I have the attention span of a gnat, am easily befuddled and often get lost on the net.  I thought I had a blog that could be seen by anyone but it's on another site.  Go figure.

This is where my blog is  Be aware there isn't much there yet.

That said, I'm reluctant to start a Qu blog because I'm likely not a Quaker, I don't know.  I was led to look into Quaker traditions.  That's what I'm…

So that last blog I wrote about a recent experience at Brighton Meeting's experiments with BM has gotten some great attention - and raised some critical questions about social media and Quaker experience.

The blog was passed around to other members of Brighton Meeting. I must admit - I did not forsee that happening which…

Deuteronomy 6 – Moses delivers to them the Great Commandment: “Israel, remember this! The Lord – and the Lord along – is our God. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (6:4). As He promised your ancestors, the Lord will give you a land with great cities that you did not build, houses full of things you did not put in them and wells you did not dig (6:10-13). I]m not sure this sounds as cool today as it may have once sounded…

I'm sitting at my desk at the University, a deadline breathing down my neck, a very grey sky outside, and memories of one of those 'did I really do that' encounters last night. (Nothing really 'bad', just a pattern I keep say I'm trying to change.) In other words - I have nooooo wish to show up to my work. I'd rather go back to bed. 

So I turned on my chant-music. One of the blessings was 'Glory to you for what you have hidden from us, oh gracious love.... when your fierce…

Deuteronomy 5 – The Ten Commandments:  [Schocken version points out that the commandments were “for a time. . .part of Jewish liturgy, but were ultimately removed from the Prayer Book out of fear that it would be thought that ten rules were the limit of one’s obligations to God (874]. 

Moses was the mediator between God and his people, mostly because they wanted it that way. They feared encountering God directly.

It is interesting that Jews, Catholics and Protestants all…

Book Review: Strength in Weakness Manifest, by Elizabeth Stirredge (1634-1706) 

With an introduction and notes by T.H.S. Wallace

Published by Foundation Publications, Camp Hill, PA USA, 2011

"Elizabeth Stirredge's small memoir, Strength in Weakness Manifest, is a treasury of spiritual wisdom on what it takes to be a faithful minister of the Lord Jesus Christ…

January is Peace Month in Northwest Yearly Meeting. The theme this year is "SPICE: the Friends Testimonies" (Simplicity, Peace, Integrity, Community & Equality). Here are the first two weeks of messages at North Valley Friends, on simplicity and peace.…

Deuteronomy. 4 – Moses reminds the people of the commands he was given by God.”. . .that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land.”  They are told not to add anything to these laws, interestingly—especially in light of the fact that Deuteronomy does add onto and change things given earlier in the Torah, but Schocken editors think these things are worked in here under a bringing together of the tradition, just at the…

Listen to this post: http://www.turtleboxstories.com/audio/presentlydetached.mp3

Not only am I beginning to see my life as a metaphor, I am experiencing it that way and I wonder if this is real detachment.

This perspective of symbolism has been eeking its way in for awhile,…

Deuteronomy 3 – They move on to the region of Bashan. I think the entire region discussed in these early chapters of Deuteronomy is along the eastern side of the Jordan River. They are moving North of the Arnon River. Og, King of Bashan, marches against them and loses. They take 60 towns and again do a lot of killing – men, women and children. And there seems no shame in Moses or in the writer of this book in stating this very matter-of-factly. Moses divides Gilead between the…

New blog post on the fact that people are not perfect, and what that means in the political sphere:

http://wp.me/p1OXtI-16

Deuteronomy 2 - Moses and his people return to the wilderness in the highlands of Seir for a while; but soon they are ordered north again. The Lord makes clear to Moses the people who are to be left in peace and those he intends to displace, so that the Hebrews can take some of the land.  The Edomites (descended from Esau) are to be left alone; the Moabites and Ammonites (descended from Lot, nephew of Abraham), and are  also to be by-passed. It is the Amorites who are  to lose their…

Liquid Offerings

What we do in Meeting for Worship is hard to describe in words, once you have said the obvious “sitting in silence.”  A metaphor may be better than further factual description:

Imagine we are all wineglasses, or perhaps just plain cups.  We gather like glasses set on a table, clinking together softly as we settle.

We come into the Meetinghouse full of ourselves:

Some prefer to be filled with fresh fruit…

Brighton Meeting is having some difficulties with Meeting for Worship on the Occaision of Business. As in, they can't figure out how to integrate business with Worship. You know, the whole point of BM.

Today they did something different. And it shook me to my core. It was as painful as.... anything. So I'm writing about it to you guys as a form of a, this hurt!  'please share this with me'. You know, the way we've been doing for hundreds of years. 

First: I love this…

Deuteronomy (Introduction) -  The ancient name for this book was “mishne tora” or “copy of the Torah.  But it goes beyond that according to editors of the Schocken Bible [modern English translation]. The whole mission and destiny of Israel is “recast” here.  Here the man who thought of himself as halting of speech gives a series of eloquent speeches.  Though Moses died on the steppes overlooking Jericho, its outlook seems to entail a knowledge and reverence for the…

kens-hot-dogs.blogspot.com

For my first 15 1/2 years at Quaker meeting, I endeavored mightily in silent worship to suck the incessant internal chatter out of my head in order to create that perfect "vacuum" that God, presumably, was eagerly waiting to fill. I tried all the usual techniques - mantras, short prayers, visualizations (candles, light, waterfalls), stern imprecations ("Shut up, brain!"), pep talks, etc etc etc. Needless to say, very little of this was particularly effective. The howler monkeys in my…

Psalm 144 – My Lord protects me, trains me for battle and is my shelter. “Lord, what are mortals, that you notice them; mere mortals, that you pay attention to us? We are like a puff of wind; our days are like a passing shadow” (144:3-4).

Tear open the sky, Lord, and come down to us. “Reach down from above, pull me out of the deep water, and rescue me; save me from the power of foreigners, who never tell the truth and lie even under oath” (144:7-8).

I…

I am carrying a concern for the need to “calm the rhetoric” of our current American culture and especially of our elected officials and candidates for election and I am wondering if there are others with an interest in this issue.  I hope so.  My concern is that the use of destructive and inflammatory language has become a behavioral habit for many of our County’s citizens and is so prevalent in local and national politics that our two major…