Quaker Pagan ponderings
I feel like I need a new icon for my Quaker-related posts. Something with a grey bonnet, perhaps?
EDIT: trying one out. Do you like?
One of my favorite new blogs is Quaker Pagan Reflections (aka quakerpagan) written by - you guessed it - another Quaker Pagan. Actually, a Quaker Pagan couple. They are lovely writers and the posts are well-thought out and sincere.
I can relate to so many things they write about. Their stories remind me of my journey, help keep it fresh for me. Comments are posted by both Quakers and Pagans, and I can understand the perspectives of both communities. I love the way they are drawn together by this blog.
A post in the end of May talked of her longing to gather with Pagans, as apparently it had/has been a while. I looked at the post again today because the comments are new since I read it over a month ago. I liked this part of a comment by Marshall M.:
There are Friends in England who believe that when J. R. R. Tolkien wrote his Lord of the Rings epic, he had Friends in mind when he created the Ents. If you've read Tolkien's books you know already what I'm talking about: the Ents are not only tree-shepherds, protectors of green nature, but also very, very slow to sort things out and make up their minds, because they want to understand and do what is right.
To come to terms with the slowness of Quakerism, one has to slow down oneself, and slowing down is itself a slow process. I've been working at it for 36 years, ever since I first encountered Friends in college, and the process is still not complete in me!
But it's a good process, and one of the nicer results is that one finds one can enter into that very physical, very total intimacy with other Friends, the sort of intimacy you were talking about in your posting, without needing to do so much as speak a word. Such an intimacy arises naturally as the fruit of living long years of our lives in the same, identical, kind and nurturing, totally trustworthy Spirit.
Indeed, nowadays, when I come as a Friend with several decades' seasoning into a room of other Friends, I often find that they all feel like life-long personal friends, even if we've never met before. It's happened to me all over the country -- and it just feels wonderful.
As a LOTR fan - especially of the Ents - and because it's so true, I had to share.
Also on that note, (many of you know this already but for those out there in the blogsphere that don't) I will be hosting at Quaker Pagan Meeting for Worship this Sunday at the Fires of Lughnasadh festival.
Sunday, July 23
11:00 am - 12:00 pm -- Workshop: Quaker Pagan Meeting for Worship (with Laura):
Join us for a Sunday morning meditative workshop to round out the weekend. This workshop will combine Quaker and Pagan methods of worship into one. Quakers worship by gathering in silence and inviting the Divine to speak through them. We will begin with a brief orientation for people who have never attended Quaker Meeting for Worship. A circle will be cast in Pagan style, and then we will gather in silence. Participants will be invited to contemplate on the festival of Lughnasadh and share any Divine messages with the assembled.
Please join us!
EDIT: trying one out. Do you like?
One of my favorite new blogs is Quaker Pagan Reflections (aka quakerpagan) written by - you guessed it - another Quaker Pagan. Actually, a Quaker Pagan couple. They are lovely writers and the posts are well-thought out and sincere.
I can relate to so many things they write about. Their stories remind me of my journey, help keep it fresh for me. Comments are posted by both Quakers and Pagans, and I can understand the perspectives of both communities. I love the way they are drawn together by this blog.
A post in the end of May talked of her longing to gather with Pagans, as apparently it had/has been a while. I looked at the post again today because the comments are new since I read it over a month ago. I liked this part of a comment by Marshall M.:
There are Friends in England who believe that when J. R. R. Tolkien wrote his Lord of the Rings epic, he had Friends in mind when he created the Ents. If you've read Tolkien's books you know already what I'm talking about: the Ents are not only tree-shepherds, protectors of green nature, but also very, very slow to sort things out and make up their minds, because they want to understand and do what is right.
To come to terms with the slowness of Quakerism, one has to slow down oneself, and slowing down is itself a slow process. I've been working at it for 36 years, ever since I first encountered Friends in college, and the process is still not complete in me!
But it's a good process, and one of the nicer results is that one finds one can enter into that very physical, very total intimacy with other Friends, the sort of intimacy you were talking about in your posting, without needing to do so much as speak a word. Such an intimacy arises naturally as the fruit of living long years of our lives in the same, identical, kind and nurturing, totally trustworthy Spirit.
Indeed, nowadays, when I come as a Friend with several decades' seasoning into a room of other Friends, I often find that they all feel like life-long personal friends, even if we've never met before. It's happened to me all over the country -- and it just feels wonderful.
As a LOTR fan - especially of the Ents - and because it's so true, I had to share.
Also on that note, (many of you know this already but for those out there in the blogsphere that don't) I will be hosting at Quaker Pagan Meeting for Worship this Sunday at the Fires of Lughnasadh festival.
Sunday, July 23
11:00 am - 12:00 pm -- Workshop: Quaker Pagan Meeting for Worship (with Laura):
Join us for a Sunday morning meditative workshop to round out the weekend. This workshop will combine Quaker and Pagan methods of worship into one. Quakers worship by gathering in silence and inviting the Divine to speak through them. We will begin with a brief orientation for people who have never attended Quaker Meeting for Worship. A circle will be cast in Pagan style, and then we will gather in silence. Participants will be invited to contemplate on the festival of Lughnasadh and share any Divine messages with the assembled.
Please join us!