January 2026 Another calendar year has come and gone--and so far this program year we’ve had five Spirited services; Backpack Blessing, Water Communion, Samhain, Thanks-giving, and Winter Solstice, each of them different, unique, and a whole lot of fun (and work).  By the way, we still have about a dozen backpack blessing tags, if anyone has lost one and wants another or if you missed that service and would like one.  And if any parents happened to take photos of the Winter Solstice...

December 2025 This year, Mother Nature decided to welcome us to December with proper wintry weather for once.  It always amazes me how the weather works in Massachusetts.  I grew up in Michigan, where a winter storm came in with weather that was the same for miles around.  We’d get the same amount of snow at 9 Mile road that they did at 16 Mile or in downtown Detroit at 5 Mile.  It feels strange to me that the northwest edge of Worcester has such different weather conditions than we do in...

November 2025 And just like that, it is November already.  November is a month for gratitude and for honoring  our ancestors.  The month contains the biggest “feast” day of the American calendar--Thanksgiving.  Our typical imagery and mythology around Thanksgiving has photo-perfect black-clad Pilgrims and Native Americans in buckskins sitting peacefully around long tables together, enjoying the fruits of the Pilgrims’ harvest and the Natives’ hunting.  This is the story we learn in elementary...