Rev. Sam Trumbore's virtual home

Category: FUUSA

  • Encountering Disconnection

    The December holidays feel like a self-examination.  It takes till December, however, for me to discover the status of my holiday spirit. I can’t predict how I’m going to feel. Sometimes I’m really excited and full of anticipation. That was especially true when our son was little. Christmas experienced through a child’s eyes is so…

  • Acts of Gratitude

    Acts of Gratitude

    If you follow the positive psychology movement, you’ll see that gratitude gets a lot of positive press. The researchers have developed measurements to separate people into grateful and ungrateful types. (You can reflect for a moment as to where you think you might fall) Here are a few characteristics of grateful people. Grateful people: Researchers…

  • Shramadana

    Shramadana

    We build the road and the road builds us. Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement Slogan I’m dedicated to Buddhist mindfulness meditation and social justice work to address the ills of society. I’d like to be happy and peaceful and I want others to be happy and peaceful too. Sometimes people think of Buddhists, however, as navel gazers…

  • Taking a Stand

    Call to Celebration What does it mean to be courageous and what are the challenges? Theodore Roosevelt (not Franklin) spoke some wise words on the subject in a speech he gave at the Sorbonne in Paris over a hundred years ago. It is sometimes referred to as “The Man in the Arena” speech. This passage…

  • The Courage … To Be Wrong

    I didn’t discover the courage to be wrong until I was married. Oh, I’m sure I was wrong lots of times before that. My parents corrected me many times. My sister pointed out my wrongness without timidity. But I fought off being wrong rather aggressively. After all, I had my father as a model. He…

  • Higher Purpose

    Readings No fear Shakespeare version of Hamlet’s “to be or not to be” soliloquy. The question is: is it better to be alive or dead? Is it nobler to put up with all the nastiness that luck throws your way, or to fight against all those troubles by simply putting an end to them once…

  • Unifying Purpose

    Call to Celebration I begin this morning with the words of the Rev. Dr. George Kimmell Beach, Unitarian Universalist theologian and deep thinker on the future of our faith. These words come from an essay he presented to the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s Convocation in 1995 in Hot Springs, Arkansas. I was in the audience…

  • Living With Purpose

    I grew up surrounded by people driven by inner purpose. Barbara wanted to be an excellent flute player so she practiced, tried out for the orchestra at Newark High and got picked as first chair. My friend Nick with a beautiful baritone voice auditioned to be one of our high school madrigals. Matt had a…

  • Welcoming All Free Seekers

    Our theme this month is hospitality.  Here is what I had to say on the subject today. Call to Celebration We will be considering the theme of hospitality this morning, so I looked for a suitable nineteenth century etiquette guide for advice on just how we should be hospitable. Fortunately I was able to find…