Family’s at Home: October’s Theme is Deep Listening

Our UU faith in pratice:

• Family Nature Club – take a walk in nature and deep-listen for sounds. Invite everyone to be as quiet as they can for a few minutes of the walk, and just notice what you hear. Another idea is to actually find a place to sit and listen… did anything surprise you? How do you feel after that quiet listening?
• Storytime: Grandad’s Prayers of the Earth, By Douglas Woods. A boy finds wisdom from his grandfather. This grandad knows how to deeply listen to the earth. After his grandfather dies, the boy slowly understands the wisdom of what his grandfather was saying. It gives him a path for connecting and healing. Video recording of the story here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlI-6D8lVXU. Book: HERE
• Movie Night: There is a wonderful movie on Netflix right now titled My Octopus Teacher, which is a perfect way to think about listening. Please send us an email and share your thoughts after you watch it!

Our UU faith in action:

• Is your Child a UU7 Secret Service Agent? UU7 is a way for South church children and families to engage in our mission through simple challenges. Click Here for the: October UU7 missions!
• Find ways to help get out the vote! Put up a yard sign, sign up for online phone banks, more ideas here: https://www.uuthevote.org/
• Practice Anti-racism together we have gathered many resources to help families in the practice of anti-racism, and we’ll reach out with opportunities to engage in demonstrations as they happen.

Dinner Time Discussions: Some questions you might discuss at dinner this month to explore the theme of deep listening:

• What are some ways to show someone you are listening to them? (It could be fun to play a game where you practice listening to each other, and then pretend not to listen.. and talk about how it feels!)
• We talk at church a lot about how important it is to find time outside, to move your body, to rest, and to be in quiet space. Why? Talk as a family about what happens when you don’t make time to rest/restore. Ask what it means to practice deep listening of your own body? How do you help support each other in that important work?
• Deep listening of Indigenous People: the movement to redefine our Nations October holiday brings up lots of thoughts around deep listening. Thinking about deep listening as a way to move toward truth and reconciliation is powerful. What parts of our history have we listened to? What parts have we ignored? what are the consequences of those choices? How can we do better?

Chalice Lighting for mealtimes this month: “Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand.” ~ Karl Menninger

Upcoming Themes (2020-2021 Church Year)

• November 2020: We are a community of Healing
• December 2020: We are a community of Stillness
• January 2021: We are a community of Imagination
• February2021: We are a community of Beloved Community
• March2021: We are a community of Commitment
• April 2021: We are a community of Becoming
• May 2021: We are a community of Story