The SUUF Podcast

The Best Cannot Be Told, Part 4

March 29, 2026

Rev. Bruce Bode

The opening lines of Tao Te Ching, as rendered by Stephen Mitchell, read: “The tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao. The name that can be named is not the eternal Name.” These statements connect to one of scholar Joseph Campbell’s main themes, namely, his understanding that “religious language” is necessarily symbolic, a theme which this service will explore.

Paths to Understanding

March 22. 2026

Rev. Terry Kyllo

Our Mission–Gathering Neighbors, Growing Trust. We bring communities together. Paths to Understanding (PTU) is a Washington State-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization, with strong roots in the Skagit County/Mount Vernon area, dedicated to building community trust and reducing prejudice. It works by connecting neighbors through face-to-face, multifaith, and multicultural initiatives, such as the “Let’s Go Together” program, which promotes unity across diverse backgrounds.

Elderhood – Don’t Just Grow Old, Become an Elder

March 15, 2026

Mychal Loving

Mychal will be exploring the tragic loss of this stage of life in our modern culture, what Elderhood used to be like when we honored Elders for most of history, how and why we lost it and what we can do individually and collectively to restore it.

The Scenic Route

March 8, 2026

Susan Thayer

The Scenic Route explores how life’s winding paths—through change, uncertainty, loss, and discovery—shape who we become. Through reflection, music, poetry, and shared ritual, we consider how beauty often emerges not despite life’s detours, but because of them. Together we honor the journeys we travel individually and in community.

Regenerate Skagit

February 22

Cindy Bjorklund & Regenerate Skagit Team

Regenerate Skagit is a place-based initiative rooted in the belief that we can learn to live in right relationship with one another and the Earth.
We are cultivating a culture of face-to-face connection, building trust, shared responsibility, and collective capacity within our community.
In the coming months, we will deepen our understanding of what is happening here by exploring the interconnections among our food systems, farms, waterways, energy flows, and patterns of land use.
We will examine how extraction shapes our relationship to the Earth and explore what it means to move toward reciprocity.
Regenerate Skagit seeks to amplify the work already underway in this region, connect people to existing efforts, and create pathways for meaningful participation.

Woke, Woker, Wokest

February 8, 2026

Joseph Bednarik

On this Super Bowl Sunday we explore what it means to be “woke,” and why—and how!—you should try to become woker than you already are.

Now What?!

Rev. Barbara Gilday

As we try to make sense of what is happening in our country, it is useful to look back at some past recoveries, and importantly, look at what successful strategies are being employed in our day. We must not lose faith. We must not give in. And true to our Unitarian values, we must think and act in love – the greatest power in the world.

Helping Hands

January 25, 2026

Cydney McFarland
 
Helping Hands is Skagit County’s largest direct food provider with six distribution locations across Skagit County. We work to address the inequity in the food bank experience by focusing on participant autonomy and lowering the barriers to entry. We do not have any income or residency requirements, and all our locations provide participants with a choice of food that works best for them. Helping Hands also serves as a touch point to help connect participants with other local programs and services that can help provide stability for individuals and families. Our goal is to ensure that our community has access to the food and resources they need to help them thrive. For more information, visit HelpingHandsSkagit.org.

Embracing the Storm

January 18, 2026

Kurt Hoelting

In his 2010 book, Circumference of Home, Whidbey Island writer Kurt Hoelting shares insights from a year of car-free living, during which he explored the Whidbey and Skagit regions on foot, by bicycle and sea kayak. Now, in his new memoir Apprentice to the Wild, Hoelting shares stories from his life as a commercial fisherman and wilderness guide in Alaska, and his embrace of Zen practice and mindfulness teaching as gateways to the “wild within”.

During our January 18th service, Hoelting will speak of the theme of “Embracing the Storm”–a theme central to his new book–during his sermon at the Skagit UU Fellowship on January 18th. “How, then, shall I live?”, in the face of the storms now gathering on our human horizons? What can we respond fruitfully and with resilience to these storms, with the courage that faith requires, and the compassion that faith makes possible?

What Matters Most is Waking Up

January 11

Joseph Bednarik

Joseph Bednarik serves as the Co-Publisher of Copper Canyon Press, a nonprofit literary publisher dedicated to poetry. He studied philosophy at Haverford College and speaks regularly at Unitarian Universalist congregations in the Salish Sea region.