Last week I had just learned about the second of the two shootings on my way to church and as I walked into the meetinghouse, I was feeling heartsick and discouraged. My silent, ongoing prayer last Sunday was that God would minister to us and somehow bring words of truth and comfort, kindness and fellowship. […]
Read more "Peace in Our Time"Sitting here this morning, just now, what’s the truest thing you know? Maybe it’s something basic, like “Life is good.” Or perhaps it’s something that helps you keep a hopeful view, like, “There’s always something to be grateful for.” Or maybe you fall back on one of our foundational Quaker ideas: “There is that of […]
Read more "Moment of Truth"Happy Easter! I hope the Easter Bunny found you early this morning and left you plenty of jelly beans and Cadbury chocolates. And I hope that whatever your Easter tradition usually is, that this is a day of joy and sweetness, rest and renewal for you. I mentioned last week in the call to worship […]
Read more "It’s Your Story, Too"Hopefully, as you sit here this morning in this beautiful place, among Friends, you feel a sense of ease and peace. For these few moments we share together, there’s nothing else to do, nowhere else we need to go. We can just settle into the quiet, listen for God together, and feel filled up by […]
Read more "Paths to Peace"In last week’s message I mentioned I was adapting to using only my left hand for the time being and that I’d discovered that when I come up against an obstacle—putting my hair up or peeling a banana, for example—the answer often seems to have something to do with leverage. That idea stayed with me […]
Read more "The God Lever"Happy Mother’s Day! I hope if you’re a mom you are feeling well-loved and appreciated today. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed, but most Mother’s Day cards seem to focus on how sweet, kind, and gentle mothers are, and that certainly is an important part of the story. Thank goodness for that. But there’s another […]
Read more "The Mothering Spirit"Do you know that moment in the evening-time, when you finally sit down to rest—maybe on the deck– after picking up sticks and pulling weeds and mowing the grass and fixing supper and cleaning up the dishes? It’s that moment when everything’s done that’s going to get done today. A time when you can relax […]
Read more "Being Content"