This is your Official Notice for our December Congregational Meeting on Sunday, December 21st  at 1:00  p.m., to be held in the Sanctuary and on Zoom (Passcode 512452). Click on the link below for materials for the meeting.

Congregational Meeting Materials

The church bylaws specify the following regarding voting eligibility: “Individuals who have been members of the church for 30 days or more and who have (as an individual or part of a family unit) made a recorded financial contribution during the last 12 months and at least 30 days prior to the meeting, have the right to vote at all official church meetings.”

The list of eligible voters may be found by clicking here

Any questions about voter eligibility, including if you feel that you were mistakenly not listed on the list of eligible voters, please contact Shannon Posern, info@austinuu.org.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!

Congregational Meeting Packet.

Many of us carry wounds from the religion we were raised in or just growing up in a Christocentric society. Owning Your Religious Past is a series of five classes designed to help us heal from our religious wounds and grow in our Unitarian Universalist faith. 

From the authors of the program, “We can be most fully and completely present in our religious identity when we see our path as a continuum rather than a series of unrelated episodes. People who feel whole in this identity are more likely to make solid, healthy commitments to religious communities. Because we are usually more certain of what we left in another religion than what we bring forward from it, some tools are needed by which people may establish connections, bridges, and resonances between past and present.” 

Please join Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt and Rev. Dr. Leona Stucky-Abbott for this five-week series of learning, healing, and growth starting on Sunday, January 18th. Maximum participation is 15 people, so Make Sure to Sign Up! 

Nominations for 2026 Monthly Special Offering

Due by Thursday, December 4th

One important way First UU lives its mission to do justice is through our Monthly Special Offerings.  These offerings are collected during service(s) on the second Sunday of the month. Each member of First UU may nominate one nonprofit social justice organization that promotes our UU values in the larger community. 

To nominate an organization, please complete the 2026 Monthly Service Offering Nominations form.

The congregation will be asked to rank their top 10 recipients on Sunday, December 21, 2025, after the worship service and at the congregational meeting that afternoon. Two additional special offerings are reserved for  Spring into Action (First UU’s church-wide social justice outreach project) and the Texas UU Justice Ministry.

After the vote, the Social Action Chairs and Co-Ministers will determine the schedule of selected recipients. All money collected will be held until the end of the year and distributed equally among the 12 recipients in January 2027. For 2024, the amount donated to each recipient was $1,662.09.

Please fill out the Nomination form here. 

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson
September 21, 2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

Unitarian Universalism has centered our faith in love. In this church, we often speak of an ocean of love that flows through our universe. Our stewardship campaign’s theme this year is “Living Love”. What might these beautiful abstractions look like in the concrete world of our daily lives? What if love is not just a feeling but is also something we do? How might we make love a verb?

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

from THE FIRE NEXT TIME
by James Baldwin

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word love here, not merely in the personal sense, but as a state of being or a state of grace, not in the infantile American sense of being made happy, but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring growth.

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Reading

Adapted from the “LOVE AS A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE”
episode of the Coach’s Rising Podcast
featuring Amy Elizabeth Fox and Jennifer Garvey Burger

I love “love” as a verb because it implies a state of rigor. That love is not a Hallmark sentimentality. It’s really well I stand in the trenches with you when things get hard. It’s also a practice, right?

It is like other verbs. Love is a developmental practice. It’s a practice of actually reaching outside of ourselves, opening ourselves up enough to let in another person.

I believe that pretty much everybody who walks on the planet is worthy of love if you can let them in. And they have something in them that if you were to see it would change you in some way.

Well, that’s a practice and it’s not always a fun practice and it’s not always a practice that works, right? Sometimes it’s hard and sometimes it’s grunting and sometimes we fail, but it is a thing we could be trying to do every day.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

A little over a year ago, Unitarian Universalists adopted a set of religious values that centered our faith in love.

Now, well before our denominations centered our religion in love, First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin, so often at the forefront of things, had begun weaving love into the fabric of the shared, though multifaceted and pluralistic theological tapestry of this religious community.

Back in those “Before Times”, before a global pandemic altered our lives in ways we’re still struggling to understand, before the coming of ever escalating fascism to America, our lead prophet for those before times, then Senior Minister Reverend Meg Barnhouse, began speaking with us about a religious perspective rooted in this vision of a divine river of love that flows through our universe and beckons us to become its channels and tributaries, making that love manifest in our world while also adding to it. We added building the beloved community to our mission.

And after Meg retired, we continued swimming in those divine waters until at some point I began to feel that a river was not really enough to adequately contain the sheer magnitude of that divine love. And so we began speaking of an ocean of love that flows through our universe, or maybe I am just more melodramatic than Meg.

And then, even that began to seem inadequate to capture the true power of that love. This was not just any kind of love, after all. This was no nambi pambi syrupy sentimental Hallmark greeting card sort of love, no.

And so, borrowing from the work of others, especially BIPOC women such as Reverend Dr. Jackie Lewis and activist Valerie Kaur, we began embracing a fierce love, a revolutionary love, a love ferocious enough to bring about beneficial change and demand justice in our world. A love that does not just provide comfort to us but also demands something of us in our relationships with one another and our world.

And this year I was so delighted when our terrific stewardship team continued that spiritual progression and chose “Living Love” as the theme for our pledge campaign this time because, because all of that language is so very beautiful and it all provides such a wonderful and inspirational aspirational centering for this religious community and it is all such magnificent theological and spiritual abstraction and how the heck do we go about living all of that beautiful inspirational aspirational abstraction in our daily lives?

What are we actually called to do in our personal lives, in our religious lives, in our communities, in our world. As we heard in our reading, how do we make love a verb, a practice? That’s why I was so glad that they chose Living Love as our theme, because that implies there are things we must do to make the beautiful theology a reality.

Now, given the fact that they are the stewardship team and it is the theme for the pledge campaign, I suspect you can imagine what they’re thinking we might do. And given that Mary here is our stewardship chair, I might get in trouble if I fail to mention pledging as a way of living love for your religious community. Beyond that, let’s explore for a few minutes how we might go about making fierce love a verb in our everyday lives.

Well I think one of the ways we do that is to make our commitment to that love and the ways we will go about living it explicit with one another. In this church we do that through a covenant of healthy relations. A covenant is a set of promises we make to one another about how we will dwell together in the ways of love. We’ve provided copies out in the foyer and have a link to it online in the comments, much of it is pretty straightforward, stuff like, “If I am upset with you, I will discuss it directly with you and not with 27 of our closest dearest friends first.” Things like disagreeing from a place of curiosity and respect, practicing forgiveness, these are just examples. And, What if we were to bring this idea of covenant into our relationships with our spouses, partners, family members, friends, and other loved ones?

How often do we express our love explicitly in both word and deed? How often do we simply tell our loved ones how much we love them? How often do we check in with how they are doing and how we are doing with them? Have we picked up their favorite ice cream on the way home lately? Or planned a fun family outing just to show them how deeply we love them. Some of you have already heard me talk about how me and my fiance Woodrow text each other goof morning every day and night night each evening. Well now we’ve gotten to the point where even if we’re actually together one of us will still text good morning or good night from right there in the same room. I know that’s a little silly and kooky and yet when we do even these small things to explicitly express our love the doing causes me to feel that love deep inside even more deeply. That’s the lovely paradox about love. The doing and the feeling both enhance one another and require one another.

Another way we make love a verb is by allowing ourselves to be vulnerable. We let other folks in. We reach out to them for support when we can’t go it alone or when we would just be better off if we didn’t.

And my beloveds, remember to experience and cherish the love even in the seemingly mundane. This widower so often misses the spouse he lost not so much on the big anniversary dates and the like. But just when I’m doing yard work and remember when we used to do that together and see a tree in the yard that he planted. Last week I finally managed to load up all of his old photography equipment and take it to this wonderful non-profit that will help make sure it goes to people who really will appreciate it, it filled up my entire pickup truck.

Afterwards I was just running some errands and suddenly this thought jumped into my head. I just gave all that stuff he loved away. And all of a sudden I felt the biggest wave of grief, I felt in quite a while over these relatively mundane things that I would never use anyway. I realized I’m never going to stop grieving.

The thing is, though, grieving is also part of how we live love. It keeps the love alive in us. Grieving makes love almost infinite, and we need it to be able to continue loving even more fiercely. I am so lucky to have fallen in love again with someone who intrinsically understands this.

Well, so much of what I’ve been talking about with our closest loved ones in our lives is also very similar to how we live love out in our communities, in our church, even in the workplace.

What if we made a covenant with ourselves about how we want to be in the world. About how we will treat our co-workers, the strangers we encounter, the checkout clerk, the waiter at the restaurant with that same presence, compassion, and kindness. What if we were to check in with them about how they’re doing, remembering that we can never know what is going on in someone elses life. I want to show you a video that was a powerful reminder of this for me.

Video

“Look at everything they have.”

“Look at him. They’re so young.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Excuse us.”

“Oh, let’s get you a treat.”

“Throw a tantrum and why not offer him a treat? That’s the trouble with kids today. Parents don’t parent anymore.”

“You’ll be his third foster family. So we’ll give him some time to feel safe with you. He’s been through a lot of abuse. Gosh, but if you have any questions, please let me know.”

“Thank you.”

Hey, buddy Do you want to go get something to eat? Do you want to go see your new home and we can eat there or we can go eat at a restaurant? You pick.”

“That’s a nice car.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“You take food stamps, right?”

“Unbelievable. Lunching off the government at your driver’s sports car. Nice.”

“Thank you so much for letting me borrow your car again and watching him.”

“No problem. You’ve been through a lot and I’m so happy to help, anything to help while you’re trying to get back on your feet.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it.”

“Bye! Bye!”

Video ends

Well this brings me to the question of how do we live love in the current social and political environment in which we find ourselves? Certainly it involves doing what so many of you already have, showing up, joining the marches, the protests, the vigils, making the phone calls, writing the letters and email messages, doing the visits with government officials.

Now though, now I think making love a verb involves even more. It means offering shelter and support to those who have less privilege and are under assault by our own government. It means doing so, even knowing it could place ourselves and our own privilege at great risk. It means continuing to speak out, even knowing that we may be attacked and harmed for doing so as we’ve witnessed in the aftermath of the appalling murder of Charlie Kirk.

I have been horrified by the efforts of so many to deified this man who I consider my oppressor. He has said such cruel things about gay people and so many others. He advocated policies that would cause us great harm. I have been horrified by the attacks on people who have simply labeled his words and actions for what they were even while condemning his murder. And the whole thing has brought up this question for me.

Does fierce love require me to love even my oppressors despite the outrage I feel at the same time?

I returned recently to a video from activist Valerie Kaur. In the aftermath of the terrorist attack of 9 /11, her friend and Sikh spiritual mentor, Bobir Singh Sodhi, had been killed during a series of hate crimes. His killer must took him for a Muslim because of the headdress that he wore. Here is how Kaur describes returning to the site of his murder accompanied by his brother Rana and how they discovered that finding a way to love even our enemies is rooted in loving ourselves first.

Video

So, I returned to the gas station where Balbir Singh Sodhi was killed, 15 years to the day. I sat down a candle in the spot where he bled to death. His brother Rana turned to me and said, “Nothing has changed.”

And I asked, “Who have we not yet tried to love?”

We decided to call the murderer in prison. The phone rings. My heart is beating in my ears. I hear the voice of Frank Roke, a man who once said, “I’m going to go out and shoot some towel heads. We should kill their children too.”

And every emotional impulse in me says I can’t. It becomes an act of will to wonder why. I ask, “Why did you agree to speak with us?”

Frank says, “I’m sorry for what happened, but I’m also sorry for all the people killed on 9/11.”

He fails to take responsibility. I become angry to protect Rana.

But Rana is still wondering about Frank, Listening, responds, “Frank, this is the first time I’m hearing you say that you feel sorry.”

And Frank, Frank says, “Yes, I am sorry for what I did to your brother. One day, when I go to heaven to be judged by God, I will ask to see your brother, and I will hug him, and I will ask him for forgiveness.”

And Rana says, “We already forgave you.”

Video ends

I don’t know if I could do that. I don’t know if I’m strong enough yet. Maybe though, maybe I can turn it over to that fierce love that flows through our universe and through me. Maybe I can know that Charlie Kirk was loved, and maybe I can forgive even my oppressors because I do that for myself, and to be a channel and a tributary for that greater ocean of love.

Perhaps Living Love, when it comes to those with whom I disagree, even those who would be my oppressors simply means making myself recognize their humanity even when they are refusing to recognize mine.

Perhaps love and outrage are not mutually exclusive. And as womanist theologians such as Reverend Dr. Jackie Lewis remind us, it starts by truly embracing our own humanity, loving ourselves ferociously. As she writes, “Loving yourself unconditionally is a tall order, but as a daily practice, it’s essential.”

And so I actually returned to our stewardship campaign and its theme this year. My beloveds, we don’t support this church with our time, treasure, and talent to build a social club. We don’t even do it entirely because it feels good and gives us a sense of belonging though community is a part of it. We commit ourselves because this is where we come to learn and practice how to live love fiercely, ferociously, fearlessly in our lives, in our world, in our very souls. Because it starts with love for ourselves. It starts with us.

Amen.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

For our benediction today I offer you the words from Muslim scholar and spiritual teacher Omid Safi

Go be your best self,
be your most beautiful self,
be your luminous self,
be your most generous self,
be your most radically loving self.
And when you fall short of that,
as we all do, as we all have,
bounce back and return.
And return again.
There is a grace in this returning
to your luminous, loving self.

May the congregation say amen and blessed be.
Go forth and live love.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

‘Health Care at Risk’ panel, on Sunday, October 12th at Live Oak UU in Cedar Park, features panel steeped in medicine and advocacy.

• Lynn Cowles, Director of Health and Food Justice from Every Texas
• Dr Christine Eady Mann, family practice doctor, political activist, former Congressional candidate 
• Dr Karen Van Matre Smith, award-winning family medicine specialist with published research 
• Jan Lance, President, Austin Chapter of Texas Alliance of Retired Americans (moderator) 

• National or state healthcare policy and administration  
• RFK Jr’s qualifications to be HHS Secretary and the policies that he has enacted since taking office 
• The attack on vaccines 
• The potential impact of cuts to Medicaid and ACA via the congressional bill recently passed and signed by the White House 
• Drastic cuts to medical research, including mRNA vaccine development 
• How medical and mental health practices have and will change because of the above 

Register Here!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Listen to the sermon by clicking the play button above.

Rev. Chris Jimmerson & Rev. Carrie Holley-Hurt
September 7,2025
First UU Church of Austin
4700 Grover Ave., Austin, TX 78756
www.austinuu.org

We come together to begin our new church year with the annual Water Communion Ritual. We share with one another water that symbolizes something meaningful to us as we blend and mingle the waters that remind us of our shared faith.

Chalice Lighting

This is the flame we hold in our hearts as we strive for justice for everyone. This is the light we shine upon systems of oppression until they are no more. This is the warmth that we share with one another as our struggle becomes our salvation.

Call to Worship

You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in drops.

– Rumi

Affirming Our Mission

Together we nourish souls, transform lives, and do justice to build the Beloved Community.

Reading

from PAINTED OXEN
by Thomas Lloyd Qualls

Water knows no boundary. Though we may draw it on a map, say, “This is where the water starts and where it ends.” It is not true. Water knows the way into the great mystery. It is not afraid of going underground. Water is not afraid of dams or dry creeks, bridges or brick walls. It is patient. Water understands time. It will find a way.

Sermon

NOTE: This is an edited ai generated transcript.
Please forgive any omissions or errors.

Carrie

As we just learned from Sol, the water communion is a recent addition to our faith. It was created by a group of women who had a desire and intention to be reflected in their own religion. You see at the time the principles used only masculine language.

They symbolize their desire by pouring water into a vessel, a show of pouring into each other, and into their faith with the intention of creating a more just and equitable religion and world.

Our water communion is a beautiful ritual that symbolizes our desires and our intention. And it uses the ancient and rich symbolism of water. Over 2,000 years ago, a Chinese philosopher named Lao Tzu wrote a book called The Tao Te Ching. He wrote:

“There is nothing in the world more soft and weak than water. And yet for attacking things that are firm and strong, there is nothing that can take precedence of it.”

In other words, water is both gentle and strong. It gives life to all living things on this planet. And when it meets rock, it will wear it down to a deep canyon. To me that sounds a lot like love and the desires and intentions that flow from that love.

The water communion is a tangible symbol then of what we endeavor to do as a religious community. We pull from our own personal well of love and bring it here to one another, to the collective and that collective love creates a desire for a more loving and just world, a desire for liberation.

Through the power of our collective love we move with intention toward our desires. And just like love and just like water this love combined is powerful. It’s more powerful than hate. It’s more powerful than oppression. It’s more powerful than marginalization or even the violence that seems so firm and immovable right now. For I believe, then when it comes to love, for attacking things that are firm and strong, there is nothing that can take precedence of it.

And so today, as we think about the way the waters we will pour into the vessel nourish us, think also about the ways that the love we bring together creates something that can overcome all that seems immovable.

Chris

Thank you, Carrie.

Now we are going to consider in what way or ways the water you have brought to share and intermingle with that of your fellow members of the religious community, what that water represents, how it represents your intentions, your love, that which you value most deeply.

Perhaps you have brought water from a place where you gather with your family or loved ones each year and so it represents love and relationship and perhaps in the case of an annual family reunion the role that ancestors continue to play in your life. Maybe you simply brought water from a faucet in your yard somewhere from which you water that which you garden and grow. And so your water might represent interconnectedness with the natural world or the wonder you find in the cycles of life or the value of nourishing and tending other life. These are just examples.

In just a moment, I will invite you to find someone nearby, preferably someone whom you did not come with today, and then share with that person the story of your water, and most importantly, its meaning for you. How does it represent your values, your intent, your place within that divine ocean of fierce love?

If you didn’t actually bring water today, that’s okay. We have placed some extra containers of water that you can bring and you can bring into your hearts and thoughts a source of water that is significant to you and what it represents to you. And if you’re not comfortable sharing verbally, that is absolutely okay too.

It’s fine to let folks know that you would prefer to contemplate this to yourself in a kind of personal meditation. We invite our children and youth who are with us this morning to also share with one another by finding someone close in age nearby with whom you might share.

If you’ve joined us virtually and have access to the comments, please feel free to share in that way. Or if you’re watching with others, to talk about the meaning of the water you have brought to mind with someone with whom you’re watching. Here in the sanctuary we will give you a couple of minutes each to share.

Now I’ll invite you to come forward with your water and to intermingle it with the water that others have brought in one of our large vases up front here. As I mentioned earlier, we have provided extra water in case you need it.

You will notice that we have two tables. One table holds our communal vessels, a symbol of our collective love and power. The second table holds five small vessels. These are symbols of our solidarity with the two million in Gaza who are being intentionally starved and cut off from access to water. If you feel so moved you can place some of your water in the communal vessel as well as one of the smaller vessels as a sign of solidarity.

So now as our music begins to play, let our annual water communion begin.

Music

All blessings on these waters. All blessings on each of you who have shared them. May the oean of divine love bless all of us.

Extinguishing the Chalice

We extinguish this flame, but not the light of truth, the warmth of community, or the fire of commitment. These we hold in our hearts until we are together again.

Benediction

As you leave this sacred time, may you remember the ocean of divine love flows through each of us.

May you see that divine love in others and may you carry it with you throughout the week.

Go in peace.

SERMON INDEX

Most sermons during the past 25 years are available online through this website. Click on the index link above to find tables of all sermons for each year listed by date (newest to oldest) with topic and speaker. Click on a topic to go to that sermon.

PODCASTS

Podcasts of this and other sermons are also available for free on iTunes. You can find them by clicking on the podcast link above or copying and pasting this link. https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/first-unitarian-universalist/id372427776

SUN-DAY Austin, a Celebration, Education, and Rally Event at Texas State Capitol

Drive a Senior ATX
Building Relationships One Ride at a Time

Drive a Senior ATX enables older adults to live independently, avoid social isolation and age in place by providing free, volunteer-based transportation and other support services to senior adults in Austin since 1985, including

• Daily rides to medical appointments and errands,
• Weekly rides to HEB for groceries,
• Monthly rides for social outings and events,
• As needed handyman services, tech assistance, and social visits.

Our mission is transportation, but our impact is relationships. Our volunteer-based rides come with care, empathy, and inclusion. Our clients are treated like family and build meaningful relationships with our staff and volunteers.

First UU is a founding congregation of Drive a Senior, originally called North Central Caregivers. Our congregation formerly contributed annually to its work and has provided many volunteers since its inception in 1985.

Getting the Most Out of Therapy: A Free Workshop with Brooke Becker, MA, LMFT-A

Join marriage and family therapist Brooke Becker, MA, LMFT-A, on Sunday’s September 14, 21, and October 5, from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. for a free, informal workshop designed to empower you in your therapeutic journey. Whether you’re new to therapy or have past experience, this two-part event will offer valuable insights and an open space for honest conversation.

In the first part, Brooke will provide practical education on how to get the most out of therapy—including how to know if you’re receiving quality care, what’s often misunderstood about the therapeutic process, and how to navigate getting the support you need—even when things feel unclear or challenging.

The second portion will be a Q&A and group discussion where attendees can ask questions, share concerns, and process therapy experiences they’ve had so far. 

This workshop is also intended to help break down barriers to receiving care—whether emotional, logistical, or rooted in past experiences—so that participants can move forward with more confidence, clarity, and support. You’ll leave with tools for self-advocacy, a deep understanding of the therapeutic process, and a greater sense of confidence around seeking and engaging in therapy. Attendees are welcome to ask questions, share thoughts, or simply listen in. Whether you’re exploring therapy for the first time or looking to deepen your understanding, this workshop will teach you how to get the most out of the experience.

This is a welcoming, judgment-free space—come as you are and bring your questions.

If you’d like to learn more about Brooke and her services, please visit her website, www.bbtherapypllc.com.

Lifetime Learning Institute course registration has opened on Wednesday, August 13, 2025 at NOON.

Register soon to give yourself the best chance of getting the LLI courses you want for the Fall semester.

The process is simple. Just make a list of the course numbers you’d like to take. Have your credit card or Pay Pal information at hand. Then, go to lliaustin.org and click the “Register” button on any page to link to Eventbrite. The link won’t be active until noon precisely, so if you get online before that, remember to reload your page at noon to access Eventbrite.

Unless LLI has sent you a promo code, you can ignore the Promo code box.

Please take care when entering your email address; many instructors/TAs use email to contact students about important class information.

Please note: Some classes sell out very quickly.

Please see Tips for Successful Registration at the bottom of the Courses page for more information: https://www.lliaustin.org/courses

We look forward to seeing you in class starting the week of September 15.

– Mary King

Date: Sundays, August 24, August 31
Time: Immediately following service
Location: Howson Hall

Join us after church to Ask a Spiritual Companion—a relaxed, informative Q&A session with commissioned Spiritual Companion and church member Kathleen Ellis.

A table will be set up in Howson Hall for one-on-one or small group conversations. She facilitates three groups–Spiritual Direction on Zoom (1st Tuesdays at 6), Spiritual Direction in person (2nd Mondays at 1), and an online Poetry Group (3rd Fridays) at 2:30p.m. She also meets with individuals off site; first session is complimentary!

For more about Kathleen, feel free to visit her website: https://www.heartblessings.org/