Sacred Circle Event
Stone Soup

How to Make Stone Soup

Start with a crisp autumn day, add some clear blue sky and a gentle breeze. Bring together about a dozen families, including a sprinkling of teens for high spirits, a few middle schoolers for spice, a bunch of younger children for flavor, and a handful of little ones for beauty and soul. Some magical stones will do nicely, as will a variety of vegetables, noodles, barley and spices. A bit of storytelling ignites the imagination and fantastic kites are carefully assembled and (almost) launched with fierce determination! Collect these ingredients in a wonderful country-like setting, and stir gently. Serve the soup steaming hot on the deck outdoors with fresh bread, a brilliant late-afternoon sun, and some very fine company. Marvel at the simple joys of community.

This Stone Soup intergenerational event, a Sacred Circle activity, was held with much success Sunday, November 14, at the SCUU Germantown Road property. Organized by SCUU member Vic Caldarola, and UUCSS member Lynn Cave, the event was based on the classic children's folktale 'Stone Soup.' We opened by reading the story, a version by John Warren Stewig, about a girl traveler who, hungry from her journey, inspires the people of a village to make soup from a stone and, well, a few other ingredients just for flavor. Listeners young and old responded with contributions of vegetables, spices, noodles, barley, and other ingredients. As the soup simmered, a group of kids was led foraging for edible plants and returned with wild onions, chickweed, and dandelion greens for added flavor. Others made leaf art projects, flew kites (or for the younger children, helium balloons), participated in a scavenger hunt, or just tossed a football around. The sun was warm on the deck where we sat for an early dinner of stone soup, a surprisingly delicious recipe!

Special thanks to Barbara Patton, Tom Cook, Tom Walker and Denise Fay-Guthrie for their creative ideas and dedicated spirit.

An intercongregational initiative involving members of the Sugarloaf and Silver Spring UU congregations, Sacred Circle seeks to develop a spiritual community dedicated to UU family values, in particular inspiring children and teens toward leadership, responsibility and social justice.