Graceful Passages 10/4/15

UnityAshSermon Archives

Facing Mortality, Cultivating Gratefulness

with Gary Malkin

“True healing is focused action and intention, wrapped in the arms of surrender.”   –  Jeremy Geffen, M.D.

It has been said that most of us are not as afraid of dying as we are of fully living. But when we see what’s happening in our world today, it’s hard not to experience a growing sense of anxiety for these uncertain and challenging times. In the midst of these real and metaphoric “fires” raging around us, there is something astonishing about the ephemeral power of music.

Music – and indeed, beauty itself – can awaken an awe, hope and inspiration in us that can dramatically impact our lives.  By allowing ourselves to face life’s fragility, we can traverse, assimilate and even transmute life’s challenges into what many regard as the most generative state of human consciousness: gratefulness. A visceral trustnaturally emerges that connects us to an enduring remembrance of life’s preciousness.

By engaging in contemplative listening, community singing, and emotional vulnerability, Emmy award-winning composer/speaker Gary Malkin will share what he’s learned along his journey that could help you cultivate a living gratitude that results in more love, compassion, and presence – first with yourself – and then, as a blessing to everyone in your life.

Video of this sermon is posted below: