Flower Communion Sunday

Our traditional flower communion service will be held in the sanctuary this Sunday, June 2nd at 10AM. The service includes special music for the occasion, welcoming new members and our flower communion followed by a potluck cookout at Betty and Bill White’s home in Ludlow. (Directions are listed below.) Please bring a fresh cut flower to contribute to the ritual. 

This Unitarian tradition originated in 1923 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Dr. Norbert Capek asked his parishioners to bring and receive flowers as a symbol of their shared life as a spiritual community. We are especially excited to welcome seven new members to UUHoulton. Please come and join us for this special service. Our spiritual community of long-time and new friends is a marvelous garden of variety and beauty. Each one of us has a special place in the garden. We are also continuing our flower communion tradition of “Flashy Shirt and Splashy Skirt Day.” Wear something fun! (Bow ties are always welcome.) The YouTube Channel content for this week 

is a service with Rev. Dale Holden which includes several themes; Memorial Day, Pentecost, aspects of spirit and lots and lots of music. The title of the message is “GUS” which is an acronym for “Great Universal Spirit.”  You will find the link for YouTube listed below. Please join us for one of the services this weekend. 

June is here!!

In Ministry,Dave

UUHoulton Cookout at the White’sJune 2 following the serviceCome and join us for a potluck cookout at Betty and Bill White’s home in Ludlow after the service. Please bring something to share for the potluck and there will be a grill available in case you’d like to cook some meats, veggies or kabobs. You might also want to bring a comfy portable chair and don’t forget the bug spray! The forecast looks good.  All are welcome and encouraged to come. You will find the address listed below for your travel app.
See  you there!!!

Directions: 
Take Ludow Road at the Walmart intersection and follow it (approximately) 10 miles south. 1849 Ludlow Road will be on your right. 
Betty & Bill White1849 Ludlow RoadLudlow, Maine
phone:  207-521-0015cell:  616-706-8876

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)

THERE IS NO ZOOM COFFEE HOUR THIS WEEK DUE TO OUR COOKOUT.ZOOM COFFEE HOUR WILL RETURN NEXT WEEK…

Calendar of Events @UUHoulton

June 2 Flower Communion Service     David Hutchinson New Members Recognition Sunday Potluck BBQ Party following the service at Betty & Bill White’s 

June 9 Sunday Service: Randi Bradbury & Ira Dyer

June 11 Meditation Group  4PM  (online)

June 15 Aroostook Pride Event in Presque Isle  (details to come)

June 15 Houlton Coffeehouse:   Janice Santos

June 16 Sunday Service:  Jodi Scott

June 23 Sunday Service:  MaryAlice Mowry   (LGBTQ+ pride service)

June 25 Meditation Group  4PM   (online)June 30 Sunday Service: David Hutchinson

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 aka U.S. Route 2, Houlton, ME 04730

Poetry Corner

The Life of Flowers Dave Hutchinson

Stepping out the back doorin the early days of Junethe lush field of long green grassis splashed with bursts of yellowunder deep blue sky.

These common flowers are the mass majority of the colorscapeoutnumbering the modestly dispensedreds, blues, oranges and whites.
The human eye is one more colorin the field.Eye lids wide openWe seeWe contemplateWe view the full expanse of our gaze.
The flower does not exist for next week.The flower does not exist for last week.It exists for the short duration of the days at hand.
It is yellow.It is red.It is light pink.
Open your eyes and see.Open your heart and touch the life of flowers.

Grow Your Mindfulness in the Garden

BY CHERYL WILFONG|  MAY 24, 2023

Cheryl Wilfong on how to practice the four foundations of mindfulness in the garden.

What better place to practice mindfulness than in the garden? In the garden, we can let go of what others think of us, let go of trying to please other people, let go of judging our every action. Our flowers do not judge us. We can settle into our authentic selves. We’re home—our hearts are home.
Practicing mindfulness, we don’t need to improve our garden in any way. We are ordinary gardeners with ordinary gardens, and we’re doing the very best we can, given our resources of time, money, and other commitments. Let’s embrace the ordinary beauty in our backyard. Let’s tune into that happiness. Mindfulness is a forget-me-not reminding us to be here now.

The garden is an excellent sanctuary in which to wake up from the delusion we all live in.

The four foundations of mindfulness stake out the corners of our meditation garden. These practices of body, feelings, mind, and dhammas lead to the awakening of our heart-mind to the beauty all around us, even in difficult times.

While pruning bushes or raking leaves or planting seeds, settle into the body. This is first foundation of mindfulness. Perhaps we are familiar with mindfulness of the body from practicing breath meditation, walking meditation, or body scans. But in the garden, when we are in motion and doing lots of tasks, it’s easy to lose track of what the body is doing. Try simply being aware of each posture. By saying the labels aloud, you remind yourself of what you’re doing: walking from the flower bed to the compost pile; standing while you are watering a flowerbed; or bending over while you are weeding.

As you deadhead your flowers, you can practice the five daily reflections of aging, illness, death, impermanence, and karma. Say to yourself, “This flower is of the nature to grow old and die.” Notice the body walking to the compost bin. Pause for a moment and contemplate the life cycle of compost. Here today, gone tomorrow. Next year, new life springs forth. It’s a mystery.

Next, we move on to the second foundation of mindfulness, feelings, by which is meant mood or hedonic tone—not emotions. Go stand in one of your flowerbeds. How do you feel? Pleasant? Unpleasant? Or neutral? No need to go wandering off into story right now. Just, how do you feel? Accept the first word that comes to mind. No need to judge the answer. We’re scientists collecting data in this moment. There are no wrong answers.

Perhaps body and feelings, the first two foundations of mindfulness, are sufficient practices for you. Any one of the four foundations leads to awakening; you need choose only one. But analytic types tend to enjoy the third foundation: the mind. Watching the shenanigans of that rascal is a slippery object of meditation.

We begin our analysis of the mind by noticing the three roots of stress—greed, aversion, and delusion. If you like typologies, this is a very useful one. The so-called greedy type of person wants more of the pleasant; the so-called aversive type wants less of the unpleasant; and the deluded type (which is all of us) is confused by this idea.

Walk around your garden and again label everything your eyes land on as pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral. But this time, notice which category gets the most hits. Keep the judging mind at bay. You simply want to see if you’re tending toward greed, aversion, or delusion, because in that way you’ll know which antidote to apply. That is, you’ll know which practice will especially benefit your mind, making it more flexible.

Practice generosity for the greedy type, loving-kindness for the aversive type, and wisdom for the delusional type. Generosity might mean giving away bouquets of your flowers or giving your time to help a friend in her garden. Loving-kindness is something we can practice in every step, watering our minds with loving-kindness and goodwill. Wisdom comes from reading dharma books or articles and by surrounding ourselves with spiritual friends who keep us on the path, especially when our unkind habits of mind want to take us into the ditch. With these practices, we let go of the well-worn habits of mind.

Another helpful use for the greedy, aversive, and delusional typology is that these types lead us toward the recognition that the five hindrances prevent our minds from flowering with mindfulness and goodwill. The five hindrances are sense desire, ill-will, laziness, restlessness, and doubt. Sense desire wants more and better—more and better flowers, gardens, vegetables. Ill-will notices what’s wrong with the garden and is quick to judge the gardener. Laziness intends to garden or meditate but doesn’t get around to it. Restlessness includes anxiety, worry, and distraction. Doubt doesn’t trust the mind, the garden, or the gardener, so we doubt that we’re gardening properly.

Finally, we practice the fourth foundation of mindfulness, the awareness of dhammas, or phenomena—that is, everything, all of nature. When we’re outdoors in nature, attending to our plants, dhamma is there. Sitting in the calm of the garden, can we let the trees teach us about accepting life just as it is in this very moment? Can we take mindfulness with us wherever we go and bring curiosity to the investigation of nature all around us?

The garden is an excellent sanctuary in which to wake up from the delusion we all live in. We cultivate the conditions for awakening simply by stepping into the backyard and whatever garden we may have there. Finding the energy to garden or to meditate, we concentrate on the task at hand, even if we’re just sitting on a garden bench. We immerse ourselves in the joy the garden brings us. Mindful of body, feelings, mind, and nature, we walk step-by-step toward the joyful, calm, and kind mind that feels at home in the garden and in the world.

ABOUT CHERYL WILFONG

Cheryl Wilfong is the author of The Meditative Gardener: Cultivating Mindfulness of Body, Feelings, and Mind.

Grow Your Mindfulness

Years ago, a friend gave me a tiny aloe vera plant as a housewarming gift. I was instantly taken by the sweet, green addition to my home and soon began acquiring more house plants for my indoor garden. Caring for them was an exciting new hobby, offering me a way to connect to nature in my city apartment.

In the years since, I’ve found both comfort and wisdom in caring for my plants. I now live somewhere with outdoor space, where I spend a lot of my time tending to an unwieldy vegetable patch in my backyard. I’ve watched a variety of vegetables and plants grow from seedlings — tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and herbs.

With each new leaf, I feel a deep sense of joy. Some plants have thrived, while others — despite my best efforts — have died, returning to the soil from which they came. The ever-changing nature of my garden reminds me not to hold onto things too tightly. While I can offer my garden my best love and care, there’s plenty involved in the life of a plant that I can’t control, much like life. 

As I nurture my garden, I find myself in a natural mindfulness practice, fully present in the moment as I tend to each leaf and bud. The act of gardening becomes a form of meditation, teaching me to embrace the impermanence of life and to find peace in the process of both growth and decay.

—Martine Panzica, Assistant Digital Editor, Lion’s Roar

Rev. Dale leading last week’s service

Dale in Pentecost red…

Photo from last year’s Flower Communion Service;Teddy with parents after child dedication ceremony 

Rev. Dave at last year’s Flower Communion

Prayer List
For those working for social justice and societal changePray for peaceful action and democratic process in our nationThe war in Ukraine continuesPrayers for those in Palestine and Israel as the war continues into its seventh monthPrayers for the worsening humanitarian crisis in GazaPrayers for those affected by the recent tornados in the Mid-West and American SouthPrayers concerning the protests and turmoil on US college campuses Prayers for the city of Houston after the recent storm Prayers for Iowa after recent tornados 

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.