Category Archives: Blog

Entering the Dark Season

Blog, Twinkle's Musings

Each year we share this meditation poem written by Twinkle in 2013.

May we find comfort in the warm embrace of the dark season.

The Dark Season

We are at the threshold of the Seasons, 

the doorway to the Year, 

when the Veil is thin, 

and time passes amorphously.  

 

We turn inward as the Darkness beckons us.  

We welcome the warmth of the fire, 

contemplating the mysteries of the Unseen.  

 

We honor the soft ache in our hearts 

for those we have lost: 

the people, 

the dreams.  

 

And we rest.  

For rest we must, to heal.  

 

This is the cycle of death and rebirth; 

release and renewal.  

We cherish this time 

as the lessons it offers 

penetrate our knowing.  

 

May we breathe in wisdom 

and breathe out patience.

by: Rev. “Twinkle” Marie Manning

October 23rd, 2013

For original art post + Audio, click the link below.

The Dark Season

Thank you!!

Blog, Family, Twinkle's Musings, , ,

We are deeply grateful to all our family and friends who joined us for our engagement party!! It was so wonderful to celebrate our happiness with you and to see such happiness reflected back to us by each of you. Love 💫❤️🎶🙏🏼

October 13th, 2018. Thank you to all our friends and family celebrating with us near and far. We love you!

Posted by Marie Gerstel Manning on Monday, October 15, 2018

 

September 12th – October 4th, every year, like clockwork

Blog, Family, Twinkle's Musings, , ,

My mother’s birthday is today,

…would have been today.

October 4th.

She would have been 69.

She died 10 years ago;

her Body releasing its last exhale in the wee hours of September 12th. She was 58.

Her death-day marks the beginning of what is typically a difficult series of weeks for our family; September also holding the anniversaries of my brother’s death, and the would-be birthday of my father who died almost two decades ago now.

Of course, the dark season has grown accustomed to stretching out, often initiating Its appearance before August’s end and extending its visit through, and then past, Samhain.

This year was lighter than many.

Still, their absence is present.

The mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to deal with paradox

Blog, Promotions for Friends and Colleagues 
“The mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to deal with paradox...” Rev. Jaelynn Pema-la Scott

This week on The VUU, in addition to calling us to be more embracing of our transgender and queer siblings and varieties of trans theologies, we are called to embrace ministries, rituals and paths that embody and celebrate our unique spiritualities within and beyond our existing faith traditions.

Speaking about being in the margins of faith, spiritually and theology, Rev. Jaelynn Pema-la Scott says, 

"Everything we do is revolutionary. Anything that we develop and hold true to ourselves is liberative ...

Anytime I pray it is an act of revolution. 

It is activism.

Anytime I declare myself a minister and say that my ordination is valid and that I hold wisdom and truth, that is an act of resistance.”

May each journey, mysterious and divine, be blessed.

For the names that remain unspoken…

Blog, Twinkle's Musings

Today, may we also say a prayer for the many names that do not appear on any memorial and the ones that remain unspoken aloud due to the fear that exists in our country. May those grieving the loss of such loved ones find warmth in the embrace of those they can trust with their truth. May our planet usher in a time when all are safe and welcome and free.

 

Water Communion Service in Waterville September 9th, 2018

Blog, Retreats

Join Us!

Sunday, September 9th, 2018  (10:00 am)

The Universalist Unitarian Church of Waterville

69 Silver Street, Waterville, Maine

The Winds of Summer:

a Water Communion Service to Gather The Beloved Community

Guest in the Pulpit: Rev. “Twinkle” Marie Manning

”Community means strength that joins us our strength to do the work that needs to be done. Arms to hold us when we falter. A circle of healing.  A circle of friends. Someplace where we can be free."

~ Starhawk

UPDATED: Winds of Summer SERMON POSTED HERE

About Prayer

Blog, Twinkle's Musings

A colleague in one of our collegial Facebook groups asked this week:

1- How do You pray? 2- How in your mind does prayer work?

My response to the thread:

As a theist, prayer for me means intentionally connecting with and experiencing that which I call Holy. Daily I do so in stillness and silence, extending deep gratitude for life and the gifts therein. Also as a practice through reciting the Aramaic version of Kabbalistic Cross aloud as the vibration of the mantra brings me into full presence with the divinity in me and around me.

Gregg Braden’s book “Secrets of the Lost Mode of Prayer” really resonated with me a few years ago. As does the philosophy of Laura Day in The Circle where she demonstrates how the power of a single wish can transform one’s life.

I turn to prayer in gratitude and also in surrender when circumstances are beyond my control. Sometimes my prayers manifest in writings and visualizations; oftentimes the simple act of touching my hand to my heart and humming (kind of like the Om) places me in conscious union with the divine.

There is holiness in quiet and in sound, in stillness and in movement.

I believe that prayer can be as diverse as that which we call Holy and can be made manifest through words, thoughts and deeds, such as daily acts of grace and gratitude.

I believe the energy of prayer can heal.

My theology is to live life as a prayer.