Addressing a graduating class of Unitarian ministers-to-be, Ralph Waldo Emerson told them that the medicine the waning church of their day needed was first soul, second soul, and thirdly… Soul! If ever there was a UU Gospel that I tried to live as a young minister, it was that. I soon realized, though, that my soul had other ideas about how it wanted to be shared in this lifetime. Two and a half years ago it asked me to let go of everything I was sure I was meant to be doing, including ministry, and to listen anew.

In a dominant culture which assigns value by what we do and/or produce, and in a time in which the house we live in (be it planet or country, etc.) feels as if it is on fire, stepping away from leadership and action and into a liminal space of listening felt, and still feels, vulnerable. Such vulnerability is, of course, one of the essential ingredients of soul work, but that doesn’t make it feel less so. Yet nothing has taught me more about unconditional love or made more space for growth in my life as this yes to soul.

This Sunday I’ll share some of my story and my learnings on this path. I’m imagining, as I do, that you, too, as individuals and/or as a community, are in conversation in some way with the call to let go of pressing plans and actions and listen to soul more deeply. Together perhaps we can ask if we love ourselves enough to actually give soul the “pulpit.”