As a Unitarian Universalist, one of the things I love when researching religions is commonality – finding similar practices across cultures, belief systems, and geography. As a Pagan whose religious roots reach deeply into history, these threads of similar practice and approach anchor me ever more firmly to the sacred world we share and the…
Tag: yule
(Content warning: death, grief) One of my favorite quotes I’ve heard Reverend Carl give is from educator and activist Parker Palmer: “There are two ways for the heart to break: apart into many shards like a fragment grenade, or open into greater capacity so we can hold life’s inevitable tensions creatively, not destructively.” My father,…
This is one of those “file away for later” blogs I sometimes write: information that isn’t applicable right now but may be useful to have on hand in the future. I reset Yule this past December. The last tendrils of that practice are wrapping up as we round the bend toward March and I wanted…
Learning about the history of a word tells us a lot about that word’s meanings over the years. The word “bear” comes from a proto Germanic word meaning “brown thing.” The word “wreath” comes from the word “ridan,” meaning “to twist.” The word “Yule,” the old name for the Winter Solstice, comes from the old…