January 15 – Rev. Leslie Mills, UU Minister, Dan Ball Celebrant

It can be argued that religious community is where we come together to figure
out what it means to be human. What does it mean to be in relationship with the world
around us? How do we know who we are as individuals? Drawing on both Eastern and
Western philosophy, we will explore a few options to bring depth and meaning to our
understanding of our essential nature, perhaps even elevating our experience of our
daily life from mundane to mythic.
Our guest speaker this Sunday is Rev. Leslie Mills, joining us virtually from St.
Paul, Minnesota. Raised a third generation Unitarian Universalist, she grew up playing
outdoors, reading lots of novels, singing, and making art, before becoming a science
educator at a children’s hands-on museum. Her years in seminary sparked her passion
for social justice and for travel, while also encouraging her exploration of indigenous
shamanism and Japanese martial arts. She holds rank in Ki-Aikido, the Japanese art of
peace, and has traveled around the country and even to Japan to attend seminars. She
has served Unitarian congregations in Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin.