As many of you know, I have announced my decision to retire at the end of this calendar year.  Many of you have asked me to talk with you about what prompted that decision and how I made it.  Some have asked what I will do next and some have expressed joy that a different muse is calling me to a new way of being in the world.  Here is how I think about these questions.

Each time in my life when big decisions have confronted me, it is seldom the logic or the rational alone that help me decide what to do.  More often the rational tells me what not to do:  don't burn my bridges; don't cut off me nose to spite my face, don't run from a new challenge because I are afraid to stay.   The rational ideas help me put a boundary around my choices, but leave all the other positive foci open for my discernment.   As is true for some of you, opening up the possible in your own life can create both a very vulnerable state and also a very exciting one.  I have had the niggling of my spirit trying to lure me to a differently creative future for about a year now.  There was no possible way, though, for me to sit down and list the pros and cons of the decision to retire and have that be a satisfactory response to the spirit.  For awhile I was caught up in the non-spiritual world of whether or not I thought I could afford to retire and I was stuck there.  I would do and redo all the calculations involved in having a full and rich life after working pretty much non-stop since I was 10 years old.  The figures on paper always came out the same, but my trickster muse, would not let the figures get the last word. 

In the end, I realize that there are times in all our lives when our spirits invite us to answer their call:  If we refuse or ignore them, they do not go away but just get louder and bolder.  That is what happened to me.  I tried to listen to the voice of reason and stay put so I could accumulate enough money to feel financially safe.  While working hard to determine how to make this happen, I woke up one morning and realized I was hoping for a surety and control over the future that does not exist for any of us, no matter how hard we try.  I suddenly realized that I needed to answer the call of the muses (and the grandchildren) and open myself to a chapter in my life that is exciting, unknown, unfolding and scary as well as life-giving.  I have slept like a baby ever since then.

What I remember now are the wise words of one of my seminary professors who said that it was the NEED TO CONTROL that was the real meaning of original sin in a Christian context.  I was trying to control my spirit and tell it how to behave so I did not have to do the spiritual work of learning how to let go once again and "trust the dawning future more."  I have had to let go so many times in my life and step into the unknown.  This time, stepping into that place was harder than the rest for some reason. 

I remember once going to an AIDS rally in the early 1990's.  I remember the hospice nurse in my town spoke there and said we are not human beings trying to learn to be spiritual, but spiritual being trying to learn how to be human.  I have found such power in those words over time.  I, for one, do not make good decisions if I try to exclude the spiritual dimension of my existence, for it is too basic to my humanity.  When my human and spiritual personas are in constant, though tense, dialogue, I feel totally alive.  I make decision that turn out right because they turn out to be an expression of a spiritual yearning for the whole experience of being alive. 

I hope this story of mine connects with you, not only if you are contemplating retirement, but as you are struggling about any major turning points in your life.  It has been one of the core gifts in my aging and feels so good inside when, by chance, I remember it all over again as if for the first time.  Namaste.

In many parts of the world, retirement from the daily workforce is a door you walk through in order to discover your soul.  In the last third of life, it is an opportunity to focus on the goals that are most important to you.

Shortly before my retirement, I took myself to the NM desert in silent retreat to try to understand this impending transition.  I surrounded myself with wisdom from the world's spiritual traditions as well as current resources, From Age-ing to Sage-ing by Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ronald Miller and Claiming Your Place at the Fire Living the Second Half of Your Life on Purpose by Richard Leider and David Shapiro.  These authors, ancient and modern, invited me to ask anew those universal questions: Who am I? Where do I belong? What do I care about? What is my purpose?

Richard Leider writes about Finishing: "For many people today, retirement is a roleless role. This is true in large part because the traditional notion of retirement fits with a worn-out notion of aging that conceives of it primarily in terms of disengagements and decline. Today, though, many of us are asking, How appropriate is retirement for a vital person with 30 or more years left to live?  Retirement, as it has been conceived for the past 100 years or so, can turn purposeful lives into casualties."  The traditional story of retirement seems no longer to be relevant to a growing number of people today in the second half of life.

Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi draws from many wisdom traditions, academic disciplines and cultures in his invitation to "pass through a gate of transformation, moving from age-ing to sage-ing. This enables us to use our life experience to enrich our elder years, face mortality, repair relationships, develop a regenerative spirit and transmit wisdom to future generations."  He invites us to develop a compelling vision of later life - spiritual eldering - that recognizes this time of creative change, personal growth, new learning, and spiritual courage during this penultimate chapter of our life.

As we navigate the transitions of aging and negotiate the passages of retirement, we can come home to our most authentic self and open the door to new possibilities.  Retirement can be a time rich in understanding ourselves and others.  It can be a time to harvest the wisdom we have gained through life experience and a time to transmit our legacy to future generations.  It can be a time to engage in deeper soul-based living and to pursue a renewed sense of meaning/purpose both alone and in community.

If midlife is where you are on life's journey and retirement is a transition you are contemplating, in the midst of, postponing or rethinking, I invite you to join me in a SPIRITUAL PASSAGES OF RETIREMENT program.  There will be two day-long workshops - 14 May in Saco, ME and 21 May in Milford, NH.  We will explore the flow of transitions - endings, neutral zone and new beginnings.  We will share spiritual techniques for living into the various stages of transitions.  Where do our journeys take us?  What do we leave behind? What do we carry with us? How do we find our way?

Our faith calls us at every age and stage of life to deepen our relationships with ourselves, our family, our communities, our world, and our planet.  Come as you are and join supportive, insightful and inspiring Unitarian Universalists.  

Program Flyer

Registration Form

Earth: My Spiritual Grounding
Claudia Kern, NNED Sustainability Task Force Member

In the presence of the natural world, I am spiritually grounded.   I enter the stillpoint at the center of my life and distractions drop away, leaving me fully present and alive to the lessons of nature.  It is vital for me, "necessary for the maintenance of my life," to stop and simply be at one with the Earth.  To be one with the garden soil in my ungloved hand, with the little waxing and waning brook that runs through the woods, to be one with silent land and sky and breath as I walk the labyrinth I have traced in the snow.  My spirit needs me to halt my busyness, my doing, and to blend with bird song, to melt into the warmth of the springtime sun, to surrender to the hip-high ferns that part for me, and to take communion with the sour wood sorrel.  Poet Robinson Jeffers says that to experience this kind of intimacy with nature is, "to fall in love outward with the world."

I believe that this falling in love with Earth again is essential for the spiritual wholeness of us all and for our collective redemption of a threatened planet.  So my spiritual practice is to place myself  where I can fall in love over and over again.  We all know one cannot just decide to be in love.  Love grows out of time spent in proximity, out of shared experiences and stories, out of the small, secret details.  Senses are aroused and begin to key themselves to recognize the "beloved."  Thus, this winter when I take time to read the story told by the fisher's tracks in the snow, or hear the water deep under the ice, or look up to meet the gaze of a barred owl, love happens.  Compassion arises - for myself, for those I know, for the miraculous oneness of all.  I plop myself down in the twig and itch and twitter of what is right outside my door, I use all my senses to seek out the most intimate details, and love arises. 

Quieting myself to be with and of the natural world grounds me so that I may journey openheartedly between "inward" contemplation and self-discovery and the "outward" act of living out my love through action in the world.  My spiritual grounding is in the balance point between an inner ecology and an outer one.  I cannot sustain all my doing in the world without circling inward to simply stop and be one with the wondrous web of life from which I cannot be separated, even by death.  My spiritual practice is this spiraling  inward to stillness and presence and then outward again, carrying my love into the world.   From spirit to action, discerning what I love, acting for what I love, being and doing, dancing to the center and back again. 

Spiritual grounding in our work as directors of religious education  can help us through difficult times and deepen our offerings for the  children, youth, and adults we serve.

Throughout my years as a DRE, I have walked side-by-side with my  congregation through tragedies that would have torn us apart if not  for the firm foundation we had with each other as a community of  faith. The way we kept that foundation firm was through our continued  communal worship. We lit our chalice with words such as these from  Wayne Arnason: "Take courage friends, the way is often hard, the path  is never clear, and the stakes are very high. Take courage. For deep  down, there is another truth: You are not alone." We called special  gatherings so we could support one another; we kept communication  lines open; we prayed and sang and talked and took action to make our  church the community we dream of.

Another sanctuary for spiritual grounding is my DRE cluster group.   Together with other people sharing the same job title and virtually  the same issues, concerns and joys, I feel embraced and supported as  well as supportive to others. Within this group also we light our  chalice, speak words of wisdom, and share experiences and activities  that feed us.

Through credentialing also, I found my way deeper into the Unitarian Universalist faith through its long history and its many and varied theologies and philosophies. Books and classes and workshops helped  me find more to give to my congregation and to myself.

I hope many of you will be able to join me and fellow DREs for our spring gathering on Wednesday, April 6, at the Second Congregational Church UU in Concord, NH, from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.   We will explore the  idea of spiritual grounding through personal daily spiritual practice. 

To register for the spring gathering, please send the following information to Joy Blanchette, NNED Administrator:

Name; Church name, city, state; Best phone number to reach you directly; & Email address.

The cost of the gathering is $10 per person.  Please send payment to the district office (address at the bottom of this newsletter).

Karen Fisk can be reached at dre@augustauu.org.

Our District Chalice Lighter Program speaks directly to the creation of a larger light of Unitarian Universalism throughout our District.    We want to grow our UU presence within our congregations in northern New England because we believe there are people who need what we can provide in our communities.   There are UU congregations of every size and stage of development in our District who experience specific needs at various times relating to their growth that cannot be completely fulfilled without help from other UU congregations. 

Our Chalice Lighter Committee members have also been active in our own congregations, realizing firsthand the joy of being part of a growing congregation.     That joy, best described as spiritual in nature, is extended for each member of the Committee as we have this wonderful opportunity through the District's Chalice Lighter Program to help other congregations to build or expand their facilities, secure professional leadership, launch growth programs, or to assist the efforts of an emerging congregation.

It is interesting to note that we haven't yet received an application focused entirely on launching a growth program.   In other words, a growth program without the emphasis on facilities and the other items identified above.    That takes a bit of creativity, but we are certain that such creativity is not beyond the talents of the lay leaders in our District and that we will have such an application to consider before long.    

Since the present Chalice Lighter Program was newly launched in our District with its first grant awarded in February 2009, the Program has helped to renovate a meetinghouse, increase a minister's hours, build a lift for accessibility, renovate a kitchen, increase the hours for a director of religious education, and provide a consulting minister for an emerging congregation.  As recently announced, a call to our members to assist the emerging congregation in Stowe, Vermont is now underway.

Members of congregations receiving a Chalice Lighter grant have been overjoyed.    There is definitely something special and deeply heartwarming about receiving help from Unitarian Universalists across our District.    We know the feedback we receive from the congregations receiving grants is bound to spread the effectiveness of the Chalice Lighter Program, contributing to our own growth goal of adding more Chalice Lighters, and so we will continue to share these joys with you.   We look forward to seeing you at our presentation table at the District Annual Meeting this spring.   

We do have great potential for increasing our Chalice Lighter membership and growing the amounts we are able to grant to our winning applicants.  Remember, when you sign up to be a Chalice Lighter no monies are immediately required.  

Check out the details on the District Website.       

District Chalice Lighter Committee:  Rev. Eleanor Rice, Chair,

Dana Baron, Charles Boothby, and Nancy Chaddock

One thing I most appreciate about Unitarian Universalism is that it is a dynamic force in my life and work, a kind of energy that stimulates growth and change.   The Unitarian Universalism of my childhood has evolved over the past five decades and is practiced in new ways as it interacts with the world.  Our UU faith truly is a living tradition, as expressed in the six sources of our covenant.

I experienced my calling to give back in service to my UU community about twenty-five years ago when I was invited to participate in the religious education program.  Within a few years, my volunteer service led to deeper engagement in the congregation by becoming the Director of Religious Education.  Each time I have invested myself and my resources in our Unitarian Universalist faith and community, the more opportunities for learning, growth, and meaningful service arose. 

As my leadership responsibilities have grown more complex and challenging, I remember how much depth and richness Unitarian Universalism has brought to my life.  Rather than feeling depleted, I feel enriched.  I want to give back to the beloved UU community that has nurtured and empowered me.  When the demands of leadership seem overwhelming, I remember the sacrifice and dedication of our UU forebears who made this great faith worthy of my service.

The connections of our faith community are like strong, resilient fibers that tether me at the core of my being to something greater and more powerful than I could ever be on my own.   My commitment and service to Unitarian Universalism fills my life, and for that, I am grateful. 

Association of UU Administrators 

March 8 - UU Society, Laconia, NH

 June 14 - South Church, Portsmouth, NH

RPM (Religious Educators, Presidents & Ministers)

March   5 - Manchester, NH

March 19 - Saco, ME

April 16    - Woodstock, VT