Gratitude To My Ancestors 

With honor and respect, these eyes see for you
all manner of life you could not have imagined.
My lips move with the rhythm of your words
flowing through me,
my tongue caressing each morsel of wisdom
I am graced to pass on.
Your DNA rides my veins
and with every breath I take,
your cautious steps from the past
toward a fuller life become
bold moves I make toward my destiny.
Together, we wrap arms
around a new generation,
here to become who they were born to be,
to cast their magic as we once did
and bless each day for their ability to do so.

For you, dear ancestors, we live this day. 

—   Marta Valentín
A Long Time Blooming: Meditations (meditation manual), 2014

Rev. Marta I. Valentín is the Professional Development Director in the Ministry and Faith Development staff group of the UUA. She served as Ministerial Intern at First Parish in Cambridge.  Her former shared ministries were the Unitarian Universalist Church of Medford, MA; First Church Unitarian in Littleton, MA, and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, VA. Her first settled shared ministry was at First Unitarian Universalist Church in New Orleans where she arrived two weeks before Hurricane Katrina.

Rev. Valentín also brings experience from a number of other Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) wide positions: New England Regional Staff, the UUA’s former staff group, Identity-based Ministries, Public Information Office and Beacon Press. She has shared her gifts as well with the Unitarian Universalist Ministers Association’s (UUMA) CENTER continuing education team. She is a published poet and a percussionist.