Find Your Soul Matters Packet Here:  https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-12_sg_opening_to_joy_v2.pdf Soul Matters: Opening to Joy It’s easy to get tricked, taken for a ride, convinced that joy is a possession. Something to be opened just by us. As if it’s a holiday special delivery, waiting for us to unwrap it and keep forever. And who can blame us, … Continue reading Faith Development For All: Soul Matters: Opening to Joy

Find Your Packet Here: https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-11_sh_holding_history.pdf What Does it Mean to be a Family Holding History? My family of origin, like so many others, includes people with heritage from several parts of the world: Northern European, West African, Southeastern Native American, and Southeast Asian. This diversity of descent, and of present lived experiences, has been both … Continue reading Soulful Home for Parents & Families: What Does it Mean to be a Family Holding History?

Find Your Packet Here: https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-11_sg_holdng_history.pdf Soul Matters: Welcome to the Practice of Holding History Let’s start with the words of Parker Palmer, “Jewish teaching includes frequent reminders of the importance of a broken-open heart, as in this Hasidic tale: A disciple asks the rebbe: “Why does Torah tell us to ‘place these words upon your … Continue reading Faith Development for All: Soul Matters: Welcome to the Practice of Holding History

Find Your Packet Here: https://bbuuc.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Soulful-Home-Cultivating-Relationships.pdf Relationships ask us to answer the “who” questions: Who is in our circle of friendship? Who is not? Who makes up our family? Whose absence in our family do we notice and remember? Who were we yesterday? And who are we now, changed? These questions, pondered together, take us right … Continue reading Soulful Home for Parents & Families: What Does it Mean to be a Family Cultivating Relationship?

Find Your Packet Here:  Soul Matters: Cultivating Relationship Pandemic time is teaching us so many things about relationships. It’s undone our assumptions about work, calling into question the worth of “going into the office” and exposing how we pass most of the economic pain down to those on the so-called lowest rungs of the ladder. … Continue reading Faith Development For All: Soul Matters: Cultivating Relationship

https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-06_sh_play.pdf This month’s message is all about giving ourselves a break. As a people of the world, we will be carrying the stress of the previous pandemic year for a long time. One of the best ways to process the extra energy (angst, tension, fret) of chronic stress is through play. You would not want … Continue reading Soulful Home: June’s Message: “Let’s try a play break.”

https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-06_sg_play.pdf We all are playing. Playing it up, playing it down, trying to play fair. Playing for keeps, playing favorites, playing it safe,  sometimes too safe. He plays hardball; They’re playing house; I’m playing it by ear,  or at least learning to play it by ear. She’s tired of playing second fiddle; He’s playing right … Continue reading Soul Matters: What Does It Mean To Be A People of Play?

Find Your Packet Here: https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-05_sh_story.pdf Is yours a story-telling family? In my own family, one parent told many stories of a childhood of hijinks and near misses living in Irish Catholic, lower-working class, urban New Jersey. The other parent told almost no stories at all. Later, as an adult, that parent told me they were … Continue reading Soulful Home for Parents & Families: What Does It Mean to Be A Family of Story?

Find Your Packet Here: https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-05_sg_story.pdf Stories don’t just embellish our lives; they make and even dictate our lives. This might be the most important reminder of this month. Indeed, who of us hasn’t felt controlled by a story? Stuck in a story? Hopeless about the way our story will end up? Simply put, our stories … Continue reading Soul Matters: What Does It Mean to Be A People of Story?

Find Your Packet Here: https://www.soulmatterssharingcircle.com/uploads/9/4/5/0/94501751/sm_2021-04_sh_becoming.pdf How has becoming a parent changed you?  Likely, becoming a parent changed you in a few ways that you chose, and a lot of ways that you didn’t; the majority of the changes we encounter just sort of…happen. In the second of our two At the Bedside stories this month, … Continue reading Soulful Home for Parents & Families: What Does It Mean to Be A Family of Becoming?