Learning and exploration are about the transformation of the individual, our community, and the larger society. Participation helps us grow in wisdom, compassion, and ethical living. See below for our March activities, programs, and workshops for adults.
To contact the facilitator in regard to any offering, you may email AdultRE@UUSM.org with the title of the group in the subject line. Your email will be forwarded. Please note that currently, all offerings are facilitated through Zoom. Contact Teri Lucas for more information and the link to the Zoom meeting.
Do you have a passion or an expertise? Are you a chef or a gardener, a historian or an actor? Would you like to offer some help, support, or some frivolity to our UU community via Zoom? We’re seeking programming that is fun, informative, and engaging. Please let us know if there’s something you’d like to offer and the Adult RE Committee will help you to do it. Email the Adult RE Committee (AdultRE@UUSM.org) or Teri Lucas (uusmREassist@uusm.org) and we can work with you on presenting your ideas.
Special Offerings, continuing March 2021:
New Year Resolution Workshop Wednesday, March 3 – Last day for participants
To remind our participants, this is a continuation of the full and closed group: “Increase your ability to follow-through and achieve success with New Year Resolutions in our New Year Resolution Workshop, a 3-session workshop on Zoom. The New Year is the time we typically set out our list of things we want to do, change, see, and accomplish. If you’ve had problems keeping those resolutions in the past, this workshop is where you want to start. Over the course of three sessions, Norm Richey, MSW, and Certified Life Coach will introduce you to new skills that will help you achieve your resolution and goals for 2021.” The final class will be on March 3, from 7:00 – 8:30 pm.
Community Building Through Personal Development:
Nature Journaling – Sunday, March 14
Come and join us in observing, learning about, and enjoying nature. Whether you are spending some time outdoors or not stepping out your front door at all, you can still enjoy and appreciate nature. You are welcome to join even if you have no knowledge of nature, botany, drawing, or writing. The subject we will be focusing on will be birds. The nature journaling group has been meeting monthly to contemplate, write about, and draw various aspects of nature. It is a way to slow down and come to a deeper appreciation of the world around us. No knowledge, skill, or experience is necessary and new participants are always welcome. People who attend these groups remark that they are reminded of times in childhood when they had the time to get lost in wonder at the natural world. As adults, we rarely give ourselves that permission. We will meet from 2:30 – 4:00 pm. Contact: Dorothy Steinicke.
Spiritual Grounding and Productivity Drop-In Weekday Mornings
Join us for a weekday morning short meditation and check-in session to encourage connection and accountability around mindful presence and daily action. We will meditate for 10-15 minutes and share priorities, victories, and stumbling blocks in our work-at-home/family life in this unprecedented time. We meet weekdays, from 9:00 – 9:30 am. Contact: Jacki Weber for the March schedule.
Exploration of Ideas:
AAHS Freethinker Forum Sunday, March 28
The Freethinker Forum is a monthly interactive meeting sponsored by AAHS: Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists & Secularists of UU Santa Monica. All are welcome to join in a lively discussion where a diversity of viewpoints are encouraged and respected. We’ll meet from 12:00 noon – 1:30 pm via Zoom. Contact: James Witker.
Science Non-Fiction Book Discussion Tuesday, March 16
We will discuss “Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race,” by Margot Lee Shetterly. During the labor shortages of WWII, a group of black math teachers from the South were recruited into the space program. These human computers played a big role in getting us into space. A Keck Communications Award winner. All are welcome. We meet from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. Contact: Rebecca Crawford, sci-nonfiction@uusm.org.
UU Men’s Group Thursdays, March 4 and 18
The Men’s Group offers a special opportunity to the men of the congregation and other like-minded men to join our welcoming group in provocative and stimulating discussion and to get to know others with UU perspectives in a more meaningful way. The topic for Thursday, March 4 is: “What were the hardest truths you eventually came to learn about the world and/or about yourself? Did life become better for you as a result or did this knowledge prove dispiriting?” The topic for Thursday, March 18 is: “If time travel were possible, what era and place would you want to visit for a day or longer, and why?” We meet the first and third Thursdays of the month at 7:30 pm via Zoom. For more information, contact Jim Rheinwald.
Meditations:
Open Meditation Mondays, March 8 and 22
We gather twice a month to sit together quietly for 20 minutes, to walk with gentle awareness for seven minutes, and to explore the integration of meditation with ordinary life through reading and sharing. Anyone who senses they would benefit from 20 minutes of silent, non-guided sitting is welcome to join us. We have found that this time of quiet meditation and shared exploration can be deeply nourishing – a time of simply “being” amidst all the “doing” of our lives. We meet from 7:30 – 9:00 pm. Contacts: Bev Shoenberger or Carol Ring.
Open Meditation: Wellsprings All Wednesdays and Fridays
These are exceptional times. Taking this time for quiet meditation and sharing in the intimacy of having sat in silence together can help sustain and ground us during these difficult days. We trust each of you will use this group in the way that fits your needs. We listen to brief readings, sit together quietly for twenty minutes, journal, and share with each other what’s on our hearts. We simply sit together in our shared humanity. We call off the struggle to become other than we are. These are drop-in groups. You are welcome to join us when it feels right to you. If you come in late or need to leave early, just do so quietly. We meet every Wednesday and Friday afternoon from 12:00 noon – 1:00 pm online. Contact: Bev Shoenberger.
