Loving Artemis: a story of the power of love –#amreading #LGBTQ #UU

This morning, I participated in the Poetry Sunday service at the Unitarian Universalists of Mt. Airy in Philadelphia. The YouTube video of my part of the service is above and the text is below.

Good morning

When I first thought of today’s theme, The Poet in the World?, I was thinking of the title of an old book of prose by the poet Denise Levertov. While I did read the work of Levertov and knew of her as an important poet who lived between the years of 1923 and 1997, I never thought of her as a guiding force in my world, even though poetry led me into my life.

I reconsidered when I revisited her work. Consider the following poem:

The Breathing

An absolute
patience.
Trees stand
up to their knees in
fog. The fog
slowly flows
uphill.
White
cobwebs, the grass
leaning where deer
have looked for apples.
The woods
from brook to where
the top of the hill looks
over the fog, send up
not one bird.
So absolute, it is
no other than
happiness itself, a breathing
too quiet to hear.

I now see that poetry has long been a refuge for me. It has been a way to breathe in a world that too often is terrifying.

I was a poet before I was a prose writer. As the poems got longer and included dialogue, I turned to literary prose. I just published my fourth book of prose, titled Loving Artemis, an endearing tale of revolution, love and marriage which was just released from Thorned Heart Press.

The book is a coming-of-age novel set against the backdrop of the historic current events that led up to the landmark US Supreme Court ruling in favor of marriage equality in 2015. The novel is very autobiographical but is still fiction. I was writing it during the time that I was joining this Unitarian Universalist congregation and read several excerpts here when I was first a worship associate, including this narration from my main character Artemis:

She wanted it so badly that she could feel it in her bones. She wanted it so badly that she could taste the sweetness of her dreams. The love that she felt for Linda was a fire in her that glowed. The sky darkened. Even in the winter cold, she felt like a firefly. Somewhere in the future, a star winked back at her. It was Linda. They would have a life together. Art wished so hard that her wish had to come true. But first, she and Linda had to get through this last year of high school. Getting into trigonometry would be easy, compared to the rest.

In addition to being a coming-of-age story, this is a Unitarian Universalist novel.

I had a few advance readers in this congregation, and I was delighted in my introverted and awkward way when Tim Styer, who was moderator when I first joined the church and who continues to be an important part of my UU journey, told me that he was loving the novel.

“It’s not boring,” he said, giving it a brief assessment.

It is a story about hope. At the time, in 1977, some might have said that Artemis was delusional for wanting to marry the love of her life. But she wanted it so badly that it did happen.

Ultimately, it is a story about the power of love.

–Namaste–

For information on my novel Loving Artemis click here

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Entering The Mystery — #UU talk #Ourstoriesmatter #WeAreAmerica

Yesterday morning at the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration (in Philadelphia) I did a talk titled “Entering The Mystery.”  This talk was part of a larger service on “New Member Sunday.”

You can view the YouTube video below.  If you prefer, you can read the piece below the video. Thanks!

 

Good morning

 

“Janet?  Janet joined a church?”

I overhead this a few years ago when I was downstairs.  A woman I had known casually for a few decades through the women’s community was talking to my partner.

Her comment wasn’t judgmental or skeptical.  Rather it was innocent and incredulous — or maybe it was simply factual.  Was she hearing things correctly?

Could Barbara had said this? Was it true?

This was after a service when several members of the Anna Crusis Women’s Choir joined the Restoration Singers on Music Sunday. Our music director, Jane Hulting, formerly directed the Women’s choir and stays in touch with the “Annas.'”

Of course, I found the comments of this “Anna” amusing.

But I’m the first to admit that I’m an unlikely church member.

When I joined Restoration about four years ago, it was the first time I had joined a church.  I was raised secular – but always knew myself as a spiritual person.  Like many, I was distrustful of organized religion.

In one of my earliest spiritual memories, I remember standing on the beach as a child — having lost my parents — and looking out to the waves and praying to an amorphous and genderless “God” that I find them.  Then I turned around and my mother was walking toward me.

I played the guitar as a child, and in fifth grade sang “Like A Bridge Over Troubled Water” on the stage. The song has always had resonance for me.  Then as an adolescent, I crossed my own troubled waters.  Perhaps it was my spirituality that got me through.

When I started coming to Restoration, the time was ripe for me.  I discovered a religion that shared my values.  I had a life-time of alternative spirituality behind me and found a place that wasn’t rigid or narrow where I could explore traditional spirituality.

I also found a spiritual home for my partner and I.

Last week she said to me after we came home from the service that it was really wonderful that we have such a nice church to attend together.

There are so many people from the wider communities that we belong to here at Restoration. And there are so many others — who I wouldn’t have met otherwise.  It is good to be together.

It is good for me to be connected to all of you, to this Beloved Community – and to be connected to hope.

Shortly after the election, I heard a short segment on National Public Radio about how people in the United States tend to be divided into red and blue states and experience sameness rather than diversity.  They often don’t know the stories of anyone who is different from them.

Diversity helps to build empathy.

It also creates hope.

I really cherish being part of the diversity here at Restoration.

As a writer and as a creative writing teacher, I know that our stories are sacred. I spend much of my time alone and am fortunate in having a partner who respects my need for aloneness.  Solitude is necessary for a writer but so is being in the world – to a lesser extent.

I’ve been a reader all of my life.  As a child, the whole world opened up to me when I learned how to read.  I was described as a bookworm – as a child and as an adult.

Restoration’s emphasis on books drew me in as did its diverse and welcoming community.  But coming here most Sunday mornings is different than spending my time writing and reading. By coming here, I am part of a community that is connected to the world and to the cosmos.

A year ago, I would have said that the diversity of the congregation was important – today I know that it is absolutely essential.

As I mentioned, I was raised secular. Religion is still a bit of a mystery to me.  Everyone’s reason for joining a church is different.  I suspect that each person joins Restoration for a reason that might end up being different from what they may have thought originally.

Welcome to the mystery.

 

 

–Namaste

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