Jan. 17, 2024

“I sing beautiful in the winter woods, and the trees agree.”
–Peter Mayer, “Winter Woods”

Dear Ones,

To understand my week, you have to know a few things about me:

I like snow, especially when it accumulates in inches (and very especially when those inches are not mixed with ice!). I spent most of my childhood years in places with more (some significantly more) snow than we get here in the mid-South, so when we have enough snow in Nashville to pile up combined with enough cold to let it stick around for a few days, I’m not upset.

I live quite near the middle of Nashville. From our house, at certain times of year, we can see vehicles on one of the major interstate exchanges just outside downtown, and we can almost always hear them. (One of the best things about a good snow is the silence!) And due to the hilliness of Nashville’s terrain, we have a surprisingly large-ish, steeply-sloped backyard, full of a variety of very tall trees.

I love trees: all kinds, everywhere I go. Always have.

So this week I’ve been looking out the back window of my house & singing to the trees in my backyard, which are stunning with snow weighing down evergreen branches and outlining dark deciduous trunks and branches. Beautiful.

I know winter weather is a mixed blessing (I see windshield scraping in my near future), but I hope you remember to look for beauty in your winter days, and I hope you find it in whatever forms delight you most.

Yours in faith and beauty,

Rev. Denise
RevDenise@gnuuc.org

P.S. First UU Nashville has invited us once again to the annual Palmer Lecture this coming Saturday (details below), featuring Nashville Councilwoman Olivia Hill, who is also our Bellevue neighbor and will be our guest speaker on Sunday, April 14. I hope some of us will attend the lecture in anticipation of our conversations with her!