Flower Communion and Family

Today was my first Flower Communion in Eau Claire. We had a lovely ceremonial procession of bringing the flowers forward in a Spring Display and later in the service picking a flower brought by someone else.

This was a different Flower Communion than other years. This was my first Flower Communion as the minister of my own congregation. I also had a sense of the true meaning of Spring. There was real joy on the faces of these Wisconsiners as they paraded with their Spring bounty. In Georgia we appreciated the flowers, but I had not been through a long, hard winter. This was one hard winter. Can you say 22 inches of snowfall in one day! It was a balmy 60 degrees here in Eau Claire and beautiful.

My husband brought a vase for us to carry our flowers to and from church today. This is much more practical than my typical wet paper towel handling of Flower Communion flowers. We took our vase out to lunch with us after service. Our waitress noticed how lovely the flowers were and we admired them with her. It was then we noticed how different all of our flowers are. Each flower speaks a lot about each member of our family. Karl picked roses, which his grandfather was famous for growing. Kiernan, my super creative ballet boy, chose a very tall and bright yellow daisy. Ehren, who is all sports and boy, picked a blue flower. I picked the sad little yellow flower that someone had dropped and a few people had stepped on.

We carry our flowers and remember Spring. We carry our differences and they are also beautiful.

Standing on the Side of Love In Madison

On Saturday February 26th I drove up to Madison with a fellow minister from Eau Claire. We were travelling to meet other clergy to lend a faithful voice to the protests against Governor Walker's "Budget Repair Bill." We arrived to the streets filled with signs and energy. We missed our rendezvous with the other clergy that were starting the march, because there was no where to park. Eventually we took refuge in a church parking lot with the hope that they would faithfully not tow us! We wandered past a great diversity of protestors winding their way through the streets up towards the Capitol.

I have been a part of many different protests, but this was by far the largest. There are estimates that the crowds reached between 75,000 and 100,000. Yet in those crowds we were able to find our fellow clergy. I also found a fellow UU from a Madison church and this is how I came to hold our slogan sign of "Standing on the Side of Love." There were fireman, teachers, janitors, and artists. There were children, college students, and clergy. A diversity of voices rose that Saturday in the falling snow. It was a moving experience to be united in the demand for justice. It was a moving experience to see the peaceful way that my fellow protestors treated one another.

Justice with dignity and truth is faithful. We have to keep being faithful. We have to keep standing, shouting, and singing with our brothers and sisters. This is not about a budget. This about busting the rights of workers and not coming to the table. When you are talking about families, jobs, and education it can not be a zero sum game. There is too much to lose. There is too much to fight for.

Worker's Rights

Dear Governor Walker: Sacrificing freedoms does not balance the budget. Conservatives and liberals are agreeing on this one.

Budget cuts are different than abolishing the rights of workers to collectively bargain. Let's not cloud the issue. This is an attack on freedom of assembly.

I was happy to atttend the Eau Claire County Board meeting where they passed a resolution against Walker's bill. I was proud to stand with teachers, fellow people of faith, and others that believe that a budget is not balanced on the backs of public workers and workers' rights.