LESLIE’S LOGOS – OCTOBER 2025

How are you staying grounded? This is the question of our times. Being scattered, unmoored and discombobulated is easy enough. I am noticing that without conscious effort, we just fly all over the place. Do you have those days? I know I do. 

Where do we start to figure out how we will keep our Center? Why? Because our grounding and our centering helps us continue to live our values, even in a culture that asks us to compromise them in big ways and small ways with more frequency. Without grounding, we are too easily subject to becoming part of a system that we do not want to support. How do we keep our ideals? How do we keep doing those things that we can do which in the long-term we still believe will cause there to be a more just world? 

Maybe we start at the beginning. The beginning of your day. How do you start? What do you begin with? Is it picking up your screens? Or is it taking a moment to stand and stretch, to say hello to a beloved near you, perhaps lighting a candle? To sit in a few moments of meditation, which is not about some rigid discipline, rather simply the opportunity to come into the world with a little more intention that might otherwise happen. 

How do you stay grounded in your day? And how do you return again and again when our leaders are trying to make us lose our footing? Is there a place in the world where you can feel yourself held more deeply? Who do you call when something throws you off? And how do you allow yourself to have days where you don’t have the energy except to lie low? 

And how do you end your day? Is it with an intentional practice of quiet or perhaps some devotional or preferential reading something that takes your heart out of the day-to-day? Or reminds you of what you believe? How do you forgive yourself for those moments when you might be a little distracted or confused or overwhelmed? Where do you put your anger? Is there a place on the ground where you can stomp? 

Please remember that we offer many ways to center your spirit and connect, ways to build the musculature to stay grounded not as an escape, rather as an anchor. Please join us at the Saturday meditation, at this month’s Breath and Spirit retreat, at Vespers, at the Friday meditations which (really) return on October 10. Have other ideas? Let me know and let’s keep reaching up towards the stars and down towards the ground. 

In faith and perseverance, 

Leslie 

Rev. Leslie Takahashi serves as the Lead Minister for the congregation and is best reached by the church phone or leslie@mduuc.org. 

Schedule an appointment with Rev. Leslie at https://calendly.com/revlesliemeet