With Gods and Goddesses of many shapes and understandings we pray and celebrate. What would be our prayers and meditations this morning? Would it capture the hearts and thoughts of this people gathered? Our words, imperfect and incomplete, reflect us all, this beautiful congregation with its amazing mix of moods, styles, temperaments, quirks and qualities. We center and gather now to consider again the divine in human form, to wonder, to question, to quest....to linger...to launch...to be aware and to be numb. We are affirmed now in the state we are in...so that even now we can affirm a new beginning from this moment on - on into this hour and this day and a new week.

So much of our living is going through the motions, walking in the maze of moments....and we miss each other in these lengthening late Winter days. How do we breathe deeply, how do we look into each other's eyes, how do we say "no" to more and more demands we and others place upon us? May we face our alienation with each other and our world...and ourselves...so that we catch a greater glimpse of what we might be and become for the honor and glory of our families and friends - our neighbors and of the divine in all men and women, in all creation; for honoring and celebrating women, for birthing and becoming in all forms.

We are grateful for the possibility of being ever more aware, human and alive. To listen and to appreciate bird song in early morn, to see robins now flying from snow mound to branch...to behold moon light while walking in crisp, clear air...to listen to music that deeply moves our souls or makes us want to dance...or to cry. To watch a movie that stirs our deepest being...to enjoy time with soul mates - eating, drinking, sharing...being. To place cheek upon cheek - with a child, a lover, a parent, grand parent.

The world touches us in so many ways. May we consider people near and far in some kind of desperation...parents struggling to manage a household and a marriage...those who have lost jobs, those with health and medical concerns, those depressed and despairing about life, those in war-torn lands where oppression is the language and esteem is absent.

May we consider all that is - the beautiful and that which we don't even want to read of and think about. May the joy and the terror of this present day move and jolt us to our greater selves and our greater thoughts. May our active considerations of all people move us to action and responses that help gentle this world into a more sane and humane place, where laughter can abound a little more, where smiles and trust and honesty can prevail.

We expose our fear where it shivers, where it crouches behind the curtains of pretense and propriety - so that we can face each other and laugh our way toward becoming more whole to each's greater being. May we embrace this day our choices, our chances and our creativity to be who we are. Help us this day to eat the fruit of knowledge and opportunity, knowing full well the delights and responsibilities that come with this primal, liberating and human inclination.

Whether in surrender or defiance, let how much it all matters pry us off dead center, so that we are moved to tears, or sighs or screams, or smiles...or dreams....that we may be in touch with who we are and with each other and with all that is eternal, life giving and true. We pray and meditate with gratitude, openness and in humble celebration. Amen. Let it be.

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