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Ministry of the Wolf

• Authored by:
• Kay Bordwell

One summer afternoon, I sat with a dozen other folks in the White Mountains of Arizona, listening to Aldo Leopold speak of witnessing the green fire fade from the eyes of a Mexican gray wolf, after he had shot it on the very spot where we stood. He spoke of that green fire as an image he could never forget, an image that brought him to an epiphany, challenging his belief in the superiority of man over nature. This experience left me with goose bumps and a wish that we all could face that fire (the Light?) within all animals, to become more (less?) human.

On Limits (May 2016)

The Politics of Islamophobia

• Authored by:
• Yasmine Taeb

An interview with Yasmine Taeb

On Heritage (July 2016)

Who Left their Dishes in the Sink?

• Authored by:
• Julia Thompson

I began exploring my spiritual path through Buddhist meditation in my early twenties. Since that time, I have attended five weeklong, silent, Buddhist retreats. These were pivotal to my spiritual growth and developing self-awareness. My last one was in December, and I realized two things. First, to be in silence is a practice that gives me the space and grounding I need to seek authentic wholeness and to strive to align my life with a higher purpose. Second, I realized that because I knew no one at these silent retreats, I was essentially surrounded by strangers, and I left with unsettling feelings of emptiness. In the last decade, I have grown to love the continuous community of Quakers. Recently, I have been feeling more guided to keep my spirituality contained within Quakerism, as it is my home.

On Home (September 2017)

On Garbage

• Authored by:
• Mary Klein

Henry Ford, the father of mass production, is famously known for declaring, “History is bunk.” Thus, he relegated “History” to “the trash heap of history.” (The word “bunk” comes from the Dutch word for “rubbish,” bunkum.) Histories exist to make sense of people’s lives, to reveal the meanings of humanity. Assembly lines exist to maximize the output of people’s lives, to boost the means of production. Between history and industry, humanity and mass production, tensions are too often resolved by treating the sacred as garbage.

On Garbage (November 2017)

Matters of Race and Witness (2)

• Authored by:
• Collin Boyd

Dear Friends:

On Neighbors (September 2019)

Gossip, Friends, and friends

• Authored by:
• Collin Boyd

“To put it in the language of Friends, community happens as that of God in you responds to that of God in me.” 

On Separation (November 2019)

Quaker Historians and Archivists

• Authored by:
• Susan Garfinkel,
• John Anderies

Dear Friends:

On Separation (November 2019)

Calls to the Annual Sessions 2020

• Authored by:
• Gale Toko-Ross,
• Valerie Ireland,
• Sandy Kewman,
• David Zeiss

June 14-21, 2020; Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO

On Art (March 2020)

Practicing Radical Inclusivity (abridged)

• Authored by:
• Mica Estrada

[The following text was excerpted from Mica Estrada’s complete keynote talk, which is published at: https://westernfriend.org/media/practicing-radical-inclusivity]

On Teachers (September 2020)

Soul Force

• Authored by:
• Jonathan Stoll

This summer, MC Stoll and DJ Cole dropped the first track of our new album, Soul Force Ones (SF1s). It’s not music (though an SF1s spoken-word album is in development), but it’s recorded to a sort of spiritual harmony. What does that mean?

On Relevance (March 2021)