Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire

October 1, 2006

“Happiness in the Side Trip Journey”

Witness: BerkSHARES for Our Community

Rev. Kathy Duhon

Happiness in the Side Trip Journey

I actually wrote the title for this sermon, “Happiness in the Side Trip Journey”, before I had a wonderful, unplanned journey full of side trips last weekend in Vermont, stopping here and there for a hike, a nature center, a cider donut, a picnic lunch, a cheese-making farm – it was marvelous, and my husband Jon, my daughter Anna, and I had a really happy day.

I wrote the title a few weeks earlier, though, when the three of us had hiked up to East Rock and noticed a beautiful, large, open farm that we couldn’t remember ever seeing before – we hadn’t driven past it, and yet it seemed to be in our town. We had a sense of where it might be, and Anna and I set off on the back roads of Great Barrington to find it. Sure enough, at the edge of the town, we came to the big white house and barns and rolling meadows and a gorgeous, big sheep farm, the very one we’d seen from high above on East Rock.

We were both reminded of how often we see and experience the same things over and over again in our lives, yet even in our own small town, in our local community, there is so much more to find, waiting for us to take a side trip journey. The unexpected, the hidden, the beautiful, the simple, the glorious, the open secret of a new discovery is one of the roads to happiness.

In the reading today, the man is intent upon one thing, looking for Mount Fuji, because that is what he expects will make him happy on his ship journey. When he cannot see the mountain, he is terribly unhappy. How often we are so narrowly focused in our lives that, like this man, we do not notice the waves, our fellow passengers, the birds, the fish, the beautiful mist, and in this case, even the object of his desire – Mount Fuji itself. He only had to look up a little bit. Sometimes all we have to do is glimpse the sidelines of our vision, listen to the thought at the edge of our consciousness, follow the dream that seems elusively just beyond the now.

Inner wisdom is rarely arrived at through a straight line desire or a constant quest to the same place of being. C.S. Lewis wrote that we are “surprised by joy”. Happiness is not something we can easily seek directly, and is not always where we expect it to be located, but it is always somewhere. Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us, simply, “Happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.” Ah, and the way to do that, paradoxically, is to remain available to happiness. St. Francis of Assisi traveled a path very much outside of the correct understanding of how to behave in his society, and he was renowned for his happiness.

How will you find happiness this Fall? Will you take a side trip journey, perhaps without even leaving your town, or even your home? Will you be able to help yourself to the generous gift of joy in the universe, even if it is not to be found on the path that you thought you were supposed to take in order to fit into your world? Will you find happiness by giving it to someone else?

David Steindl-Rast writes about happiness and faith: “…any given moment confronts us with a given reality. But if it is given, it is gift. If it is gift, the appropriate response is thanksgiving. Yet, thanksgiving, where it is genuine, does not primarily look at the gift and express appreciation; it looks at the giver and expresses trust. The courageous confidence that trusts in the Giver of all gifts is faith. To give thanks even when we cannot see the goodness of the Giver, to learn this is to find the path to peace of heart. For happiness is not what makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy.” Happiness is not what makes us grateful. It is gratefulness that makes us happy.

Today we are celebrating the joyous evening of Yom Kippur, which is the culmination of the High Holy Days of Judaism, and we are rejoicing in the life of St. Francis of Assisi, the poor, singing, dancing monk of Christianity whose feast day is this week, and we are noticing that it is Ramadan, the month of prayer and fasting and renewal for Muslims, and some of us are reflecting gratefully on last Sunday’s Buddhist teachings here. As Unitarian Universalists, all of these religious paths, and more, are likely to be side trip journeys for us, which is not to say that we are lost along them. Nor does this mean that we don’t have our own unique paths which we trod again and again, to our benefit, some of us practicing Buddhism or Christianity or Judaism or something else along our Unitarian Universalist journey.

But we do have a special possibility in our religion that is not readily available in other religions. Because of our acceptance of diversity, and our acknowledgement of wisdom residing among us all, and our openness to the ongoing revelation of the universe, we are ever available for a side trip journey of the soul. Perhaps something a fellow traveler among us has written in the Spirit of Life newsletter gives us a smile, or the music we hear lifts our hearts, or the words we speak in Evensong or a book study group opens us up to a feeling of joyful connectedness. And we are so grateful for all these little glimpses into the vast richness of a multitude of spiritual paths, and that gratitude is what Steindl-Rast says will make for happiness.

We would not be wowed by side trip journeys if we were always awake in our day to day lives, but few of us are ever so open and aware. Travel is the way we are often jolted awake by the difference, the change. And not just awakened to our surroundings, but to our inner selves. We are forced to confront the truth of our beings when we journey in a way that opens us up to new experiences.

The side trip journey of our religious life is similar – none of us is so practiced, so profound as to be awake and aware fully in our individual journeys of the spirit. Together, we bring a continual chance to open up our hearts to the new, to the side trip journey of the spirit. Our extraordinary happiness in this religion is in the unexpected, the hidden, the beautiful, the simple, the glorious, the open secret of new discovery that is our way of being on a religious path. And our gratitude ensures our happiness.

Witness: BerkSHARES for Our Community

BerkShares is a new local currency that is about to change our South Berkshire economy and enhance our Berkshire community, and we, through the Unitarian Universalist Meeting of South Berkshire, are proud participants. Asa Hardcastle, the President of the BerkShares Board of Directors, writes, “As I walk from store to store as an anonymous shopper doing my weekend errands, I am delighted to hear talk about BerkShares. Smiles light up on people’s faces as they explain what this is all about to their friends and customers.” He says that it’s infectious, and Asa finishes with an invitation, “I welcome you to this adventure and I challenge you to see how much of your spending you can do with our beautiful currency.” And it is beautiful, and you can buy it here today, which will be a small fundraiser for our congregation.

Originating in Great Barrington, the concept of a local currency was first tried years ago with “deli dollars” and “farm dollars”, but now the idea is for it to be widely used throughout South Berkshire. A local currency helps to keep our purchasing power local and enhances a sustainable, thriving local economy. Here’s how it works:

You can exchange federal dollars for BerkShares at several local banks. You give them 90 cents and they’ll give you 1 BerkShare, worth $1 at participating local businesses – already it’s a good deal. We have $1000 worth of BerkShares for you to buy, that we bought for $900 – that’s the fundraising part. We accept BerkShares in the offertory. Wherever you use the BerkShares, they retain their full value. If you take them to the bank, they will be worth 90% of their value, so the incentive is to keep them circulating.

We’ll pay some of our local bills with BerkShares, as well as part of my salary. Please pick up a directory of participating businesses and organizations on the table in the Social Hall.

I will close with the words of Louann Harvey, the Vice President of the BerkShares Board of Directors, as well as the President of our local Chamber of Commerce. She writes, “BerkShares belong to all of us, and benefit the entire community. BerkShares promote local business, stimulate the local economy, generate local employment, support non-profit organizations, foster community self-sufficiency and interdependence.”

I say that as a congregation we are proud to accept and promote BerkShares because they build community, boost economic justice, and sustain the values of simplicity and hope. Thanks for helping in this worthy cause.