Dare imagine
exploring vast space in a
tiny, tender spaceship!
Dare seek knowledge
you are not ready to know!
Do extraterrestrial robots
control us until we mature?
We long to be wise and to venture
beyond our own limits, to grow,
to deserve uncharted space.
Human connection,
the dove, the star, the sprout – all point
to the more than merely human.
We celebrate the all in one,
the one in all.
We welcome silent contemplation,
spoken revelation.
Our gathering of Friends
bathes us in dry times.
It bolsters our non-violence,
encourages simplicity,
coaches in integrity.
It offers us community
when we are most alone.
When we are lost or led astray,
It gives a vision of acceptance.
It can be a cool oasis in dry dunes.
Sum of six hundred years of seeking,
it is our ageless, open Way,
each with our own small place
in one simple, splendid whole.
Marybeth Webster is a member of South Mountain Friends Meeting in Ashland, OR (NPYM).