Healing involves being gentle with ourselves. We explore ways we can comfort and repair ourselves when we are in need of healing. We also mark the first week of the traditional Advent season, with a theme of Hope.

As we draw near Thanksgiving Day, how do we honor our need for ways and days to express gratitude while recognizing the pain of Native peoples? We also observe Transgender Remembrance Day by honoring lives lost through violence.

We join our UU Fellowship of Redwood City (UUFRC) friends to explore forgiveness — especially the difficult act of forgiving ourselves, which helps heal pain and increase empathy. This service begins at 10:30 am, one-half hour later than our usual gathering time.

In the face of the post-election, unknown future, we will use this time to create space for whatever is before us — to feel, to heal, to hope, and to move towards/beyond, using Leonard Cohen’s evocative and cathartic song as a backdrop.

The great spiritual traditions teach us that our proximity to pain–not our distance from it–is the route to healing. How can we reimagine our vulnerability to the pain of others? How do we reach for and hold onto what is essential for healing, health, wholeness?