Paula Roberts
  • Female
  • Fayetteville, PA
  • United States
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Paula Roberts's Friends

  • carolyn taylor
  • Debbie Halcomb
  • Marian Bruffy
  • Hilda
  • Tamara Baverey /Levi
  • Tina M Pinzone
  • Ray Lovegrove
  • Timothy
  • keely showalter
  • Becky  Clements
  • Grace Ochs
  • Tom Costello
  • Nanna Kapp
  • Karen Riis-Hansen
  • Gabrielle McKeever
 

Paula Roberts's Page

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About Me
I have another profile but the site won't let me log in. I had problems logging in and had to start a new profile. I'm an FGC member (Baltimore Yearly Meeting). I am an adjunct university instructor both online and in traditional classes.

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Paula Roberts's Blog

Rastafarian-Quaker?

Posted on 9th mo. 17, 2010 at 11:30am 6 Comments

The title is a bit tongue in cheek in homage to Friends who wince at "hyphenated Quakers". Pardon my humor.



I've been thinking alot about my Plain direction. In some ways it is not very plain. I'm a tropical bird by birth so I wear patterns rather than solid colors. It doesn't really bother me that I'm not a blue/gray/black/brown Plain Friend, but I have noticed the difference. More interesting though was my realization that the way I've been dressing; long skirts (ankle), modest tops,… Continue

Plainness is catching!

Posted on 8th mo. 9, 2010 at 4:40pm 0 Comments

I noticed this when I first started reading about plainness and simplicity. It is by no means a solely Quaker phenomenon. I have encountered Plain Catholics, Pagans, Anglicans, and Unaffiliated Christians. I felt that perhaps this might be one benefit of our current recession - it has reminded many of us of what is important and what is not, what must be maintained and what must be cut away. There was a great article in the New York Times to that end today. "But Will It Make You Happy?"… Continue

Why I am a Plain-dressing Quaker, and why I cover

Posted on 7th mo. 30, 2010 at 3:30pm 31 Comments

I was walking the dog today and processed a lot of this Plain thing that has been going on. I realize by just saying, “I think I’ve figured it out” that I have not indeed figured anything out for any length of time. So here’s what I have so far.…



Continue

Writing my dissertation - I need help

Posted on 6th mo. 25, 2010 at 7:04pm 15 Comments

I loved taking the classes, writing the papers, executing the projects, etc for this doctorate in epidemiology. I'm having the hardest time staying focused on the dissertation. I attend Walden University and love the online experience. Walden structures its dissertation writing so that you must register for a class with classmates who have the same chairperson. Each quarter is dedicated to different parts of the writing process. The first part is Chapter 2 - literature review. I have to review… Continue

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At 11:46am on 12th mo. 4, 2013, William F Rushby said…

Hello, Paula!

I attempted to reply to your message about attending the Dunkard Brethren church this morning, but I don't think my message got transmitted.

I am glad that you have found fellowship and spiritual nurture among the DBs.  I have had this same experience among Old German Baptists.  When "the chips were down" over and over again in my life, the German Baptists have been understanding and supportive of me.

May the Lord bless and keep you close to Him!

Bill Rushby

At 1:17pm on 1st mo. 17, 2013, Hilda said…

Dear Friend Paula!

Thank you for accepting my invitation! I look forward to conversing with thee in the future. I have my husband Timothy to thank for helping me join this site and could never have done it without him!!!! I am very dumb when it comes to technology !So he has been tutoring me on the computer. I am very happy to have you for my friend! :):) 

Blessings to thee today!

Hilda

At 11:17pm on 9th mo. 1, 2012, Timothy said…

Thank thee for accepting our invitation. Hope and trust that thee hast a blessed night and morning. Peace be with thee and thy household.

Timothy

At 9:31am on 3rd mo. 13, 2011, Margaret Bienert said…
Thank you so much for your friendship, Paula.  I love the way you dress 'plain'  with such character and grace. 
At 6:23pm on 11th mo. 1, 2010, RuthAnn Crum said…
Thank you for the welcome!! It's such a blessing to be surrounded by like minded people.
At 3:22pm on 8th mo. 24, 2010, William F Rushby said…
Leslie Rodgers wrote: "No matter what we wear it's not what we "are", it's how we are choosing to present ourselves."

The sociologist Erving Goffman coined the term "presentation of self", and argued that people engage in "impression management", based on the notion that human interaction can be understand by analogy with the stage play. He wrote a book entitled *The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life*, a fascinating piece of work.
At 5:39pm on 6th mo. 29, 2010, Anne Littlebird said…
There is one in town that I am starting to attend but it is Liberal and I would prefer Conservative.
At 6:02pm on 6th mo. 12, 2010, Leslie Rodgers said…
Paula, I don't know what you were like as a kid or a teen, but if my dear departed Mama had been told I would grow up to be a woman who liked tidiness and order she never would have believed it. For me it was definitely a long time coming.
When I can make things around me orderly it is calming, though, and I love calm.
At 12:10pm on 6th mo. 11, 2010, Leslie Rodgers said…
In telling me the different types of 'sort of plain' dress in your meeting you have reminded me that even the Quakers here are after all living in Bloomington, a peculiarly liberal college town.
No one on the street here has ever seemed to be bothered by what I wear, other than the occasional person stopping me to say "I like your dress, where did you get it?"
Our town had the usual skinny girls in leggings and tiny t- shirts here and itty bitty sun dresses. We have young men in low-hanging pants, but we also have a fair collection of business suits, jeans of every imaginable style, women in veils of all types and men in kilts.
Perhaps if I get brave enough to try Meeting for Worship I won't raise too many eyebrows?

My father used to talk to me about the kind of image we project. We are the only creatures on the planet who can choose how we look to each other, and who evaluate each other based on our appearance.
Because of that, all clothing is a form of costume. No matter what we wear it's not what we "are", it's how we are choosing to present ourselves.
I think this gives us a great opportunity.

Opportunity for what? I'm still working on figuring that out.
To change ourselves, become more humble, become less obsessive, less greedy?
To change the world?

I started fads in high school. I was an outsider, not popular and not interested in being popular, but I was watched. If I did something, like sew bells on the knees of my bell-bottoms, within a few days other people would be doing the same. Humans are very imitative creatures.

I think with more people taking up plain dress we can send a subtle message to the world around us, a message that our clothes don't have to be made far, far away, they don't have to be expensive, they don't have to show off our riches> We don't need new clothes weekly, we don't need to have full walk-in closets.
We can live with less, be happy with less, serve the world with less.
At 11:49am on 6th mo. 11, 2010, Leslie Rodgers said…
The Maha dress is lovely, and really does look comfortable. I can't quite figure out how it is put together, but it looks complicated to make.

Re: Sewing
I think that's how I look at clothes in general, my first thought is "could I make that?" Comes from years of sewing....I made a dreadful shift dress at age 10 when an auntie taught me and a cousin to sew. Perhaps I should say tried to teach, bless her. We were not ready learners.....
I really started sewing in high school though, because I couldn't find the kind of things I wanted to wear. It was the '70's, and I am not really a mini-skirt/hot pants kind of girl, haha. I mostly made full length dresses. I like being able to bend over without astonishing innocent bystanders, and I do love ths swish of a long skirt.

What I DON"T do is complicated sewing. I don't do tailoring, or anything fancy, and I will go a long, long way to avoid putting in a zipper. I am far, far too lazy to do anything that frustrating if it can be avoided.
When I first started to learn to sew I found it intimidating. I think I saw it as a long progression...starting at a hemmed tablecloth and progressing through fitted sleeves and bound buttonholes to finally culminate in a beaded bridal gown with a twelve foot train.
It didn't occur to me back then that a person could do just as I have done, which is learn sufficient skill to make the simple things I want and leave the fancy, elaborate and tedious work to people who are so inclined.
 
 
 

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