STONE CAIRNS?

Ever wonder what Stone Cairns are all about?

They show the people who arrive after, that someone has been there before and built something to make the world a better place. They mark the way to provide a direction for the future. They have foundations and often are built upon by the later people.

March is a time when members choose to participate in building our foundation to sustain a bigger and better future.

March is Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church’s time of generous giving through pledge promises for the next fiscal year, which starts this July 1.

Each donation is a chance to save lives through social justice, connection, and love. By pledging, we are able to ensure that liberal religion lasts in Charlotte and Salisbury, NC. With your financial support, we can teach our children, feed the hungry, welcome the oppressed, nurture each other and grow…

Sunday, March 2, we formally launch the pledge drive-making an announcement during the services, giving out stickers to those who have pre-pledged, handing out a trifold brochure insert to the Order of Service, and emailing all members that they have a choice this year on how to make their pledge.

Easiest for us and you is using the online pledge form at www.puuc.org/give.html for the 2014-15 year. Or you can email stewardship@puuc.org with your amount, how you often you will pay and any contact changes. You can go the old route; filling out a paper pledge form, found during the services on a back table. In Charlotte, they will be next to the Generosity Box on the back counter, where you can submit your paper form for the next few weeks. Lastly, you can turn in your pledge at the March 21 and 22 Piedmont UU Church Connects dinner, where we will celebrate our thriving community. Those who have pre pledged are included.

AND this year, there will be no pledge packages mailed to you. Just an email Sunday or Monday, inviting you to choose “How Would You Like to Pledge?" You can let us know if you want a canvass visit or phone call or None of the Above! There will be a link to the pledge form and the stewardship Co chair email address to make pledging so so easy.

Pledge of financial support is a duty of membership and a means to deepening your spirituality. We hope that PUUC is an appreciated priority in your lives.

In the next few days, think about how big a stone you will add to our cairn and then let us know.

Thank you for your generosity.

Stewardship Committee Co Chairs
Lisa Dickinson and Jim Woolsey

PS Watch for the Stone Cairn Thermometer of Pledges.

Spiritually Speaking: Breaking Into Beauty

I do not speak of beauty as something soft and enjoyable. To me, beauty is that which startles the soul back to reality, the real stuff of cold winds and brilliant sun rises, of loss and love, of despair and hope reborn. Beauty is not that which is pleasing to the eye or ear that is simply pretty. No, beauty is startling to the soul.

The poet Rainer Maria Rilke captures the fear of beauty with his words,

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us.
Every angel is terrible 

Several months ago, I pulled into the main driveway at our University Gathering just about dusk. The sun was at the perfect position to make everything a little hazy so I squinted as I searched for a spot. Then I saw them. Right next to the playground there were two huge bucks standing beside each other. Their antlers easily spanned four feet apiece. I hit the brakes and stared. A little shot of terror ran through me. And then, as you might expect they bolted realizing the Subaru in front of them had an occupant.

I’ve thought since that day, why was I afraid of those deer? In reflecting, the fear wasn’t about them so much as it was about the moment. The suddenness was startling. Here were these majestic creatures standing oddly beside a playground and just steps away from our church. They were gorgeous- muscular, steady and serene (well until they bolted). I had been running through a to-do list as I was parking my car searching for the open spot. The beauty of these beasts startled me back into reality.

It was as if they said, “Here look here. Life is fragile and hard and beautiful. You are so busy looking at the ground and details. Here-look up.”

Beauty startles us into a new awareness. 

It is deeply concerning that often our first budget cuts in local municipalities and schools are in the arts. Though I can’t paint much more than a stick figure and some sunshine, I grew up in a school that still valued the arts. We listened to music, tried to create our own, were encouraged to write and read poetry alongside painting and drawing. Looking back, I believe my early education was training me to search for beauty in our world.

I hope our community is a place where we can learn to search for beauty. This month as part of our theme-based ministry, we will especially focus on beauty: how to search for beauty and what wisdom the beautiful teaches us.

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.”

― Ralph Waldo Emerson, Emerson's Essays

In faith,
Rev. Robin

Congregational Care

There may be a time in our lives when we need some help. It can take a lot of courage to reach out and ask. But if and when something happens to you, the Care Council wants to set the gears in motion to provide what assistance we can. In order to do that, we need your help.

Have you ever had a medical procedure that required a driver to take you home? These can be simple things like dental work requiring an anesthetic, or a colonoscopy, glaucoma surgery or a number of other common surgeries. I’m wondering if you ever returned home after a crisis, or the death of a loved one, to stand alone in the kitchen late at night with a bowl of cold cereal. What if you’re exhausted from caregiving, or feeling frightened and alone after losing a job, or perhaps the loss of a beloved pet who may be your best friend? How about those times of joy, a marriage, a birth or adoption, or a special birthday?

We on the Care Council are asking for your help in providing transportation once in a while, or to make a supportive a phone call; perhaps a casserole, or a hearty bowl of soup for someone who could use a comforting meal. The heartwarming joy of receiving a card or an email that simply says, “I’m thinking about you because I care,” is boundless and enduring.

Please join us in our mission of caring for each other by contacting one of the Congregational Care Council members, Anne Laukaitis, Nancy DeLux, or Michelle Murphy. Sign-up sheets are also available on the back counter.

Thank you for being a part of our caring community!

I tried knitting once.

I tried knitting once.  Mom helped me by casting on the first row.

Krista Tippett’s guest on February 16th was Ann Hamilton who teaches art at Ohio State University.  She recalled sitting with her Grandmother who would read to her while Ann was knitting.  Ann spoke of the tactile sensation of another’s voice while the knitted medium of her own handiwork was accreting under her hands (like the slow building of land in the bend of flowing water).  Music touches me that way, as does the sound of Robin’s voice as she leads us in meditation.  I never did finish that scarf.  I think that Mom raveled it to make a woolen sock.

Much of what we experience is similar to knitting or crocheting.  It is the small things in life that accumulate to become the whole fabric of our life and experience.  Each small loop, each knit and purl across a row, each row after row and soon we have a scarf.  In the same way, the contribution of time, of talent and treasure by each of us, all connected together creates the warm rainbow security blanket for our church family.  It keeps the lights on and it keeps the voice of Reverend Robin reaching out to touch one and all .

Canvas time is here again and this year I used the Piedmont UU Church website to submit our family pledge.  It was simple and easy to use.  It feels good to know that my contribution along with yours is making a difference.  Many of us are on fixed incomes or limited salaries.  However even smaller pledges add up when given by many of us.  Simply go to www.puuc.org and click on the “give” tab to access the 2014-2015 pledge form.  Fill it out and press “Submit”.

Happy Knitting to all, 
Karl

Moral March in Raleigh Photos