During a recent meeting for worship, I found myself seated across from my least favorite Quaker T-shirt. Yes, there was a Friend in the T-shirt, but this is not about her. It’s about my increasing discomfort with the four words on the perimeter of the design: simplicity, integrity, peace and equality.

Lately I've heard members of my meeting tell newcomers, “we believe in simplicity, peace, integrity, community, and peace.” As the words…

33 Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths: 34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne: 35 Nor by…

As it has been all along the history of human beings' renunciation of its measure of inknowing through the power of the direct illumination of Presence itself, today people gather around and are enchanted simulations or shadows of life rather than the Life itself. Men and woman (ministers, philosophers, theologians, teachers, politicians, political and religious activists) fashion religious and secular ideological, theological, political, institutional, and scriptural simulations of…

Sorry for the lengthy absence! This is the third part of a series that was published in the local paper, again with light editing.

“Suppose,” Abraham asks God, “there were fifty righteous people in Sodom; would you really sweep away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people within it?”

When confronted with the possibility of a loss, it is natural to bargain. If the boss threatens to fire us, we may offer to work harder, or maybe take a pay-cut. If a…

Amy Outlaw writes that there is only Love or Fear.  I agree that Fear is an impediment to Love.  A strong one.  It's also an impediment to the Quaker Process that relies on access to the divine to find what action a community or meeting is to take.  There is a fear that if we actually sought with all our heart to determine what the Divine was calling us to do it might require us to do something we intellectually will not accept.  At stake is our Identity.  Everyone has an Identity.  It's…

I was on the subway yesterday on my way to an appointment. As I approached the platform, about to board the train, I noticed that at least four cars, maybe more, were completely full. Their contents were high school students, girls exclusively. By means of identification, they wore the same knit caps in purple and…

They'll tell you they have the answer.

When your up against the concrete

on the diagonal beneath life and death.

Floating under the bridge in between the space were cold becomes warm,

and death is life.

They will come to you with their answers and promises.

Though their promises don't inspire, because they are expired.

When your soul aches,

In the solitude of heart break,

Peace is creased in the fold of the expressed; in the space where hate…

So that the true church government being in the Spirit, and over the conscience as in the sight of God, the great care must be to keep it within its bounds, that nothing else govern but the Spirit, and that the government be extended only unto that which is to be governed.

First, Care must be had that nothing govern in the church of Christ, but the spirit of Christ: that nothing else teach; nothing else exhort; nothing else admonish and reprove ; nothing else cut off and…

When I was younger it was quite common to hear "Love conquers all".  Not so much now.  Maybe Divorce has beaten it down.  I don't know.  But I suggest that it's true:  Love does conquer all!.  I think if Adam had just admitted to God that he ate the forbidden fruit out of love of Eve and fear of losing her mankind's story might be entirely different.  But instead Adam threw Eve under the Bus and we have had to spend all these years learning that Love not only conquers all but LOVE IS…

My worshiping community, the Live Oak Friends Meeting, has a new floor. And it's a big…

The sun was setting on the August night my husband and I tuned our television to an empty courtroom in Ferguson, Missouri. Along with thousands of other Americans, we awaited the verdict of the grand jury’s review of police officer Darren Wilson’s actions in the death of Michael Brown. Finally, Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch read for several minutes from a statement that acquitted Officer Wilson.

I found the jury’s decision hard to believe, despite McCulloch’s detailed account…

Once upon a time there was a hungry Quaker.  He consumed & collected everything he thought would make him what he truly felt inside he was meant to be.  He knew he was meant to rise above everyone else and be special and so he consumed & collected the nicest things he could afford and in some cases things he had to borrow to get;  he traveled places he thought would allow him to soar above everyone he knew; he consumed things not only for himself but his family as well.  Finally he…

I was gently eldered (disciplined) earlier in the week for the content of some of my writings, here and in other venues. As I was told, many Friends see Meeting for Worship as a safe, confidential space. From time to time, I've incorporated the goings on and individual vocal ministry of Worship into writing material. Real…

“Her great merit is finding out mine – there is nothing so amiable as discernment.” — Lord Byron via BrainyQuote.com

[Cartoon chat bubbles

Public Domain image by OpenClipArt.org]

Ah, Lord Byron. Seductive, self-serving, impulsive, yet self-aware and…

[Full post on SimplicityProcess.com http://wp.me/p4NMHw-Q]

When I read Robin Mohr's post about her choice of three words to shape 2015, it got me thinking and writing. Drawing upon a meme referenced by Chris Brogan, the idea is to reflect and then choose three juicy words that…

Chapter 20 of Minding the Light: Our Collective Journal is now available online and attached as a PDF file, below. For this chapter, we invited Friends to respond to the query, “When has an experience of the Light changed your perception of someone or something?" In response, we received 13 stories and two photos.  One of the stories was from a 7-year-old Friend.   



We invite you to read these stories for yourself. What  stories rise for you as you sit with our latest query?…