Vice President’s Message

November 2024
Monthly Theme: Love as Interdependence

Love. Love is at the center of our values and beliefs. I’ve been pondering why that is. Why is love at the core of everything we stand for?

Being brave enough to live authentically—true to yourself despite societal norms—requires a strength many of us struggle to find. Yet, that strength deserves to be met with love. When we lead our lives with love, fear, and even a lack of understanding of others’ differences, begin to fade away.

Loving those we don’t understand, or who are different from us, also takes great strength. It’s easy to judge or retreat into the comfort of the familiar. But love asks more of us. It calls us to embrace what we don’t fully know, to see others not as strangers but as fellow human beings, each deserving of compassion.

As Unitarian Universalists, we strive for a higher purpose: to enrich our own lives and the lives of those around us. Love is the thread that weaves through our aspirations. It is not just an ideal, but a daily practice that challenges us to reach beyond fear and judgement. When we choose love, we create a space where understanding replaces division, where humanity is celebrated in all its forms.

This simple word, love, is what we need to build a world where every person feels seen, valued, and embraced for who they are.