For the most part, I believe that New Year’s Day is just another day and that marking it as a day of resolutions or notable annual change is a societal construct that doesn’t work well for me. I mostly believe that resolutions are premeditated ways to feel guilt and shame in about a month when

“Have The Christmas That You’ll Have.” This has become one of my signature phrases. My friends quote me and say it back to me when needed. It has been amended to “have the holiday you will have,” “have the birthday you will have,” “have the family that you’ll have” and more.  It comes from a

When I was a little girl, my mom would put us to bed on Christmas Eve in our fanciest Christmas dresses. She’d wake us up in the middle of the night and tuck us in the car to go to Midnight Christmas Eve service at our local Episcopalian church. I remember the sensations of being

In the Christian calendar, we are in the season of Advent. I love the concept of Advent–the time of waiting for the world to change and also a celebration of some of our greatest ideals–faith, hope, love and joy.   During Christian services, they light a candle each Sunday for each week–and each principle–of Advent. I

We are living in interesting times as a Unitarian Universalist denomination. Our presidential nominating committee just nominated Rev. Dr. Sofia Betancourt as the candidate for our denomination’s next president, succeeding Susan Frederick-Gray, the previous called minister to UUCP. This congregation has a special connection with this position and Rev. Betancourt is a powerful leader who

You are receiving Compass this week on the day that falls on Thanksgiving. Some people love Thanksgiving–they love the food, the family gatherings, the football and the gratitude that it inspires. Some people have a real challenge with the origin of Thanksgiving and the false story that it perpetuates about the “cooperation” between the indigenous