This week Associate Professor of Psychology David Chambers helps us explore how humans process an overwhelming amount of sensory information and how attention serves as the gateway to perception and memory. This talk will consider the neurological foundations of focus, the role of novelty and adaptation, and how these processes shape what we remember, especially our tendency to prioritize negative or threatening information. Ultimately, it connects these ideas to how we construct meaning and how an individual’s intention supports their search for truth.

Worship Associate is Perri Gardner

From the time that we are children, we are taught the importance of paying attention; whether it is crossing the street or learning in school. Being aware of what is going on is one aspect of paying attention. However, during times of duress, it is easy to tune ourselves out, to try ignore when your body is trying to tell you something, ignore what is going on around us, and close ourselves off from bad things happening around us. Unfortunately, tuning out is only a way of ignoring our challenges and doesn’t do anything to resolve our issues. Paying attention to what’s going on cannot only protect us but it can benefit others as well. Join us this Sunday for our monthly discussion and our topic will focus on the importance of paying attention.

Presented/ Worship Associate Don Morishita

Drawing inspiration from Tiya Miles’ award-winning book, All That She Carried, this Women’s History Month service explores the stories that survive outside official history — lives, memories, and acts of love carried across generations.

Together we will reflect on how feminist approaches to studying history helps us recover voices too often overlooked, honoring our Unitarian Universalist commitment to the inherent worth and dignity of every person.

Perri Gardner will present.