Recent posts on Quaker blogs, discussions with Pagan friends, experiences in meeting for worship, and a new book I’m reading by Wiccan writer Christopher Penczak, are all causing me to reflect on what shape my spiritual life has right now. Marshall Massey, challenging my comments on the relationship between programmed and unprogrammed Friends in NEYM, asked a question I think he meant as hypothetical: whether I was “ready to change my actual religion?” But this question is not hypothetical, is... Read more

Peter’s back at work, and the end of the summer not only is here, it _feels_ like it’s here. My own teaching schedule starts after Labor day, and I’ve had three typical end-of-summer nightmares in the last week. (My favorite: almost all the students are off on a field trip, leaving only a handful, who really don’t want to be there, including my least favorite student of all time–and if you’re one of my students, reading this blog, it isn’t... Read more

Liz Opp of The Good Raised Up recently posted about how concerned she is at the difficulties that can arise when people, even caring Quaker people, try to communicate about different faith experiences. The back and forth that Peter and I have taken part in, not always calmly, seems to have been one strand in the communications that trouble her. And me… well, I’m concerned, too, because I’ve come to have a lot of respect for Liz’s grounded, open-hearted words.... Read more

Greetings from the Maine woods. Actually, that sounds a lot wilder than it really is. After all, I’m posting to out blog, so we’re not on the Allagash. We are, in fact, only an hour from the nearest shopping mall, and only twenty minutes from the nearest soft serve. However, though there is dialup web access, it is awfully slow, so I won’t be updating the blog until we’re home again. If we are slow to post moderated comments this,... Read more

So. Today’s the first day back from NEYM, and I’m finding myself puttering around the house, doing little, unimportant, quiet things–vacuuming up the dog hair that accumulated while we were gone, cleaning the kitchen, sorting bills, browsing the web. I’m not getting myself in gear for that trip to the library I’d planned, or the trip to the grocery store we need, and the rpg our friends at Peace Frog run won’t be meeting tonight after all. I think maybe... Read more

I’m writing this entry from back in my dorm room, which is cool and quiet. I’m missing the scheduled worship-sharing group I was assigned to, and I certainly hope I can join them tomorrow. But I have reached the heatrash stage of energy overload, and it was time to take a break. I’m not sure if blogging is really “taking a break”–I might be wiser to go lie down under a tree. Though, if I did that, I’d probably fall... Read more

So, here I am at NEYM, and so far, it has been mind-blowing, wonderful, amazing… OK. Not universally wonderful. I admit, I’m still early enough on in my love affair with Quakerism that I do idealize things (and people) more than is wise… but there were certainly plenty of reminders of how human (Irritatingly, maddeningly, entertainingly, and endearingly human) we all are here. I’ll let one example stand for all: the young adult friend who spent what seemed like half... Read more