Sometimes it is hard to tap into our spiritual selves or find time to nurture our intellectual curiosity. Here is a section that reflects on some nourishing materials from around the web and related media channels in order to get us thinking, get us feeling, and get us reflecting on the lives we are living in this big, beautiful world. Some Adult/Mature Themes May Appear in Links and Other Attached Material

Here’s an image to make you feel good about the world.

This is from a restaurant in Louisiana. The words on the wall explain the story of the restaurant. Patrons are invited to pay for whole meals that are posted on the walls of the restaurant. For those who are hungry and who cannot afford to pay, all they have to do is bring a ticket up to the front. 

There’s something elegant about this that, I think, other forms of charitable giving miss. The benefit of giving is not only on the one receiving but on the one who gives. And there is something powerful about seeing the act of giving a whole thing as opposed to just a percentage or whatever is in your pocket or an upcharge when you are at the grocery store. After all, giving 93 cents is not the same as buying someone a meal. A meal comes with decision and purpose and intent. 93 cents is something that needs to be joined together in a larger pot for it to do much good. 

I wonder if we could do better emulating this kind of giving? How might we all aid the world if we were invited to see the people and their needs as we gave them something specific and intentional, like a meal that we ourselves might have ordered?

Allan T. Georgia
M.Div., M.T.S., PhD
he/his/him
Director of Religious Education (Lifespan Faith Development)
Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Cleveland