No. 18 Living With Fear

Facilitator______________
Date___________________

Group Session Plan from UUCCA* - Rev. Calvin O. Dame

Chalice/Candle Lighting

Opening Words:

Transcendental Etude
No one ever told us we had to study our lives,
Make of our lives a study, as if learning natural history or music,
That we should begin with simple exercises first and slowly go on trying the hard ones, Practicing till strength and accuracy become one with the daring to leap into transcendence.
And in fact we can't live like that: we take on everything at once before we've even begun to read or mark time, we're forced to begin in the midst of the hardest movement,
The one already sounding as we are born.
Adrienne Rich -- Singing the Living Tradition #665

Check-in/Sharing

Topic:
(Preparation: make sure that writing materials are available)
Fear of failure. Fear of dependency. Fear of destitution. Fear of other's judgements. Fear of physical harm. More of our lives have been shaped by fear than we would readily admit. Take a moment to reflect, then write, briefly, answers to these questions: How has my life been shaped by fear? What hold does fear presently have over me? How have I overcome fear in my life?

Select the topic and location for the next meeting

Check-out / Likes and Wishes

Closing Words:

"Let me not pray to be sheltered from dangers, but to be fearless in facing them.
Let me not beg for the stilling of my pain, but for the heart to conquer it.
Let me not look for allies in life's battlefield, but to my own strength.
Let me not crave in anxious fear to be saved, but hope for the patience to win my freedom.
Grant me that I may not be a coward, feeling your mercy in my success alone;
But let me find the grasp of your hand in my failure."
Rabindranath Tagore -- Singing the Living Tradition #519

* Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Augusta, Maine