Routine Bells

So one of those things that I don’t really put out there that much is that I’m interested in Unitarian Universalism.

My first interest was peaked by Amanda Bennett of Lambda Union. She mentioned wanting to go to a UUA congregation a couple of times while we were hanging out in the Lambda Union Office back in the day.

The first congregation I actually got to was the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta, while I was in town on an internship at Horizon Theatre. The thing that really struck me about the place is the person who welcomed me mentioned that I’m welcome, but if this doesn’t fit me they encouraged me to look elsewhere. This floored me, essentially because it was contrary to the usual response in organized religion that “we want you to be here”.

I wandered a little bit and visited Miami Valley Unitarian Universalist Fellowship a couple of times, although it never quite clicked, and at that time sleep was more valuable than it is now.

The whole UU bug really bit me once I moved to Cincinnati and kind of started going to St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church where I eventually became one of the leaders of YADA, the “Young Adult Discussion and Action” (err, the Action was a bit thin as I remember, and interestingly enough I’m still listed as a leader…) Of course doing this my own way I never actually joined St. Johns.

After making the Seattle leap, I started looking around again, visiting the West Seattle Unitarian Universalist Fellowship a couple of times. But that wasn’t really the right fit for me..

Last week I finally dragged my ass over to the University Unitarian Church. This place really feels right. Last week I also practiced with the handbell choir for the first time. I really really really really enjoyed playing handbells. I played them for about seven years in middle and upper school and really missed them. I was pleased and impressed that the group respects each other enough to actually practice intently and put heaps of effort into it. Very little annoys me more than a musical group where people don’t respect each other and put time and effort into learning and performing
the music.

Ack, so I got off on a huge tangent that I never initially intended to go off on.. But there you have my UU history.. The point that I was actually wanting to get to is that this congregation and bell practice are something that I really think I could make part of a routine, and so far I’m two for two in making it a routine..

In many ways I have been resistant to routines, not seeing much value in them. I remember a counselor who I saw in my summer in Atlanta telling me that routines are a space from which we can build upon, and which provide us stability. (She should have made this point with a 2×4. No seriously counselors need to hit their patients over the head every so often so that the patients know the counselor is serious. Sure its odd from an ethics standpoint, but if your counselor hits you over the head you probably will remember what they told you. (either that or you’ll forget from the trauma, in either case it prevents you from having to kick yourself later.))

The other piece of this is last week I parlayed this into a visit to the library (right across the street from the church) and a run down to Pikes Place Market on the way home where I bought some produce and honey…

I finally feel that I’m making some progress and gaining some traction in meeting my goals, which really thrills me.

I’m just conscious of the fact that I need to keep putting forth effort to change in the ways I want to change.

Playing handbells is one of those.