And know the life of God in one another, and the power of God in one another . . . Mind that which is eternal, which gathers your hearts together up to the Lord, and lets you see that ye are written in one another’s hearts; meet together everywhere.
– George Fox (1653)
[This letter was abridged from a longer original, which you can find at: https://westernfriend.org/letters-marchapril-2022]
[This letter was abridged from a longer original, which you can find at: https://westernfriend.org/letters-marchapril-2022]
In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often, they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as the place where the person you least want to live with lives!
~
I stand alone
after Quaker meeting--
the Society of Friends
~
long conversations
by the coffee pot
joys of Quaker fellowship
~
Donald W. McCormick is a member of Grass Valley Friends Meeting in Nevada City, CA (PacYM).
Recently, I joined a new group on social media and was asked to introduce myself, to say a bit about where I was from, and to share a little-known fact about myself. Immediately, I started sorting through personal details. Should I pick something big – share about my family, say, or my work? Or open with something small – my favorite ice cream flavor?
Dear Editor: The other day I was driving home from dropping my children off at school, my toddler humming in his car-seat behind me. I was listening to a discussion on NPR about the 156 women who testified against Larry Nassar, a doctor who gained the trust of children and their families, and then used that trust to sexually abuse countless children.
I sing and celebrate garbage,
the rejected, the refugee,
The “wretched refuse yearning to breathe free.”
I lift up in the Light those treated like trash,
Those living in the junk yards of history.
Out of blackened wood from a bombed out church,
A black Southern artist made a mobile that took my breath awayMost young adults hold little doubt that we were born into and continue to exist in a world where systems of domination – racism, classism, sexism, etc. – create hierarchies of worth and power that segregate our communities. These systems ground our experiences in fear and suspicion of others, and often, fear and suspicion of ourselves.
