September 29, 2013

I awoke very early this morning, from a combination of aches, pains, and troubled dreams.  Wandering through my house, I could hear very faintly the call of an owl, and despite the cold and the fact that I was wearing only pajamas,  I wandered out onto the back stoop to listen for them. It was 4:30 A.M. The stars were bright overhead, wearing their winter constellations, with Orion high to the south.  A quarter moon burned to the east, like... Read more

September 25, 2013

So I get to thinking, “I should go to a nice retreat at Woolman Hill,” and I notice one coming up on deepening worship. “Great!” I think to myself.  “I should try that!” And so I read the brochure.  And it reads in part, “What do you do to nurture your spirit? How regular are you in this practice?  If you are attending the retreat, please practice a spiritually nurturing activity for 20 minutes or more each day. If you... Read more

July 22, 2013

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; Well, so, as I said in my previous post, what I would ask of Quaker Christians is to stay low to the Truth, not to hide it or apologize for it.  …Do not share one syllable more of your Scriptures than the “Spirit that gave them forth” is speaking in you–but equally, do not share one syllable less. And for all Quakers, Christian or non-Christian, I’m suggesting that When speaking from Spirit,  we use whatever language... Read more

July 15, 2013

First, I want to say thank you for making me welcome among you.  You might not have, so I’m grateful–because I need to be here.  I didn’t become a Quaker to prove a point, and I didn’t become a Pagan because I love controversy.  Our shared culture often treats anyone who is not a Christian as a threat or a flake, and it has been a joy and a delight to be heard first, judged second (or even not at... Read more

July 9, 2013

I’m not sure if The Princess Bride was one of my daughter’s favorite movies when she was growing up or not, but I know that it has always been one of mine.  And today, in meeting for worship, a scene from The Princess Bride rose up in me as an answer to a spiritual question. All spiritual communities have their struggles.  Sometimes they are rooted in personal conflicts that divide a group; sometimes in the differing needs of a group’s... Read more

June 8, 2013

As a Quaker Pagan, I’m often accused (and, yes, that really is the word for it) by other Pagans of being a closet Christian.  Nope.  I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Jesus Club.  Though hanging out with Quakers has given me a deepened awareness of how much there can be of value in Christianity, and being Quaker myself has taught me how to approach Christian messages by “listening in tongues,” I have yet... Read more

March 31, 2013

(3rd of 3 Ruminations on Class Issues) The Spiritual Journey so far: Prologue I: Peter In Kenya Prologue II: A Liberal Christian With Balls Part I: A Refugee Looks Back Part II: Leaving Home Part III: Who Am I? Part IV: Learning About Race and Gender Part V: Watching My Students Drown Part VI: Animal Bones Where I first consciously bumped up against class issues was in one of my first teaching jobs, when I was in special education.  One... Read more

March 25, 2013

(2nd of 3 Ruminations on Class Issues) The Spiritual Journey so far: Prologue I: Peter In KenyaPrologue II: A Liberal Christian With BallsPart I: A Refugee Looks BackPart II: Leaving HomePart III: Who Am I?Part IV: Learning About Race and GenderPart V: Watching My Students DrownPart VI: Animal Bones I left Yale for three reasons:  I seemed to be the only biology major in the entire school who wanted to be a biologist rather than a doctor.  (“Failure” at Yale:... Read more

March 19, 2013

(1st of 3 Ruminations on Class Issues)The Spiritual Journey so far: Prologue I: Peter In KenyaPrologue II: A Liberal Christian With BallsPart I: A Refugee Looks BackPart II: Leaving HomePart III: Who Am I?Part IV: Learning About Race and GenderPart V: Watching My Students DrownPart VI: Animal Bones I started writing my spiritual journey a couple of years ago, right after coming back from a visit to Kenya.  I was trying to go more or less chronologically, and I got... Read more

February 21, 2013

“Nature is not mute. It is man who is deaf.” – Terence Mckenna If we accept that land is alive, and has spirit and the ability to communicate to us how (and whether) it wants to relate to us, how do we find out what that is? I’ve said that I respect Andras’s family’s patience in learning to hear from their land before diving in to constructing sacred sites on it, and it’s something that I think Peter and I... Read more


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