May 17, 2025

“UU Cherry Blossoms”     2025  (photo by Dave)If you happened to drive by the church this week, you may have noticed the cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom on our cherry tree in front of the church. It was just a small tree standing by the corner of our building when it was planted in the Spring of 1999 (over 25 years ago!) and dedicated in memory of one of our beloved long term members. There is a small plaque on the building next to the tree commemorating the details. Now, the little tree fills its space on the corner of the building and offers us cherry blossoms galore! There’s also a lot going on this weekend with the LGBTQ+ Luncheon, a rally next to the Peace Pole in Monument Park and Houlton Coffeehouse. Check out the details listed in the week’s Support Page. Randi Bradbury and Ira Dyer lead the service this Sunday and the topic title is “Practicing Radical Empathy!” 

YouTube Channel content for this week is a Mother’s Day service as we honor mothers and feminine energy. The service topic is a continuation of our theme “The Science of Religion and our UU Shared Values” (part 12) as we explore the topic of release and forgiveness, a topic that relates to our mothers and families as well. 

We hope you can join us for one of the services online or in-person.

In Ministry,DaveLGBTQ+ LuncheonMay 17      Saturday at Noon

We hope you will join us this Saturday, May 17 from 12:00 – 2:00 PM for NOA’s LGBTQ+ potluck luncheon open to all generations and allies! If you would like to bring a dish, you’re more than welcome to but there is no cost to attend. There will be plenty of food to share!We hope to see many of you there! If you have any food allergies, dietary preferences, and/or accessibility needs/requests and feel comfortable sharing, please contact izzy@equalitymaine.org!Rally in Monument Park May 17   Saturday at 1PM

A “Restore” meeting will take place after the rally in The Cup Cafe at 2PM. HOULTON COFFEEHOUSE
May 17,  Saturday Evening             7-9 PMThe Cup Cafe,   61 Military Street FEATURE:  Just Us Open-Mic Starts @7PM

“Just Us”
Janice Santos:   guitar, lead vocalsDoug Drew: mandolin & fiddleIra Dyer:  bass

Coffeehouse is this weekend featuring “Just Us” with Janice Santos on guitar and vocal, Doug Drew pickin’ strings on mandolin and fiddle and Ira Dyer holding down the bass. They play a collection of acoustic classics, folk and soft rock. “Just Us” goes on stage at 8PM and open-mic that starts at 7PM for aspiring musicians, poets and stand-up comedians. You won’t find a better stage (or more supportive audience) to try out your material. Come early and sign up on the list. We’ll try to fit in as many as we can…
We have a “Joyce Soup” on our coffeehouse menu; her famous Creamy Herb Tomato Soup! Joyce Transue was the owner and chef of The Courtyard Cafe in Houlton for many years (I won’t say how many) and this was one of her signature offerings. We also have homemade burly rolls to go along with the soup. The espresso bar will be open with our full line of coffee drinks and salted caramel latte is our feature. 

Come early for supper and hang out before the show. Cafe doors open at 5:30PM.

See you at the Cup!

Feel the buzz…Menu
Creamy Herb Tomato SoupSalted Caramel LatteElectric Blue Raspberry Lemonade 
In Celebration of Music, Poetry and the Arts…

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 coffee hour & check-inTime: May 18, 2025 11:00 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)       Join Zoom Meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/83348399635?pwd=cC4JJrpfIOWPb37MSVUsVMZXSTi1xF.1
Meeting ID: 833 4839 9635Passcode: 109968

Calendar of Events @UUHoultonMay 17 LGBTQ+ Luncheon   12 NoonMay 17    “Restore” Rally in Monument Park   1PMMay 17 “Restore” Group Meeting  2PMMay 17 Houlton Coffeehouse  7PM Feature: Just Us   (Janice, Doug & Ira)May 18 Sunday Service: Randi Bradbury & Ira DyerMay 25 Sunday Service: David HutchinsonMay 27   Meditation Group   4PM  (online)June 1 Sunday Service: MaryAlice Mowry & Friends (Pride Service)June 4     Aroostook Climate Group meeting in the cafe    6PMJune 8 Sunday Service: Flower Communion   David Hutchinson BBQ cookout & party at Randi and Ira’s after the serviceJune 9     UUHoulton Board Meeting   4PMJune 10   Meditation Group  4PM   (online)June 14   No LGBTQ+ Luncheon this month June 14   Houlton Coffeehouse  7PM

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 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 StreetPoetry corner

Look It Over
I leave behind evenmy walking stick.  My knifeis in my pocket, but thatI have forgot.  I bringno car, no cell phone,no computer, no camera,no CD player, no fax, noTV, not even a book.  I gointo the woods.  i sit ona log provided at no cost.It is the earth I’ve come to,the earth itself, sadlyabused by the stupidityonly humans are capable ofbut, as ever, itself.  Free.A bargain! Get it while it lasts.
Wendell Berry

Wendell Berry at work…

Last week one of our members lit a candle during Joys & Concerns in recognition of Dr. Carla Hayden

who had served as Librarian of Congress since 2016 before her recent dismissal. Novelist George Saunders

wrote an editorial regarding her dismissal that appeared in this week’s New York Times which we are

including in today’s Support Page.

Guest Essay New York TimesMay 13, 2025

Letter to the White House

By George Saunders

Mr. Saunders is the author of numerous books, including “Lincoln in the Bardo.”

Dr. Carla Hayden

If the White House wants to fire the librarian of Congress, it can. But it was interesting to have recently had the experience of meeting this dynamic, dedicated person, Carla Hayden, and feeling so proud that she was our librarian of Congress, then reading the White House’s sloppy, juvenile rationale for her dismissal; it gave me a visceral feeling for just how diseased this administration really is.

I was the recipient of the Library of Congress’s Prize for American Fiction in 2023. Dr. Hayden struck me then as energetic, engaged and utterly dedicated to the work of the library. One of the things Dr. Hayden and I bonded over was the idea that knowledge is power, that in a democracy, the more we know, the better we are.

The White House, tossing out nonsense from its meager box of repetitive right-wing auto-defenses, claimed on Friday that Dr. Hayden had, “in the pursuit of D.E.I.,” done “quite concerning things.” Did it name those things? It did not. It couldn’t have. Putting aside the basic idiocy of being against that position (“What, you value diversity? You think things should be equitable? And that all should be included?”), members of the administration now use “D.E.I.” as a sort of omni-pejorative, deliberately (strategically) leaving its exact meaning vague.

What it seems to mean, to them, is: The accused is a person who is aware that certain groups have had a different experience of American life and who feels that it is part of our intellectual responsibility (and joy) to engage with that history, so as to improve our democracy (that whole “more perfect union” thing). This the administration sees not as healthy intellectual curiosity but as dangerous indoctrination. Indoctrination into what? Truth, history, a realistic engagement with the past, I guess.

The White House also stated, with an inaccuracy that would be comic if it weren’t so sickening, that Dr. Hayden put “inappropriate books in the library for children.” The librarian of Congress doesn’t put books into the library. And presumably, the American people benefit from having access to the widest possible collection of books. Even those American people who are children, who, after all, have parents to decide what is inappropriate.

In the real world, the world of cause and effect, when we tear down the best among us and provide bogus reasons for why we did it, reality will eventually come for us. To behave honorably requires that we be in contact with the truth, to be able to supply honest answers to simple questions. If the White House wanted to part ways with Dr. Hayden, why couldn’t it, without insulting her groundlessly, do so, and then (truthfully) say why? One wonders.

The firing of Dr. Hayden and the inane dissembling that followed represent a kind of diabolical Opposite Day phenomenon: An exceptional person is stupidly tossed aside, and to come up with an explanation, the administration turns to its patented Random False Rationale Generator.

When a ship is sinking, there’s value in knowing how fast and calling it out. When a country is self-sabotaging, ditto. So let me just say it: Shame on the White House. Shame on those who should be stopping this slide into autocracy and aren’t.  Shame on all of us if we let these ignorant purveyors of cruelty reduce this beautiful thing we’ve built over these hundreds of years to a hollow, braying, anti-version of itself.

Finding a Better Balance

BY CHRISTIANE WOLF

Equanimity protects us from emotional overreaction and allows us to rest in a bigger perspective. Christiane Wolf on how to cultivate it.

Photo by Kevin T / Flickr

“Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence.”

With this sentence the German-American writer Max Ehrmann began “Desiderata.” My mother appreciated this poem so much that she hung a framed copy across from the toilet in our bathroom, and for years I found myself reflecting on it several times a day in a contemplative position. Was this the origin of my quest for equanimity? The idea makes me smile.

Equanimity is like the eye of the storm, the calm center grounded in the knowledge that everything is constantly changing.

What is equanimity, and how can we invite more of it into our lives? Equanimity is being willing and able to accept things as they are in this moment—whether they’re challenging, boring, exciting, disappointing, painful, or exactly what we want. Equanimity brings calmness and balance to moments of joy as well as difficulty. It protects us from an emotional overreaction, allows us to rest in a bigger perspective, and contains a basic trust in the course of things.

Equanimity is like the eye of the storm, the calm center, that is grounded in the knowledge that everything is constantly changing and much of it is out of our control. The mature oak tree is another symbol of equanimity. Firmly rooted in the earth, it’s not moved by the changing seasons and weather patterns. The tree owes this stability to its taproots, which anchor it securely so that it’s stable but not rigid, even in strong storms.

We can ask ourselves: What are our taproots? What helps us withstand the inevitable storms of life? The Buddha warned against being taken in by the “eight worldly winds,” which today, 2,600 years later, still blow back and forth: pleasure and pain, praise and blame, success and failure, profit and loss. Of course we’d prefer to experience only one side of the winds, the side we see as positive, but the more we see that they shift again and again, the more deeply we can connect with our taproot.

Equanimity (Pali: upekkha) plays a central role in Buddhist teachings. Along with loving-kindness (metta), compassion (karuna), and joy (mudita), equanimity is one of the brahmaviharas, the four core qualities of the heart. Upekkha is a compound word in Pali, which can be translated as “calmly observing” or “viewing with patience and wisdom.”

Equanimity supports the other brahmaviharas. Without equanimity, we’d be overwhelmed by the suffering in the world and we’d shut down or turn away. Without equanimity, the immense beauty and joy of the world, which are also part of reality, could seduce us into a Pollyannaish worldview. Equanimity is vast enough to hold all sides of life in a caring embrace.

Equanimity should not be confused with indifference. From the outside, these two conditions look confusingly similar, which is why in Buddhist literature indifference is referred to as the “close enemy” of equanimity. Equanimity isn’t gritting your teeth or white-knuckling it. Rather, it’s caring deeply but with a sense of ease. Equanimity can only arise through the embodied acceptance of the fact that we don’t have complete control over any given situation.

Equanimity is sometimes referred to as the “grandparent feeling.” Grandparents often have the same love for their grandchildren that they had for their own children, but with more ease and perspective around expectations and difficulties. As one grandma expressed it, “All these troubles will come out with the wash.”

Equanimity and mindfulness are closely interwoven and mutually reinforcing, but they’re two distinct skills that develop at different speeds. We can experience mindfulness from the beginning of our meditation practice, while equanimity often takes a little longer.

Being nonjudgmental is part of the definition of mindfulness. Yet when we begin to practice mindfulness, we become aware of how irritated, judgmental, unfriendly, and lacking in equanimity we often are. Ironically, it’s the presence of mindfulness that makes us see this lack of equanimity clearly!

Through mindfulness we can observe the flow of thoughts, feelings, and sensations in the body without having a knee-jerk reaction. By repeatedly doing this practice, insights arise into the complex, often impersonal causal chains of experiences. These insights give us a greater perspective and lead to more equanimity. We can trust that if we regularly practice mindfulness and insight meditation, we’ll naturally be more at ease.

Living life in a conscious way will make us more equanimous over time but we don’t have to leave that up to the worldly winds. We can practice it deliberately. Ultimately, our equanimity isn’t only good for us, but also for everyone we encounter.

3 Equanimity Exercises

STAY OPEN, INVITE PERSPECTIVE

Reflect on a situation in your life that you initially viewed as negative, but which then led to a much better situation you couldn’t have foreseen at the time. For example, perhaps a painful breakup made it possible to find your true love, or a rejection after a job interview ultimately led to better employment. Invite this perspective into a current situation where you can only see the negative side.

WHEN A LOVED ONE IS SUFFERING

It’s difficult to endure when someone we love suffers. Often, we take on their suffering as our own. We get caught up in feelings of guilt that we cannot help more, or we believe we need to feel bad, too, out of a sense of solidarity.

This exercise, which was inspired by the psychologist Kristin Neff, helps us find equanimity when a loved one is suffering. The essence of it is the insight that ultimately we cannot make someone else happy. We can only work with our own mind and reactions and make our own decisions.

Repeat the following sentences quietly during a meditation and also during the day:

“Everyone is on their own life’s journey.”

“I am not the cause of your suffering (or not the exclusive cause).”

“It isn’t in my power to end your suffering, although I would like to, if I could.”

“Moments like this are hard to endure and yet I will continue to try to help where I can.”

OPEN AWARENESS MEDITATION

After an initial focus on the breath in our meditation, we can open our awareness like a camera lens until the difference between foreground (breath) and background (everything else, such as thoughts, feelings, sounds, body sensations, etc.) dissolves. We sit back and watch the constant arising and passing away of experience in the moment without getting caught in the details. We rest in the perspective of the vast blue sky and let all of experience pass through like clouds or flocks of birds.

ABOUT CHRISTIANE WOLF

Christiane Wolf is a physician turned mindfulness and dharma teacher and a senior teacher at InsightLA. She’s the co-author of A Clinician’s Guide to Teaching Mindfulness.

The colors of Spring…

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 peace in the Middle East

Prayers for this affected by the tragic aircrash in Washington DC

Prayers for those affected by recent governmental (and policy) changes in DC

Prayers for those affected by the earthquake in Myanmar

Prayers for those affected by the recent shooting at Florida State University

Concern over the increasing tension between India and Pakistan

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.