Dear fellow members of our EUU community,

I’ve recently spent some solid blocks of time with dear family (thanks to school vacation), dear friends (thanks to online video conferencing software), and old and new acquaintances (thanks to our local UU Fellowship in Paris and this month’s visiting minister Zsolt Elekes from Transylvania). I am grateful to have such opportunities, and to know so many lovely people, including all of my young and energetic students, as I return to teaching this week.

This is a short message of grateful thanks to you, and to all of us who come together in community as UUs in Europe. Of the messages received over the past week, I have heard & experienced, repeatedly and in different forms, reminders of the gifts of patience and loving kindness. I’d like to share some of the words that have resonated and brought me a helpful sort of centering for continued fellowship, work and day-to-day interactions:

This single line from a prayer by Antoine de Saint-Exupery:  “I know that many problems solve themselves, so please teach me patience.”

And paraphrased a bit from our UU hymn 1031, based on a Traditional Buddhist Meditation:
“May I/you/we be filled with loving kindness;
May I/you/we be well;
May I/you/we be peaceful and at ease;
May I/you/we be whole.”

May we all continue in our daily lives with moments of peace, with the efforts and fruits of patience, and with the knowledge that we can reach out, listen, ask for or lend a hand. As we say in France, bon continuation, as we all do our best to live fully and to be loving with each other in this particular community of EUU, as in the wider world.

In grateful fellowship,
Karen Kyker
president@europeanuu.org