Resonant Reading (Saturday)-Facts of Life-Pádraig Ó Tuama
Facilitators use a light hand, posting the reading in the chat and calling on whoever’s Zoom hand is up. Suggestions for readings* come from group members, who also take turns facilitating, if they want to try that role.
The reading for this session:
The Facts of Life
Pádraig Ó TuamaThat you were born
and you will die.That you will sometimes love enough
and sometimes not.That you will lie
if only to yourself.That you will get tired.
That you will learn most from the situations
you did not choose.That there will be some things that move you
more than you can say.That you will live
that you must be loved.That you will avoid questions most urgently in need of
your attention.That you began as the fusion of a sperm and an egg
of two people who once were strangers
and may well still be.That life isn’t fair.
That life is sometimes good
and sometimes better than good.That life is often not so good.
That life is real
and if you can survive it, well,
survive it well
with love
and art
and meaning given
where meaning’s scarce.That you will learn to live with regret.
That you will learn to live with respect.That the structures that constrict you
may not be permanently constraining.That you will probably be okay.
That you must accept change
before you die
but you will die anyway.So you might as well live
and you might as well love.
You might as well love.
You might as well love.
How to join:
- Join this class from your Web browser: https://zoom.us/j/91019857324, passcode 227385
- Join this class using the Zoom app: Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by phone: 669 900 9128 US (San Jose), Meeting ID: 910 1985 7324
- Join this class by on-tap on mobile phones: +16699009128,,91019857324# US (San Jose)
- Phoning in, but not in the bay area? Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/abL8clvIYT
This is the Zoom link for Saturdays. For the Wednesday Zoom link, go to the Calendar and click on a Wednesday session.
Questions? Drop an e-mail to resonant-reading+owner@uucpa.org.
*This activity was formerly called “Sacred Text Reading.” That proved misleading–for one thing, more often than not our sources are secular–but it’s worth describing the qualities of a sacred text, which we still look for in the readings we choose. It is any reading that helps us to:
- connect to something of supreme importance to us
- feel more connected to other beings or to the universe
- feel more intensely alive
- align our lives with our values,
- perceive or feel more deeply
- be more fully and authentically ourselves.