Sian's Shenanigans

At Orange Coast UU, we believe belonging doesn’t happen by accident. It’s practiced and sustained by everyone. But we also need to have clear pathways for people to integrate into the life of the congregation. That’s why we’ve created the Membership Executive Team, or MET, a group of staff and lay leaders working together to make sure that every person who walks through our doors, whether for the first time or the fiftieth, has a clear and warm pathway into…

At Orange Coast UU, we believe that growth is a spiritual practice. That’s why we created HEART, our Healthy Expansion And Research Team. As we step into the new chapter our sanctuary represents, HEART is helping us ask the deeper questions: What does it look like to welcome more people into our community without losing the soul of who we are? How do thriving congregations create real belonging in an age of loneliness? And what would it mean to grow…

“You were not just born to center your entire existence on work and labor. You were born to heal, to grow, to be of service to yourself and community, to practice, to experiment, to create, to have space, to dream, and to connect.” Tricia Hersey, Rest is Resistance. This summer, from June through August, I’ll be on a short sabbatical. A sabbatical is a type of rest. As Hersey says it’s a way “to heal, to grow, to be of…

The Zen teacher Shunryu Suzuki once said, “In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert’s mind there are few.” The world is lonely, dogma is doing harm, and people are hungry for a place where they can bring their whole, questioning selves and be loved exactly as they are. And OCUUC offers this world such a place of healing and acceptance. The question is: how do we open the door wider without losing what makes this…

I know how it feels right now. The news cycle is relentless. The executive orders come faster than we can process them. News of war, bombs, violence. Some mornings it takes a little extra courage just to open your phone. I feel it too. But when I look around, I don’t feel despair. I feel the possibilities and hope. Last month, many of us from Orange Coast UU showed up for the No Kings protest — one of thousands happening…

There is a quiet spiritual practice at the heart of every healthy congregation: paying attention. In a world full of noise, attention is an act of care. When we slow down enough to truly notice, we see the person who is new and unsure, the long-time member carrying quiet responsibility, the child asking big questions, the neighbor searching for meaning. Paying attention is how love begins and how community deepens. As we reflect on what it means to Raise the…

How do you embody resilience when the world is falling apart? Right now, ICE is trying to destroy communities and families, our democracy is on the brink of tyranny, the government has armed thugs pulling people off the street without cause demanding papers to prove citizenship as if we lived in some dystopian novel – or 1940’s Germany. For those of us with compassionate hearts, it’s easy to let the despair overwhelm us, to feel helpless. And yet… and yet.…

When we hear the word resistance, we often imagine something dramatic – marches, megaphones, moments of public courage. And those forms of resistance matter deeply. But resistance is not only something we rise up into; it is something we practice, day by day, often quietly. Truth is a daily practice: It happens when we correct misinformation, gently and clearly without shaming; use people’s chosen names and pronouns, even when it’s often hard to remember; or name harm rather than trying…

Hope has always been a difficult to explain. But I think Victoria Safford has it right: The Gates of Hope by Victoria Safford Our mission is to plant ourselves at the gates of Hope—Not the prudent gates of Optimism,Which are somewhat narrower.Not the stalwart, boring gates of Common Sense;Nor the strident gates of Self-Righteousness,Which creak on shrill and angry hinges(People cannot hear us there; they cannot pass through)Nor the cheerful, flimsy garden gate of“Everything is gonna’ be all right.”But a…

I have a confession: I sometimes struggle with gratitude as a spiritual practice. When life throws curveballs, it can feel impossible to feel thankful – and sometimes the idea of “practicing gratitude” feels like I’m being asked to ignore or deny what’s hard. Over time, I’ve learned a gentler way: what I call “Even Though Gratitude.” When I’m feeling low, I might say, “Even though I’m upset at the world, I am grateful for my church,” or “Even though my…

Did you know that compassion is actually a skill you can increase? While it is somewhat innate, it’s also something that we can cultivate. I learned this myself: Years ago, I wasn’t a very nice person. Not horrible, mind you, but I was so in my head, I had a hard time being empathetic or understanding. I was in graduate school, studying long hours, always trying to prove myself to my teachers and fellow students. One night, after studying late,…

I sometimes joke that I have a strange gift: I can tell the future. OK, maybe not exactly – but hear me out. Over the years, I’ve noticed that I sometimes get an intuitive sense about people and places, little nudges that point toward what’s ahead. For example, years ago a friend showed me a brochure for a place called Yes Bay Lodge in Alaska. I looked at it and thought, Someday, I’m going to be there. A year later,…