Yesterday, my old friend John M-B came up to visit me. We spent the day at the beach, talking about life. John’s a UCC minister turned therapist; in addition to being a newbie Quaker, I’m a therapist turned teacher. We always have tons to talk about. So it wasn’t until the trip back that I got to talking about recent spiritual developments in my own life, including joining Ministry and Worship, and my feeling of just how much I have... Read more

Over the last few weeks, especially since the post about Ministry and Worship, I find myself asking what it is I want this blog to do. There’s a temptation to use it as a place to represent Quakers to Pagans, and vice versa… something that can lead to a feeling of needing to be “a credit to my people.” There’s also a sense of wanting to represent the both/and experience–better, since I don’t think there are yet many resources out... Read more

Liz Opp, of The Good Raised Up (one of my favorite Quaker blogs) and Paul L, of Showers of Blessings, both wrote me very thoughtful, and, I thought, heartfelt comments on my recent post on joining Ministry and Worship at my meeting. Both Friends are concerned at the degree of disorientation (OK, panic) I expressed in that post. It may be that the level of concern arose at least in part because, in an attempt to be humorous about a... Read more

Over the last year, I’ve felt more and more as if my life were in pieces which, like separate ice flows, were drifting farther and farther apart. Quaker meeting, parenting my now 19-year-old, the New England landscape, old friendships and new ones, writing, my Pagan practice and community… everything except daily life with Peter has felt as if it were, though still there, less connected together, and less a part of a whole. This summer seems to be about balancing... Read more

Well, that was bracing. Last night was the first meeting of Ministry and Worship to which the two new members, Geoff and I, were invited. Geoff clearly knew what was expected of him and followed everything that was going on. (Though we became members of our meeting at about the same time, it turns out he’d been an attender for years and years when he applied.) I just as clearly was lost, lost, lost! At one point I commented that... Read more

CONTINUED FROM “THE ‘W’ WORD”, JUNE 17 I keep telling myself I’m going to go back and complete the thought I started, on what I am comfortable terming my religious life, and why. And I do keep trying. I’ve written at least three drafts so far, ranging from the purple to the clinical. Here’s my latest try–I’m going to see if I can manage to keep it simple. I hardly ever call myself Wiccan–or a Witch–any more. Why? Many things about... Read more

On Saturday, Peter and I went to our friends Kevin and Beth’s house for a potluck and schmooze. While there, we finally got to meet R. and C., two new neighbors of theirs they’d been telling us about for weeks–Quakers from the midwest who had recently moved to the valley. It was really terrific getting a chance to get to know them. It turns out that they have been having difficulty settling in to either of the two local meetings,... Read more

“Ms. Bishop, are you a Witch?” Picture it–I’m about to give a reading quiz to a group of less-than-prepared high school students. They, of course, are thinking that a diversion would be sweet right about now. And one of them has just the thing. Turns out, he’s done the inevitable, and Googled my name. “Ms. Bishop, are you? Are you a Witch? Are you a _practicing_ Witch?” So there I am, clock ticking, a stack of quizzes in my hand,... Read more

It’s amazing how, no matter how many of my wishes in life are granted, I am able to see a bad day as unfair… Odd how the down days feel like personal wrongs, but the good stuff gets accepted as only my due… (Wry smile.) Meanwhile, it’s hot, and the classroom where I teach 9th grade English is hotter, and is incredibly loud with the sound of ventilators directly outside the windows… which encourages students to be loud, too, as... Read more