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Soul Matters Themes 2025-26
Month Theme
September Building Belonging
October Cultivating Compassion
November Nurturing Gratitude
December Choosing Hope
January Practicing Resistance
February Embodying Resilience
March Paying Attention
April Embracing Possibility
May Awakening Curiosity
June Flourishing Together
June 2026:
Flourishing Together
As we embrace the theme of "Flourishing Together" this June, we invite you to reflect on the power of community. This month, consider these questions:
- How has the UUSF community helped you to flourish?
- What additional support do you believe would enhance your journey towards flourishing?
In celebration of our theme, we are excited to share our image of the month: a stunning depiction of the Superbloom in LA, capturing the beauty of nature's collective flourishing. Accompanying this visual is our Visio Divina video, inviting you to meditate on the interconnectedness of all life.
We also feature a poignant poem by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, reminding us of our shared humanity and the beauty of connection. In her words, we find solace in the idea that, though we may feel alone, we are part of a grand communion, each voice contributing to the symphony of life.
Join us this month as we explore how we can support one another in our flourishing journeys. Together, we can create a vibrant community that uplifts and inspires.
Wishing you a month of growth and connection.
Poem of the Month
And if it’s true we are alone,
we are alone together,
the way blades of grass
are alone, but exist as a field.
Sometimes I feel it,
the green fuse that ignites us,
the wild thrum that unites us,
an inner hum that reminds us
of our shared humanity.
Just as thirty-five trillion
red blood cells join in one body
to become one blood.
Just as one hundred thirty-six thousand
notes make up one symphony.
Alone as we are, our small voices
weave into the one big conversation.
Our actions are essential
to the one infinite story of what it is
to be alive. When we feel alone,
we belong to the grand communion
of those who sometimes feel alone—
we are the dust, the dust that hopes,
a rising of dust, a thrill of dust,
the dust that dances in the light
with all other dust, the dust
that makes the world.
New Sessions!
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group
Tuesday, June 9, and Tuesday, June 23, 7:00-8:30 pm—In-Person and on Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In June we are exploring the theme ‘Flourishing Together.' We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations and close with a short meditation.
This month we will be meeting in-person for one of our sessions! We will meet in person on Tuesday, June 23; the location is TBD but will likely be at either UUSF or a restaurant close to the church.
Register below, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link. Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Question?
Our question(s) of the month is
How has the UUSF community helped you to flourish?
What else do you think would help support you further in your flourishing?
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
May 2026:
Awakening Curiosity
In May, Soul Matters invites us to "Awakening Curiosity." This month's image shows a UUSF member and child sharing a moment of wonder, which is similar to Annie Lighthart's poem "The Verge." Lighthart reminds us that we should live by both reason and instinct, and be open to the "ungainly and miraculous" in our daily lives.
As the month goes on, we ask: What in your life or the world that you are currently fighting against could you meet with interest instead? You may feel "curious and ready to be true," just like the man in the poem who saw his own beauty in a window.
Poem of the Month
Reason is a fine thing, but remember there are other ways
to live: by instinct or passion, or even,
maybe, by revelation. Try it. Come around again to the verge –
that place of about-to-open, near where we comprehend
and laugh and see. Why shouldn’t something marvelous
happen to you? Take even an occasion like this:
A man reading at night looked up at the window to find
a moose looking in, interested and unafraid
with quiet dark eyes. He reports he has never been the same;
he finds the ungainly and miraculous everywhere.
He said it started the next night in the empty window
as he watched his reflection looking right back through.
He said he saw his own beauty, how even in his same old face
the quiet eyes were curious and ready to be true.
May Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group: May Sessions
Tuesday, May 12, and Tuesday, May 26, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In May we are exploring the theme ‘Awakening Curiosity.' We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations and close with a short meditation.
Register below, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link. Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
May Question?
Our question of the month is
What in your life or in the world that you are resisting or struggling with could you get curious about?
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
April 2026:
Embracing Possibility
Embracing Possibility As A Challenge
“Contemplation is not about thinking about things as they are. It is about abandoning what we know about the way things are and moving into a place where we don’t know anything. “—Trinity Primrose United Church Blog
This month, we are contemplating the theme, Embracing Possibility. I love the quote above because there have been so many times in my life when I felt stuck because I was just focusing on how to maintain what I already knew. I couldn’t understand how I could go to seminary with three young children because I was focused on the understanding I needed to move to attend. I couldn’t understand how I could move back to the San Francisco Bay Area, because I was focused on making sure my family was not disrupted. Both of these examples were made possible when I changed my perspective on how to look at them. I could attend seminary and not move. I could move to the Bay Area because my family wanted to move as well.
How often do we get in our own way of embracing possibility? And how often do we let others control our perspective of what is possible? During these times of chaos and uncertainty, my hope is we can step back and find what is possible to heal our world. Let us go into this month with the goal of embracing more possibilities and with those possibilities creating more hope.
Poem of the Month
In trees still dripping night some nameless birds
Woke, shook out their arrowy wings, and sang,
Slowly, like finches sifting through a dream.
The pink sun fell, like glass, into the fields.
Two chestnuts, and a dapple gray,
Their shoulders wet with light, their dark hair streaming,
Climbed the hill. The last mist fell away,
And under the trees, beyond time’s brittle drift,
I stood like Adam in his lonely garden
On that first morning, shaken out of sleep,
Rubbing his eyes, listening, parting the leaves,
Like tissue on some vast, incredible gift.
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
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March Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group
Tuesday, April 14, and Tuesday, April 28, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In April we are exploring the theme ‘Embracing Possibility.' We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations and close with a short meditation.
Register below and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
March 2026:
The Practice of Attention
Awareness Matters:
Engaging with Life More Deeply
It’s not enough to be in your life, in nature, or in relationships if you sleepwalk through them. The name “Buddha” means “The Awakened One," but awakeness meant a kind of focused awareness and attention. It is the kind that brings you more deeply into relationship with your own life and the depth dimension of life. As writer Mark Nepo writes, “Still yourself and listen, and soon, in time, the Mystery will begin to speak to you, through its thousand disguises as life on Earth.” This month we see what happens when you pay attention… to the practice of paying attention.
Poem of the Month
Once there was a man who filmed his vacation.
He went flying down the river in his boat
with his video camera to his eye, making
a moving picture of the moving river
upon which his sleek boat moved swiftly
toward the end of his vacation. He showed
his vacation to his camera, which pictured it,
preserving it forever: the river, the trees,
the sky, the light, the bow of his rushing boat
behind which he stood with his camera
preserving his vacation even as he was having it
so that after he had had it he would still
have it. It would be there. With a flick
of a switch, there it would be. But he
would not be in it. He would never be in it.
(learn more )
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
March Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group
Tuesday, March 10, and Monday, March 23, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In March we are exploring the theme ‘Paying Attention.' We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations, and close with a short meditation.
Register below, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link. Please note that the second session this month is taking place on the fourth Monday instead of the fourth Tuesday.
Email Emma. Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
February 2026:
Embodying Resilience
Re-Grounding Sustainable Ways of Being
As we enter this month with our theme of Embodying Resilience, I wonder how many of us feel disconnected or numb or overwhelmed. This month, our practice allows us to re-ground ourselves in our values, in our bodies, and in our community. When we embody something, we are finding ways to reconnect and settle ourselves into intentional ways of being. When we pair that with resilience, then we are building systems or connections for sustainability. We practice embodying resilience through body movement, through worship, through our relationships with one another, and through spiritual practices. What are the ways you will embody resilience this month?
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Considering Resilience
Today I talk to the broccoli sprouts.
I kneel down beside their bed.
You can do it, I tell them.
I don’t mention that every summer
there is a hail storm that will
puncture and tear their leaves,
that bits of their green will litter the soil.
Though the sprouts are less
than half an inch tall,
the leaves already look tough—
like thick four leaf clover.
The hail, though, will be tougher.
Perhaps I don’t want
to tell myself how tough things will get.
Would rather encourage. Would rather play.
Would rather revel in the day’s sun.
But today, there’s no lying to the self—
the inner hail has already come;
my leaves hang in tatters.
All around me, flower petals
are fallen, scattered.
Out of season, widespread wreckage.
There is an inner knowing, though—
one that needs no one else
to encourage it. It knows to grow,
to grow despite the damage, to grow,
because damage. To grow. It knows
to grow, because that is what we are here to do,
our new leaves coming in to support the old,
to support the whole, every bit as vulnerable,
and green, so green.
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
February Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group: February Sessions
Tuesday February 10 and Tuesday February 24, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In February we are exploring the theme ‘Embodying Resilience’. We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations, and close with a short meditation.
Register below and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
January 2026:
Practicing Resistance
“It’s ok to take a little step, so long as…
It's something you know something about.
do with other people,
do regularly, [and]
It makes you a little bit uncomfortable.
If it meets those criteria, then you're helping democracy.”
Quote from Timothy Snyder, American historian and author of “On Tyranny”
As we start a new year and a new month, we are asked to consider the Soul Matters theme: Practicing Resistance. What does it mean to practice resistance when you are exhausted from all that is going on in our country, let alone the world? I like Timothy Snyder’s advice above that we work on something we know; we do it with others; we do it regularly; and it makes us a little bit uncomfortable. Resistance can come in many different forms. It could be writing letters to encourage people to vote. It could be marching for the rights of immigrants or trans youth health care. It could be deciding to not shop at certain stores. It could be organizing a joyful gathering to energize people. It could be honoring when you need to rest.
Resistance allows us to push back against systemic oppression in creative and abundant ways. We encourage you this month to find the ways that resonate with you to practice resistance. Remember, we do this work together and never alone.
Marge Piercy
“The Low Road”
Alone, you can fight,
you can refuse, you can
take what revenge you can
but they roll over you.
But two people fighting
back to back can cut through
a mob, a snake-dancing file
can break a cordon, an army
can meet an army.
Two people can keep each other
sane, can give support, conviction,
love, massage, hope, sex.
Three people are a delegation,
a committee, a wedge. With four
you can play bridge and start
an organization. With six
you can rent a whole house,
eat pie for dinner with no
seconds, and hold a fund raising party.
A dozen makes a demonstration.
A hundred fill a hall.
A thousand have solidarity and your own newsletter;
ten thousand, power and your own paper;
a hundred thousand, your own media;
ten million, your own country.
It goes on one at a time,
It starts when you care
to act, it starts when you do
it again after they said no,
it starts when you say We
and know who you mean, and each
day you mean one more.
Every Third Monday of the month
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
January Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group: November Sessions
Tuesday, January 13, and Tuesday, January 27, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection, sharing, and connection with peers.
In December we are exploring the theme ‘Practicing Resistance.’ We will use a range of sources, including literature, music, and art, as well as discussion questions, to enrich and guide our conversations, and close with a short meditation.
Register below, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org.
December 2025:
Choosing Hope
Our poem for December is Hope by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer:
Hope has holes
in its pockets.
It leaves little
crumb trails
so that we,
when anxious,
can follow it.
Hope’s secret:
it doesn’t know
the destination—
it knows only
that all roads
begin with one
foot in front
of the other.
For December our question of the month is "What is a hope you’re taking into the new year?"
Image of the Month
This photo is of the June 2025 No Kings protest in Dolores Park.
Visio Divina: To engage in ancient practice of meditating on an image as a spiritual practice click here.
November 2025:
Nurturing Gratitude
Actively Nurturing Gratitude
“This is what grateful living is. Returning to the noticing of all that is sufficient, of all that is extraordinary, all that already is in our lives, enough to take our breaths away, and using that to help us get through life in a way, through difficulty, through challenge, uplifted, enamored.” - Kristi Nelson, Author of Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Power of Taking Nothing For Granted
As we enter into Autumn and the month of November, we begin our Soul Matters Theme of Nurturing Gratitude. When we get caught up in the state of the world or a particular personal concern, gratitude can be a practice that allows us to change our perspective or helps ground us in what we do know. By looking at our lives and our world through the lens of gratitude, we are able to notice where beauty lives, where resistance won, where abundance still resides, and where blessings abound. It does not solve the world's issues or our own concerns, however, it gives us a grounding to know what we are striving to keep as precious and that we are not alone in that effort. Make it a point this month to notice something new in the world around you; to thank those who have supported your life; to reflect on where you have been and where you are now. German Theologian Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you say your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” Let gratitude be your prayer and guide this month.
Dr. David Breeden
Gratitude Walking
I used to walk across
a wooden bridge arched
over a creek. The wide
planks were rotted, yet
still, it carried me. This
is what life does, I thought:
what words do,
what love does.
Even half-broken
the bridge was enough.
Even falling apart,
it gave itself. And so
I said thanks
to the bridge,
to the creek,
to the sky,
to my calloused feet
that keep moving.
Thank you, I said,
over and again
as the air trembled
its deep, ordinary music.
Facilitated by Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern
November Minister’s Book Group
"Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World" by Christian Cooper
Wednesday, November 19, 6:30-8 PM (Zoom)
Christian Cooper describes himself as a “Blerd” (Black nerd). He is also a creator of comic books professionally and an expert bird walker who discovered birding as a youth in Long Island and could be found most weekends and even early mornings during migration season in New York’s Central Park engaged in his favorite hobby. His memoir talks about his growing up, how he came to bird, why he loves it, and how it has shaped his life in ways that are (mostly) delightful.
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
October Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group: November Sessions
Tuesday November 11 and Tuesday November 25, 7:00-8:30PM - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection while connecting with peers. These sessions are open to all aged 18-39,
whether you are brand new to Unitarian Universalism or a longtime friend at UUSF.
These sessions will follow the monthly Soul Matters theme, with each session exploring different content, questions, and layers of the overarching theme. We use a range of sources, including literature, music, poetry, and art, to enrich and inform our discussions.
In November, we are exploring the theme ‘Cultivating Compassion’.
Register below and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org
Third Mondays, Starting Oct 20
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an in-person class and you will need to register to receive the spiritual practice packet. To view the themes and spiritual practices for each month, click this link.
October 2025:
Cultivating Compassion
The Practice of Cultivating Compassion
Over the course of a life, a lot can be taken from us. We can lose all our earthly belongings in a fire. We can and will lose loved ones, though our love and memories of them will be ours to keep. What cannot be taken with us—what, in fact, often grows stronger and richer if we are doing the work of reflective living—are two things. One is the wisdom we amass and refine over a lifetime of searching, questioning, and living our truths in the great laboratory of the world; the other is the compassion we find and nurture in ourselves, forging it into a way of being that animates how we move through the world in powerful, formative ways. This month we are looking at the second piece of what endures: compassion. We are asking you to reflect: what is this compassion we are supposed to nurture? What does it take to orient our spirit toward real compassion? How do we practice it? In worship, in the Soul Matters resources, and in our own independent reflection and study, we are invited to look at and unpack this central piece of a life well lived and how to embed compassion more deeply in our own lives.
Before You Know What Kindness Really Is
Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.
Co-led by Debbie Wu & Louise Diskerud
Craft the Theme Small Group
2nd Sunday (Oct 2025-May 2026), after service (12:30-2:00) in the Children's Art Room
Come engage in a small group process with craft materials and express what the monthly "Soul Matters" theme means to you. You need not be an artist to participate, just have a willingness to explore your creative side. This small group does not require a full-year commitment, but RSVP so we can plan accordingly. You are welcome to bring your own art supplies, and supplies will be provided. If you have additional questions, contact Debbie Wu at debbiestuff@icloud.com.
Led by Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern
Minister's Book Group
Wednesday, October 29, 6:30-8:00 pm (Zoom)
Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin
Led by Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern
Ruha Benjamin is a Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and the Founder and Director of the Ida B. Wells Just Data Lab. Benjamin brings a critical and creative approach to investigating the social dimension of science, technology, and medicine. Here’s what Benjamin says on her website about this month’s book, her most recent publication: “A world without prisons? Ridiculous. Schools that foster the genius of every child? Impossible. A society where everyone has food, shelter, and love? In your dreams. EXACTLY. This book is an invitation to take seriously Toni Morrison’s instructions to “Dream a little before you think.”
October Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group
The sessions will take place on Zoom from 7:00 to 8:30 PM on Tuesday, October 14, and Tuesday, October 28.
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection while connecting with peers. These sessions are open to all aged 18-39, whether you are brand new to Unitarian Universalism or a longtime friend at UUSF.
These sessions will follow the monthly Soul Matters theme, with each session exploring different content, questions, and layers of the overarching theme. We use a range of sources, including literature, music, poetry, and art, to enrich and inform our discussions.
In October, we are exploring ‘Cultivating Compassion’ on the following dates on Zoom:
- Tuesday, October 14, 7:00-8:30PM
- Tuesday, October 28, 7:00-8:30PM
Register below, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Membership and Young Adult Manager Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org.
September 2025:
Building Belonging
"A Start of a New Project: Building Belonging"
As we come back into the community from our summer adventures, we are encouraged to engage the theme of Building Belonging. As Rev. Dr. David Breeden suggests, “Belonging is not something given—it is something we build, with open hands and open hearts.” How will we build belonging this year? What do you need to feel you belong in this congregation? What will you do to open your hands and hearts to others to help them feel they belong? We will explore this theme through worship, our question of the month, visio divina, classes, and our poem of the month. We look forward to starting this effort together and hope you do as well.
By Mary Oliver
“Wild Geese”
“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”
September Sessions
20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group
Tuesday September 9 and Tuesday September 23, 7:00-8:30 pm - On Zoom
Join the 20s & 30s Spiritual Discussion Group for a time of spiritual reflection while connecting with peers. These sessions are open to all aged 18-39, whether you are brand new to Unitarian Universalism or a longtime friend at UUSF.
These sessions will follow the monthly Soul Matters theme, with each session exploring different content, questions, and layers of the overarching theme. We use a range of sources, including literature, music, poetry, and art, to enrich and inform our discussions.
In September, we are exploring ‘Building Belonging’ on the following dates on Zoom:
- Tuesday, September 9, 7:00-8:30pm
- Tuesday, September 23, 7:00-8:30pm
Register here, and Emma will contact you a day or so before the session with a reminder and the Zoom link.
Email Membership and Young Adult Manager Emma Wakeling with questions about the program or issues with the registration form: ewakeling@uusf.org.
Led by Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern
Minister's Book Group
Wednesday, September 24, 6:30-8:00 pm (Zoom)
Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life by Dacher Keltner
Led by Rev. Vanessa Rush Southern
Dacher Keltner is a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is an expert on the science of human emotion and the director of Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. One of his areas of study is the emotion, the feeling, of awe, of wonder—where we find it, how we are hardwired to seek and be fed by it, and what its role is and can be in a full and flourishing life. Join the exploration of awe.
Facilitated by Rev. Laura Shennum
Soul Matters Spiritual Practices Small Group
Second Thursdays, Online
6:30pm to 8pm
Each month we will engage in a new spiritual practice related to the theme of the month. You will have an opportunity to engage in a spiritual practice on your own and then with the group. This will be an online class, and you will need to register to receive the Zoom information and spiritual practice packet.