Talk about taking a vow of silence!  The Hermit's hard drive crashed, so I'm stuck using the library's resources for accessing QuakerQuaker.  I can kind of check email via a data service on my cell phone for $15 a month, which costs less than a new computer.  (The old one is 5 years old, the RW/CD drive is dead and now the hard drive, so I don't see repairing it as an option.)  

The famous Kentucky writer and poet, Wendell Berry, refuses to let a computer in his house.  He hand writes…

I had planned to play in the pool at physical therapy today, and then catch the bus out to St. Michael's Episcopal Church to hang out with fellow beaders. 

First, my physical therapist called and said they were having a problem with the pool, so I was rescheduled for tomorrow, but I also wasn't feeling "quite right" anyway, so I didn't mind the cancellation.  THEN a chronic medical issue decided to p ay a call, and leaving the apartment (other than to exercise The Girls) let alone…

Remember that splendid "Serenity Prayer" that is at the core of 12 Step Programs?  It often takes courage to  accept the things we cannot change, and to move past those negative elements in our lives. 

What is the proper way to handle a situation with a person whose values and rhetoric conflict radically with our own, as Quakers? 

It takes wisdom to realize and accept when another person is not going to change, though I think most folks these days have the basic perception that…

Yesterday was a big day here in Kentucky:  the running of the famous Kentucky Derby. 

I did not go to Churchill Downs (despite several invitations), I did not attend any of the Derby Festival activities, and I politely refused all invitations to Derby Parties (the saner alternative to actually attending the race, but still not for me).  There was even a Quaker Derby Party. 

As a person with a deep love for the creatures with which we share Creation and with a gift for working…