Braver/Wiser: Courage and Compassion for Life as It Is

Life is full of hard edges and complicated choices. Braver/Wiser gives you weekly message of courage and compassion for life as it is. Every Wednesday we deliver an original written reflection and brief prayer, grounded in Unitarian Universalism. Join the Braver/Wiser community and sign up today!

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8

  • Scorekeeping is about who hurts whom more. In the long-term, no one wins.
    Reflection | By Anne Griffiths | February 14, 2024 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Commitment, Humanism, Love, Marriage, Men, Psychology, Relationships, Secular, Teamwork, Trust, Women, Work, Worship
  • As sacred beings, we hold the wisdom to know what is best for our own selves.
    Reflection | By Deborah Weiner | January 11, 2023 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Activism, Body, Choice, Self-Care, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism, Unitarianism, Women, Reproductive Justice, Worship
  • Each Advent, my empathy for Mary’s situation returns.
    Reflection | By Taryn Strauss | December 8, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Advent, Children, Choice, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Discernment, Women, Worship
  • Black Queens saved our democracy. We owe them a great deal.
    Reflection | By Carol Thomas Cissel | January 20, 2021 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: America, Democracy, Humanism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Women, Work, Worship
  • I saw a woman surrounded by the pressures to conform to adulthood, being the adult she always wanted to be when she was a child. She was as God made her, not who everyone else wanted her to be.
    Reflection | By Nathan Ryan | March 20, 2019 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: Body, Children, Direct Experience, God, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Women
  • I trusted the woman at the pharmacy to be capable of hearing hard truth. Bless her wounded heart with its internalized misogyny. She just wants women to love and support each other. Thank you. Me too.
    Reflection | By Misha Sanders | September 26, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Anger, Anti-Oppression, Body, Direct Experience, Fat Liberation, Men, Mothers, Self-Care, Violence, Women
  • I’m not the same person who stood in that tattoo parlor eleven years ago. Still, I don’t for a minute regret being permanently marked with this snapshot in time, of my wounds and my hope.
    Reflection | By Mandie McGlynn | January 20, 2018 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Body, Children, Direct Experience, Discernment, Humanism, Secular, Self-Care, Self-Respect, Women
  • "How complicated it is to break silence: to open all of the secrets in all of our broken hearts. But silence does break; truth seeks the light. We're unraveling silence because we have determined that our power with one another is greater than the power someone once had over us."
    Reflection | By Erika Hewitt | November 15, 2017 | From Braver/Wiser
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), Brokenness, Direct Experience, Gender, Healing, Humanism, Men, Power, Silence, Truth, Violence, Women

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