March 2, 2025. The conference planning team recently received messages from members who were concerned that our conference theme did not seem to address current events in our country. They feared our conference might miss an opportunity to provide resources and support during this unprecedented time.
We asked our theme presenter, Karen Hering, how her presentation might help our members navigate these strange and dangerous days. This is her reply:
“In the urgent crises unfolding in Washington DC and beyond, it is worth asking how the UURMaPA conference in April can equip and support us, as we each find our way forward.
“I have often been asked, having written a book titled Trusting Change, how can we trust change when it brings heartbreaking losses or even nightmarish realities? Surely both of these are true now, as we experience many seismic and unthinkable changes occurring at breakneck speed. What can be trustworthy with so much at stake and so much beyond our control?
“Tai ji teacher Chungliang Al-Huang has often advised his students, ‘First get centered; then explore your options.’ It is helpful wisdom not only when learning new tai ji forms but also when experiencing the loss of balance and direction caused by great change.
“And as we ask ourselves: what might be my next move, or what is my next right action? First get centered. Find the ground beneath your feet. Reconnect with your body, your balance, your surroundings and your communities. Reconnect with gravity itself. First get centered; then explore your options.
“This will be our focus in the URMaPA conference, ‘Called to Connect in Times of Great Change.’ When we are tossed about by change – in our nation, our world or our personal lives – how can we regain our balance to better respond to the threats and dangers now arising? What practices and understandings will connect us to our embodied wisdom and to the powers found in community and in solidarity with others?
“In the tumult and terrors of this time, each of us may be asking regularly, what is my role in the resistance and resilience needed now? Each of us must discern what that role is, and how it might change from day to day or month to month, as our own lives and the circumstances around us shift rapidly and wildly.
“Fortunately, in the UUA, we have many resources to aid our discernment, including webinars and resources prepared by the Side with Love campaign, and books like Social Change Now, by Deepa Iyer, published by Skinner House.
“Our time together at the UURMaPA conference will explore how, in the changes unfolding today, we can find enough trustworthy ground from which to choose our own way forward in meeting this moment. We’ll be using embodied practices, poetry and music as well as reflection through writing and conversation. This is a session intended to both comfort and challenge us, as we consider what we are each called to be and to do now.
“I look forward to our time together in April. Until then, I share this December post from my Substack as a further reflection on how we find trustworthy ground in times of frightening change. I also offer this music video ‘We Choose,‘ by Lea Morris, created in an earlier year and relevant still today, and shared with her permission.
“Wishing you both inspiration and support for your own grounding and discernment in this time.”
Karen Hering, author, Trusting Change
Preview YouTube video We Choose
