Compost Cookies….what?! No, they’re not cookies made of literal compost, they’re arguably the most famous cookie on Star Island (we see you, mint avalanche cookies). How did they come to be, you ask? Compost cookies were invented by Pelican Mandy Lamb. They’re called compost cookies because you can use leftover things from your kitchen, like potato chips or coffee grounds. We’re excited to share the recipe with you today, as well as a video on how to make compost cookies at home. A big thank you to Kyle Belmont for walking us through the process. Don’t forget to wear appropriate Star Island attire (you know you have a favorite tee shirt) and remember your name tag!

How can you make compost cookies at home?

• Follow the video, or use your favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe as a base before adding some extra bits
• Potential extras:
  • potato chips
  • oatmeal
  • shredded coconut
  • peanut butter chips
  • coffee grounds
  • nuts
  • oreos
  • graham crackers
  • cereal

This piece is an excerpt from It Is Time Now: Offerings from the Beloved Community Project, an educational resource produced in 2019 as part of Star Island’s Beloved Community Project. The Star Island Beloved Community Project is a journey SIC has begun as an organization to create a more inclusive and intentional community, to help spread more empathy and understanding in the world, and to become a more welcoming place for all people. We recognize and affirm that many have been on this journey for a long time, and we are excited to listen and learn as we continue on this important journey.

I can tell a bit of   why
And share some   who
But the    what
And the    how
are being manifest even
as we lean into each other
with holy curiosity
The possibility of living
with self-differentiated, undefended hearts
brings songs flaring forth
like solar wind
Alive with the kinetic energy
of re-membering
respect, kindness, hope
A vast love blooming
In spirit, muscles, blood, and bones

Alive

Many storms—named and unnamed—etched
in our nervous systems
Barrels of pain stored
in our collective memories
Friends,
We are aching for the
forgiveness
Only possible when
the harm
has stopped
Thousands of years
of suffering and surviving and thriving
Daydreaming a whole and holy liberation

Tender solos rising up from choral strength
Sorrows held so, so gently
Joy reflected, like mirrors reflecting mirrors,
unto infinity
wonder tendered with trust
rituals created/re-created to hold
all that our words cannot
Each time we meet
In body or in spirit
my heart is stitched
by another thread of love
To your heart
And yours
And yours
And yours

And yours…
Choosing to be and do differently
Than how we have
done been conditioned to be and do
Oh, how we co-create
together
With courage, faith, and wisdom
a love net
to hold us in the healing now
of
(even when it is not yet)
Beloved community.

Many of us are missing the beloved quirks and intricacies of our Spirit’s Home. The spaces we gather on Star can be as compelling as the conversations and experiences we have there. What’s the first thing you see when the boat pulls up to the pier? For many, it’s the Welcome to Star Island sign beckoning you to set foot on your Spirit’s Home. This art activity, created by former Pelican Art Director Annabelle Cook, gives you the chance to visit each of the special moments you experience on Star. Lighting a chapel candle, ordering a lime rickey off the snack bar menu, visiting the front desk, writing with a flower pen, the list goes on! This project lets you unleash your creative side while taking time to reminisce all the little moments Star Island adds to our lives.

How to Turn Your Home Into Star Island:

1. Watch the video – See link below
2. Download “Star Island at Home” PDF’s – See link below
3. Print
4. Color & Cut
5. Hang up around your house
6. Record video tour
7. Post online with #StarIslandAtHome

Click here to watch the video and get your printables

Star Arts Retreat is an amazing week on Star Island that focuses on all of the creative arts – writing, dance, music, photography, visual art, and theater. No need to be a professional – each workshop is for all levels, whether beginner, intermediate or advanced – all are welcome and encouraged to get in touch with their creative sides! Star Arts Retreat is made up of a welcoming community of people from all walks of life, some of whom have been attending for decades, and other who this may be their first experience with Star Island.

Star Arts 2020 has been unique in so many ways – namely in that it is all virtual. The experience of working together with the Star Arts community, the Star Island staff and all others to make sure that our special week could still take place is what Star Island is all about. We are so incredibly thankful to all who have reached out, helped out, and who we will see during our virtual retreat. We look forward to seeing many of you on island in 2021!

This piece is an excerpt from It Is Time Now: Offerings from the Beloved Community Project, an educational resource produced in 2019 as part of Star Island’s Beloved Community Project. The Star Island Beloved Community Project is a journey SIC has begun as an organization to create a more inclusive and intentional community, to help spread more empathy and understanding in the world, and to become a more welcoming place for all people. We recognize and affirm that many have been on this journey for a long time, and we are excited to listen and learn as we continue on this important journey.

For you.

For your community, for your family, your conference, your neighborhood.

There is always something that you can do to help aid and abet love and justice, liberation and thriving.

Sometimes I think we can get stuck because we get too attached to an idea of what a mobilized, energetic, anti-oppressive community should do.

For instance, years ago I had a friend and colleague who had just started her first ministry. She and I had worked closely together in some anti-oppression initiatives and so when we first connected, months into her work there I asked whether or not she had been looking to do any anti-racism work with them.

“Please,” she said. “First I need them to start liking one another.”

We laughed and I heard about how fractured and disconnected her community felt. Her first step there along with her leaders was to help the community connect and weave real relationships with one another.

Every community will have a different next step.

Finding the enthusiasm and openness helps. Finding positive and generative energy to build on helps.

In my most recent ministry, along with some wonderful leaders, we were discussing ways in which we could introduce some anti-racism work and activism in the congregation. Without prompting, one of my most respected and wise leaders asked if she could lead a class with her daughter, a book reflection and discussion book around racism. I joined her in the effort, and it was a wonderful class. And it was born of her passion and enthusiasm. It also happened to fit perfectly with a desired strategic priority.

Sometimes we who are blessed with the sacred task of leadership can be impatient. Sometimes we can try to force an initiative, a class, a strategy, we can push and push because we are convinced we know what is needed. But there is a next step, an organic, life giving, generative, appropriate next step. Sometimes we just might need help to see what it may be.

Seek out wise counsel. Find similar communities who have experienced successes. The work for liberation and love has been going on for a long time. Find ways in which your community has experienced similar successes and build on those.

The Beloved Community longs to be. Whatever context, whatever community you love, it longs to be healthy and thriving, liberated and free. And so the task of leadership is together to discern, in what ways might we set this community free. And then to go and do that.

(edited for brevity)

Getting the official notification that Star would not be opening this year was not a surprise, but we were so sad when it arrived. I thought of all the preparations all the incoming conference chairs, registrars, and youth leaders had done, all the Star staff and incoming Pelican staff had planned for this summer, and I thought of all the disappointed conferees that had already registered. I am especially sad for my high school junior granddaughter Mandy, whose last summer as part of the youth program was not going to happen.
In this difficult, scary time, it would have been wonderful to be in the huge embrace that is Star for many of us, but this just isn’t feasible now. I keep reading that one technique for dealing with the anxiety is to make a gratitude list and so here some are the Star things I am grateful for:

• As a 16 year old, I came to Star without my family and experienced a life changing week.
• When I came to Star with my boyfriend a few years later, he fell in love with it too.
• It is where we met our dearest, closest friends, who have become family to us, that same year.
• Where in 1969 that same boyfriend proposed to me beside the chapel looking at the moon and its reflection on the water.
• That my parents also started coming to Star and that it became their favorite place for the next 30+ years.
• Returning as a conferee with my teenage children for their first time and experiencing all the traditions with them.
• Introducing our first grandchild, the first of the 4th generation of our family of Shoalers to Star.
• Becoming chairs for our conference in 1998, a rewarding and exciting honor.
• Being Registrar for our conference for two years which not only expanded my circle of conferee friends but also introduced me to wonderful, dedicated, capable Star staff members I wouldn’t have gotten to know otherwise.
• Making wonderful friendships, making music, sharing meals, listening, learning.
• Watching our grandchildren enjoy and thrive at Star.
• And, perhaps, most importantly, participating in our chapel services, both lay and clergy led, some of the most meaningful services I have been privileged to be part of, as an attendee, a singer, and twice as one of the leaders.

As I look over my list what I realize is that what I have been so lucky to have experienced over the years is friendship, fun, spiritual uplifting, love, and joy.
I am sure that all Old Shoalers can create their own Star gratitude lists and I hope they will. How lucky we have been to have had this opportunity in our lives. This is what I will remember on these difficult days and especially when August rolls around. Star.
S – T – A – R
WE WILL COME BACK
WE WILL COME BACK
WE WILL COME BACK

(Thank you to Bob Levine for the photograph.)

About the Young Adults Conference (YAC)

In young adulthood, we may struggle through droughts of creativity, question our spiritual direction, and realign our core concepts of self-identity. Some of us pursue degrees, others careers, and still others pursue alternative paths, all of which afford us powerful and formative experiences. Young adulthood is a transition period of great opportunity: a time to share experience; learn from one another; create and destroy; debate and reflect; laugh and cry and be your true self. YAC explores this life in transition.

YAC challenges us to speak to each other and listen and participate without judgment. Deeply tied to Unitarian Universalist Association’s core principles, YAC is dedicated to the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all people and the empowerment of young adults to affect real change in their lives and the world. YAC plays a unique role in the Star Island community by acting as a bridge between the Star Island youth groups, the Pelican community, and the family conferences.

YAC’s mission is to cultivate deep personal and spiritual relationships while providing an experience that is a unique combination of a summer camp, an experimental community and a spiritual retreat. YAC also offers respite at Star Island where one may enjoy a quiet sunset, be lulled by the ocean, or take part in one of our group activities. You can join the softball team, jam with fellow musicians, take a yoga class, or sing your heart out at karaoke night. You can also use the week to take time to yourself, relax with a good book, and catch up with old friends. YAC invites you to experience our community and Star Island and experience self-discovery and connection.