Three Village Interfaith Clergy Association

Every summer we take a family vacation to the beach.   My favorite thing to do is read on the sand, under the umbrella, facing the ocean, breathing in the sea air and hearing the waves gently crashing on the shore.   I always pick some light reading for the beach- either some trashy, pulpy novel, or perhaps a non-fiction that’s the latest craze.   Two summers ago, I read The Joy of Tidying by Marie Kondo.   It was extremely popular at the time and Kondo’s method of home organizing was all the rage.   I found the book helpful and amusing.   Some of her ideas were so outlandish that I read them out loud to my family and we all had a good chuckle. Kondo’s method, the Kon-marie method of tidying, is based on a few core principals and techniques.   She believes that all of your items should be visible to you when stored, she has a unique way of folding clothing, and she insists that you only keep items or objects that spark joy for you....

I am a Unitarian Universalist minister with a Buddhist meditation practice in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen Master. Neither of my faith communities has a standard or fixed liturgical practice of prayer as such. The words of poet Mary Oliver resonate with me: “I don’t know where prayers go,/or what they do.” (from “I Happened To Be Standing”) Yet I have been thinking about prayer lately in terms of three questions: What does it mean to pray? How do I do it? What purpose does prayer serve?  Here are some of my attempts at answers to those questions; answers which are highly personal and not intended to tell anyone else how to experience prayer. I believe in an unnamable life force, which some call God and others call by many other names. I believe there is something, some mystery, far larger than me that I am but a small part of.  Prayer is a form of communication with that mystery. At the same time prayer is grounded in my experience of living. Praye...

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Desmond Tutu said: “HOPE is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” In this New Year, throughout many cultures – individuals take time out to pause and review, replenish, rejuvenate and re-purpose their personal and professional lives. I’ve found that in the New Year, I am more reflective over the year that has just past. With each turn of the calendar year, I find myself experiencing a sense of HOPE. “Hope”, as Aristotle said – “is a waking dream.” And so each January I seem to slip into my own new dream and bring a full measure of renewed HOPE with me into the new calendar pages ahead. When I reflect back up my past year – it can look dismal at certain points in time.  Fires, floods, famines, fear and utter foolishness seems to appear everywhere. It appears dismal indeed.  But then I read what Barack Obama wrote:  “The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you ...