Seeds of the Soul

On Sunday, my UU fellowship shared in a seed communion.  We received packets of sunflower seeds and ate them as a group.  While eating the seeds, our interim minister talked about seeds taking root in the fertile soil of our souls.  She asked what had seeds had already grown and which ones were getting ready to sprout as the season turned to spring.

This imagery has stayed with me all weekend and I think it will stay with me a while longer.  

Spring begins tomorrow, the trees are budding, and the things I could name last year but have forgotten already are pushing up through the ground by my parking lot.  There is a storm brewing and the winds are blowing.

What a perfect time to think about planting the soil.

Inspire: The Compulsion to Serve

I let my weird urge to volunteer for things lead me into helping facilitate a service at the UU this Sunday.  It wasn't as stress inducing as I thought, and it was a great one to have as an introduction into facilitating.  The topic was 'The Compulsion to Serve' and was led by a couple who had been in Ghana as Peace Corps Volunteers. 

Sometimes I let my raised hand run away with me and feel like I am stretched too thing.  Sometimes I feel like I just want to go back to being a hermit and not put myself out there.  But then I run across something like this Sunday, or last Sunday at the Art Festival, and I realize why I do it.  It's not just seeing a need and filling it, or wanting to make something better.  It's the compulsion, the need, to help other people and expand my world. 

I've had several conversations with different people about serving lately, about the quality of volunteering, and this Sunday just pulled it together for me.

Does this mean that I'm going to be volunteering a lot more?  Absolutely not.  If anything, it means that I need to volunteer less.  When I do lend my hand to situations that need a volunteer, or things that I want to do, I need to make absolutely sure that I have the time and energy to spare.  I cannot give my whole heart to everything and it cheats us all if I'm so divided that I'm not of use. 

I need to learn that it is okay to say no so I can truly serve.

Do you volunteer or serve?  How do you remember to say no?