I had some incredible
journeys this summer, not all of them involved traveling any distance. One journey was a dream journey of my body inhabited by a swarm of bees. During the “swarming”, I was not afraid. I
felt a keen sense of belonging and at one ness with the bees. Through this dream, I felt a call from deep
inside of me to love that is deep, profound and extensive.
One of the foremost group dream
workers is a Unitarian Universalist community minister, the Rev. Dr. Jeremy
Taylor. When I told my dream to Jeremy,
he shared that the bees have been associated with the divine feminine since the
earliest of times. Through the dream, I
am reminded of the gifts of the spirit that we have whenever we come together
for celebration and worship.
As we bless these animals today, we
also celebrate our own ability to give and receive unconditional and abundant
love—the animal in us. We bring pets and
non- human animals to bless but we also need blessing ourselves.
My spouse, Alan and I have been taking
our cat Blue out for an evening walk when we walk our dog Lilly. He likes it better when we all walk close
together—the members of his pride, Alan, me, even his canine family member,
Lilly. It seems this instinct for a
“family pride walk” is stronger than his individual “go your own way”
trait. And maybe that says something to
this religious community as well—that we take more pride in coming together as
a religious community and moving together than we do as individuals going our
own way, doing our own thing. It’s counter cultural and it may seem anti
Unitarian Universalist but it’s really not.
It’s part of Unitarian Universalism to work, play and grow together as a
spiritual community.
So many times, Unitarian Universalists relish
the intellectual to the exclusion of the spiritual. With our blessing of the animals, we recognize
the irrational yearnings we have and we celebrate our connection to the
integration of our bodies, minds and spirits.
We are celebrating a high order spirituality—one that is based on our
connection to a reverence for life and one that is limitless as our pets and
other animals so often teach us.
In Greek
myth, Odysseus’ great dog Argos was the first one to recognize the return of
his beloved master (even though he was disguised) after he had been gone for
nineteen years. Darwin’s dog also
recognized him after he had been gone five years away on his voyage of
discovery aboard the Beagle (p. 109, Loren C. Eiseley).
That
kind of recognition is with us today. Here today, in this blessing of the animals,
we cherish our beloved animals while also recognizing the love that lives in every
heart, in all that is living and interconnected here on earth. May we bless the unconditional loving animal
within one another, even as we bless these animals that are our companions.
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