Tree of Life Mosaic

What our members share about the broken pieces (tessarae) given to create the Tree of Life mosaic.

• This broken pot was a project in the Tree of Life training. We sculpted something we need from our root system. I bring the broken pot with the hope that it becomes part of a communal root system, bringing us healthy nurture from our tradition.
• Shards from my morning coffee cup
• Plate from the old Edy's restaurant in Berkeley
• Frogs from Thailand, each missing a foot...in remembrance of all the frogs in the world, endangered today
• 80 million year old coral piece found in the ancient seabed of Tugrugiin Shiree in southern Gobi Desert of Mongolia (Tugrugiin Shiree is famous for the discovery of the only intact fighting dinosaurs a Veloceraptor & a Protoceratops that were locked in mortal combat when they were suddenly buried by a collapsing sand due. They remained entombed in the white sandstone cliffs until 1971 when a team of Polish and Mongolian scientists led by a woman, Sophia Killen Javorskaya, unearthed them.)
• Broken porcelain from Pt. Isabel Dog Park
• Broken eyes glasses, seeing clearly how fragile we are
• Vase made by a glass-blower who knew the fragility of her work, but some brokenness in her wouldn't let the vase go as a gift to someone else.
• Bits and pieces of the ancient inhabitants of the Mediterranean and North Africa
• This unglazed handle is from Ephesus and probably came from the water jug St. Paul used to quench his thirst after he preached to the Ephesians
• This curved, triangular grey mottled piece from behind the big cathedral at Marseilles
• A little dark-green shard from the grounds of an ancient Moroccan mosque. Green is a sacred color in Islam.
• One of a pair of earrings from my mother
• Pieces of love, laughter, happiness
• Pieces from a broken bowl my mother, a life-long potter, made...I eat from her works daily.
• To be able to put the pieces touched by fear, frustration, impatience, disappointment and putting them together in the moment and speak them in love
  A gift from my students
• Broken flaming chalice made by a potter friend of the family from Oklahoma
• An earring from Grandma Marilyn, the other lost
• Pieces from the ocean so dear to us
• Beads from Africa
• A bit of china from a set given to me by my mother-in-law as a wedding present. Broken a I was preparing for my first anniversary party. The party was great. My marriage is lovely.
• Gem-stones represent gifts of love from our children. Now they will forever be tokens of love with & for this congregation.
• The handle is gone and I can't drink anymore from this cup, this represents my giving up drinking.
• The treasure of memories, love present, love withdrawn, experience, sadness, all these pieces make us deep and gain understanding
• A UUCB church plate rescued from the trash, meals shared here are such an important part of our lives
• Little deer our daughter thought she couldn't live without, now it is broken and forgotten, but she lives on happy far away in Mexico...
• Pieces from a plate used in family dinners and communions, hand-carried here originally from Jericho
• This glass, once a protector of my eyes to harsh sunlight, did not take away vision of beauty and love
• A piece of myself
• A shard from a pot from my garden,
• my favorite three clip on earrings, I've given up looking for the mates,
• Please break this cup; it was a gift from a dear friend who given her help, and received it in kindness from me. However, the cup has lead in the glaze. Break it, and make this into art- continue the circle of giving and thoughtful while breaking and making whole
• This clasp came from a necklace my ex-fiancé gave to me. I used it for many necklaces without clasps. Now I am done with it.
• The identification tag from my father's ashes which we scattered in Williams, AZ
• Harry's pocket watch face
• It makes me look better
• Old tiles from remodeling projects as my life partner who is moving from LA to Berkeley to live with me; my heart has broken open and new life brings spring into retirement and old age
• Pieces from broken teapot, bowls, birdbath from beloved grandparents
• Craft beads, button, broken dishes from my home, all pieces of my life that I want to share with this community in hope and love
• If I could, I would offer myself because I feel broken
• Broken shards of pots from a gardener
• Grandmother Elsie's plate passed on to me
• A gift from my students
• I bring my heart broken & put back together again
• Bits of who I am or wish I might be
• 70 year old china horses, mother's toy cup, grandmother's church
• A fragment of the mother made perfect
• The value of friendship healed over & over
• Great idea making our broken pieces into mosaic tree of life
• Nambe pueblo pottery from my home on ancient name land in New Mexico
• My first Buddhist bracelet- when I was ready to believe in a God of my understanding
• This represents the broken bits of food that together make our Thursday Night Suppers
• May our nation and world prosper
• Tear drops of brokenness
• Sharp words I regret
• Plate from our wedding 16 years ago
• Beads leftover from Mother's Day necklace
• My heart broken at the time of my husband's death
• Memories of home and family
• A broken piece of shell – the broken heart is strong
• A piece of a kids' broken tea set
• My sister-in-law's chipped Italian saucer representing her adventures and what she wished to do before she left us
• Dishes my wife and I used when we were married
• Vase of relations
• Flame shaped piece found in the dirt in my Berkeley back yard
• Favorite tea cup – one of a pair – wedding gifts
• a piece of broken every day dishes and a broken shrinky-dink that was well cried over
• I am perfection
• popped off a mug celebrating God's favorite baseball team
• shells and rocks? Dottie, my beloved mom-in-law, collected on NH shoreline
• My Russian tea cup
• Broken blue glass "cobalt' vase, part of a set I will have some day
• Fragments of treasured jewelry
• Shards of vessels which hold the food of our family's growth
• Shards, or say Bye Bye, wings
• Basketful of stories too many for one piece of paper, happiness in sharing in this project
• Flotsam and jetsam
• Roses opening, torsos broken
• My mother's glassware
• My dear dog Sadie's license tag
• A stone from my friend Blake's memorial service
• A piece of the walkway in front of our house will live on with the UUCB community; it was a source of irritation to us as new homeowners. Now it will be part of something beautiful.
• Items representing hopes, dreams, promises to myself and others, broken – but always a lesson in life
• Pieces well used & loved
• So many pieces make up our lives – this pin represents our connections to Unitarians in Transylvania
• The bluebird of happiness plaque broke!
• I broke my promise to myself. My spirit is mending.
• A broken necklace of my mother's
• Broken losing sight of our unity, losing touch with the spirit
• Buttons
• Bracelet of friendship
• No on 8 campaign button
• 50 year anniversary marker of the merger of Unitarianism and Universalism
• Thomas Starr King button
• Wedgewood from my family home in Ohio to AZ to LA finally here
• Letting go of "stuff" and being a part of a work of art
• My wedding band perfect circle golden in a velvet lined box
• Shards from my children's great grandmother's china
• Pottery animals and playful figures my son and daughter made when they were children
• Shells, rocks, pebbles, beach glass gathered on restorative walks in beauty
• Pieces of abalone and stone and glad
• A piece from my garden pots and the broken top to a crock pot that provided many warm meals
• This little glass box was to be a gift for Mom but the lid broke when accidentally dropped. It's been used as a container for mall treasures. Now open for a new life.
• A teacup my mother used and then I did until I broke it
• Mosaic Poem I began writing almost six years ago when my younger sister passed away
• A key to an old car, a door, my heart?
• Standing on the Side of Love pin
• Give a Damn campaign button to end racism, poverty, and war
• Mom's pin from 25 years of working in a defense plant, a broken time
• A piece from the Berlin wall, a piece from Auschwitz
• Coins from travels in India and Nepal to Hindu temples, Buddhist pilgrimage sites, ashrams, interfaith house for abandoned women and children, a Unitarian orphanage, Unitarian village schools...
• Coins from travels to Turkey to visit Islamic and Sufi holy sites
• Broken and whole sand dollars – beauty in both
• Beauty in brokenness
• Blue glass to view Matisse Blue Nudes, Ives Klein, cathedral stain glass windows, deep lakes, the sea, the sky
• Green glass to see green grass, forest ferns, green leaves shimmering in sunlight
• Pieces coming together
• Broken open for new life to emerge
• Sunflower gift from my home state of Kansas
• Beach glass from visits to the Sonoma Coast and Monterey; tiles from our remodel
• Broken tiles fallen from my roof which was repaired by my daughter-in –law
• Polished rock slab from all over the western U.S., contributed by the finder/lapidary
• A pot that has no holes for drainage. Please break it and use the colors where they may fit.
• These shards are from my home that burned in October 1991 in the Berkeley Hills Fire. This year is the 20th anniversary of the fire. I feel blessed to have them used in the Tree of Life.
• Pieces from a broken past to rebuild a beautiful future
• Hillary's grandmother's china, make something beautiful with this – have fun
• Hand-made pottery from Japan
• When my children were young they gave me inexpensive jewelry for Christmas and birthdays. They did extra chores to earn the money. Please feel free to use any, all or none of this.
• Honoring Animals, a bear and deer to dance on a leaf
• Golden ring – half of a set, half of a pair, what's left of half a life-time with my husband; amethyst crystal, a piece of a wedding gift; black heart – grief and sadness for a broken marriage; scallop shell – unbroken, the cup for the rest of my life; shards of a coffee cup in which the daily brew, tea in the evening and the healing draught, was shared, then shattered
• Found along the shore at the Albany Bulb
• Found when cleaning out my desk drawer
• I'm giving the community the key to my dream apartment-castle. I lost it when my roommate moved and the new lease was too high to bear. The locks have been changed, so now this is a key to nowhere. I find find another key, another, home, another lease. It will be hard to top my castle, but here I am giving this key a new lease as part of this mosaic.
• The plate commemorating my old church has, over the decades, gathered memories of my childhood—all the smells and flavors of Lutheranism, the mentors and events that formed my perspective and the texture of thought

What is the 'glue' that holds us together?

• Friendliness, caring, love, activities, respect
• Family (close & extended), progressive movement, love, singing dancing & making music of all kinds
• Song around the fire, voices in the dark, call across the oceans, hands from heart to heart
• Family, friends, and love
• Our love and commitment to our children, our commitment to grow & evolve to learn that which we do not know,
• Belief in individual, fellowship, laughter, fun, food, dance, Barbara & Bill
• Awe for the gift of life, a wish to experience the divine, mutual respect though thoughts & beliefs may differ, earnestness in our efforts to be present & grow spiritually, the need for celebration for success from efforts for good, for sharing compassion in hard times, and for the emotional strength of others when we face challenges or grief
• Compassion, respect for all, the web
• The skill & love of our ministers and all those among us who minister to one another,
• Learning, sharing, love
• Openness, caring& sharing good times & bad, laughter, working on projects & events, singing, have fun, eating
• Love, commitment to doing what we can to make a better world
• Within the flow of the river of life there are unities, mine are musical, the making of music with others
• Minister Gannett's words form the late 1800s: join hands & work to make the good, count nothing good for self that is not good for all. How we are with one another shapes us as a community
• Respect, love, fear, need, hope, curiosity
• The glue of community & humanity. We are joined together by our desires for a better, more peaceful and loving world
• Faith in our future, in ourselves, our church, hope for peace, for fellowship, for justice, for Sharing all of the above
  We are a covenanted community, we have made promises to each other to preserve and evolve the community and its individual members. Love is one of the glues.
• For me, this concrete pace holds us together. People come and go, die and move away, but the architectural container remains, holding the memories of the presence of all those who have passed this way.
• Love, friendship shared purpose, support for one another in times of joy and sorrow
• A hope that there I more to life than what is revealed in so much of our daily experience, faith that in community we will experience more love, hope that we will be empowered to share more love in the world.
• The acts that build right relations with each other & the world.
• Humanity & values
• Love, family and the awareness that we all share the same feelings
• Concern for the well-being of each other which leads to friendship & love
• An ethical community, love, caring, memories, shared values
• Tolerance & empathy
• The worth & dignity of each; the interconnected web of life
• The longing for meaning; the longing for connection
• Love is the glue that holds us. It is made of compassion and true listening.
• Common values, reaching out to one another, feeling safe
• The desire to nurture the best in ourselves so we might give it to others, that's what keeps me coming
• Trust, open-mindedness, doing no deliberate hurt to any, preference for reason over ideology
• Concerned awareness, compassion
• Love & the longing for something better – more justice, more peace, longing for family, community & home
• Our need for community. Each of us is willing to give some part of self for the privilege of being part of this whole. We are thankful.
  See the same faces, week after week, recognizing that we are each part of the whole
• Belief that we are more than the sum of our parts
• Love
  UUCB Family Friends
  Optimism the belief in Hope and Growth
• Our commitment to something greater than ourselves, something that calls us to our best selves, to mend the world
• Smiles & hugs
• Love, gentleness, thoughtfulness, kindness, forgiveness, empathy
• Our emotional wounds, our experiences and memories, working through challenges together, working toward a shared goal, love, faith, hope
• Respect, understanding, openness, willing to think outside the box
• Hope, Openness, Breath, Love, Being Here Now, Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Creativity, Compassion, Listening, Music
• Family, Friends, Home
• Love, Friendship, the dream of having a good life, family
• Singing, working in the garden, playing games, praying, laughing at silly jokes, making dinner and sitting down with friends to eat, walking in the woods, drawing pictures, watching the waves
• The glue is a common desire to create companionship with others of like values and together work for the common good.
• The faith that we will make this a better place to live for all who live here.
• Mutual support, companionship
• Knowing we're all in this together...
• Courage to explore what is out there
• Elbow grease
• We are born to be bound together, to bond in beauty and beatitude.
• We are held together by the outstretched arms that greet us and hold us.
• My mother, at 86, joined UUCB because she said it was the friendliest church she had ever been to.
• Within this family my heart is healed.
• A yearning for wholeness, for connection
• Love, family, common values, acceptance
• Mental diversity "You need not think alike to love alike." UU proverb
• Human! A day without laughter is like a day without sunshine!
• In the words of our covenant, we "assume good intentions."
• Love, Beauty, Wisdom, the Web of all existence, the spirit that shines in us and through us—every one of us!
• Our constant work to live up to our covenant, both the UUA's and our covenant of right relations.
• The warm and immediate presence of our ministers who welcome us and help to heal
• The history, present experiences and future hope & plans; of being a UU for 50 years for me. Coming home, returning again & again & serving
• The Spirit of Life sings in all our hearts
• The openness to each others diverse history, points of views, faults and qualities; our striving to be better people; this is a place I always feel accepted and that I have a contribution to make.
• Love
• Compassion
• Being There Together
• The force
• Friends, family, community, love
• Love
• gitchie manitou (ojibway – great spirit)
• God is love that binds heart to heart – Logos is the word that opens us up to Life and beauty. To be true to yourself, Truth Sophia – the wisdom that we are not alone in the universe. Compassion is the cosmic glue; all my suffering is shared by you. Healing self and world is the work we do. Mindfulness begets gentle ways and peaceful days. Instead of harm, heal and praise.
• The desire to be of use and service to one another
• Gratitude, Love, Understanding, Enthusiasm, Energy, Empathy, Enlightenment
• Community ever-deepening, ever-evolving

What are we making together? What new growth do you want to nurture at UUCB

• Mid week Community, Beyond Sundays
• We are making a picture of our community, a reminder of our common purpose and our interconnectedness, a bond, a step towards healing, our hope for a strong, multifaceted, deep rooted community of faith – active in the neighborhoods around us and in the issues of import to all.
• I want us to grow in focus on continued activism in specific areas – be less diffuse & more concentrated.
• I want our various segments (10:00 Forum/Personal Theology, those who just come for friends to sociality, musical groups, fundraisers), all to join in one or two group activities each year. (heart)
• We come together to not only build the beloved community within our walls, but to take the next step to fight for the dignity of the ability of everyone to be an equal and loved member of the world's great beloved community.
• Growth in diversity and community outreach.
• Lay religious leadership, family ministry
• We are all links in the Golden Chain of Love
• A community of love
• Families, honest relationship of integrity & joy, open & honest discussion about diversity, race, and class
• We are making connection, a protection from the power of the sadness & difficulties of life
• We are making a community where all are welcome. I'd like to se more programming for the GLBTQI2s community, a social group would help
• More opportunities for meaningful service
• Making a community devoted to understanding compassion and forgiveness
• We are making community, nurture a community of love and gratitude and generosity
  A community of loving, peaceful, hopeful people, standing on the side of love. I want to nurture my own spiritual advancement
• Light, liberty, life, and love. I think our intergenerational community is crucial – for me It's the only place I'm around the very young and the very old. I feel complete here because of this. I also would nurture our ability to treat church staff with fair salaries & benefits and give from our wealth to the struggling families & communities around us.
• We are making a better community, a better world. I want us to nurture our children, let them be open to truth, beauty, & goodness and to bring some of it to the world
• Interest in our global UUs – in Transylvania, Philippines, Africa, India...support for our church home and our staff with dollars enough to move our projects forward
• A community of respect & support, giving & receiving freely
• Community and deeper community
• An intimate community
• Nurturing healing, forgiveness and reconciliation
• Learning the acceptance of loss
• A good way of life; I want this place of love, community and steadfastness of purpose to grow to serve more of those who search
• We are in the constant process of making our community. As we make our mosaic leaves and our tree, we can see all the wonderfully different gifts of each person's imagination and effort. I hope we can continue to nurture such vision.
• Participation ~ each person's presence adds to the whole
• Appreciation and building on positive energy
• Responding when our voices are needed, a place of kindness and welcome, togetherness
• A joining between our congregation and our larger community, community ministry as a collective mission
• A little piece of peace on earth
• Amore. Amore. Amore.
• In touch with the Spirit of Life in each and in all
• We are making community – thoughtful, caring, active, conscious. I want to nurture social responsibility and encourage new folks to join us.
• To continue to grow as a moral beacon in the community, letting the love and compassion we share shine outward to the wider world
• Let us make community together, restore the civil community of the east bay, restore the educational community of these cities, and create a new mission that expands our common origins and common destiny
• Light, life, liberty, love...Love is being able to compromise when it's necessary; love is standing up for what you believe in...What is it to know when to pick which of the above to do on a given occasion? Maybe that's love too. Love is being able to live your life effectively, not divisively. Vision – to have people able to do the above
• We are making a place for people to come together to seek & promote truth. To be able to act responsively we need to help educate at all levels and all ages.
• Spiritual deepening & opening, letting go of reactivity, to truly listen to one another
• I want the ways we learn to be with one another here to ripple out to how each of us is in our interactions with family, neighbors, co-workers, larger community.
• May there be space and welcoming of all to create community together. We are not all the same; we have different talents, bet we are all equal as one.
• We are making a vibrant community. I want to nurture more inclusion, nurture more diversity.
• Light, life, laughter, voices raised in praise of each other, in praise of our common struggle, to unite and be whole. The new growth I want to nurture is a fresh start, rebirth, into a new beginning.
• A place where all the lovers of the Bay Area may come to celebrate their love and commitment
• A more realistic approach. A realization that original goodness and original sin are inextricably mixed in our nature. A more religious, ritual approach that acknowledges our true state. Working to learn how to manage this state. There is always hope, but let it be based on a true understanding of our nature.
• A divine whole where each part has value, purpose, community support.
• Let's bring back Evensong groups!!
• Plant a community garden that produces food all year long to be shared with the community
• Extending compassion to animals, starting with soy milk at the coffee table
• We are making a society that creates love. New growth: an organic garden to supply fresh veggies to give
• A place for people to be seen and encouraged to be their best selves
• Everything in this morning's sermon sounded good to me! Thank you.
• While I know this is challenging for all organizations, I envision this church bringing together a greater diversity, an even greater diversity. Can we celebrate what and who we already have here – and also do what we can to bring even greater diversity of every sort is what I hope for – age, race, origin, language, belief...
• A community where individuals get in touch with their depths and deeply connect with one another
• The growth of young adults who will sustain the church, more diversity in race, & more call for volunteer activities for nearby communities
• Evolution and revolution as we inspire the human family to boldly grow into its next, more loving incarnation
• Deep and long lasting connections among families and children, a path of spiritual, ethical and personal exploration for our children and us all, a strong, vocal, visible presence as liberal religious people
• Multiple opportunities to build meaningful, multigenerational relationships: potlucks, dinners, chalice circles, service projects, community garden – proceeds to go to local food banks
• Making community by inviting each human, be they child or elder, to be responsive to each other and thus grow a true intergenerational experience in this place, this church. Grandparent & child loving each other and being glad to come to church to be with each other!
• To give comfort and hope and a sense of belonging to each one of us
• A peaceful & loving community
• Foster warm regard, good energy, like the mosaic making; creativity shared by all ages
• Learning more often to choose careful, compassionate communication when we're in conflict
• I wish adults would choose to reach out to children, sit and talk with kids at Thursday Night Suppers
• Caring, compassionate community, another 120 years! Heart
• I would like to see our church participate with other faiths. Leslie O'Hara
• I would like to see real support from UUCB for the Richmond College Prep school. Both financially, volunteers, their gospel choir sometimes participating here. Mr. Leonard Pitt introduced us to this school 4 years ago. Bill H-H talked about it form pulpit. This is worthy of our care. Leslie O'Hara has been working on this. Lois Gilbert 758-4852
• I would like members of this congregation to nurture further their connection with our friends and fellow Unitarians in Homoroduifalu and elsewhere in Romania.
• I want us to nurture communicating respectfully to one another in spoken and written communications. I want to hear members speak appreciation to one another and the staff.
• What we are making together is a family. A family is a place where we care for each other; are supported by each other; a place where, though things are not always perfect, we can hold and forgive these flaws; where we can be ourselves; where our "shadow" sides are accepted as well as our "light" sides, where we strive to be better, kinder, more understanding people. I want to nurture forgiveness.
• We are making a safe, nurturing have. I want to nurture the growth of love, justice, & compassion.
• We are creating a place of healing, health, and wholeness, where people find meaning and grow in being their authentic selves
• We are making peace. I want to figure out what my personal spiritual path truly is and how it links to others.
• A community in process, beginning again and again when we fall short because the path toward the ideal matters. I want to nurture forgiveness for our imperfections.
• We are creating together the tree of life with one purpose to see the light spreading the unbounded love in all existence in all directions, of the garden of roses that forever bloom. Heart... Creation of love.... We build beyond the realm of time and space...although the distance between what we know and what we reveal is just a little piece beneath the mystery love that binds us eternally.
• I'd love to see more forgiveness in the hearts of members, to overcome fear and achieve forgiveness would be a true blessing.
• A place where everyone can be welcomed
• I look to see that I may see the more and having seen, deeply reflect on a deeper aliveness within.
• We are making intergenerational community. I want to nurture & retain families & to help younger members step into leadership. The under 50 set is our future! We (over 50) need to make room for them & nurture them & their talents
• We are making: Love All; I want to nurture: better attention to our singles and seniors as well as RE families.
• The world is full of busyness and anxiety; this community reminds us of what's most important and of who we really want to be. I want to help nurture that.
• Social action, immigration issues
• Let's be good employers and grow to be a place where people greet staff and make requests not demands.
• Our community helps us see ourselves as connected with all that is
• We are spiritual seekers and we support one another on the quest; we share the journey.
• Thanks for asking! Nearly everything Bill listed is part of my vision. I like to see us show up 'en mass' for events like the GRIP walk & GA wearing "Standing on the Side of Love" T-shirts, and that could be a unifying theme for all we do, including classes, workshops that help us build skills in right relationship (compassionate communication?). On the immigration issue, I'd like open discussion of what kinds of reform we think would help. I like to see these answer compiled & tabulated if possible, and I like to see the congregation get fired up about something.

Unitarian Universalists are mosaic makers.

We draw from many sources world religions, the sciences, literature, the lives of prophetic men and women and from personal experience. Each of us has pieces of the truth and we need one another to be more whole.

We believe in mending and healing ourselves and our world. Out of brokenness, beauty. Out of many pieces, wholeness. We are one body, one tree of life.

This mosaic Tree of Life celebrates our congregation's deep roots, sturdy trunk, spreading branches, and new growth.

May this be a living tree.

May all who behold it know they belong.

All are a part of the tree of life.

May this tree remind us of the power, passion, and promise of our congregation and our Unitarian Universalist movement.

We dedicate this tree and bless this congregation as a place of spiritual growth, love and service.

October 2, 2011