Over the past couple of years, I have enjoyed the nightly newsletter
written by Heather Cox Richardson, a historian and professor at Boston
College who uses her knowledge of the past to provide insight into the
happenings of today.  Learning about the news this way, in the context
of history, leaves me feeling more grounded than simply reading the
disconnected current headlines of the New York Times or the Washington
Post (though Dr. Richardson always provides links to these and other
sources she uses in constructing her nightly newsletter).

Like other historians, Heather Cox Richardson is fond of the saying,
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” We can see this
not only in national news but also in our personal and religious lives. 
The rhyming patterns of our history may be ones that make us cringe –
our nation’s history of violence toward Native Americans and Black
people, a personal failure to reach a goal, a relationship that went
sour.  In these cases, we learn from history to avoid repeating its
mistakes.  But the rhyming patterns of history can also remind us of our
strengths and of the beautiful things we have done in the past – wins
for social justice in our politics, accomplishments in our personal
lives, joyful connections with others.

As Unitarian Universalists, our Soul Matters theme for this month is
“History.”  This also happens to be one of the 5 central focuses of
transitional ministry, so it is an exciting opportunity to delve into
the history of Tree of Life together.  As we do so, we will likely find
some rhyming patterns, both those that make us cringe and those that
bring us smiles.  Through exploring our history together, we can choose
which patterns we want to learn from to avoid in the future and which
patterns we want to learn from to repeat.

One of the greatest strengths of the human species is our ability to
tell stories and therefore to pass wisdom from one generation to the
next.  It allows us to grow our understanding over time, not needing to
start over and repeatedly re-learn the lessons of the past.  What wisdom
are you called to carry forward from your personal history at this time?
  What wisdom are we called to carry forward from our congregation’s
history?  What wisdom are we called to carry forward from our national
and world history?  I look forward to exploring these questions together
this month!

In faith,

Rev. Jennifer Gracen