SESSION PLANS WRITTEN/SUBMITTED BY REV. GLENN TURNER
TITLES IN THIS SET
(The numbers on the plans relate to his files only.)

Radical Hospitality (UU Church of Monterey Peninsula, CA, Jolinda Stevens)
Procrastination (Newton, MA)
Asking For Help (San Jose, CA)
Making Peace With Unhappiness
Punishment
A Snap Quiz – Part I
If You Could Invite 3 People…..
A Snap Quiz --  Part II
The Laws of God; The Laws of Man
Once Upon a Time
Being Alone
Being with Others
If You Were to Win the Lottery….
Thinking About Ill Fortune

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 49
RADICAL HOSPITALITY
UU Church of the Monterey Peninsula Covenant Groups, Jolinda Stevens

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
“We both want and fear connecting with each other. Our resistance to others, resistance to change  these are housed in the mysterious realm of spirit. Our minds cannot conceive of solutions to our dilemma until our hearts are convinced to love.”
     Radical Hospitality: Benedict’s Way of Love by Daniel Holman and Lonni Collins Pratt (unless otherwise noted, all quotes are from this book.)

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS: Radical Hospitality
“Guests are crucial to the making of any heart. Benedict instructed his monks to welcome the Divine in the stranger. He told them to look again, look deeper when you look into the eyes of strangers. If you want to be a person of great spirit, you can’t do life alone. If spirituality matters to you, you can’t do spirituality alone either. To really grow as a human being you need other people.”

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels [messengers from God] unawares.” Christian Bible

“Benedict tells us to offer an open heart, a stance of availability, and to look for God lurking in every single person who comes through the door.”
 
 “Hospitality was not about social graces but about mutual reverence. Father Noel knew that spirituality is about relationships. Every man, woman, and child bears to us the presence of God.”

“The stranger next door, and at our door, is particularly frightening. People have been hurt by strangers. When we speak of the depth of hospitality, we are proposing something scary and radical. But it’s worth the risk. Unless we find a way to open ourselves to others, we will grow even more isolated and frightened. If we do not find and practice ways of hospitality, we will grow increasingly hostile. Hospitality is the answer to hostility.”

Discussion
     Think of one person who has been open to you, has invited you in. How did you experience the interconnected web, or Emerson’s Oversoul, or even yourself in that relationship?
     Does hospitality, seen in this way, offer a valuable spiritual practice? Perhaps a kind of mindfulness meditation of relationship?
     Is there value for you in viewing the people who cross your path as having a message for you? As being messengers of your subconscious, or the universe, or God?
     What stands in the way of opening yourself to the stranger? Is it worth the risk? 

LIKES AND WISHES
     How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you¹d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
This is the mission of our faith:
To teach the fragile art of hospitality;
To revere both the critical mind and the generous heart;
To prove that diversity need not mean divisiveness;
And to witness to all that we must hold the whole world in our hands.
            William Schulz

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 50
PROCRASTINATION
First Unitarian Society in Newton, MA, Betsy Leavitt

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
 In creating, the hardest part is to begin.  Anonymous

You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.   Charles Buxton

Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.   Victor Kiam

Even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there.   Will Rogers

The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself.   Rita Emmett

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS: Procrastination
How is procrastination connected to your way of being in the world? If you do not habitually procrastinate, have you ever agonized or felt guilty about putting something off? How was what immobilized you connected to your spiritual life? Describe one incident of your procrastinating. What was the nature of your experience? What was at the heart of it?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
You must do the one thing you think you cannot do.   Eleanor Roosevelt

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 51
ASKING FOR HELP
First Unitarian Church of San Jose

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
A little boy was having difficulty lifting a heavy stone.
His father came along just then.
Noting the boy's failure, he asked, "Are you using all your strength?" 
"Yes, I am," the little boy said impatiently.
"No, you are not," the father answered.
"I am right here just waiting, and you haven't asked me to help you." 

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  Asking for Help
(Let each group member read a section.)

A dragon was pulling a bear into its terrible mouth.
A courageous man went and rescued the bear.
There are such helpers in the world, who rush to save anyone who cries out.  
Like Mercy itself,
they run toward the screaming.
And they can't be bought off.
 
If you were to ask one of those, "Why did you come so quickly?" he or she would say, "Because I heard your helplessness."
 
Where lowland is, 
that's where water goes.  All medicine wants is pain to cure 
 
And don't just ask for one mercy.
Let them flood in.  Let the sky open under your feet.
Take the cotton out of your ears, the cotton
of consolations, so you can hear the sphere-music...
 
Accept your new good luck.
 
Give your weakness 
to one who helps. 
 
Crying out loud and weeping are great resources.
A nursing mother, all she does
is wait to hear her child.
Just a little beginning-whimper
and she's there. 
God created the child, that is, your wanting
so that it may cry out, so that milk might come.

Cry out!  Don't be stolid and silent with your pain.  Lament!  And let the milk
of loving flow into you.
The hard rain and wind are ways the cloud has to take care of us.
            excerpts from Rumi

Discussion -
 
  LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
May we share with our Beloved Community not only the help we have to offer but the blessings of our expressed needs that strengthen and enrich our circle.  Amen.  Blessed be.

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 52
MAKING PEACE WITH UNHAPPINESS
Glenn Turner, UU Church, Auburn, Maine

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
    “Here we are, a reasonably contented group of random people, greeting each other with hugs and smiles before we share the laughter and the pain. On our minds might be: a rough patch in our lives, a child or grand-child gone astray, a spouse or partner in pain,  a relationship ending, being aware of birdsong we may never hear again, the indignities of aging, the unfinished business of our souls - a laundry list of possible unhappiness. That¹s never all there is.  We come to moan and groan and sift the ashes and to celebrate.  These ashes were once solid oak and supple birch.  Their burning fuels our lives.”   GHT

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  “Making Peace With Unhappiness”
“When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?”   Kathleen Norris

“Unhappiness is not knowing what we want and killing ourselves to get it.”   Don Herold

“The chief cause of unhappiness is trading what we want for what we want in the moment.”

Baron Wormser, a Maine poet and teacher, talked about his school library:
“The books on the wall could be humorous, but they were not happy.  I told my students that they would have to make their peace with unhappiness.  That was part of being an adult - not renouncing happiness but making one¹s peace with unhappiness.”

Discussion  
What’s the wisdom here?  What are the ways in which we make peace with our unhappiness?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
“ “This very moment is the perfect teacher, and it’s always with us”...
Just seeing what’s going on – that’s the teaching right there.  We can be with what’s happening and not dissociate.  Awakeness is found in our pleasure and our pain, our confusion and our wisdom, available in each moment of our weird, unfathomable, ordinary everyday lives.”
    from “When Things Fall Apart” by Pema Chodron

SMALL GROUP SESSION 53
PUNISHMENT
Glenn Turner, UU Church of Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
“Oh, if everyone thought as I do, behaved as I do, wouldn’t that be a paradise?  On second thought, how have I thought, how have I behaved? If everyone was forgiven, as I have been forgiven, for my dark thoughts and misbehaviors, wouldn’t that be a paradise?  And what of my thoughts and actions which have not been caught out, and which I try to hide even from myself?  What would a paradise look like that would save me from myself? What frowns, or prisons, or patient understanding?  We don’t like to call ourselves “sinners,” but there¹s dust on all our halos.  Welcome to this fellowship of forgiving friends.  How far can we extend it?   GHT

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health,     cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining,     general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  “Punishment”

“Men simply copied the realities of their hearts when they built prisons.”   Richard Wright

“In a civilized society, all crimes are likely to be sins, but most sins are not and ought not to be treat as crime.”   Geoffrey Fisher

“As one reads history...one is absolutely sickened , not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted; and a community is infinitely more brutalized by the habitual employment of punishment than it is by the occasional occurrence of crime.”   Oscar Wilde

Discussion:
Recent statistics indicate that 1 in 100 people in American are imprisoned.
And among black males over 20, it is 1 in 15.  “Lock them up and throw away the key” is a frequent reaction to  “so-called” criminals.  What is there in us, in you and me, that makes us so susceptible to simply locking people up for misbehavior, or crimes, and forgetting about them?  Knowing ourselves, why aren¹t we more compassionate?  How do we deal with friends or members of our family when they “go wrong”?
 
LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:  

If one by one we counted people out
For the least sin, it wouldn't take us long
To get so we had no one left to live with.
For to be social is to be forgiving.
                Robert Frost

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 54
QUESTIONS AT THE END OF THE DAY
A SNAP QUIZ - Part I
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
“What if we were to pause,
to take stock of the day -
at first glance a list, that rush of:
meals, appointments, shopping, calls, work?

What if we were to pause,
and consider what really happened,
taking time for reflection,
mining the ore inside the scattered stones?

What if we were to pause,
to ponder the nuances of spoken words,
to feel the yearnings and savor the closeness
of colleagues and friends?

Each day it’s that, or a drink, or the news,
or bed.  Unless we paused.”
    GHT

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  “Questions at the End of the Day”
    - from “To Bless the Space Between Us” by John O¹Donohue
“Where did my eyes linger today?”

“Where was I blind?”

“Where was I hurt without anyone noticing?”

“What did I learn today?”

“What new thoughts visited me?”
	 (all questions posed by John O¹Donohue)

 LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:

what I know 
is my saddle to ride the wild horse of life
sometimes I ride bareback
my questions give me spurs toward undefined paths
a bridle would limit both

marrowless teachings
grow skeletal prisons

an snswer¹s greatest contribuition
is to incite you to other questions

    - Carolyn Kleefeld

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 55
IF YOU COULD INVITE 3 PEOPLE...
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
What riches we carry inside us:
living memories of teachers we have known,
authors we have read,
friends whose presence never failed to comfort us,
authors, poets, even politicians, who never failed to inspire us,
parents, siblings, aunts or uncles,
whose values and caring sustains us still.

What could they tell us about life?
What would they share that would further open our hearts and minds?
Who would you invite to our small group?

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  If You Could Invite 3 People...
...(from any time, whether or not you have ever met them) to our small group, who would they be -- and why would you choose them to join us?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
“May you be blessed with good friends,
And learn to be a good friend to yourself,
Journeying to that place in your soul where
There is love, warmth, and feeling
May this change you.
....
May you treasure your friends.
May you be good to them, be there for them
And receive all the challenges, truth and light you need.”
        (John O’Donohue)  from “To Bless the Space Between Us”

Blessed be. 

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 56
QUESTIONS AT THE END OF THE DAY
A SNAP QUIZ - PART II
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
As I walk’d by myself, I talk’d to myself
 And myself replied to me;
    And the questions myself then put to myself,
      With their answers I give to thee.
      - Bernard Barton, Colloquy with Myself, appeared in "Youth's Instructor", Dec. 1826
 
CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)

    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining,general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  Questions at the End of the Day - Part II
    - from “To Bless the Space Between us” by John O¹Donohue

“What did I begin today that might endure?”

“What differences did I notice in those closest to me?”

“Whom did I neglect?”

“Where did I neglect myself?”

“How were my conversations?”
	(all questions posed by John O¹Donohue)

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to     call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:

“May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.”

    - from John O¹Donohue¹s “To Bless the Space Between Us”

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 57
THE LAWS OF GOD; THE LAWS OF MAN
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbour to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.”
    A E Houseman

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  “The Laws of God; the Laws of Man”

Great fiction often grapples with the struggle between the desires and wishes of an individual person and the demands of the church and the laws of the state.   What is helpful in our lives about submitting to an authority outside of ourselves? When does our personal conscience takes precedent?
When should our personal preferences trump the mores of society?  What arethe tensions this has posed in your life?
 
LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:  “Wild Geese”- Mary Oliver

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things, you do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

SMALL GROUP MINISTRY #58
ONCE UPON A TIME
Mallory Covenant Circle Session, Associated with the Evergreen UU Fellowship Marysville, Washington

Preparation: Each participant is requested to locate and bring his or her favorite book or story from his or her own childhood.  Let participants know that they will be asked to share their book, or at least a portion of the book with the other participants.

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
“What about a story?" said Christopher Robin.
"What about a story?" I said.
"Could you very sweetly tell Winnie-the-Pooh one?"
"I suppose I could," I said. "What sort of stories does he like?"
"About himself. Because he's that sort of Bear."
"Oh, I see." 
"So could you very sweetly?"
"I'll try," I said.
So I tried.                  A.A. Milne

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  “Once Upon a Time...”
Sharing the Books: ( Note to Facilitator:  Divide the amount of time for the session by the number of participants and calculate the amount of time each participant has to share. Add in some time for transition, over-runs and closing.)  

Participants will be take turns sharing their favorite childhood book.  Each participant will have ____ minutes for sharing.  You may not be able to read the entire book, but you can select excerpts to read.  If you were not able to get a copy of the book, you can simply retell the story in your own words.  If you have time, you might also discuss the importance of the story in your life and why you chose that book. I will let you know when you have one minute remaining of your allotted time.

Questions for Additional Sharing
 Did you have rituals around reading books when you were a child?
What were some of the other important books when you were young? Are there echoes of these stories in your life today?
If you have had children, what were your traditions or rituals around reading to them?
What is the importance of reading in your life now?
 
LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
"Is that the end of the story?" asked Christopher Robin.
"That's the end of that one. There are others."    A.A. Milne     

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 59
BEING ALONE
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
When we are silent together, it is like being alone.
We withdraw into ourselves and cherish the silence.
And when the silence ends, for a few moments we are alone together.
Then when we speak, speech comes from a deeper source.

Gibran wrote:  “Let there be spaces in our togetherness.”
What happens in those spaces?
“Let the winds of the heavens dance between you,” he wrote.
What are they telling you?
            GHT

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  What Kind of Time Do You Need Alone?
Some of us are introverts needing time alone to reflect, think things through, and recharge our spirits; some of us, extraverts needing time with others to be energized and give expression to our energy both verbally and physically.  To a greater or lesser degree, we need both.  This session we¹re focusing on being alone

Discussion:
When do you seek out time to be alone?
What do you do with your alone time?
What is ³quality² alone time to you?  How does that differ from ³down² time?
Does it affect your life to not have time alone?  How?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
    “We must reserve a little back-shop, all our own, entirely free, wherein to establish our true liberty and principal retreat and solitude.”
                                    Montaigne

SMALL GROUP SESSION - #60
 BEING WITH OTHERS
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
The way is full of genuine sacrifice.

The thickets blocking the path are anything
that keeps you from that, any fear
that you may be broken to bits like a glass bottle.
This road demands courage and stamina,
yet it’s full of footprints!  Who are
these companions?  They are rungs
in your ladder.  Use them!
With company you quicken your ascent.

You may be happy enough going along,
but with others you’ll get farther, and faster.

Someone who goes cheerfully by himself
to the customs house to pay his traveler¹s tax
will go even more lightheartedly
when friends are with him.

Every prophet sought out companions.
A wall standing alone is useless,
but put three or four walls together,
and they’ll support a roof and keep
the grain dry and safe.

When ink joins with a pen, then the blank paper
can say something.  Rushes and reeds must be woven
to be useful as a mat.  If they weren¹t interlaced,
the wind would blow them away.
Like that, God paired up
creatures, and gave them friendship.

    “On Being Woven” by Rumi  - from The Essential Rumi
 
CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health,     cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS:  Being With Others
Some of us are extraverts, it is not so much our alone time that energizes us, but being out in the world, interacting with people, relating, being active, doing things.  Sometimes it seems that the party can’t go on long enough, that perhaps there is someplace else to go when it’s over.  Being with others can bring out the best in us.

Discussion:  
For you to be happy, useful, fulfilled and growing in the world -
What kind of time or interaction do you need with others?
Does your sociability crave sports, parties, conversations?
What kind of company brings playfulness, soul-searching, or joy to your heart and mind?
What rejuvenates you in your work and play?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
“Happiness” by Carl Sandburg

 I ASKED the professors who teach the meaning of life to tell me what is happiness.
And I went to famous executives who boss the work of thousands of men.
They all shook their heads and gave me a smile as though I was trying to fool with them.
And then one Sunday afternoon I wandered out along the Desplaines river
And I saw a crowd of Hungarians under the trees with their women and children and a keg of beer and an accordion.

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 61
IF YOU WERE TO WIN THE LOTTERY...
Glenn Turner, First UU Church, Auburn

(Do not share this session plan with participants beforehand)

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
“When the jackpot gets as big as it is right now, inevitably the talk around the office turns to “What would you do if you won the lottery?” I’ve given this some thought over the years and I don’t believe anyone who says their “life won’t change much” or that they are “going to stay at their current job”. If you didn’t want your life to change why were you playing the lottery in the first place? Trust me, I love my job but if I win the lottery I will be putting in my notice in a hurry. Having a job, at least the first year after winning, won’t be conducive to my new found freedom. I don’t think Shelly would like it if I took a month off twice a year to go on vacation. My life will change, but will it change for the better is the question. Either way, I will get my picks tonight and I will be back tomorrow morning for work as unlucky as ever...but I’m OK with that.  – Jim Daniels

Imagine that in tomorrow’s mail, you find you have won five, ten, fifty million dollars.  Now take these moments of silence to empty the pockets in your mind and see what thoughts collect.

CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS: If You Were to Win the Lottery, How Would You Change Your Life?
Discussion
Well, what if you were to win the lottery?  How would you change your life?
Take these questions in order:

Would you keep your job?
Would you continue to live where you are?
What would you buy?
What would you share with friends or relatives?
What causes would you support?
How could your newfound wealth enhance your spiritual life?  How would you like to change your life?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
Will winning the lottery make you happy? Well that's the million-dollar question. There are plenty of cautionary tales of rags to riches to tears. Basically if you were unhappy before you won, you'll be unhappy after you win. A small win won't change your life but will put a spring in your step. Experts calculate that the exact amount most likely to make you happy is a $1,869 win....so remind me, what are the chances of that?
	    Allison Daniels for CNN

SMALL GROUP SESSION - 62
THINKING ABOUT ILL FORTUNE
Glenn Turner, First UU Church Auburn, ME

OPENING WORDS & CHALICE LIGHTING:
The Fear:  What if the market crashes?  What if I lose my job?

“Can I help you?” she inquired, in a manner that said she hoped she wouldn’t have to.”  - Liza Cody

The Hope:  Someone will be there for me.  There are people to turn towards.

“We are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is.”
    - Mark Vonnegut

The Faith:  What do I owe others?  What would it cost me to help them?²

“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”  But...the Good Samaritan reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?” “
- Martin Luther King

Perhaps, what happens to him, and what happens to me are two sides of the same coin.        ght
 
CHECK IN:  (40 - 50 minutes)
    What you share may be about your physical or spiritual health, cares or concerns for loved ones, issues you are facing.
    Each person in the group speaks uninterrupted, if time remaining, general response and conversation is welcome.  Confidentiality.

FOCUS: “Thinking About Ill Fortune”
    Just as we might speculate about winning a lottery, we might consider what we’d do if we lost our job, or if health costs ruined us financially.
A financial reversal is much more likely than winning the lottery, as home foreclosures,  bankruptcies, and sudden loss of jobs indicates.  Many of us are comfortably off, a few rich, many living on the edge, and others of us can barely scrape by.
 
Discussion:  Given a severe economic setback in your life -
What would you do?
To whom would you turn?
Do you have the emotional resources to cope with the loss of your home or job?
What effect would it have on your self-esteem or ability to reach out for help?
How do you feel towards friends and relatives who get into financial difficulties?  Are there ways you can help?
What are the resources in your religious life that you would draw upon?

LIKES AND WISHES
    How did this session go for you?  Is there anything you’d like to call particular attention to?

CLOSING WORDS:
“Oh, my friend, it’s not what they take away from you that counts.  It’s what you do with what you have left.”                                   - Hubert Humphrey