Western Friend

Aging Is An Adventure…. So Prepare!

by Claire Gorfinkel

We are all aging, inexorably, at the same rate: one day at a time. The experience will be different for each of us, although the ultimate end will be the same.

Aging can be a wonderful adventure; we can experience it with enthusiasm, joy and curiosity. Aging can also be burdened with dread and denial. Anticipating our needs means that we, our loved ones and our communities will face fewer crucial decisions in stressful emergency situations. Planning ahead can minimize family disruptions, bring comfort and security, and enhance ...

Wanted: Stories from Quaker Leaders!

Help us find them- nominate a Friend!

“The Society of Friends has never had many members, scarcely more than 200,000 in the entire world, the majority living in the United States and in England. But it is not the number that matters. What counts more is their inner strength and their deeds.”

-Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, 1947

We are collecting stories for a new book from Western Friend, titled
An Inner Strength: Stories of Leadership in the Religious Society of Friends

In his 2011 ...

Finding Peace and Facing the Inevitable: Stories from a Quaker Chaplain

by Mary Ann Percy

It was in 2003 that I first felt the unmistakable call to work at hospice. As I pursued that leading, I likened my experience to the exhilaration of riding a magic carpet— I felt so uplifted and swept along! It wasn’t until months later that I realized that magic carpets have neither headlights, steering wheels nor brakes.

I have chosen two stories out of dozens from my years of work as a hospice chaplain. I am privileged to accompany people through some of the most difficult days of their ...