Intern minister Brigitta Vieyra standing on rocks near the water

ED: Note. For the summer, our Ministerial intern Brigitta Vieyra will be taking over Reverend Christine’s Notes From Your Dance Partner column, and as per her request, the column name has temporarily changed to Field Notes From Your Ministerial Intern.

Recently, I’ve come to appreciate how curious UUs are. Individually and in community, we open our hearts and our minds to the greatest mysteries, seen and unseen around us. This week, my curiosity was captured by NASA releasing an image of a star being born from the James Webb Telescope. These new images of a stellar nursery invite us all to re-envision the universe.

In taking in the wonder and beauty of deep space, a hymn we sing together played in my head as a soundtrack to our lives. “We Are” which has these lyrics: For each child that born, a morning star rises and sings to the universe who we are. Each one of us is a complex constellation of mysterious star dust and together, as a faith community, we learn again and again, how to re-envision the universe we are and the universes we create to be more loving, more just, more free.

The word curiosity stems from the Latin curiosus which is the same root for care and careful. This week, as we go about our lives, may we stay curious enough to sing to the universe who we are. And in our collective song, may we be rooted in radical care for ourselves, for one another and for this good earth that is our nursery. 

-Brigitta Vieyra