Ending the day with more love

I call that mind free which master the senses, and which recognizes it own reality and greatness: Which passes life not in asking what it shall eat or drink, but in hungering, thirsting and seeking after righteousness.

I call that mind free which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which does not content itself to a passive or hereditary faith: Which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come; which receives new truth as an angel from heaven.

I call that mind free which is not passively framed by outward circumstances, and is not the creature of accidental impulse: Which discovers everywhere the radiant signatures of the infinite spirit and in them finds help to its own spiritual enlargement.

I call that mind free which protects itself against the usurpations of society, and which does not cower to human opinion: Which refuses to be the slave or tool of the many or of the few, and guards its empire over itself as nobler than the empire of the world.

I call that mind free which resists the bondage of habit, which does not mechanically copy the past, nor live on in its old virtues: But which listens for new and higher monitions of conscience, and rejoices to pour itself forth in fresh and higher exertions.

I call that mind free which sets no bounds to its love, which, wherever they are seen delights in virtue and sympathizes with suffering: Which recognizes in all human beings the image of God and the rights of God’s children, and offers itself up a willing sacrifice to the cause of humankind.

I call that mind free which has cast off all fear but that of wrongdoing, and which no menace or peril can enthrall: Which is calm in the midst of tumults and possesses itself though all else be lost.

Saw my minister this evening, after she spent the day at Ventura County Courthouse, embracing and celebrating same-sex couples who'd come to make their unions legal. She read the above, from William Ellery Channing, at the start of our meeting.

The three UU ministers from Ventura County were there, and congregants in and out all day. I hear the couples were suprised- there were more UUs there than licensees most of the time- but when they would come out, those gathered would sing "Standing on the Side of Love", and hand them flowers, cupcakes, champagne.

I suppose that while couples throughout the county may be weighing their options or deciding whether the license is really what they want, for us local UUs, the fact that they can decide for themselves is, in and of itself, a reason to party.

I'm really proud of my friends and my church today.