Unity on the North Shore

08/25/2026

Danny Bauer and Brett O’Connor, both members of the Chicago band Sneezy, brought something pretty special into Unity on the North Shore this Sunday.

If you have never seen these two perform live together, it is hard to explain what happens between them. Brett is Sneezy’s lead singer and harmonica player, Danny is on keys and vocals, and somewhere between blues, soul, funk and whatever they decide to do in the moment, the whole thing takes on a life of its own.

They are incredibly good musicians, obviously, but that isn’t really the whole story. It is the way they listen to each other, play off each other and seem completely willing to follow the music wherever it wants to go. You can feel that trust between them, and somehow the audience gets pulled into it too.

That happened Sunday.

To accompany Danny’s message, they shared two songs.

The first was **“I Guess I Gotta Pray.”** There was something almost funny and very human in the title alone, because haven’t we all had those moments when we have exhausted our own ideas, tried to manage everything ourselves, and finally arrive at, *well... I guess I gotta pray.*

Then they performed **“Chasing Rabbits,”** a song they had never performed in front of an audience before.

And somehow this brand-new song moved the whole room.

The idea is simple: if you try to catch two rabbits, you catch zero.

Danny began asking us to look at how often we do exactly that in our own lives. We don’t actually have to follow every piece of news. We don’t have to stay angry about everything happening around us. We don’t have to give our attention to every external thing asking for it.

And then the question got more personal.

Where am I reaching for something outside of myself that I already know isn’t really aligned with me?

And why am I still reaching for it?

That connected so naturally with one of the things we value deeply at Unity on the North Shore: creating a place where people can take risks and **live their deepest Truth.**

What made the morning even more interesting is that Danny and Brett seem to live some of what Danny was talking about.

In interviews about Sneezy, they talk about making music in a way that allows each person to bring who they actually are into the room. Danny has even spoken about the band encouraging one another to become more themselves. That probably explains some of what we feel when they play together. Nobody seems to be trying very hard to manufacture a moment. They are listening, responding and creating it while we are all standing there with them.

There is a freedom in that.

And maybe that is why Sneezy has this ability to move a crowd while still making the whole thing feel fun.

The music is soulful. It is funky. Brett can absolutely fill a room with his voice. Danny can take a keyboard somewhere you weren’t expecting it to go. And underneath all of that are lyrics that leave you with something worth thinking about after the music is over.

Sunday we got music, laughter, prayer, a brand-new song and a reminder to stop chasing every rabbit that runs past us.

Not bad for a morning at church.

Thank you, Danny and Brett, for sharing so much of yourselves with us.

And seriously, if you get the chance to see **Sneezy** live, go.

08/24/2026

08/23/2026

Here and Now — with Danny Bauer

Danny Bauer came to the front this morning with a somewhat unusual plan for giving a Sunday message: don’t prepare one.

Not because he didn’t care what he was going to say, but because the thing he wanted to explore with us was presence. And he realized there was something a little contradictory about standing in front of a room talking about being here and now while looking down at notes, trying to remember the next quote, or worrying about whether he’d prepared something impressive enough.

So he decided to trust himself and see what happened.

And what unfolded was a conversation about how easily we can spend our lives chasing the next thing, including the version of ourselves we imagine we’ll finally become when we get there.

Danny talked about growing up around some of that chasing. He loves his parents and spoke warmly about them, while also recognizing the sense of lack they grew up with and how easily that can become, keep going, keep achieving, don’t stop yet.

He told us about calling his dad and proudly announcing that he’d done eight pull-ups at the gym.

His dad’s response?

Once you can do fifteen, you’ll really be strong.

It was funny, but there was something in it that many of us recognized.

How often does eight become invisible because we’re already looking toward fifteen?

How often is the life we’re actually living quietly dismissed because we’re measuring it against the life we think we should have reached by now?

Danny wondered what changes when we stop treating ourselves as something that needs to be completed. He spoke about the idea that we’re always works in progress, which means authenticity isn’t arriving at some finished version of ourselves. It can mean allowing ourselves to experiment, change, create, risk looking foolish, and discover who we are through living.

We heard that in the stories he shared from touring with Sneezy—getting into the van without always knowing exactly where they’d sleep, accepting a spontaneous invitation to go river rafting in West Virginia, wondering whether people would show up for a gig, whether they’d get paid, whether the weather would cooperate.

And somehow, he said, it works out.

Not always the way you imagined it would. That’s different.

But you meet what comes when it comes.

That led Danny back to something we say regularly at Unity on the North Shore: this is a safe space where people can take risks and live their deepest Truth.

He’s heard those words many times. This morning he heard something new in them.

Taking risks and living authentically may be inseparable.

There are parts of us we simply can’t discover from the safety of imagining what we might someday do. At some point we have to make the song, give the talk, paint the painting, say what we believe, get in the van, or stand in front of people we love without knowing exactly what’s going to happen next.

Danny did that with us today.

There was even a moment when he lost his words and stood there in the silence. He told us later that inside himself it felt horribly awkward, like everyone must be watching him bomb.

From where we were sitting, it wasn’t.

Maybe that’s worth remembering too.

Some of the risks that feel enormous from inside us don’t look nearly as frightening from the other side.

And maybe we don’t need to chase quite so hard.

There is already a life here.

There is already something within us asking to be created.

And there is already this moment in which to begin.

Thank you, Danny, for letting us witness you practice what you came to share.

08/23/2026

Week 4 — Will Becomes a Way of Living

How do my daily choices reveal the Power of Will?

The Power of Will is expressed not only in life's defining moments, but in the countless choices we make each day. Every thought we nurture, every word we speak, and every action we take becomes an opportunity to embody spiritual understanding in practical ways.

This week, we reflect on how our daily choices become our way of living. As we consciously choose love over fear, wisdom over reaction, and compassion over judgment, our lives begin to reflect the Divine Presence within us. The Power of Will is not a destination to reach—it is a faithful practice, renewed with every choice we make.

08/20/2026

One of my guilty pleasures is the action-adventure series Reacher. In a world where so much seems unjust and unfair, Reacher is a superhero vigilante who always gets the bad guys, no matter how impossible the odds are against him. He’s fearless. And I’m realizing part of the appeal is that I’d like to be like him—certain of what’s right, unafraid to act, and able to make my notions of justice and goodness prevail. (Full disclosure: Some scenes are quite violent.)

Yet, I also question whether fearlessness is even a worthy aspiration.If we never feel fear, we have no need of courage. Courage is only possible when we’re afraid—when the outcome is uncertain, when something we value is at risk—and we choose to move forward anyway.

I’m beginning to think wholeness and freedom are better aspirations. Wholeness allows me to make room for fear rather than trying to conquer or deny it. And freedom allows me to feel that fear without surrendering my choices to it.

I can feel fear and still summon the courage, wisdom, and strength of character to move forward with integrity. That’s the consciousness I’m after: not freedom from fear, but freedom from letting it drive what comes next.

~ Rev. Kurt