Dear friends,

Good News! UUCMC is indeed a caring community! In October, our Caring Committee sent out a survey to ask you how we can help each other, and the response was tremendous. Hundreds of you said you were willing to offer a meal or give a ride to someone in your neighborhood. You are willing to visit someone ill at home or in the hospital, and you are willing to learn how to help each other better. Many of you indicated your willingness to be a neighborhood captain to coordinate the care needed in your area.

Encouraged by your response, Cori Hoffman, the Caring Committee and I have gone forward to create 10 neighborhood caring groups, each with a captain. And Sharon Gifol has agreed to be the Neighborhood Caring Group Chair to provide communication, coordination and support to the captains.

On December 4 from 10 to noon, we will offer a workshop called “How Can I Help?” to get this new system started. I hope you will join us. We will explore that question of what does really help someone in need, how to do a home or hospital visit, setting healthy boundaries and how to know when to ask for help yourself.

This community is so rich with gifts of caring. I am humbled and awed at what we are capable of creating when we all are willing to help. This Holiday season, when we are reminded of the kindness and caring that blesses us even in our darkest moments, may you know the care of friend and stranger. May the gifts we give of ourselves enrich this world. You are a light in a dark night, and that is such a beautiful hopeful thing!

Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Solstice and Merry Christmas! May these days bring peace to you and yours,

Yours in faith,

Rev. Virginia

December 2010 Theme

CARING

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.                                                                                                       ~  Leo Buscaglia