Community and Education

Calling all Angels! Michael and I are going to church! In fact, we went to church. This is really a glorious moment for Michael, so I will let him share the bulk of the story with you, but I had a very encouraging and uplifting experience.

We attended and will be attending Live Oak Unitarian Universalist Church in North Austin. Our first visit, by all accounts, exciting. Michael has not been to church in years and years, and I stopped going when Ethan neared one year. (At the time, I just couldn't make church - in the Christian sense - be what I needed it to be for me. I felt fraudulent most of the time because my round-peg ideas didn't fit in Christianity's square holes...But I didn't know where else to look for what I needed. And though the experience started out fulfilling and moving, I felt disappointed in the end).

So, we arrived just in time, and parked under a big tree. Many gray-headed couples and trios were weaving paths through the parking lot. A younger man carried a school-aged girl into a side door. Ethan and I had taken family yoga with the girl the previous Saturday at Ruta Maya. She recognized me but didn't say anything.

Michael was a little nervous, and so was I in fact. (One thing the Catholic church does not do is teach about its competitors...Why would it? So I am completely unprepared for any other spiritual experiences I encounter - aside from reading I've done on my own, which isn't a lot). Ethan wasn't sure what was going on at all, but they had an excellent playground on first glance, so he was interested at a minimum. I put Stella in the sling, and after a brief debate about which door was the best door to enter, the four of us bravely marched up to what appeared to be the front door.

The first thing I noticed was a very small, triangular, native habitat planting to the left of the walk with a plaque stating its significance and a "torture is wrong" banner hanging high against the brick. We were, as in every church I'd ever been to, greeted warmly by a swarm of men and women wearing name tags - one wore a small sandwich board sign: Ask me anything. A man a few feet away from us wore a T-shirt with a poignant spiritual quote from the Dali Lama.

I took Ethan to the kid's room, and he stayed happily only after a little persuading. (One of the things Michael really liked about this church was the program for religious education for children, but I'll let him explain that). Stella, still in the sling, and I met Michael for the service.

I won't go into too much detail because, as I said this community find is truly Michael's victory to describe, but the service and the speaker (in sharp red-framed eye glasses) both were funny, liberal, relevant, political and inspiring. I left feeling called. In fact, when I got home I wrote on my bathroom mirror with soap, "Choose your sacred work," so I would remember how inspired I felt after the sermon.

When the room started moving and filing out, Michael and I dashed away. (There is a coffee hour held after each service, but I hadn't checked on Ethan as I had promised because Stella fell asleep in my lap...Michael was just ready to go. He was so excited and nervous and overwhelmed, which is a good sign most of the time, in case you are wondering). Ethan was "doing laundry" in the playroom when we got to him. They said he was great - very good at puzzles. We skirted down a back hallway out of the building.

We finished up the morning with Michael's favorite - Double Dave's Pizza - to celebrate our new found community, and for me education. Look for a post from Michael to hear more details!