April 7, 2024

Eclipse RockEclipse ’24 is here! We’ve worked hard to get ready and now it’s here…We weren’t expecting snow to be a part of the event, but sometimes that’s how it goes. There are lots of great events going on in Houlton and at UUHoulton so pace yourself and participate in as many as possible for a memorable eclipse weekend. Our Sunday service will be in the sanctuary at 10AM with special music on the Frisbee organ by Rev. Dale Holden, guest musician Bertrand Laurence and an eclipse themed EarthCare service titled “Our Shared Planet.” Check out the listing of other events in the Eclipse ’24 section of today’s Support Page. 

YouTube Channel content for this week is our Easter Service; Dale plays the Frisbee Organ for our opening prelude, there is a Children’s talk, an adult talk and special music from the Unitunes. The title of the homily is “Easter Eclipse.” 

We hope you can join us for one of the services. 

In Ministry,

Dave

Eclipse ’24

ECLIPSE ’24 IS HERE!!

UU Volunteers on the final push to Eclipse lift-off!

The gang is well fed by the kitchen crew

…gotta have whoopee pies! 

Big install of Eclipse Rock

THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE:

HERE IS THE SERVICE LINK FOR THIS WEEK’S YOUTUBE SERVICE

NO ZOOM COFFEE HOUR THIS WEEK

Calendar of Events @UUHoultonApril 5-8 UUHoulton Eclipse Fair  (see events on church website) April 7Sunday Service: Eclipse Service in the SanctuaryApril 8 Totality Solar Eclipse April 9 Meditation Group  4PM    (online) April 13 LGBTQ+ luncheon    12 noonApril 13 Houlton Coffeehouse   7PMApril 14 Sunday Service:  Randi Bradbury & Ira DyerApril 21 Sunday Service:  David Hutchinson  (Earth Day Service)April 23    Meditation Group    4PM     (online)April 28 Sunday Service:  Jodi Scott     

Virtual Offering Plate
If you would like to send in your pledge or donation simply drop an envelope in the mail. The address is listed below.  You can also send your donation electronically with our new payment system on the church website.  Simply go to uuhoulton.org and click “Donate” on the menu and it will explain how the system works. You can set up a regular monthly payment plan or donate in single transactions.  Thank you for your generous support!  
UU Church of Houlton

61 Military Street

How to Move Forward Once You’ve Hit Bottom

BY PEMA CHÖDRÖN

Pema Chödrön tells the story of when, having hit rock bottom, she asked her teacher what to do.

I thought I would tell you this little story about Naropa University’s founder, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, and my very first one-on-one interview with him. This interview occurred during the time when my life was completely falling apart, and I went there because I wanted to talk about the fact that I was feeling like such a failure and so raw.

But when I sat down in front of him, he said, “How is your meditation?”

I said, “Fine.”

And then we just started talking, superficial chatter, until he stood up and said, “It was very nice to meet you,” and started walking me to the door. In other words, the interview was over.

And so at that point, realizing the interview was over, I just blurted out my whole story:

My life is over.

I have hit the bottom.

I don’t know what to do.

Please help me.

And here is the advice Trungpa Rinpoche gave me. He said, “Well, it’s a lot like walking into the ocean, and a big wave comes and knocks you over. And you find yourself lying on the bottom with sand in your nose and in your mouth. And you are lying there, and you have a choice. You can either lie there, or you can stand up and start to keep walking out to sea.”

So, basically, you stand up, because the “lying there” choice equals dying.

Metaphorically lying there is what a lot of us choose to do at that point. But you can choose to stand up and start walking, and after a while another big wave comes and knocks you down.

You find yourself at the bottom of the ocean with sand in your nose and sand in your mouth, and again you have the choice to lie there or to stand up and start walking forward.

“So the waves keep coming,” he said. “And you keep cultivating your courage and bravery and sense of humor to relate to this situation of the waves, and you keep getting up and going forward.”

This was his advice to me.

Trungpa then said, “After a while, it will begin to seem to you that the waves are getting smaller and smaller. And they won’t knock you over anymore.”

That is good life advice.

It isn’t that the waves stop coming; it’s that because you train in holding the rawness of vulnerability in your heart, the waves just appear to be getting smaller and smaller, and they don’t knock you over anymore.

“Fail better” means you begin to have the ability to hold what I call “the rawness of vulnerability” in your heart.

So what I’m saying is: fail. Then fail again, and then maybe you start to work with some of the things I’m saying. And when it happens again, when things don’t work out, you fail better. In other words, you are able to work with the feeling of failure instead of shoving it under the rug, blaming it on somebody else, coming up with a negative self-image—all of those futile strategies.

“Fail better” means you begin to have the ability to hold what I call “the rawness of vulnerability” in your heart, and see it as your connection with other human beings and as a part of your humanness. Failing better means when these things happen in your life, they become a source of growth, a source of forward, a source of, “out of that place of rawness you can really communicate genuinely with other people.”

Your best qualities come out of that place because it’s unguarded and you’re not shielding yourself. Failing better means that failure becomes a rich and fertile ground instead of just another slap in the face. That’s why, in the Trungpa Rinpoche story that I shared, the waves that are knocking you down begin to appear smaller and have less and less of an ability to knock you over. And actually maybe it is the same wave, maybe it’s even a bigger wave than the one that hit last year, but it appears to you smaller because of your ability to swim with it or ride the wave.

And it isn’t that failure doesn’t still hurt. I mean, you lose people you love. All kinds of things happen that break your heart, but you can hold failure and loss as part of your human experience and that which connects you with other people.

Adapted from Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown by Pema Chodron. Copyright © 2015 by Pema Chodron. 

Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal changePray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nationThe war in Ukraine continues

Prayers for those in Palestine and Israel as the war continues into its fifth monthPrayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in GazaPrayers for those affected by the earthquake this week in TaiwanPrayers for those affected by the earthquake in New Jersey and east coast yesterday

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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