Recent Young Adult Blog Posts
Meet our 2019 General Assembly Spark Leaders!
At this summer’s General Assembly, UUCSJ is excited to offer our third annual stipended leadership opportunity to alumni of our programs and related justice and leadership initiatives to support their engagement in social justice education, action, and outreach at GA....
The Journey Home
No summer ever came back, and no two summers were ever alike. Times change, and people change; and if our hearts do not change as readily, so much the worse for us.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne
As your time in your internship winds down, as tends to happen, you will likely find your thoughts entering contradictory movements: simultaneously reflecting back on the meaning of your experience and looking forward at what it will be like to go back home to your normal life. It is my hope that this experience has left you feeling expanded, you are feeling more connected to and part of the universe and its multitude of beings, and more dedicated to siding with life and love.
The journey home may be long and difficult. As you pack your things and reflect back on your summer, a number of questions may be emerging for you – and some of you have already reflected on these points: How is it that you have changed or shifted? How have you expanded? What paths have you felt drawn toward? What do you feel a part of? What is the broader context of the work you have been doing? What have you and your internship organization accomplished? What work remains unfinished?
This reflection is designed to help you think about social change, as something collectively constructed, a long-haul, and an ongoing process; and to acknowledge that the fruits of our efforts might be humble, and cannot often be immediately seen, but the efforts are worthy, necessary and often transformational.
Read: A Future Not Our Own
Please read this excellent homily/prayer which was written by Bishop Ken Untener for Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was martyred for his human rights activism in El Salvador. The religious language of the text may seem foreign to you, as it draws on the ethic and imagery of Liberation Theology. In this context, a good translation for the term “kingdom” is “beloved community”: the world to which we aspire.
Reflect & Share: Planting Seeds
What seeds do you feel you have planted through your efforts this summer and how do you hope they will grow? What seeds were already planted in this work that you helped water? Who else will help cultivate this growth and reap this harvest? What fruits, i.e. social change, will these collective efforts ultimately yield? Or in other words… What previous efforts created the foundation that your work this summer built upon, and what foundation did you build for others who come after you to carry this work forward? How will you carry it forward when you get home?
Please also post a photo, or other form of art, to accompany your reflection that is representative of a seed you helped plant, nurture, or watch grow this summer.
