Spiritual Growth Lessons from Trees
Larissa Fawkner, Pulpit Guest
Larissa will tell us about the wisdom and healing aspects of trees that she has found meaningful in her life.
Larissa is a Potsdam Village community member. She grew up on Cape Cod on the ancestral lands of the Wampanoag and spent much of her childhood swimming in the fresh water glacial lakes left behind by the retreating ice sheets. After graduating from Syracuse University, she taught PreK through 6th grade in the classroom and in environmental museum settings. When she departed teaching after 8 years, she began working at large companies (like Nasdaq and Starbucks and the Boston Globe) and helping them (sometimes pulling, pushing and prodding) to be more ethical, more sustainable, more diverse, more inclusive, and more socially and environmentally conscious. Larissa was an American Red Cross disaster response volunteer during Hurricane Karina and a FEMA disaster reservist for state flooding incidents. She also worked with VOAD, which is faith-based organizations active in disaster response and recovery. Larissa completed a late career MBA with a focus on ethics and is certified by the International Association for Public Participation which teaches techniques to involve and engage the community in public planning decisions that impact them. She’s the new Associate Chair for our Communications committee, and is a member of CUUPS ‘the Covenant of UU Pagans’ (and earth-centric spirituality), and she joined our UU geocashing adventurers and had a blast!. She’s also courageously running for public office in Potsdam in November as a write-in progressive candidate. Larissa earnestly believes that she is at her best when connecting with water, the natural world, and when feeling the reciprocity and life giving generosity of the trees.
Social Hour Hosts:
- Sara Hutcheson
- Marcy Oleksuik
- John Marson
Greeters:
- Sally & Gary Hoose
- Mary Michalek
Sunday worship is being offered in dual platform, taking place in person and via Zoom this Sunday. Instructions to participate via Zoom can be found here.