiencing now in this pandemic?  What are the lessons of loss?

Office Hours and Packing/Moving time


My upcoming Zoom office hours are:

  • Tues. May 19 2:30 — 4 pm
  • Wed. May 20 7 — 8:30 pm

This time can be used for personal meetings as well.  If we are chatting and someone else joins in, I’ll let them know I’ll text them when our time is complete. 

I won’t be taking appointments the week of May 25 — 31 so I can continue to sort through my home office books and materials and organize my Fellowship office.  

Our Fellowship Building

In these confusing Covid-19 times, the Fellowship’s Covid Response team is continuing to navigate these confusing times, sifting through new information every week.

Protocols have been developed for us to safely unpack the pods outside  using family groupings within the next few weeks.  What we are able to do inside with groups will depend upon how our HVAC system is configured.  We expect to learn more about that this week. On or about May 25, the CO Department of Public Health will have enough data from the “Safer at Home” order to be able to make decisions on the nexts steps for the entire state.  We continue to closely monitor the state and county public health notices.    

Please remember that “Safer at Home” still recommends that vulnerable populations stay at home as much as possible.  

Some Offerings to consider

Please do stay connected!  Don’t let physical distancing lead to social isolation.  Check out the BVUUF Calendar to see all we are offering. 

Here’s some options to consider:

Mist Ari’s Morning Merriment: Monday through Friday 9:30 — 10 am Keep connected with all your BVUUF preschool friends and Mist Ari every weekday morning!

Poetry Night: Join Rev. Lydia on Thursday, May 14 from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for a contemplative evening of sharing using poetry. Rev. Lydia will provide a poem for us to dive into, based on the SoulMatters theme of Thresholds. There will be time for personal journaling or drawing, followed by small group sharing. (These events used to be called “Deepening the Conversation,” and are based on the work of Parker Palmer).

Longmont Unitarian Universalist Presence (LUUP) Online Dinner Church: Friday Night, May 15,  6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Grab your meal, put your feet up, and join with other UUs. All are always welcome to join this evening of ritual and eating together. The LUUP dinner church is an opportunity for a multigenerational community to share a meal and meaning-making rituals. Each time we gather, we explore questions and do an activity around a theme. The experience is interactive and accessible to people of many ages, even online.  Every first and third Friday night.

External Links

If you are experiencing economic hardship, here’s a link for Help for workers in CO during COVID-19  

Interfaith Alliance has developed an extensive list of community resources for those impacted by COVID-19.  

Recommended links for online, reputable sources for more information:

Please use reputable websites for accurate information including the 

These websites often link to other sites they have vetted and consider accurate.  

Here are two additional resources you may find helpful: