Rev. Vanessa Titang

  • (Preparing for the MFC) With a Non-anxious Presence

    Dear Ones,

    This evening I will interview before the UUA Ministerial Fellowship Committee.
    I have been preparing for this moment since the day I decided to apply to seminary. A successful interview would put me into preliminary fellowship in ministry.

    I am not anxious, as I thought I would be. Nerves are there, but I think this is what healthy confidence feels like, or just the realization of being READY.

    Blessings to you all!
    Graciously,
    Vanessa

  • White Water: Life

    The current is hard, love,
    The tide is high,
    The waves are choppy,
    But don’t lose yourself in the white water,
    And if you should
    Remember to go back,
    Go back;
    And rescue you,
    You too deserve
    To be believed,
    Loved,
    Appreciated,
    and Saved,
    This river of life is rough.

  • Prayer for Remembering Self Love

    May we give ourselves
    The peace,
    The space,
    The tenderness,
    The love,
    The grace,
    We often willingly share with another;
    Spirit provides
    For those who do so,
    Also for oneself;
    Forget not the child within,
    Under layers
    Of time,
    The one closest to your heart,
    The one so close we often can not recognize them;
    Slow,
    To feel the beat,
    the love radiated,
    This love you have grown,
    For yourself, too

  • Infinitely Creating

    Spirit is love
    Spirit is All,
    All is Love.

    Everything happens for reasons
    All of which
    We cannot see
    cannot understand,
    cannot comprehend,
    Within the event.

    This
    is infinite creation,
    Everything is in flux;
    Spirit is never “done”.

    Spirit is change;
    Spirit is creativity;
    Spirit is balancing infinite infinities,

    But first Spirit is Love
    And thus creates;
    Creates, grows, and balances creation,
    Infinitely.

  • SPIRIT is LOVE: Visiting My Process Theology

    February 6th, 2023

    My theology is of

    Panentheism
    ” (“all in God”, from the Greek πᾶν, pân, ‘all’, ἐν, en, ‘in’ and Θεός, Theós, ‘God’)[1] is the belief that the divine intersects every part of the universe and also extends beyond space and time. ” (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panentheism)

    *SPIRIT/God[ess]/Olorun/Allah/YHWH… (different names/ “languages”, but all the same ultimate source in reference, perceived from different angles of the same divine prism).
    –Here I will refer to as “SPIRIT”

    SPIRIT…
    *… is love
    *…is a force/energy and entity
    *…is creativity/creation
    *…is change
    *…is in all, and all the universe is inside, and yet there is still more SPIRIT outside of this, in infinite capacity
    *… loves ALL creation
    *…is omnibenevolent
    *… is omnipresent (in all and around all), but NOT omnipotent in the way most assume:
    As a good parent, SPIRIT cares for but also gives free will and room for their children to be independent and find the residual and unending presence of SPIRIT within themselves. This is imperfect in action on the part of the child, but that is perfect and was meant to be. All that comes to pass is a learning moment, not for when SPIRIT is gone, but for when WE lose our way to SPIRIT. That separation is where what we know as “evil” may take seed, and unlearned from and unrecognized can take over. That too is a lesson, once we can WAKE to it and seek again the TRUTH of an unconditional, selfless, universal LOVE.)

    *SPIRIT LOVES.

    *THE MEANING, PURPOSE, AND FUEL OF EXISTENCE IS LOVE.

    1 John 4:16
    “So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

    God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them.”

  • Chimes

    2.1.2023

    I hear the windchimes
    The wind it calls
    Reminds it is not lifeless
    But imbued with life itself
    Breath
    And breathing ancestors
    Still
    Chimes are their song
    Listen
    And know
    It is sung for you.

  • We Together: Life

    We are together;
    We are The Tree
    Of Life
    The stick…
    The twig…
    The leaf…
    The root…
    The seed…

  • P A T R I O T +

    If I
    Had been fit, at the time
    After 9/ 11,
    would I have lived up
    to my own values fully?
    Or needed to force-fit my vessel into an 8-bit camo suit,
    That compromised MY personal soul mission;
    To be what everyone else at the time saw to be the only version of
    A “real” “Patriot”?
    Likely.

    Instead
    Chubby, brainy, MS “rewiring” me
    Found MY real patriotism+ ;
    Finding Real in the
    Meaning behind red, white, & blue;
    And the spectral black-white that lay just
    Below the service .
    And I found my personal freedom
    In, of, for and through me.
    –As a sister, a daughter,
    a friend, a lover,
    a mother,
    A “No one’s free until everybody’s free”,
    Social justice advocating
    Flower child,
    Love worshipping
    Mystic,
    And Spiritual freedom fighting
    Harriet, Fannie Lou, Ida B., and MLK Jr. emulating
    Patriot+.

    1.7.2023 (revised 1.14.2023)

  • Blessed, When the World Has Fallen Apart

    (Reflection on a blessing from a Nigerian Chief, given Juneteenth 2022, in Maine)

    The world has fallen apart

    Though this is not the first time,

    It is just one of the times

    where it is all too much;

    Intentionally crafted

    By mortal powers that be.

    Not ordained by divinity.

    Weakened,

    But not dead

    I remind myself.

    And yesterday I was again reminded

    Of ancestors

    Who have been tasked similarly.

    What is next?

    What do I do now?

    When my back has been given

    Far too much weight

    To bare;

    When the final straw is placed?

    I did not know what I needed,

    Until it was before me,

    A spirit of power and memory,

    Backlit by the warm glow of summer sun,

    A masked figure,

    Familiar to family I do not know,

    And my predecessors,

    Speaking in a language I do not know,

    But understood.

    The slow, careful sound of ankle bells  

    And a motion to come forth,

    Welcomed me in,

    And back,

    Back,

    Back,

    In time and space,

    Back.

    This has happened before,

    And here

    we are;

    Still.

    A blessing given

    Of memory,

    Of protection,

    Of our shared connection,

    I cannot know the intention,

    But I felt it

    We all felt it.

    Let us not forget;

    Never forget,

    This moment,

    Or all that brought us

    Here—in time and space.

    Remembering

    Past, present

    And that

    we are not done,

    –This is always just beginning.

    We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams,

    May we be our descendants’ bravest heroes,

    keepers of the flame,

    Knowing we are the ones we have been waiting for,

    Thus,

    let’s go!

  • Time for All Ages reading: And Tango Makes Three

    A recording of And Tango Makes Three that I narrated, for a Time for All Ages at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Ellsworth.