Sunday Service

One day you finally knew

what you had to do, and began,

though the voices around you

kept shouting their bad advice…

little by little,

as you left their voices behind,

the stars began to burn

through the sheets of clouds,

and there was a new voice

which you slowly

recognized as your own.

~ Mary Oliver

Too much of life is wasted trying to build and control the “right” circumstance for making a change. Instead, acting on what matters in this finite life is better started today, imperfectly, than on any someday… in every moment of life, as finite humans, all we are doing is choosing one set of problems over another… The question isn’t how to avoid any bad consequences or what’s the perfect decision; it’s what is the price you’re willing to pay.

~ Oliver Burkeman

There is something deep in us that conspires with what wants to remain within safe boundaries and stay the same.

~ John O’Donohue

Another world is not only possible, she’s on her way. Maybe many of us won’t be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.

~ Arundhati Roy

You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.

~ Martin Luther King Jr

We seem to think that beginning is setting out from a lonely point along some line of direction into the unknown. This is not the case. Shelter and energy come alive when a beginning is embraced… We are never as alone in our beginnings as it might seem at the time. A beginning is ultimately an invitation to open toward the gifts and growth that are stored up for us.

~ John O’Donohue

Beginners are alive in beautiful ways. They notice more. They ask better questions. They remain open to what is emerging rather than getting sidelined by what they “already know.” There is humility in being a beginner. And there is freedom.

~ Julie Bauch 

This list of questions is an aid for deep reflection. How you answer them is often less important than the journey they take you on.

So, read through the list of questions 2-3 times until one question sticks out for you and captures your attention, or as some faith traditions say, until one of the questions “shimmers.” Or as we like to say, “Read over them until one of the questions picks you.”

Then reflect on that question using one or all of these questions:

• What is going on in my life right now that makes this question so pronounced for me?

• What might my inner wisdom be trying to say to me through this question?

• How might this question be trying to wake me up or get me to realize something through this question?

• How might Life or my inner wisdom be trying to offer me a word of comfort or challenge through this question?

1.  What has your most joyful and most painful beginning taught you about yourself?

2. Many say there is the seed of a new beginning in every ending. How has that widespread idea helped or complicated your endings?

3. We live in a culture that declares: “Winners never quit and quitters never win!” Could this cultural message be in the way of you beginning your next stage of becoming? What needs to happen for you to feel free to quit and begin anew?

4. Are you somebody who wants everything to be just right before you begin something new or somebody who is fine with “jumping in” and figuring things out as you go? Either way, have you figured out what made you that way?

5. Much of who we are is a result of a seed that was planted and nurtured by our younger selves. Our beginnings took root in their choices. So, if you could talk to your younger self, which of their choices would you most thank them for?

6. The psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote, “The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of the parents.” In what ways might your life choices and paths have begun in the unlived life of your parent?

7. What old story is preventing your new beginning?

8. Aging is often seen as a series of endings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. How is aging asking you to see it as a series of beginnings?

9. What question wants to shape the next stage of your becoming?

10. What’s your question? Your question may not be listed above. As always, if the above questions don't include what life is asking from you, spend the month listening to your days to find it.  

(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2026 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Beginnings')

“The beauty of our path is that we actually don’t know where we are going.”

- Thomas Hübl

Beginning is a big word in our culture. It comes with a lot of pressure. We are expected to be a hero of sorts: Clear about where we are going and courageous enough to get there on our own.

The beautiful life, the enviable journey, is the one that is mapped out from the start and never veers off track.

Even the wise and widely-loved, Mary Oliver, seems to get into this game of bold and brave beginnings. “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?,” she asks. It’s a question that can sometimes feel more intimidating than invitational.

But what if we began our journeys differently? What if we allowed ourselves to start off with humility, not heroism? With our doubts rather than our certainty? What if it was ok for us to say out loud: “I’m not sure where I’m going? And I’m not sure I can get there on my own?”

John O’Donohue, the beloved Irish poet and philosopher, suggests one answer to that. He writes,

“Beginnings often frighten us because they seem like lonely voyages into the unknown. Yet, in truth, no beginning is empty or isolated. We seem to think that beginning is a setting out from a lonely point along some line of direction into the unknown. This is not the case. Shelter and energy come alive when a beginning is embraced… We are never as alone in our beginnings as it might seem at the time. A beginning is ultimately an invitation to open towards the gifts and growth that are stored up for us.”

In other words, if we are brave enough to own our fear and need at the start of a journey, then we make space to experience that journey as our friend.

Another bard puts it this way, “Before you begin the journey, you own the journey. Once you have begun, the journey owns you.” And by “owns you,” what is meant is that the journey has you. The journey suddenly becomes a companion, not a mountain to conquer. In a sense, it comes alive and offers its help. Our willingness to begin with our fear and uncertainty, enables us to hear the path say, “I will not let you fall. I will not let you go.”

This sense of being helped by the journey itself, in turn, opens space for us to imagine (or is it remember?) another possibility: that our most sacred journeys begin with a question, not a destination.

This is fundamentally different from our culture’s “keep your eyes on the prize” advice. This is an orientation that believes the journey is about wholeness and unfolding, not striving and winning.

It is what many have called the orientation of the soul.

It is an orientation that proclaims that the way forward is found by looking within.

It is an orientation that says the first step is not about figuring out the destination but discerning the question stirring somewhere deep. The question that somehow knows us before we know it. The question that seeks us as much as we seek it.

It is an orientation that urges us to put down the status-soaked questions of: How can I get ahead? How do I stay on top? How can I prove my worth?

Instead it invites us to listen for spirit-filled questions such as: What is home? How can I be safe? How can I find me again? Who is my most important audience? Is the voice I’ve been listening to really my own? Where does my deep gladness intersect with the deep needs of the world?

Your question will, of course, be unique to you.

And if you listen for it, and begin with it, there is no way you can go off course. 

(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2026 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Beginngings')

Ask Them About Beginnings

One of the best ways to explore our monthly themes is to have conversations about them with people who are

close to you. It’s also a great way to deepen our relationships! Below is a list of questions to guide your conversation. Be sure to let your conversation partner know in advance that this won’t be a typical conversation.

Remember to also answer the questions yourself as they are meant to support a conversation, not just be a time of quizzing them.

Come to your group ready to share what surprised you about the conversation and what gift or insight it gave you.

Questions about Beginnings:

• What "really good thing" in your life began with a small, uncertain step?

• What has your most joyful and most painful beginning taught you about yourself?

• Tell me about when you first experienced the beginning of the “real you”?

• What is your best “ending that turned out to be a beautiful beginning” story?

• What movie or song encapsulates the beginnings you’ve experienced in your life?

• Much of who we are is a result of a seed that was planted and nurtured by our younger selves. Our beginnings took root in their choices. So, if you could talk to your younger self, which of their choices would you most thank them for?

• The psychiatrist Carl Jung wrote, “The greatest burden a child must bear is the unlived life of their parents.” In what ways might your life choices and paths have begun in the unlived life of your parent?

(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2026 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Beginnings')

The Story that Isn’t Done with Us Yet

A core focus of Soul Matters is inviting us to reconnect with parts of ourselves by reconnecting with memories and stories from our lives. When we return to these stories, we often notice some new aspect of it or find ourselves viewing it through a new lens. Or to put it another way, quite often our stories are not done with us yet. They have something to say to us.

So, choose one of the prompts below to revisit a story from your past. Then come to your group ready to tell it, along with how you encountered it anew and how that left you with a message of comfort or challenge.

Revisit a personal story about…

• A small step that made a big difference.

• Trying to invent a new life when everyone around you was pressuring you, directly or indirectly, to recover your old life and allow things to “go back to normal.”

• Missing the boat: a time when you wished you would have taken a path but didn’t.

• A difficult ending that turned out to be a beautiful beginning.

(Curated and adapted for KUF from the 2026 Soul Matters materials on the theme ‘Beginnings')