If you come into the area where the children get together for Religious Exploration, you’ll oodles of pots contains flower bulbs just wakening in anticipation of Spring. The children planted these enormous flower seeds in order to watch them sprout, grow and ultimately erupt into flowers perhaps as large as their heads. Over the last month, the children have also been learning about another kind of cultivation — cultivation of their humanity. They have been talking about how peace, justice and compassion grow when we plant the seeds of kindness, fairness and love. They’ve been exploring the idea that we should treat all people kindly, fairly and with compassion. Or said, another way, they are exploring the second principle that is Unitarian Universalists affirm and promote justice, equity and compassion in human relations.

Just as small leathery leaves peeked from the ‘seeds’ in the pots on the sill in the classroom, the children noticed how the little acts of kindness that they had planted throughout the week sometimes spouted into peace. They thought about the relationship between fairness and justice through the lens of the life of Martin Luther King. And, then they put their learning into practice; when they collected and packaged school supplies for FESCO. FESCO will, in turn, distribute the supplies to those who need them. By gathering the needed school supplies, the children planted seeds of kindness and fairness that may grow into peace and justice right here in Hayward. And, the seeds of love watered by the their acts of kindness and fairness may someday blossom within them into compelling, life-affirming compassion.