BECOMING | Soul Matters Series

Here at UUSM, we are working on how to be "a people of becoming." After a tough year of tears, sorrow, anger, weariness, and uncertainty, we have ended up, here, now, at midsummer starting to rebuild and grow into the community we will become next. We must now wrangle with what that means for us, revisit what vision we want as we start again to re-covenant. Come, come, whoever you are. Let us show up with hope in our hearts.

In our culture, the concept of Becoming is often tinged with a sense of judgement. "When I become rich, I will be happy." "When I finish my degree, I can become someone with a healthy lifestyle." Becoming can be viewed as commentary on the need to improve one's self and/or situation. What would happen if we started thinking of Becoming as a way of changing not ourselves, but our relationship to the larger interconnected web of life? How do we Become kinder in our interactions, Become more helpful to those around us, Become more thoughtful about Earth's resources? Is it possible to put down that sense of judgement and instead approach Becoming as a means of expanding our compassion, our accountability, our connection to each other?

Becoming requires us to let go of the past and unfulfilled dreams. It encourages us to keep the lessons and blessed memories, while we reconstitute our dreams and goals of what we might now Become. It can feel simultaneously both difficult and liberating. May you use these beautiful summer days to rest, let go, and dream how things might Become in your life.

I include below a poem on Becoming that I wrote many years ago. May we all find hope and even joy in the work of Becoming we undertake this summer.

Yours in faith,

Tanya Webster

Director of Lifespan Faith Engagement