SPIRIT OF LIFE
A Tapestry of Faith Program for Adults
WORKSHOP 8: WINGS SET ME FREE: HOPES, DREAMS, AND EXPANDING VISION
REVISED
BY REVEREND BARBARA HAMILTON-HOLWAY
© Copyright 2010 Unitarian Universalist Association.
Published to the Web on 9/29/2014 9:27:52 PM PST.
This program and additional resources are available on the UUA.org web site at
www.uua.org/religiouseducation/curricula/tapestryfaith.
WORKSHOP OVERVIEW
INTRODUCTION
We covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
The living tradition we share draws from... humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision.
— Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association
This workshop invites participants to envision the next chapters of their spiritual journeys and to affirm one another's hopes and dreams.
GOALS
This workshop will:
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Participants will:
WORKSHOP-AT-A-GLANCE
Activity | Minutes |
Welcoming and Entering | 0 |
Opening | 10 |
Activity 1: Untried Wings | 5 |
Activity 2: Unfurling Your Wings | 20 |
Activity 3: Sharing in Triads | 30 |
Activity 4: Writing and Sharing Affirmations | 20 |
Faith in Action: Helping Young People Unfurl Their Wings | |
Closing | 5 |
Alternate Activity 1: Song of the Open Road | 30 |
SPIRITUAL PREPARATION
Reflection. You may wish to set aside some time to reflect on your own "untried wings" and the directions in which your "wings" might unfurl. Either individually or together, co-leaders can use the workshop activities to spark and structure your reflection. Doing so will also prepare you to explain and lead the activities.
Practice. Setting aside some moments to pray, to meditate, or to envision your good intentions for the workshop can help you to center yourself before you begin leading. A centered leader who is present and responsive while facilitating is likely to lead an effective workshop.
Review Workshop 1, Leader Resource 1, Accessibility Guidelines for Workshop Presenters, for general tips to make your workshop welcoming to people with physical disabilities and sensitivities.
WORKSHOP PLAN
WELCOMING AND ENTERING
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
As participants enter, invite them to sign in and create nametags.
OPENING (10 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Welcome the group with these or similar words:
Welcome to this program on Unitarian Universalist spirituality. Unitarian Universalists affirm that religious truth is continually being revealed—the truth wasn't simply revealed in one time, or one place, or among one people. We are all participants in the search for truth, and thus we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. I am so glad you are here.
Distribute Handout 1. Invite a participant to light the chalice while you lead the group in reciting the unison chalice-lighting words.
Invite participants to read silently along with you as you read aloud the Unitarian Universalist Principle and Source that this workshop highlights.
Begin name sharing with these or similar words:
As we take turns speaking our names, let us pause after each name recognize silently how each person brings to our gathering his/her unique experiences and aspirations. Let us also recognize how much we learn from one another.
Invite participants to take turns saying their names clearly.
Explain that this workshop focuses on the line "wings set me free."
Invite participants to rise in body or spirit and sing "Spirit of Life" by Carolyn McDade, Hymn 123 in Singing the Living Tradition.
ACTIVITY 1: UNTRIED WINGS (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Invite participants to sit comfortably and listen as you read the story aloud. Allow for several moments of silence following the reading.
ACTIVITY 2: UNFURLING YOUR WINGS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Introduce the activity with these or similar words:
In each of us there is the possibility of growth and change, of unrealized potentials becoming activated, of "wings unfurling." Sometimes, we experience the freedom of wings unfurled when we become free from limitations. Other times, we experience a similar kind of unfurling in the freedom that comes from accepting limitations. A rich sense of spirituality can inspire us, give us meaning, and carry us forward like wings.
This activity offers each of us an opportunity to reflect on how we might be if we let our wings unfurl and our spirits soar.
Distribute Handout 2 and pens or pencils. Invite participants to take fifteen minutes for reflection and writing in response to the handout's questions. Suggest that participants choose the front or the back of the sheet for their primary focus. Completing the entire sheet thoughtfully would be difficult to do in the time allowed and is not necessary. Explain that these worksheets will be kept private—participants will not be asked to share them.
After fifteen minutes, ring the bell. Invite participants to spend another three minutes deciding what to share for Activity 3. These questions might help them choose a focus for their sharing:
Encourage participants to make some notes about what they would like to share.
Including All Participants
If some participants find that the worksheet hampers their creativity or clashes with their learning style, they are welcome to put it aside and draw or think instead.
ACTIVITY 3: SHARING IN TRIADS (20 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Tell the group that they will have a structured opportunity to share something about their hopes, dreams, and wished-for "unfurlings." Be clear in your explanation that an "unfurling" of wings can refer to freedom from limitations, but also to the freedom that comes from acceptance of limitations.
Invite participants to form groups of three or form triads yourself. This activity will work best if small group members know and trust one another. If the number of participants in your group is indivisible by three, form pairs as needed.
Ask participants to arrange their seats so that each triad can converse easily. Then, offer these instructions:
Each person in your group will have a turn at each of three roles: speaker, listener, and holder of the space.
When you are the speaker, it takes courage to speak from your depths to another person. You choose what, and how much, you want to share. True, honest speaking creates community and strengthens you in being true to who you are.
Listening is a way of showing respect and care for another. Listening is a way to learn and grow. Listening creates community. Listening without interruption and with attention takes concentration and effort. It is important for the listener to carefully take note of what is said, because s/he will use this information in Activity 4.
When you are holding the space, you hold the good intentions for the group and provide sacred witness to the sharing between speaker and listener. As you hold the space, you want the best for the time. You want safety and compassion. You want truth to be spoken and heard. When you are holding the space, you give your attention and support to the speaker, to the listener, to the process, and to the relationships it creates.
Initially, each person will have five minutes to speak. When it is your turn to speak, you might begin by taking a deep breath. Speak the essence of what you have to say. Take all the time given to you. Not less, so as not to show up. Not more, so as to take away from someone else's presence in the group. You might think you've said all you have to say, but if your five minutes are not up, you can pause quietly, breathe, and perhaps get in touch with something more to share.
Invite each triad to determine the order in which they will rotate the three roles. Participants who are paired will each take a turn as speaker and listener.
Tell the group you will ring the bell to begin the exercise and at five-minute intervals so they can switch roles. Ring the bell, and watch the clock. Ring the bell again at five minutes, at ten minutes, and finally at fifteen minutes to end the exercise.
ACTIVITY 4: WRITING AND SHARING AFFIRMATIONS (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
While participants are still gathered in their triads, distribute Handout 3. Explain:
Now we will take some moments of quiet for each person to compose an affirmation for the person to whom you were the listener. The affirmation, when delivered, should be two minutes or less. You will have ten minutes to focus on creating an affirmation which you will later speak to the person you listened to.There are many ways we can support one another with these affirmations.
If participants express a desire for an example affirmation, you may share this sample, written for "Jill" who is seeking to be a more emotionally available parent:
Thank you, Jill, for naming and sharing your longings and dreams. You long to be more present to your children, and you face many challenges in life and work that have made this difficult.
May you, Jill, unfurl your wings so that you may gain perspective, so that you may more clearly see what it is you can let go of and what you can claim.
May you trust that even though it can feel like you're all alone in your struggles, you have many friends here who can support you, many friends who struggle, too, to make time for their families.
Even if you know setbacks and disappointments, may you always know that you are held in the embrace of a loving community and sustained by the wondrous spirit of life.
May it be so.
Invite participants to temporarily move to tables to write, if they wish.
After five minutes, re-gather the triads. Introduce the next phase of the sharing with these words, or your own:
Each person will now have the opportunity to give an affirmation, to receive an affirmation, and to witness an affirmation while holding the space. May you express affirmation not only with your words, but with your face and eyes, too. When you are receiving the affirmation, simply receive the words without comment.
Tell the group you will ring the bell to begin the exercise and at two-minute intervals so they can switch roles. Ring the bell, and watch the clock. Ring the bell again at two minutes, at four minutes, and finally at six minutes to end the exercise.
Tell participants they will have five minutes to reflect on the exercise within their triads. Ask each triad to allocate the time evenly, on their own, so that everyone has the same amount of time to speak and to listen. Offer these questions to guide triads in reflection: "How was this experience for you? What did you notice?"
Bring the group back together to process the experience. Use these questions:
CLOSING (5 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Gather participants around the altar or centering table. Affirm the good work that participants have done in this workshop.
Hand out the Taking It Home section you have prepared. Invite participants to "take the workshop home" and explain the activities, as needed. Be sure to be inclusive of people with a variety of living situations—living alone, with a significant other, in a family, with housemates, etc.—in the way you explain the Taking-It-Home activities.
Invite participants to rise in body or spirit and join hands. Then, read aloud the closing words:
We give thanks for the transformative powers
at work in each one of us and in our congregation.
May we trust our powers and know the difference we can make
in the lives of one another.
May we live to make our dreams true.
Extinguish the chalice.
FAITH IN ACTION: HELPING YOUNG PEOPLE UNFURL THEIR WINGS
Description of Activity
Are the youth or children of your congregation working on a service project or another expression of faith in action? Support and affirm them by getting involved in the project they have planned. Reflect on your role as follower, rather than organizer or leader in this project. How does that offer affirmation to children or youth as they unfurl their wings?
LEADER REFLECTION AND PLANNING
After the workshop, co-facilitators should make a time to get together to evaluate this workshop and plan future workshops. Use these questions to guide your shared reflection and planning:
TAKING IT HOME
We covenant to affirm and promote a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
The living tradition we share draws from... humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision. — Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association
Share Handout 2, Wings Unfurling — Hope, Dreams, and Potentials, with someone who is close to you. Ask them to share about how they'd like to see their wings unfurl, too.
Try journaling in a creative way. Explore the question "Where is the Spirit of Life beckoning me?" by alternating, as you write, between your dominant hand and your non-dominant hand.
Use clay, collage, enactment, or words to create the next chapter of your own life as if it were a parable, a myth, fairy tale, or wisdom story. What is the path you are on now? Is your journey a quest? What are you searching for? How will you know when the quest is complete? Or, is the journey ongoing?
Write your own obituary, epitaph, or eulogy. Write it as you would like it to be. Get in touch with what you value, what you still want to do, and what you want to make peace with.
Create an altar or centering table for the person you are and who you are becoming. You might use candles, flowers, photographs, or any objects that remind you of your dreams for yourself. Consider the placement of objects in relation to one another.
ALTERNATE ACTIVITY 1: SONG OF THE OPEN ROAD (30 MINUTES)
Materials for Activity
Preparation for Activity
Description of Activity
Distribute hymnbooks and lead the group in Reading 645, "Song of the Open Road" by Walt Whitman. You may choose to switch parts with the group in reading it a second time. Ask the group to start the reading with the non-italicized text, and the co-facilitator(s) will answer by reading the italicized text.
Invite participants to call out lines, words, or phrases from the poem that feel significant to them. Direct participants' attention to the reflection questions you have posted. Read both questions aloud.
Allow one or two minutes of shared silence. Then, indicate or distribute the paper and drawing/writing implements. Invite participants to write or draw their responses. Let the group know that they will have eight minutes for reflecting and responding on paper. You may suggest that participants list words or memories, create a poem, write their thoughts in prose, or draw abstractly or realistically.
After eight minutes, ring the bell and invite participants to return their attention to the whole group.
Invite participants to form pairs. Encourage them to partner with someone they do not know well. If you have an odd number of participants, form one triad.
Offer these instructions:
In your pairs, you are invited to discuss the experiences you spent time recalling and writing about. You can share whatever is comfortable. If you recalled things that you would rather keep private, that is fine. Each person will have two minutes to talk and to listen. When it is your turn to listen, just listen—listening can be a spiritual practice in and of itself. I will ring the bell when it is time to switch roles.
Watch the time. Ring the bell at two minutes and again at four minutes to conclude the sharing. If you have a triad, let these participants know verbally at about one-and-a-half minutes and two-and-a-half minutes that they should switch speakers.
Lead the whole group in discussion with these questions:
Including All Participants
Welcome participants who do not wish to or are not able to write or draw to sit comfortably and contemplate in silence. While the objective of this activity is spiritual reflection and expression, neither a specific product nor its quality matter. Invite participants to engage in the form of creativity that most awakens their spirituality in this moment.
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 8:
STORY: UNTRIED WINGS
By Rev. Elizabeth Tarbox. Reprinted from Life Tides by permission of Sarah Tarbox. Copyright (C) 1993 by Elizabeth Tarbox. Published by Skinner House Books, an imprint of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Hollow bones, streamlined feathers, and wings shaped to push aside the viscosity of air are not what make birds fly.
Birds let go of their grasp on safe perches at the tops of trees because something calls to them. They unfold their untried wings and feel an unimagined power. They soar out, up, and through the winter sky because an ancient longing pulls them home.
Loosed from the sticky grasp of earth, free from the snarls of lesser creatures with daggers in their teeth and muscles in their legs, birds laugh upward, homeward, drawn by a calling which bids them welcome in the sky.
Bird, take me with you when you go. Oh not my lumbering body and knitted tissue, no. Take some other me with you, some invisible soul of me that hears the call you hear, that moves effortlessly with you through the bright pink silk of dawn and the warm butter spread of morning. Carry my longing to be weightless, to move as light moves, to be unseen, scattered through time and space. Teach me to trust my wings.
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 8:
HANDOUT 1: WINGS SET ME FREE
UNISON CHALICE LIGHTING
We light this chalice in celebration
of our Unitarian Universalist affirmation
of ongoing learning and new understanding.
Each of us individually and all of us collectively
have gifts and talents to use in the service of life.
Though we all know setbacks and failures,
strength, power, and possibilities always lie before us.
We light this chalice for the Spirit of Life
continuing to move through our lives.
PRINCIPLE AND SOURCE
This workshop is grounded in the following Principle and Source from the Purposes and Principles of the Unitarian Universalist Association:
... a free and responsible search for truth and meaning.
Humanist teachings which counsel us to heed the guidance of reason and the results of science, and warn us against idolatries of the mind and spirit.
From Our Statement of Principles and Sources
Grateful for the religious pluralism which enriches and ennobles our faith, we are inspired to deepen our understanding and expand our vision.
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 8:
HANDOUT 2: WINGS UNFURLING — HOPE, DREAMS, AND POTENTIALS
If you could reach your full potential as a spiritual person, what would you be like?
How would your life be different from what it is today?
How are you moving—or, how can you move—toward that potential?
You may wish to complete some of these sentences to help you focus on your dreams and potentials:
I am drawn to exploring... | I'll let go of... |
I long to be... | I can ask for... |
I'd like to accept... | I can start again... |
I hope for... | I feel an opening to... |
A difficulty I know is... | I'm supported by... |
Blocks I encounter are... | Hope is kindled in me when... |
An old wound is... | I hope for... |
Some fears I'd like to see go away are... | I give thanks for... |
If my fears went away, I would... . | I will draw on... |
If my soul unfurled its wings, I would... | I will be... |
SPIRIT OF LIFE: WORKSHOP 8:
HANDOUT 3: CREATING AN AFFIRMATION
Create an affirmation for the person to whom you were the listener. The affirmation should be two minutes or less in length. You can begin by naming the companion and thanking them for sharing. Then you can speak any sentences completed from the following beginning phrases or any of your own words you have written. You do not need to complete all the sentences below. They are just here to give you ideas.
Thank you, ________________, for naming and sharing your longings and dreams.
May you, ________________, unfurl your wings to…
May you trust…
May you know the support of…
Even if you know setbacks and disappointments, may you always…
May you go in the path of…
May…
May…
May it be so.
FIND OUT MORE
Breaking Free: Women of Spirit at Midlife and Beyond (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=208) is a series of essays by women writers, compiled by Unitarian Universalist minister Marilyn Sewell. The book explores themes similar to those explored in this workshop.
Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost Its Meaning, by Rev. Scotty McLennan, a Unitarian Universalist minister serving as Dean for Religious Life at Stanford University. Explores the concepts of spiritual and faith development throughout one's life.
Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=629) by Elizabeth J. Andrew, an author, writing instructor, and Unitarian Universalist layperson.
Questions for the Religious Journey: Finding Your Own Path (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=620) by George Kimmich Beach, a Unitarian Universalist minister. Provides theological food for thought and tools for religious introspection from a Unitarian Universalist perspective.
Finding the Voice Inside: Writing as a Spiritual Quest for Women (at www.uuabookstore.org/productdetails.cfm?PC=948) by Gail Collins-Ranadive, a Unitarian Universalist minister. Offers a series of writing exercises guiding women to explore their spirituality.