As I was falling asleep yesterday night, I realized something. I'd been beating myself up about my current inability to sit quietly and listen/wait/worship for longer than about 20 minutes when I'm by myself. I was getting pretty low and feeling like a bad Quaker. (It did not help that I had had a headache all day, and was trying and failing to fall asleep quickly.)

Then I realized an underlying reason why going to Meeting for Worship has become so important to me. I realized that for me, it's not enough to sit/listen/wait/worship (I haven't settled on the most descriptive verb yet), I need to, in order to hear and listen to the Light, be with other people who are pointing the same Lightward direction, as it were. The presence of F/friends and the practice of us all gathering together acts like positive peer pressure, and allows me to really listen. It seems I listen best with F/friends. I also got the feeling that that's okay.

This seems obvious now I think of it; we are made to be in community and to work and love together. But that this message has persisted all the way from bedtime last night to right now speaks to me of its importance, so I thought I'd share.