May Monthly Theme: Awakening Curiosity

May 1, 2026

UU minister, Victoria Safford, speaks of curiosity using the metaphor of perception and sight. She writes:

“To see, simply to look and to see, is an ethical act and intentional choice; to see, with open eyes, is a spiritual practice and thus a risk, for it can open you to ways of knowing the world and loving it that will lead to inevitable consequences. The awakened [and curious] eye is a conscious eye, a willful eye, and brave, because to see things as they are, each in its own truth, will make you very vulnerable.”

Consequences. We rarely think of curiosity in terms of consequences. But Rev. Safford seems to have it right. There is a type of curiosity that is about enjoyment and adventure. This way of understanding curiosity invites us to experience life as a playground. But when we look closely at our lives we realize there’s another type of curiosity at play. This kind leads us, not to playgrounds, but into dark alleys and pathless woods. It demands, not just our attention, but our courage. It’s not interested in entertaining us with the wonders of the world. Instead, it wants to enlist us in the work of the world.

Just think of how we UUs talk about our dances with curiosity. We don’t just tell stories about peppering our poor Sunday School teachers with “Why?!” and “Who says?!”; we tell stories about how asking why got us kicked out of Sunday School. We don’t just talk about being open-minded; we talk about how our open-mindedness led us to leave home and family and walk a lonelier path than we wanted. And recently, many of us have leaned into the hard work of being curious about our role in upholding institutional racism and structures of white supremacy, which is clearly about more than learning new and interesting things about ourselves.

And here’s the important insight revealed by these stories: As hard as these paths of curiosity are, we are grateful for them! Which in turn suggests that there is a part of us that doesn’t want curiosity to just be fun or interesting. It wants curiosity to change us, to make us anew. This part of us wants to be altered, not just enriched.

So, maybe we need to tweak this month’s theme a bit. Maybe, what we need to hear is not simply “Awaken your curiosity!” but “Awaken the kind of curiosity that comes with consequences!”

Friends, it is, of course, fine to be inquisitive for the fun of it. At the same time, we must remember that curiosity is not a game. Well, actually, maybe it’s the greatest game. The one that drives us to constantly become more, for our sakes and for the sake of others.

Questions for Awakening Curiosity

This list of questions is an aid for deep reflection. How you answer them is often less important than the journey they take you on. So, read through the list of questions 2-3 times until one question sticks out for you and captures your attention, or as some faith traditions say, until one of the questions “shimmers.” Or as we like to say, “Read over them until one of the questions picks you.” Once you’ve identified it, go deeper by asking yourself:

What might my inner wisdom be trying to say to me through this question?
How might this question be trying to wake me up or get me to realize something through this question?

During your childhood, what were you not allowed to be curious about? How did that shape who you are today?
During childhood, what one or two things were you most curious about? How do you see an echo of that in your life today?
Has being curious ever come at a cost for you?
Is it time to be more curious about what your body is trying to tell you?
What is the greatest adventure that your curiosity took you on? What did that adventure teach you about yourself?
Have you ever been punished for being curious? Have you ever punished someone else for being curious?
Do you think you are worth someone being curious about? Have you always felt that way?
When it comes to you worrying about the future or being curious about it, which one wins?
Which were you taught was more important: the “expert mind” or the “beginner’s mind”?
What familiar thing (a person, object, or routine) in your life is asking you to approach it with a beginner’s mind?
Have you ever opened a Pandora’s box of your own? What’s one thing about that moment you’d do differently?
If a crystal ball could reveal something about yourself, your future, or anything else, what would you want to know?
How has approaching mistakes with curiosity rather than shame healed you and helped you heal others?