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On Time

Authored by: Mary Klein
If we’re lucky enough to live long enough, we get to watch the miracle of babies turning into adults. And with that luck, we pay the price of watching tangible people in our lives turning into memories. And we watch those memories taking on lives of their own.  A baby’s first word, a teen’s first love, anybody’s last wishes – these moments burst onto the scene, disappear, and then echo.
On Time (March 2014)

Waiting for Light to Come

Authored by: Mary Klein

It’s no fun to feel sick – no fun to have an upset stomach or a stuffy nose. And getting hurt is no fun either. Burning your finger, banging your head, scraping your knee – not fun. You just want someone to take the bad feeling away. And nobody can do that. But if they see that you need help, they can try to help you.

On Time (March 2014)

Tax Season

Authored by: Elizabeth Boardman
Dear Friends: April is the season for pondering the U.S. income tax system and the fact that about half our tax dollars are used to support the Department of Defense, even when the US is not engaged in any major conflict in the world. 
On Time (March 2014)

The Miracle of Friendly Water

Authored by: Karen Fleur Tofti-Tufarelli
Generally, when an airline cancels a flight, travelers feel frustrated.  For Del and Suzanne Livingston, however, a canceled flight in Mexico led them to a new calling. The nonprofit they helped establish – Friendly Waters for the World – operates primarily in Africa, bringing clean drinking water to over 40,000 people, along with much-needed jobs and money for families to pay school fees.
On Production (May 2014)

With a Concern for Being Thirteen

Authored by: Ann Marie Snell
My son Duncan’s best friends have been his friends his entire life. Really. We met his friends’ parents in a ten-week birthing class, where we watched our bellies grow, and shared our hopes and fears. I went into labor first, then Val, then Deborah. By coincidence, the boys all ended up in the same school. “Soul brothers,” they call themselves.
On Pride (July 2014)

A Hollow Power

Authored by: Madeline Schaefer
Dear Friends: On a plane to Seattle last December, I struck up a long conversation with a young white man. We touched on nearly everything. Eventually he told me that he was studying law, but hated it. He especially hated his classmates’ obsession with money (due in part to the huge debts they would face upon graduation). 
On Pride (July 2014)

Quaker Disrespect

Authored by: Andrea English
Dear Western Friend: Thank you for publishing Rob Pierson’s article in the last issue of your magazine. The article is substantial, but does not cover what I experience as some Quakers’ suspicion of any companies, even small ones, including non-profits – ones that practice prudent business processes and employ management, ones that may ask their Boards to use Robert’s Rules rather than “consensus.”
On Pride (July 2014)

Accomplishments and Luck

Authored by: Phyllis Hoge Thompson
Dear Friends: I have long understood pride as the deadliest sin of seven. I also know that it can be appropriate. Pride is sinful only in the sense of an overweening self-glorification. It characterizes someone who behaves as though he is convinced he is worth more than other people.
On Pride (July 2014)