See an angel? See a bird? See both? What do you see? All of life is an inkblot. We are constant interpreters. Our interpretations are based upon the shape we give, and have given, to our lives. For me this morning, I saw an angel in the sky. (And a bird – click Continue Reading… Continue reading

The bible describes Jesus conversing with many people.  Many of them are very different from him.  Yet he bonds with them, and they with him.  Let’s look at one such story.  In John 4, Jesus meets a Samaritan woman at the well.  He asks her for help – a drink of water. (It is a… Continue reading

The creation we are in was not made by us.  It is not ours.  We are caretakers.  The above sentence is, obviously, counter-cultural.  Cultural forces delight in subtly squeezing us into lanes that we will maintain, not for our benefit, or creation’s benefit, but for the benefit of the one who made the lane.  We… Continue reading

Quakers, us, are a salad bowl of diversity.  What holds us together is the possibility of Spirit’s love being present in our lives, in our experience, and for many, the possibility that we can carry that love, that care, that wonder, to the world around us.  We are so diverse, and so in need of… Continue reading

Our culture has become a cauldron of too many choices, too many things, too many messages, and too much murkiness.  On the one hand, people will say:  It is our perfect right to have such a culture.  On the other hand, research is clear that people do not gain satisfaction when there are too many… Continue reading

In 1969 while in graduate school (the first time), I recognized a line in my life and life space.  On one side of the line was the pacifist work I had participated in while in college – and the ever-present Viet Nam War.  On the other side of the line was me comfortably in graduate… Continue reading

Today’s message from the Daily Quaker (dailyquaker.com) – Be a prophet of joy appears below. I might substitute the word LOVE. For joy is easily thought of us as an emotion, and so to can be love. But many of us know that we Quakers, like many others, know that the word love is a… Continue reading

This little light of mine is a line from a song well-known to many Quakers and followers of other worship practices.  I find no evidence of who wrote it or from what tradition it emerged.  The message: The light is the gift each of us receives from creation – and the song exhorts listeners to… Continue reading

The Judeo-Christian texts are filled with instructions to care for the neighbor and the stranger.  Jesus, the healer and teacher did just so.  He was pan-tribal, and perhaps one could equally write he was anti-tribal.  His teachings and behavior were about illuminating that bit of God in everyone, and illuminating that a better life, based… Continue reading

In John 11 (read here) we read of Jesus speaking of walking in the light and attending to friendship, promoting the Light and to demonstrating the healing gifts of Love. Aspects of the story are very hard for most of us, perhaps nearly all of us, to believe – what?  A person raised from the… Continue reading