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We are a community that invites you to awaken to love.
Beloveds,
“Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”
“There’s no crying in baseball.”
Did you grow up in a family or a community that used platitudes like these to subtly teach you how to suffer through life?
I don’t believe most people meant harm by it. For many, this language was simply a repetition of what others were saying — the only framework they had for endurance and survival. But we are seeing, again and again, the damage this way of thinking causes, especially when it is repeated by people who have never been offered another story about strength.
So often, we are taught that resilience is something we must master on our own—something gritty and individual, something that asks us to push through, toughen up, or quietly endure. This story is not neutral. It serves a culture that benefits when people are exhausted, isolated, and blaming themselves for what is actually systemic harm. Many of us learned early that strength meant not asking for help—because needing help was treated as failure.
But our faith tells a different story.
In the weeks ahead, I invite us to remember that resilience is not a solo project. It lives not only within us, but between us. It is found in shared care, in mutual support, and in the courage to reach for another hand—and to offer our own when someone else falters. Resilience grows where interdependence is named and practiced, not denied.
Resilience, as our tradition understands it, is not about bouncing back to who we were before. We do not return unchanged from loss, grief, rupture, or struggle. Instead, we integrate what we have survived. We grow around it. We allow ourselves to become someone new—someone shaped by experience, but not defined by it. Any story of resilience that demands we “get over it” quickly or quietly is not resilience at all; it is erasure.
To embody resilience is to listen to the wisdom of our bodies and spirits when they tell us it is time to rest, to let go, to ask for help, or even to quit what no longer sustains us. Sometimes resilience looks like persistence. Sometimes it looks like refusal. Both require courage in a culture that prizes productivity over people.
It also means telling the truth about our wounds—without shame—and trusting that we do not have to carry them alone. Our resilience deepens when we allow ourselves to be seen authentically, when we stop pretending we are fine, and when we remember that community is not a reward for strength, but a source of it. Isolation weakens us; connection restores us.
In a world that often feels fragile and overwhelming, resilience does not ask us to save everyone or fix everything. Instead, it invites us to create sanctuaries—places of care, meaning, beauty, and connection that resist a world that insists we harden, hurry, and handle everything alone. Choosing care in an extractive culture is not passive. It is an act of resistance. Our congregation is meant to be one of those places.
As we move through this season, I invite you to notice:
* Where do you lean on others—and where might you allow yourself to lean a little more?
* What has helped you keep going before, and who helped you survive?
* What parts of yourself did you have to hide to endure—and what might it look like to welcome those parts home now?
May we remember that resilience is not armor. It is a practice—soft, stubborn, and deeply human. And it is something we cultivate together, on purpose, for the sake of our lives and the world we are shaping.
Click HERE (https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eMNeXLe9Ff48htUUGmLSP?si=6upVjhJQQxGFyjM0rUyfJQ&nd=1&dlsi=b522ef1c0c4a406e) for the Spotify playlist on Embodying Resilience
Click HERE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12WGa1VTjkQ&list=PLvXOKgOQVYP7Yk8XvJ_treXHOG5SCM5kN) for the YouTube playlist on Embodying Resilience
With care and gratitude,
Rev. Christe
my pronouns are they/them and this is why they matter (https://pronouns.org/what-and-why)
To schedule an appointment click here (https://calendar.app.google/8kMRsw3EwQgZVqYQ8)
I serve UUSMC at ¾ time, and I look forward to the time we share in ministry together.
My regular office hours are:
* Mondays & Tuesdays: 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM
* Sundays (when I preach): 9:00 AM – 3:00 PM
* Thursdays: By appointment only
Other times may be arranged by mutual agreement via email.
I joyfully join committee meetings when I am able, with particular focus on the Board, Finance, and Worship teams.
UUSMC Website (https://www.uusmc.org/)
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