There’s a certain contrast between the work I spoke of in my last post, on Eden and Jim Grace and their Quaker outreach in Kenya, and the work of the writer I’d like to draw attention to today. Andras Corban Arthen is well known among Pagans, especially in the Northeast, for his leadership in the EarthSpirit Community. Perhaps he is somewhat less known for his interfaith work with the Parliament of World Religions. Andras has published a really moving account... Read more

I don’t know how many of our Pagan readers have been following the situation in Kenya; I suspect more Quakers are aware of it for the same reason I am: Quakers are present in Kenya in large numbers–in fact, African Quakers outnumber their American cousins. And as an American Friend, and especially as an American Friend with ties to Kenya, through my Yearly Meeting’s affiliation with Friends United Meeting (FUM), I’ve felt a need to learn more about and reach... Read more

At 5:08 AM today, I became the mother of a grown woman. It doesn’t feel any different… I remember my daughter’s birth so clearly. For weeks, I’d been unable to walk or sit for long without pain; my cartilage had all loosened up for the birth, and my pelvic bones rubbed together with a sensation of thunder and lightening. By the week before I had Hillary, I was already 4 cm dilated, but when my water broke, I took the... Read more

This is extraordinarily sad news: Terry Pratchett has announced that he has a form of early onset Altzheimers. Many Pagans (as well as sci fi and fantasy fans everywhere) are, like me, in love with his longrunning Discworld novels–36 and counting at the moment. Lots of Pagan women have taken as role models characters like Morgaine or Vivianne from Marion Zimmer-Bradley’s classic Mists of Avalon book. Personally, I find them both a bit gooey and treacly. And so, like many... Read more

I had a somewhat interesting experience with spontaneous prayer today. Heavy snow is often good for that. Our Fulbright exchange teacher, Mr. R., carpools with me to and from work each day–a very reasonable arrangement, since I’m his mentor teacher this year. I’ve enjoyed the exchange of educational ideas a lot, and the cultural exchange has been pretty rich, too. The initial difficulties I had, trying to communicate with him around religion, have mostly resolved since my earlier post on... Read more

So I may have stumbled across an answer to the questions I was struggling with a few days ago, about how to somehow live simply a life that seems too hurried for simplicity, or even thought. In an article given me by my environmental Ffriend Don C, “Fire in the Bones,” in Tikkun Magazine, Alastair McIntosh shares the question he asks himself, to stay spiritually centered in his activism. McIntosh speaks of “sitting down briefly each day and simply asking,”What... Read more

Another day of being too tired to blog. Yeah, yeah, I know–technically this is a blog entry, right? But it’s not what I want to be writing… I’m going to go ahead and write this as a big, fuzzy journal entry–no editing, no waiting for discernment, just stream of consciousness. (I’ll try to spare you thoughts about what I ate for lunch, however. I really do want to avoid becoming that kind of a blog!) Every morning, as I’m waking... Read more

Early in meeting for worship today, I was all caught up in my head–in ideas about what is ministry and what is faithfulness, and whether or not I’m “doing” Quakerism “right.” And then an echo of the Song of Songs came to me: “I am my Beloved’s, and my Beloved is mine.” And everything changed, and the words washed away in just being with the Beloved. And the Light grew so bright and good around me and inside me, that... Read more

It’s Samhain…and I’m not at work. I didn’t try for a religious holiday from my employer. Though I’m pretty well “out” as a Pagan to the faculty and students who care to know, I’ve hardly made a point of my Paganism to my administration. Can’t have it both ways, after all–maintain that my religion is a personal matter, and then go out of my way to make it universally known. And, though having a whole website on the matter might... Read more