“Colors of Summer” photo by Dave
Can you have too many flowers on a summer’s day? Can you have too much color? I don’t think so. A camera lens attempts to duplicate the action of the human eye, but it cannot. All you have to do is look for yourself and see. It is never-ending wonder…
Our summer concert is this week-end and we are anticipating a special night of music and food and the opening of our beautiful building to the community, especially to those who have never been inside before. A big thank-you to all the volunteers and everyone who have helped make the event happen. We’ll see you at the show!Our Sunday Service topic is “The Morgan Horse and its role in American History” with presenter Stephen Kinney.
The Morgan is America’s oldest, indigenous equine breed, originating here in New England in 1789. The horse is inseparable from American history. Our minister is assisting with the service and Rev. Dale is playing the Frisbee Organ. You may have noticed that our Youtube Channel Service with Dale Holden was unavailable last week. It is still in production and will be released soon, we promise.
YouTube Channel content for this week is a message by Bill White on the Greek philosopher Socrates and his influence on Plato and Aristotle. The talk is titled “The Gang of Three.” Bill says, “I want to share with you a look back 2,500 years ago to one of the great Greek thinkers. What was new about his thinking at the time? He never wrote a word in his lifetime, so why do we still know about him today?” One of the ideas that Bill shared is “Why These Thinkers Are Important Today.” One of our group members suggested that we include it in today’s Support Page, so here are the six points that Bill listed:
1. Their thoughts help us to know who we are.2. They share the foundation of western ideas.3. They explain the quest for human knowledge.4. They give us ideas on perfection of human knowledge (ie. Modern Science).5. They have an amazing understanding of the problems of our times.6. The basic ideas on how I ought to live.
We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.
In Ministry,Dave
Taking Suggestions
for this year’s theme starting in SeptemberWe’ll be selecting a new theme for this upcoming church year that starts with the Ingathering Service in September.This year’s theme has been “The Science of Religion and Our UU Shared Values.” If you’d like to provide some input into the process, please respond to our moderator Dale Holden at jimdale.holden@gmail.com with yourideas for a theme. The board will select the new theme at our next board meeting on August 11th. We’ll keep you posted.
Unitarian Concert Series:
Gunther BrownAugust 9 Saturday Night 7PMOn the Sanctuary StageThe Gunther Brown Concert is tonight! The band has been back in the rehearsal studio jamming and cramming getting ready for the show and you won’t want to miss the band back on stage. They’ve taken a multi-year hiatus and they’re knocking off the rust, tho Pete’s voice is still as gritty as heavy sandpaper (that hasn’t changed). We’re billing this as the “Gunther Brown One Night Only Reunion Tour” in Houlton, Maine. Tickets are still available, but get them now!! We’d like to fill the concert hall, so bring a friend, share the posts and publicity, buy an extra ticket and give it away (whatever). You can find music videos of the band on The Cup Cafe Facebook Page…check them out.
Concessions will be available during intermission both upstairs and downstairs. Our two menu items featured are berrymisu and gourmet lemon squares from Joyce Transue in the cafe kitchen. You might have to try one of each.And our feature drink at the espresso bar is the “Gunther Brown Swampland,” a latte blend of Irish Cream, chocolate and two shots of espresso. Gunther Brown fans may recognize Swampland as a song off the North Wind album. You gotta try it! We’ll give you a real deal on some swampland.
See you at the show!!
Menu @the Show
Berrymisu (like tiramisu but with berries)Gourmet Lemon SquaresHomemade cookiesDrink Special: Gunther Brown Swampland
Tickets are available at The County Co-Op & Farm Store in downtown Houlton
and online at uuhoulton.org
THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:
HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE
(Please note it won’t be active until 10AM on Sunday morning)
HERE IS THE ZOOM LINK FOR SUNDAY COFFEE HOUR:
Topic: UUHoulton zoom coffee hour & check-inTime: Aug 10, 2025 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/85189312957?pwd=gRMTcTrq7oo80UirTXXRrJ7y2YwgmL.1
Meeting ID: 851 8931 2957Passcode: 606989
Calendar of Events @UUHoultonAug 9 Gunther Brown Concert 7PMAug 10 Sunday Service: Stephen KinneyAug 11 UUHoulton Board Meeting 4PM in the parlorAug 16 LGBTQ+ Luncheon at NoonAug 16 Restore Meeting in the cafe 2PMAug 16 Houlton Coffeehouse 7PMAug 17 Sunday Service: Open-Pulpit ServiceAug 24 Sunday Service: David HutchinsonAug 31 Sunday Service: Open-Pulpit ServiceSept 7 Ingathering Service led by David Hutchinson (followed by a bbq and pot-luck on the church grounds)
Summer, Afternoon
BY ALVIN FEINMANThis this will it always be, and why
To ever argue for: here walking
In its life, or sprawled, or loitering
Down shallow valleys of the lawn:
The trees that are there
The pigeon bobbing through
Its fallowgray ellipse of ground—
The comfort of this ground
Is physical: the sun
Goes through your shirt like liniment,
The tilting
Child in fact now finding
Its first step, the blue balloon, the string
Of ducks drawn through the pond,
The twined twain, the air that hears
The day’s gamegame, and where
Up through the cross-rack oak
Deep gladed lofts of leaf, green
Overtaking green and light and green
Array and hold
Their silent chord,
To where the vergemost
Quibble at clear nothing—there
Is not a purer ledge of opening; nothing
Here is not enough to be without
All need to ever argue for.
Alvin Feinman was born in 1929 in the East New York area of Brooklyn. His parents were Litvak Jews who emigrated from Eastern Europe to the United States before World War I. His family spoke Yiddish at home. Feinman was educated at Brooklyn College, the University of Chicago, and Yale University.
Feinman was revered for his teaching but also for his sole poetry collection, Preambles and Other Poems, (1964), which would be reissued, along with a handful of additional work, as Poems (1990). When Preambles appeared, critics including Conrad Aiken, Allen Tate, R.W.B. Lewis, and Harold Bloom—a friend of Feinman’s dating back to their graduate years at Yale—praised the book. “The best of Alvin Feinman’s poetry is as good as anything by a twentieth-century American,” Bloom said. “His work achieves the greatness of the American sublime.” Bloom devoted a section of his book The Ringers in the Tower (1971) to Feinman, comparing him to Hart Craneand Wallace Stevens, as well as a chapter in Possessed by Memory, published a few months before Bloom’s death in 2019.
Feinman’s poetry is metaphysically dense and lyrically ravishing, exploring how the mind makes meaning through, with, and despite language. In part because he published so sparsely, Feinman remained little read and largely unknown when he died in 2008.
The posthumous Corrupted into Song: The Complete Poems of Alvin Feinman(Princeton UP, 2016) was edited by his widow, Deborah Dorfman. “Alvin Feinman’s poems are perhaps the purest evidence of the extinction of personality T.S. Eliot believed was one of poetry’s necessities,” the poet Michael Collier writes of Corrupted into Song, “as an aspiration, extinction of personality is as dangerously thrilling as being exposed to a siren’s song. As an achievement, Feinman’s exquisite, visionary poems, tied to the mast of their own making, allow us to behold fierce, unyielding perceptions.”
Feinman taught at Bennington College from 1969 to 1994. He died in 2008.
Resilience: Self-Care for Tough Times
BY SHAUNA SHAPIRO|
Shauna Shapiro explains how to face difficult emotions, re-center, and find calm.
All of us can feel the impact of these uncertain and challenging times on our hearts and in our nervous systems. While there are parts of our current crisis that we cannot control, that doesn’t mean we’re powerless. When we’re up against change, uncertainty, and stress, resilience is the key to navigating life and emerging with more happiness and satisfaction.
We can cultivate resilience through the practices of mindfulness and compassion. This is the miracle of neuroplasticity—what you practice grows stronger. We can carve out pathways of greater clarity, courage, and compassion through practice.
The five steps below help us face difficult emotions, re-center, and find calm. These steps don’t have to be done perfectly. Think direction, not destination. The key is practice.
Meditation
1. NAME IT TO TAME IT
It’s helpful to remember that our emotions are here for a reason. They often serve as a smoke alarm, letting us know about an impending fire. When we ignore or repress our emotions, it can lead to bigger problems.
Mindfulness teaches us a different way to manage difficult emotions—to acknowledge and name what we feel. This is called “name it to tame it.” Research shows that when we acknowledge and name our emotions it allows the body to physiologically calm down. Naming an emotion puts the brakes on your reactivity, down-regulates the nervous system, and allows you to see clearly.
2. WELCOME YOUR EMOTIONS
Emotions have a limited time span, typically lasting for only thirty to ninety seconds. They arise, do their dance, and pass away, just like waves in the ocean. When we remember that this painful feeling will not last forever, it becomes more manageable.
Through practice, we can learn to welcome all of our emotions with an attitude of kindness and curiosity. This involves becoming interested in the emotion and the felt experience in the body. For example, you may feel sadness as a tightening in your throat, or fear as a contraction in your belly. All emotions have a signature in the body.
3. BE KIND TO YOURSELF
Self-compassion is not our typical response when we’re facing a challenge, have made a mistake, or are in pain. All too often, instead of kindness, we judge, shame, and criticize ourselves. But self-judgment and shame aren’t helpful. They actually shut down the learning centers of the brain and inhibit our ability to heal, change, and grow.
The antidote is self-compassion, learning to bring kindness to our pain. The easiest way to practice it is to treat ourselves as we would treat a dear friend facing a similar situation. The willingness to face the pain in ourselves and in life takes great courage. As we practice self-compassion, we learn not only to grow from our own struggles and sorrows, but also to connect with the suffering of others.
4. RECOGNIZE OUR COMMON HUMANITY
It’s natural to be feeling fearful and overwhelmed at this time. We’re not alone in our feelings. There are many others right now all over the world who are also frightened and overwhelmed. As we recognize our common humanity, our isolation begins to lessen, and we understand that we’re all in this together. It can be helpful to send compassion to both yourself and everyone else who is suffering.
5. PRACTICE, NOT PERFECT
The fifth step is to realize that you won’t do any of the first four steps perfectly. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about practice. Small changes lead to big shifts. In fact, one of the most important discoveries in brain science—neuroplasticity—shows that the brain has the ability to make new neural connections throughout life. This is a very hopeful message because it means that all of us have the capacity to change, heal, and grow. Perfection isn’t possible, but transformation is.
Shauna Shapiro, PhD, is a professor at Santa Clara University. Her most recent book is Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Brain for Calm, Clarity, and Joy.Photos of Bill and friends after last week’s service:
Joyce & Dave sharing the birthday trophy
Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal change
Pray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nation
The war in Ukraine continues
Prayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza
Prayers for those affected by recent governmental (and policy) changes in DC
Prayers for those affected by the tragic airliner crash in India
Prayers for Peace in the Middle East
Prayers for those affected by the floods in Texas
Prayers for those affected by the Catholic Church bombing in Gaza
(There are many Muslim mosques that have been bombed as well)
Prayers for those affected by the fires in the Grand Canyon
The Four Limitless Ones Prayer
May all sentient beings enjoy happiness and the root of happiness.
May we be free from suffering and the root of suffering.
May we not be separated from the great happiness devoid of suffering.
May we dwell in the great equanimity free from anger, aggression and delusion.
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