Love Speaks

“Whether we are writers or not, words help us reach beyond ourselves to find and name and claim our greater wholeness. They help us summon our best possibilities, bridging between the world as it is today and the place of justice and peace that we long for it to be. ”
~Rev. Karen Hering, consulting literary minister


A Local Speaking Engagement -- All Are Welcome

February 24
Unity Church – Unitarian
732 Holly Avenue
St. Paul, Minnesota 55104
651-228-1456
Wellspring Wednesday
6:00 dinner, $6 adult
7:10 program

This Unity Church has two marvelous programs going – well, far more than two – but two caught my eye. The first is Wellspring Wednesdays, of which I’ll be a part later this month. It’s simply a time when the community gathers to share a meal and engage in conversation with one another and with various speakers such as myself. The other is called Faithful Words, a new literary ministry. The quote above is from the website description of Faithful Words. You might want to check out these programs at http://www.unityunitarian.org/

I love the idea of a literary ministry and have been wondering about doing something like it. A friend asked me a while back why I don’t teach writing. I don’t really have the credentials to do it (if you want degrees anyway) but I knew I would love to do more that would bring me in contact with my creative kin. I don’t believe you “teach” writing once you get much past grammar school anyway. Kathleen Norris provided one of the best quotes about writing I ever heard when she talked of teaching poetry to kids. She said the best students were the worst poets because they worried about getting it right. Just imagine what creativity and spirit would be released if we could quit worrying about that!

That’s a lot of what my books are about – A Course of Love and The Given Self. It seems like you have to unlearn your “doing it right” tendencies in life as much as in artistic or spiritual pursuits. You’ve got to get to a place where words move you and call you to reach beyond yourself.

I was invited to speak to the theme of love (a February theme – you can guess why). It was a neat invitation; different than most. I’m loosely giving my attention to “The ways that love has spoken to me.” Being as I seem to have been born predisposed to the written word, words have had a great impact, and I believe in them as artistic and spiritual expressions that can touch us and take us away from our narrow views or concerns, or conversely, get us to behold them more deeply. But there’s all kinds of ways besides words that love speaks, and if you feel so inclined, I invite you to comment on the ways love has spoken to you.