Notes from 1/20 Quaker Meeting
Jan. 28th, 2025 07:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neptunecrystalshared by anonymous quaker friends:
"it's never too late" to connect, to offer love -- for the common good
the importance of testimony & belief in one anothers' testimony
we must let life speak, let your life speak to you, turn up the volume and hear it
Poem that was shared: Blessing When the World is Ending by Jan Richardson:
"Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing has not come
to cause despair.
It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.”
a friend in her 80's in response to life and politics, grieving the recent loss of her husband, what is she to do: Witness, educate, converse, write, read
a word from the language of the Ojibwe people (I did not write the word) but it meant "we are ALL related"
someone said “i dont have a big voice”; that’s as big as my voice gets -- my thoughts: wow, how big are our voices, we don't always have to speak loudly and scream to have a big voice, though there are times and places and circumstances for when we do need to speak loudly and scream ; choosing our words; lyric from "when will i belong" by the artist Geographer: "feel as free as the words I choose"
my thoughts that arrived to me during the silence of waiting worship:
May our hearts and inner truth and light be the divine flashlights, broomsticks, tools, cleaning supplies, etc that expose and mend and repair and restore anew the darknesses and cobwebs and grime of the human psyche that are/will be exposed on the world stage/through political theatre/other media theatre as we, the common good, collaborate in response behind the scenes, in the backstage of political theatre, as tech crew, as the renovators of the haunted house of the 20th century of human existence, and prior, that we have long been and must continually be clearing and busting open the windows to let sunlight, air, birdsong, the rustling leaves and their accompanying breeze, in.
For as much darkness, there is as much light, but light must constantly be aware of and work to be strides ahead of the dark, and to do that we must also intimately know the dark, but not succumb to it -- from "my heart be brave" by james weldon johnson, addressing his heart: "do not in thine own gross darkness grope"
and a thought now 8am 1/28/25: be brave, be bold, be courageous, in your heart, in your actions, in your words, in your thoughts, in your feelings and values, all in the interest of the common good, no exceptions
"it's never too late" to connect, to offer love -- for the common good
the importance of testimony & belief in one anothers' testimony
we must let life speak, let your life speak to you, turn up the volume and hear it
Poem that was shared: Blessing When the World is Ending by Jan Richardson:
"Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.
Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.
Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door,
the shattered hope.
Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.
But, listen,
this blessing has not come
to cause despair.
It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.
This blessing
will not fix you,
will not mend you,
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.
It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.”
a friend in her 80's in response to life and politics, grieving the recent loss of her husband, what is she to do: Witness, educate, converse, write, read
a word from the language of the Ojibwe people (I did not write the word) but it meant "we are ALL related"
someone said “i dont have a big voice”; that’s as big as my voice gets -- my thoughts: wow, how big are our voices, we don't always have to speak loudly and scream to have a big voice, though there are times and places and circumstances for when we do need to speak loudly and scream ; choosing our words; lyric from "when will i belong" by the artist Geographer: "feel as free as the words I choose"
my thoughts that arrived to me during the silence of waiting worship:
May our hearts and inner truth and light be the divine flashlights, broomsticks, tools, cleaning supplies, etc that expose and mend and repair and restore anew the darknesses and cobwebs and grime of the human psyche that are/will be exposed on the world stage/through political theatre/other media theatre as we, the common good, collaborate in response behind the scenes, in the backstage of political theatre, as tech crew, as the renovators of the haunted house of the 20th century of human existence, and prior, that we have long been and must continually be clearing and busting open the windows to let sunlight, air, birdsong, the rustling leaves and their accompanying breeze, in.
For as much darkness, there is as much light, but light must constantly be aware of and work to be strides ahead of the dark, and to do that we must also intimately know the dark, but not succumb to it -- from "my heart be brave" by james weldon johnson, addressing his heart: "do not in thine own gross darkness grope"
and a thought now 8am 1/28/25: be brave, be bold, be courageous, in your heart, in your actions, in your words, in your thoughts, in your feelings and values, all in the interest of the common good, no exceptions
