REACH The Newsletter of the

Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Northfield

A Welcoming Congregation

5785 Lonsdale Blvd E Mailing Address: PO Box 363

Northfield, MN 55057

Minister Kristin Maier

Director - Children/Youth Programs James Coulter

Administrative Assistant Jennifer Whitson

Nursery Teacher Julie Bailey

President Beth Goodell

Vice-President John Owens

Treasurer Paul Krause

Secretary Sharon Snyder-Thieding

Board Members-At-Large Kevin Chapman

Rion Paul Gillispie

Wyman Weinbeck

Sunday Services Naomi Estes-Tullo

Music Bev Topp

Membership Brynda McCoy

Facilities Open

Ministerial Liaison Lee Topp

June 2020 Theme: Rejuvenation

For the safety of our members and the larger community, UUFN will be offering livestreamed Sunday services via Zoom until further notice. Links for the Sunday Zoom meeting will be sent each week through the UUFN-Announce email group. Contact jwhitson@uunorthfield.org if you would like to begin receiving the weekly email.

Sunday, June 7th • 10:00 a.m. “Reflections” • Guest Speaker, Peter Balaam

Join us to hear Professor Peter Balaam, Associate Professor of English, Carleton College. We are happy to welcome him back after a very well received presentation last summer on Walt Whitman.

Sunday, June 14th • 10:00 a.m. “Just Enough Joy” • Rev. Kristin Maier

In the midst of all that is serious and weighty, is it possible to make a little space for the spiritual practice of joy? If we do, might we find our whole selves transformed? Join us for a summer sermon reprise that celebrates joy, humor, and gives a fabulous nod to the upcoming Pride celebration.

Sunday, June 21st • 10:00 a.m. a.m. “Grandfathers’ Wisdom”

“Grandfathers’ Wisdom” To celebrate Father’s Day we will recognize and remember the wisdom of our grandfathers. A number of members asked for this service after the Grandmothers’ service on Mother’s Day. Do you have a favorite memory or short story you would like to share about your grandfather? Send it to Bev Topp by Friday, June 12th. Pictures welcome. We will share your stories with love and laughter at this service.

Sunday, June 28th • 10:00 a.m. “UUA General Assembly Live-stream Closing Worship Service”

We will provide a link to the UUA’s closing service at the end of the General Assembly, hosted this year by Providence, Rhode Island. After the service we will link everyone back to have our zoom live-stream “coffee hour” conversations so we can still have time together.

MINISTER’S COLUMN

Rejuvenation? Now? by Rev. Kristin Maier

Rejuvenation as a worship theme now? Just as Minnesota is moving toward the peak of a global pandemic? Yes. That might be exactly what we need. When we chose the theme of rejuvenation for our Sunday services last fall (which feels like years ago now), we couldn’t predict that our nation would be looking at some 100,000 souls lost to this virus. We couldn’t begin to imagine the seriousness that the smallest of daily decisions would take on. Do I go to the grocery store? Can this haircut wait? Do I really need this medical appointment? We just knew that making it through a Minnesota winter, the struggles we were already facing, and ordinary life meant we would all need a little rejuvenation by June. That of course is still true. The pandemic is a layer of worry, disruption, and losses of all kinds that sits atop the everyday struggles and complexities that were already present. If we need rejuvenation by June in an ordinary year, we doubly need it now. Rejuvenation is about seeking to reconnect with the best parts of our youthful selves within. And we all have youthful selves within, regardless of our chronological age. We all have the capacity to experience wonder as a child experiences wonder. No matter what heavy adult worries are pressing in, we only need to carve out a moment to stop and notice the small miracles around us. The rich green of trees after the dormancy of winter. The smell of rain falling on the thirsty earth. The song of birds calling to one another. Rejuvenation is about tapping into the creativity within each of us. At any age we can discover a new passion or reconnect with an old one. To create is a profoundly human act that can take myriad forms and bring joy to ourselves and others. Creativity can help us change our communities and our world for the better and bring us joy and meaning in the process. Giving ourselves permission to laugh can also be

profoundly rejuvenating. Laughter is an instinctual response when people or life surprises us in a playful way. Laughing together helps us to connect to one another across any kind of distance. This summer, our Sunday services and small groups will do all these things – help us pause to experience wonder, tap into our creativity and passions, and invite the kind of laughter that draws people closer together. True, these things will be counterbalanced by the gravity of all we face – but even that we will face together as a community. So yes, bring on the rejuvenation. We need every drop of it we can get.

Creating Our Look Welcome to Spring! Now that we are able to be outside, the "Creating Our Look" projects will continue to be realized. The Peace Poles are up in the "new" garden (to be presented in another article). In the next couple of weeks, the two routed boards with the statements "Let Nature Be Our Teacher" and "All Are Welcome Here" will be finished and in place over the arbor. Once the seeded grass area is established, we will install the flagpole and raise the rainbow flag! And lastly, the raising of the sign and its addition will happen this fall. Thanks everyone for your support on these projects! Come have a look! There is a lovely bench in the back area of our building with a sweet view of the gardens, soon to be Prairie, and our wonderful tree farm to the south. Enjoy! Connie

LIFE OF THE CONGREGATION

UUFN Social Group

Dining Out News: Brynda organized a bag lunch picnic on her patio on May 21. Several people participated with a come and go during a two-hour period. There was physical distancing and conversation. It was good to see people face to face!

We will continue to follow safe guidelines if we meet in the future. There is nothing officially scheduled at this time; but if someone has an idea and wants to invite others, please do so. There should be an email announcement so anyone who wants to can participate.

Please continue to support local businesses as they begin to offer more choices. Pick up groceries, meds, and other things for people who don't want to or can't get out. Share a recipe especially if you have tried something new that you really like. Eat well so that when we come out of this, we can all be healthy and strong and able to participate in meetings, dining, activities and fellowship.

Stay safe and follow the guidelines presented by scientists and leaders.

See you soon and keep in touch. Marcia

Membership Committee

In the past several years, I (Brynda) have only been coordinating greeters. The committee I formed early on just fell apart, sometime back. There is nothing going on with greeters of late because we are not meeting in person. Our Zoom meetings are fine and certainly better than nothing at all. On the 17th of May during our annual meeting in Treasurer's report there was a $700 figure listed for the Membership Committee, so I decided I had better form a committee and find some good use for those funds. So far, I have found a number people willing and able so far to step up to this challenge. They are Nita Wolf, Larry Vorwerk, Anna Hamilton, Ella Sommer and Don Stager. I encourage anyone else interested in our endeavor to grow our membership, to either call me. Even if you don't want to serve but have ideas on this very important subject, please let me know. Keep in touch! Brynda

Coffee Host Update

Because we will probably not be meeting in person at the fellowship hall for the month of June, we will not need hosts for Coffee Hour. Please check your availability for future times when we will be meeting; and when we start meeting again, fill in the online spread sheet. Missing you all and our times together. Keep in touch with each other and maybe do a virtual coffee hour with some friends. Continue to do physical distancing but not social distancing. We should all have Zoom now for our UUFn meetings, so if you want to keep in touch in that way, you can learn how to invite people to a virtual “coffee hour”; or use email, Facebook or Messenger to keep in touch. Some in person groups of less than 10 can meet outside, too. Hopefully, we can gather soon! Marcia

Aesthetics Team Let's all use the power of Imagination to see ourselves gathered for coffee while talking with new acquaintances or long-time friends. Imagine a sweet treat with that great cup of coffee or tea. Einstein said, "Imagination is everything".

Garden Team Hello everyone! We hope you are all safe and in good spirits as you read our garden report. To say the Garden Team has been busy is an understatement! We have had a vision for the gardens, manifesting it with lots of hard work and seeing it come to fruition is part of what makes gardening for us an act of pure pleasure, not work ( well it was a heck of a lot of work!) Thanks to all the folks who are on this amazing, fun team! They are Carol Spear, Larry Vorwerk, Anna Hamilton, Wyman Weinbeck and Mary Jane Lipinski. In addition to all these folks planting and watering, the watering crew also includes Bill Jokela and Bob Spear. There is room for more help! We are showing you before, during and after pictures so you can share in the transformation with us. First, the North garden which was planted last summer.

Now a brief explanation about the rainbow sign garden. It is an experiment on our part, one we hope will go well! We created a "rainbow" with flowers and the added background flowers next to the sign which are multicolored snapdragons. In struggling to come up with a green color flower in the rainbow, we bought basil. Come mid-summer, everyone will be invited to come help yourself to lots and lots of basil

Lastly, here are the details of the design in the South perennial garden by the parking lot. The longer section of that garden is filled with numerous perennials of all sorts of varieties. These were all donated. Our Peace Poles are displayed in this area. The other section of that garden that is located under the tree is in the configuration of a mandala. Mandala is a Sanskrit word representing the universe in Hindu and Buddhist symbolism. It represents completeness. A mandala is geometric in design within the overall shape being a circle. We have started with 7 "spokes" made of hostas with the tree as the center of the design. Among other things, seven is a symbol of completeness, inner wisdom and knowledge. It was the most sacred number to the Hebrews.

There will be a container holding rocks painted with mandalas and you are invited to help yourself to one. Also, we invite those of you that enjoy art to paint your own rock and add it to the mulched area between our spokes. The garden is a place of giving and receiving. Enjoy the photos of our progress! One last thought to leave you with. Thanks to Mairi and Carol, our team now lovingly call ourselves "Garden Warriors!". During one day of planting they happily shouted to each other "Garden Warriors!" Recognizing the joy and power in each of us as we all worked together on these gardens, the nickname has stuck! Peace to all of you from Mairi Doerr and Connie Wersal-LaVelle, co-leaders of the Garden Warriors!

SOCIAL JUSTICE NEWS

June Share the Plate: Minnesota UU Social Justice Alliance

This month, our Share the Plate recipient will be the Minnesota Unitarian Universalist Social Justice Alliance. The mission of MUUSJA (affectionately pronounced “moose jaw”) is “Unleashing courageous leadership and collective power to build a just and loving world.” MUUSJA helps build capacity for individual UUs and UU congregations to engage in social justice work. Even in the midst of a pandemic, they are continuing their work, including leading the local effort to UU the Vote and ensure voter access at this critical time.

Half of all funds mailed in and marked “Offering Basket” will support MUUSJA’s efforts. If you prefer to make a direct donation, you can do so here: http://www.muusja.org/donate. Thank you for giving as you are willing and able!

April Share the Plate: The Food Shelf of the Community Action Center of Northfield

UUFN raised $497.50 for the Food Shelf of the Community Action Center of Northfield