Our Monthly Spiritual Themes guide our Chalice Circles, which are small, intentional groups of members and friends that gather for spiritual enrichment through personal sharing. For more information on Chalice Circles, please email Linda Benson at chalicecircles@uuprinceton.org.

Our Chalice Circle thoughts and questions around the theme of Birth & Death this month are:

“‘The story of my recent life.’ I like that phrase. It makes more sense than “the story of my life,” because we get so many lives between birth and death. A life to be a child. A life to come of age. A life to wander, to settle, to fall in love, to parent, to test our promise, to realize our mortality – and in some lucky cases, to do something after that realization.” ⎯ Mitch Albom

What stage of life are you in now? What are your goals for this time of your life? What stage do you look forward to next?

 

“Birth and death are the most singular events we experience – and the contemplation of death, as of birth, should be a thing of beauty, not ignobility.” ⎯ Jacob K. Javits

Are you able to think of death as a thing of beauty? How do you think of it?

 

“Once a man had thrust his hands into the soil and knew the grit of it between his teeth, he felt something rise within him that was not of his day or generation, but had persisted through birth and death from a time beyond recall.” ⎯ Martha Ostenso

Do you think there is anything that escapes the cycle of birth and death and is eternal? If so, what is it?

 

“There would be no chance at all of getting to know death if it happened only once. But fortunately, life is nothing but a continuing dance of birth and death, a dance of change. Every time I hear the rush of a mountain stream, or the waves crashing on the shore, or my own heartbeat, I hear the sound of impermanence. These changes, these small deaths, are our living links with death. They are death’s pulses, death’s heartbeat, prompting us to let go of all the things we cling to.” ⎯ Sogyal Rinpoche

What are the little deaths that we experience in our daily lives? What is their impact?