Spiritual Support

In times of stress & struggle, many people turn to their spiritual communities for help.

Unfortunately, my mom is a "recovering Jehovah's Witness" who left when she was told "women don't go to college," so I was raised in a house mistrustful of organized religion.

I have struggled with how to meet my spiritual needs, and increasingly, my daughters'. It is hard, as an adult, to embrace a lot of religious ideas - without question - that others have been taught since birth.

I wanted find people who supported one another without judgment. I wanted to find a community that didn't feel they had access to "the one source of truth." I wanted to find a religion that embraced science, and nature, as well as a "higher power."

I wanted my daughters to learn about many of the world's spiritual ideas and prophets without being told who was right and who was wrong, to be encouraged to think for themselves and ask questions.

I didn't think it was possible, but I found my spiritual home. I found it in a concept called Unitarian Universalism. This liberal faith is hard to explain - it's one part world religions/sociology class, one part community service organization, and one part big family - but it adheres to these basic principles:

• The inherent worth and dignity of every person
• Justice, equality, and compassion in human relations
• Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth
• A free and responsible search for truth and meaning
• Freedom of conscience and the use of the democratic process
• The goal of a world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all
• Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

People of traditional and non-traditional backgrounds, Christians, Jews, Pagans, Atheists (!), many people in interfaith marriages and more come together to learn and grow with, and support, one another. And my daughters and I love it.

Why am I telling you? Well, if you are like me and are not comfortable with your current faith or lack thereof, check out uua.org and see if this might be the answer you've been looking for.