Monthly Thematic Resources

FOR DAILY REFLECTION

Chalice Lighting: Lighting this chalice is a practice of joy, an exercise of hope, a reminder to live open to the beauty of love and life. 

Meditation:  And every morning, I plead with the dew-moist buds- to know their secret joy: to open and close without holding, to surrender all to light, to sing…” - Rev. Terri Pahucki

Daily Reading: May you be joyful. May your happiness increase. May you not be separated from great happiness...gradually open the meditation to include neutral people, difficult people, and even enemies until you extend sympathetic joy to all beings everywhere, young and old, near and far…” - Jack Kornfield

Chalice Extinguishing: We extinguish the chalice, but not the joy of life and love. These we carry with us even through difficult days, looking for the next time they might catch us by surprise and rekindle the flame. 

FOR DAILY REFLECTION

1. What simple joy rescues you over and over again? (What might you do to make a little bit more room for it in your life?)
2. Has choosing joy ever been an act of survival for you? Or an act of defiance?
3. What if joy isn’t just happiness?  What if it is, in actuality, a practice, like meditation or yoga. Something you cultivate like a garden.  A thing you do, the way you face the world. What then? Does it make a difference?
4. What is one of your favorite/best moments of bringing joy to someone else? What about a favorite moment of joy someone brought to you?