It’s dangerous to tell yourself stories are tame. To treat them as something that lives only between the covers of a book. As something that can be easily kept on a shelf, taken down and put back up as we see fit. Stories are wilder than that. And more powerful. This month is all about remembering that power. Indeed, who of us hasn’t felt controlled by a story? Stuck in a story? Hopeless about the way our story will end up? Simply put, our stories often write us as much as we write them.

In This Night by Dorothee Solle In this night, the stars left their habitual places And kindled wildfire tidings that spread faster than sound. In this night the shepherds left their posts. To shout new slogans into each other’s clogged ears. In this night the foxes left their warm burrows And the lion spoke with deliberation, “This is the end revolution.” In this night roses fooled the earth And began to bloom in the snow.

The dark is not always scary, and Winter Solstice reminds us to look for the gifts hidden in the dark.

"A Child's Christmas in Wales" is a piece of prose by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and recorded by Thomas in 1952. The work is an anecdotal reminiscence of a Christmas from the viewpoint of a young boy, portraying a nostalgic and simpler time. It is one of Thomas's most popular works. As with his poetry, A Child's Christmas in Wales does not have a tight narrative structure but instead uses descriptive passages in a fictionalised autobiographical style, designed to create an emotive sense of the nostalgia Thomas is intending to evoke, remembering a Christmas from the viewpoint of the author as a young boy. Thomas searches for a nostalgic belief in Christmases past—"It was snowing. It was always snowing at Christmas"—furthering his idyllic memory of childhood by describing the snow as being better and more exciting than the snow experienced as an adult. The dissertation, with exaggerated characters for comedic effect, show how childhood memories are enlarged through youthful interpretation. Read by Rev. Karen LeBlanc in memory of Maggie Peirce, her son Dylan McGowen, named after the poet, and her father who read the story to her as a child. Offertory music: Blake; Walking in the Air, performed by Randy Fayan and Abigail Schwarzhans, alto. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Child%27s_Christmas_in_Wales Image curtesy of https://irishrep.org/

Maggi Peirce, August 1, 1931 - December 4, 2024 Maggi Peirce, 93, of Fairhaven died on Wednesday, December 4, 2024. She was the wife for 60 years of Kenneth S. Peirce, Jr. Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, younger daughter of the late William and May (Walker) Kerr, her Public Elementary Education and Business College ceased by the age of fourteen. From her first job as a wage clerk she rose to be Private Secretary to the IEF Engineer of Scottish & Newcastle Breweries in Edinburgh, Scotland. During 1949-1951 she and her sister travelled and worked in Germany, Scandinavia, Finland and Holland. Being a life member of YHANI (Youth Hostel Association of Northern Ireland) they stayed in youth hostels and mixed with young people throughout Europe. She was always grateful for what she learned and how it widened her horizons for life. Washing bathrooms, drying dishes, working in a chocolate factory and a coat factory taught her that a job worth doing was worth doing well. In 1961 she met Kenneth Peirce at the Unitarian Church in Edinburgh, Scotland, where they married three years later. They have been loyal members of First Unitarian Church in New Bedford for over fifty years and during those years she has been Chairman of the Board, member of the Board and President of the Women's Alliance, but of greatest importance she became director of Tryworks Coffee House in its fourth month of life. It was begun by the Rev. John DeSousa of Pilgrim United Church in 1967 and named by the Rev. Richard Kellaway, as they could clearly see a need for such a meeting place for the young people of the city. She ran Tryworks for twenty of its thirty five years helping, teaching and bullying her "Tryworks kids" with her war cry of "Silence for the Singer" leading them into the world of music, song, discussion, and poetry, emphasizing the importance of listening to others, as she had been taught by older youth hostellers during her girlhood. Since the late 1960's she took part in many folk festivals and by the late 1970's she was discovered by the late Dr. Kenny Goldstein of the Folklore Department of UPenn. to be a natural storyteller. This became her profession and during the following years she won four awards: SMU Eisteddfod, Massachusetts Arts & Humanities, and two from the National Assoc. for the Protection & Perpetuation of Storytelling in Jonesborough, Tennessee. In all her performances she continued singing pastoral and ballads from her homeland, as well as performing with the Christmas Revels of Boston and in English Musichall. She enjoyed it all. Her other interests were knitting, primitive rug-hooking and writing. She authored "A Storyteller's Guide", "Keep the Kettle Boiling", "Christmas Mince" and in 2014 "A Belfast Girl". She loved her Memoir Class in Mattapoisett, her wonderful Poetry Group and her Brit. Group of Women with whom she shared every Thursday. Friendship was important to her. During 1976-1980 she attended SMU and graduated cum laude in German and returned in 1983 to finish a BA in Art History. To learn was one of her greatest loves but reading was her joy. At the age of eighty five she lost much of her sight but pointed out that she could accept this loss because she had read non-stop for eighty years. Beside her husband she is survived by her daughter Cora Peirce of New Bedford and her children Alyzza, Sophia and James McIlroy and his wife, Sarah and their children; her son Rev. Hank Peirce and his wife, Rebecca Scott of Medford and their two daughters Ruth and Bethiah; She was sister to Dorothy Payne (deceased) and her two daughters Heather and Margaret in England and Scotland and Heather's children Adam and Jessica. She leaves many close cousins in Ulster and her loyal friend Matt Davis.

Lay leader, Jorge Pereira present the annual Lessons & Carols service.

Welcome to living love through the gift of presence. The world is shot through with unnoticed gifts and grace. It’s a message perfectly fit for this holiday month that so often celebrates presents over presence....... our spiritual traditions come along and remind us that our lives are already whole, and home.

Book talk with co-author of "Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters" Helena Cobban. This event is co-hosted by UUNB and Southeastern MA Coalition for a Free Palestine.