RE Voices, April 2026

April 2026

April--my favorite month.  And only partly because my birthday is in April.  April is also (often) the month that contains Easter and always the month that contains Earth Day, which are two of my most loved holidays.  Both where I grew up (in the lower peninsula of Michigan) and here in New England, April is a month of great transformation!  Although we begin the month in the cold rains (and occasional snow) that marks our late winters here, by the end of the month the weather is generally sunny and warm.  The grass is greened up (and at my house covered in clover and dandelions) and the trees are leafing out.  We’ve enjoyed pussy willows in bud and forsythias in bloom.  

Although the transformation New England experiences is pretty amazing, it is nothing compared to a desert bloom.  Deserts are our biome of the month.  Most of the time, when we hear the word desert, the mental image we conjure up is something like the photo at left.  Cactuses tower (or sometimes squat) in the midst of dry cracked earth.  There might be a few scrubby seed-bearing plants about, providing a little shade for the desert dwelling creatures, but mostly what we picture is dry, browns and grays, and uninviting.  Some years, however, the desert will get enough rain over the winter to create a desert bloom, like the photo at right.  It’s amazing how different it looks!  Greens, purples and yellows.  Lots of tiny flowers.  These two photos were taken by the same photographer in the same part of the Baja, California desert eighteen years apart, but both in late March.  One was taken after a dry winter and the other after a wet winter.  Truly a major transformation!

How different would our world be if we could enact change at the same level that six inches of rain can prompt in the desert?!  As UUs, we can work together to transform our world (and to support those who are fighting to prevent it from becoming un-transformed).

Last Sunday at UUSGU

I’d like to thank everyone who helped out on Sunday with our Spring Equinox service.  I think the candle-lighting ceremony went a lot better (more safely) this year, and it was also quicker, since each volunteer was not both reading AND lighting.  This ritual is likely to become a regular part of our Spring Solstice service.  I still have more aluminum pans, soil, and wheatgrass seeds, so anyone who missed out on the seed planting ritual can pick some up from me this coming Sunday if they so desire.

This Sunday in RE

This week is an EPIC Sunday.  We’ll be reviewing the different building blocks of the service that we talked about last time and talking about which things the children enjoy and don’t enjoy about the service.  This is preparatory to us designing a service of our very own that we hope to be able to present in June.

Signs of Spring Hike?

I mentioned last month that I was interested in holding a “Signs of Spring” hike one Saturday afternoon in April, and I would still like to do that if anyone is interested.  Is there a family who likes to hike who would be willing to co-lead this project with me?  There is an accessible section of trail at Broadmeadow Brook Audubon that has plenty of things to see this early in the year and there are even benches near the main 

pond that adults can rest on while children explore.  And a natural play area.  The two potential dates I am looking at are April 11th and April 25th.  If you would be interested in participating, please email me at re@uusgu.org .  This event will be open to all UUSGU members, but you do need to be able to walk on sloped, slanting ground to participate.  It is surfaced in a way to allow for wheelchairs and walkers.  Please let me know if you are interested and we can set a date and time.