Unitarian Universalists are not conventionally religious.  They don’t believe any single scripture comes from God.  They find the Divine everywhere in everyday life.

One UU leader, Don Southworth, sees God in the people he meets.  He thinks of them as “God with skin on.”

He also ends all of his emails with the salutation, “Blessings.”

Some people think that word is an expression of his religion (not true); others think it’s a little weird (probably true), and others think he’s wishing them well (absolutely true).

He views his blessing as an affirmation of the other person’s “belovedness,” as his thankfulness for that person’s presence, as saying out loud the joy and love he feels for the other.

It’s like saying the Sanskrit word, “Namaste,” when greeting or departing from someone, with “a bow to the divine in you.”

A blessing also might be felt (or said) to the rising sun, when starting a new day, when beginning a meal, or any time we want to express our gratitude for the gift of life and for the others we share it with.

He agrees with the mystic, Meister Eckhart, who wrote, “If the only prayer we say is thank you, it would suffice.”

He reminds us that we are blessed, we are blessings and we bless others.  To him, a blessing is a moment of “grateful acknowledgement that in the midst of a broken world unspeakable beauty, grace and mystery abide.”

April 21, 2023