Notes from the President’s Desk – January, 2017

Resolutions
Happy New Year Everyone! Are you ready for a fresh start? Do you dare to risk making any New Year resolutions? Are you willing to be bold? Was 2016 a year full of Joys and Sorrows, any less meaningful because it didn’t turn out as you hoped? Will 2017, with all its promise, be a disappointment if you slip up on your resolutions? It seems to me that Abe Lincoln got it right, attributed with the following quote; “Folks are usually about as happy as they make up their minds to be.” Maybe the question to ask this year is: How will your faith, your search for truth and meaning, inform the decisions you make in 2017?
The Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura of which we are a part, is a community that helps us live a more full and meaningful life. All that is needed is our participation. In covenant, we agree to assume the best intentions of each other. In living our faith, we should give that same consideration to ourselves when making a resolution. We make them with the best of intentions.
The church year is based on the fiscal calendar July to June, and not on the calendar year January to December. Organizations generally function in this manner for regulatory reporting and tax reasons. So, we respect the calendar year but arrange our church activities around the fiscal. The summer months are typically less busy and we conclude our year in June with the annual meeting, approval of our budget, and election of our slate of candidates. In addition, our committees determine who will be Chair for the coming year. In as much as we are celebrating the beginning of 2017 we are only halfway through our church year. In reflecting on the past six months much has been accomplished. The most important to me is that we have formed a new relationship with Rev. Dana and that she is settling in nicely as our minister. The next six months will be full of activity and likely feel as if they are passing quickly. There is much to do and a lot to be excited about with plenty of opportunities for everyone to get involved.
The following poem is “Our Deepest Fear” by Marianne Williamson. I think it suggests an idea for a New Year resolution that is not about fixing oneself and doesn’t involve guilt as some resolutions do. This poem is about giving yourself permission to be you and that is a resolution worth making.
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Living in Paradise,
Bryan Buck, President