Advent: Mary Black and Joan Baez - Ring Them Bells

RantWoman has decided again to observe Advent musically. RantWoman is not clear that she is called to explain her leading to post Ring Them Bells for the first Sunday; RantWoman has found two version she likes and has decided just to post both.

Advent: Ring Them Bells - Ron Sexsmith, Elvis Costello, Sheryl Crow

RantWoman has decided again to observe Advent musically. RantWoman is not clear that she is called to explain her leading to post Ring Them Bells for the first Sunday; RantWoman has found two version she likes and has decided just to post both.

Chirstmas Cactus Gratitudes

RantWoman's Christmas cactuses have all come from her Meeting's plant exchanges. RantWoman's regimen for predictable blooming: let the plants experience cold and dark and no water for all of September.

RantWoman is grateful the annual ritual is rewarded.

RantWoman is also grateful to have achieved these potos with her smartphone.






A red Christmas cactus and a pink one.

Pink Blossoms



The success of nonviolent civil resistance: Erica Chenoweth at TEDxBoulder

Quaker Charism at Wild Goose and beyond.

RantWoman was all set to harrumph and suggest that being a Christ-centered Quaker at the Michigan Women's Music Festival, now that is a charism. Well, it IS, but this is a wonderful item about spiritual accountability.  The article plus all the technology required for RantWoman to read it get to be part of today's official gratitudes.

http://www.friendsjournal.org/finding-quaker-charism-wild-goose-festival/

Nutcase Ladybug Helmets and Gratitudes

Nutcase Brand Bicycle Helmet

Please hold RantWoman in the Light.

RantWoman is observing #BlackFriday. RantWoman wishes she were more direstly preaching the gospel of Seattle's $15 / hour minimum wage. RantWoman instead will start with  something she is NOT buying, a Nutcase brand bicycle helmet!

The ladybug imagery is more than cute enough to dedicate this post to Little Sister. The ladybug is Little Sister's childhood avatar. RantWoman does concede,   Nutcase sounds to RantWoman like weird branding for a helmet and RantWoman concedes Little Sister may NOT be amused.

Dedication or no, RantWoman will NOT be making wild #cyberMonday purchase of said helmet, een if it is on sale. It will be ore than enough for RantWoman to handle flashbacks to the 1999 WTO ministerial in Seattle. This post is also in honor of the family psychodrama part of RantWoman's flashbacks. During WTO, while RantWoman and Ferrener Husband were coping with our flavor of family dramas, Little Sister was still needing to recover from emergency surgery. By recover, RantWoman means recount her tale about 900 million billion times in English and an equal number of times in Spanish. RantWoman just wants a giant medal for putting up with this. The closest she is likely to get is a Nutcase brand bicycle helmet which come to think of it  might not be any help to Little Sister because she does not ride bikes.


RantWoman has a number of gratitudes here:

--In recent years, Little Sister has cut WAY back on holiday trips from family gatherings to the ER. True, there is the occasional fall fixable so far by the men in her life and moments of circulatory and respiratory distress when she overindulges. Okay, so this year's round of RantSisters not interacting saves RantWoman having to deal either with the endless crises or with irritation about all the occasions when Little Sister has been  completely out to lunch about something in RantWoman's life...

--RantWoman has a mental health professional whose sense of humor is twisted enough to laugh at a RantWoman crack about a whole special addendum to the DSM for the diagnosis "Bat shit nuts" and a parallel addendum to ICD codes related to getting paid for treating... RantWoman knows perfectly well, her own head is really the only one she has any sayso over but RantWoman's inner data geek sometimes gets frustrated trying to fit realities into the boxes created by other data geeks, Even if RantWoman neer gets to create data based on these options, RantWoman finds them delicious to contemplate.

--RantWoman humbly acknowledges that if Irrepressible Nephew were RantWoman's kid he undoubtedly would chave a completely different set of complexes.

Sweet Honey in the Rock - Stay on the Battlefield

Expectant Waiting Gratitudes and Quote of the Day

"The difference between Worship IN Silence and Worship OF Silence is more than a mere preposition."

Caregiver Drama Friend, while performing a magnificent ministry of

--thrift store shopping by proxy and custom delivery

--lunchtime companionship

--health webinar gisting about companionship while eating, noise and quiet while dining,  general saliva matters.

--zany riffing on internet mems in nonexistent literature

and

--fundraiser chocolate purchase

Faith Action Network Statement about #Ferguson

The gravity of this week’s events in Ferguson impels us to send a second e-news to you with this statement from Faith Action Network’s Governing Board: The Faith Action Network stands in solidarity with all those who have experienced and continue to experience institutional racism and violence in our nation. We call for a dialogue that results in action to address the challenges inherent in our institutional structures. May this be the time and the moment when justice and healing begin, here in Washington and across our nation. We close with Ella’s Song (lyrics and music by Bernice Johnson Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock): Until the killing of Black men, Black mothers’ sons Is as important as the killing of White men, White mothers’ sons We who believe in freedom cannot rest We who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes... Statements from other faith voices: National Council of Churches Tikkun Council on American-Islamic Relations Fellowship of Reconciliation The Church Council of Greater Seattle Jewish Community Relations Council of St. Louis Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

Forest Service Extends Comment Period until November 28:

RantWoman heartily recommends this item about theNavy's proposal to run electronic warfare training over National Forest lands in WA. The US Forest Service will accept comments until November 28 and the post here includes instructions about options to comment.

http://bloggerbyconvincement.blogspot.com/2014/11/electronic-warfare-training.html

RantWoman certainly means to comment.

RantWoman is meditating about whether also to opine as follows: RantWoman appreciates this indication of the federal government's interest in at least one form of transportation in WA, electronic warfare aircraft; RantWoman thinks a much better way to invest federal dollars in WA would be a federal highway bill with money to replace crumbling infrastructure such as all the bridges in WA besides the one that collapsed last year which need to be replaced. RantWoman thinks that might be a little too much of a leap for this exact comment process, but definitely thinks the idea should be in the air.

Quakerese 101 and Economic history

A concise lexicography of some Quakerese terms, along with provocative questions about capitalism and Quaker history and ideas

http://throughtheflamingsword.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/joys-of-the-quaker-way-one-more-branching-quakers-capitalism/

Dostoevsky Gratitudes

Dostoevsky Gratitudes: at least for now, the cliff notes version, without the whole Russian novel of free associations fogged about RantWoman's head this time of year:

RantWoman in connection with today's meeting of the group meandering through John Woolman's journal allowed her mind to wander to various moments of 18th and 19th history, the French revolution in 1789, the upheavals in Europe and the US of 1848 which reached Russia as well...

RantWoman has particularly been having many conversations of Dostoevsky and hereby offers a few links, should the churnings from the endless stream of raw material for RantWoman's spiritual compost heap present time for more focused reflection:
http://www.egs.edu/library/fyodor-dostoevsky/biography/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fyodor_Dostoyevsky
https://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/dostoevskybio.html
Dostoevsky, as was the fashion of the time, got paid by the cuarto. He also had lots of debts to try to stay ahead of because of  a gambling problem. So, should extensive digressions be needed, he certainly had incentive to offer.

RantWoman's current mental health professional is into Dostoevskyh. A couple appointments ago, she was reading the Idiot, one of the gentler of the old gambling addict's ouevre. Let's hear it for free content from Amazon.

Recently, a brave soul unfamiliar with the Still Didn't Get  The Memo on Email Immoderation invited RantWoman to communicate by email. Somehow RantWoman mentioned having been a Russian literature major in college, the therapist reading the Idiot. Brave email correspondent just LAUGHED! Stay tuned?

Quaker Meeting House History Chester County

This item has SO MANY misconceptions and misstatements and confusions and deviations from other known history that one hardly knows where to start.

Reddit discussion on quakers, anger, finding that of God within

Interested in being a Quaker but have trouble with religion: a reddit discussion.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Quakers/comments/2mla0y/interested_in_being_a_quaker_but_have_trouble/


Various threads of gratitudes:
--lovely play of themes about worship and centering and anger and inner Light

--more conventional evangelical get saved stuff later on in the comments.

--better success with reddit and JAWS athan I previously remember. Probably partly a JAWS version issue.

‘The Daily Show’ Has White People Explain Why Latinos Are So Damn Terrif...

RantWoman is not ashamed to admit she sometimes consumes material that is both appalling and tasteless.

Tacoma gratitudes

RantWoman is falling down on her resolve to exude more gratitudes. This is a problem among other things because RantWoman has a sense of needing a giant chill pill. RantWoman has a sense of needing... Will she achieve...?

Anyway, travel gratitudes:

"...I went to Thailand."

"...I went to Hyderabad..."

"...I went to Arizona..."

RantWoman:  I went to Tacoma!

RantWoman is DEEPLY grateful for the ministry of guest bedroom and car rides supplied by a combination of Tacoma Friends. Aside from the immediate help needed so RantWoman could participate in the annual convention of the WA Council of the Blind, the ministry of guest room and car rides comes with the opportunity to get to knowFriends RantWoman has been in meetings with but does not  know well. RantWoman is VERY grateful.

One of RantWoman's tasks was to hold a live meeting of the committee she chairs. It is a committee full of people who are as intense, passionate, annoying / difficult as RantWoman. It was a great meeting, but can Friends imagine why RantWoman might have ducked away for a light supper alone.

RantWoman's menu as recommended by the bartender: basically tater tots and bacon. Really good bacon. Two kinds of sauce.Some fancy hotel bar name. Washed down with a brand name combination of sugar, caffeine and fizz. Fuel for revolution or at least quest for a specific flavor of world domination? Stay tuned. But next time RantWoman will press for details before ordering.

RantWoman means to pen a separate message about Business Meeting while Blind. Think Pledge of Allegiance. Think young missionary voluntters to help lead people around. Think moments of total sonic free-for-all. But Business Meeting happened.

After the convention RantWoman stayed and went to worship at Tacoma Friends. RantWoman came in rattled. There are lovely plants. There is worshipful space. RantWoman came in debating whether to introduce Ambassador Thwack the badly behaved white cane, whether to mention other canes, Myrtle and Ethel, and Sugar Cane and candy Cane. The first message to rantWoman: just put all that STUFF down and LISTEN.

RantWoman was deeply grateful just to worship. RantWoman was also grateful, during close of worship, to be given words of prayer about the election, the time between election and new legislative sessions, and the work of Friends Committee on WA Public Policy. RantWoman was heard; news of this came with a request duly fulfilled to put some version of RantWoman's thoughts in the newsletter. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Then, after two days of hotel food, RantWoman wrapped up the weekend with a rtruly awesome Quaker potluck: two kinds of vegetarian stew, various other items, oh and leftover Halloween candy in honor of all things meandering between worlds.

Harvard Business School Item on Listening, Clearness Committees

RantWoman is always deeply amused when quaker practices spill over into and get interpreted by domains such as the Harvard Business Review. To wit:

https://hbr.org/2014/11/an-exercise-to-become-a-more-powerful-listener/?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow

Service dog guidance, AGAIN

Dear Friend Whose Title RantWoman Generally Omits:

Recently RantWoman had a conversation with you where the subject of service dogs came up in passing. RantWoman KNOWS there are people with dog allergies. RantWoman would happily also skip many doggie behavior concerns, not to mention some dog owner behavior concerns! Nevertheless RantWoman suggests you consult with the NW ADA Center current guidance about Service Dogs:
:
http://nwadacenter.org/factsheet/service-animals-frequently-asked-questions

In particular, although the service dog we observed does have identification,  a service dog may or may not have any specific identification. It may or may not work on leash. We are a public accommodation and we cannot ask about any ID. We CAN, according to this guidance as what command(s) the animal is trained to perform. We can also always ask anyone with a dog in public to address behavior issues.

Here there are two forks in the road of this post: a parallel, single standard of Truth item addressed to a volunteer at the Friendly Neighborhood Center for Extreme Computing  I know you have a schizophrenic brother and are tired and worn down from that. Nevertheless we are a public accommodation and we do not get to ask people about their Mental health issues. However, we CAN try to partner with a neighboring organization, get some TRAINING, and develop capacity that would benefit you AND others.

Interestingly, since it is the Friendly Neighborhood Center..., people sometimes tell us things they most definitely are not required to tell us. Recently a customer walked into the computer lab and announced to no one in particular that she sometimes has problems with her mood. RantWoman's thought: thank you , I guess for telling us. Customer is from East Africa; judging by her accent and high level English, she might have attended British schools. On the way to Meeting RantWoman rant into Customer at the bus stop. Customer was definitely having trouble with her mood.

Customer encountered others who spoke her language. The encounter did not sound friendly. RantWoman tried to speak to Customer; that will have to wait until Customer comes to her better self. Maybe an opportunity will arise for Information and Referral. Meanwhile, RantWoman will hold in the Light.

OR, the other fork in the narrative: RantWoman will be happy to howl self-righteously about Wonder Chihuahua the Therapeutic Canine Presence at Little Sister's Household. RantWoman has already commented in as much length as led about animals inside Little Sister's household. One additional detail: Wonder Chihuahua has his humans trained that he should not be left unattended even in a proper dog crate. Thus Wonder Chihuahua goes out in public whenever all his humans are out.
The other possibly topical detail: Wonder Chihuahua has received some uneven obedience training, in Spanish. RantWoman quaintly thinks a proper service dog should, at a minimum, not flunk Basic Obedience as often as Wonder Chihuahua. Should Wonder Chihuahua ever show up at Meeting, despite RantWoman's best efforts,  RantWoman invites anyone who speaks enough Spanish to notice the Basic Obedience issue to feel free to address it with Little Sister! Sigh!

Holy Crap, in three acts

Dear, God, thank you ever so much for recent HOLY CRAP moments in the churnings of RantWoman's spiritual compost heap!

Please, everyone within range of RantWoman's Inner Blowtorch and capacity for scorching phrasing, please, please, please hold this entire post in the Light.

Act 1
A long time ago when RantWoman was serving her Yearly Meeting in some capacity she does not remember, RantWoman was part of a conversation about sending a couple Friends from her Yearly Meeting away to study at the feet of Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia.
RantWoman is pretty sure she is the one who pointed out that airfares are basically the same East to West as West to East and back, but that more people from her Yearly Meeting would benefit if the mountain came to Mohammed, the masses of simple Quakers who might benefit from instruction rather than sending a trickle of people east. RantWoman's comment resulted in Weighty Friend From Far Off Philadelphia coming west and doing a special session on clerking for many Friends from her Yearly Meeting.

Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia came west but RantWoman for some reason wound up not among those included in his session. So for better or worse, RantWoman is unencumbered by direct learning from said Friend. Said Friend was also unencumberd by the opportunity to learn of blind person in Meetings issues. RantWoman is unsure she herself was even trying to address blind person in meetings issues yet, possibly because this was while RantWoman was pretending things were fine, just fine, really until the gift of labelling. Sigh. RantWoman notes this tartly because at some point later in her particular version of Quakerism the melodrama, RantWoman was engaged in dialogue with Weighty Friends who teach clerking about exactly her own experience.

Weighty Friend # 1 suggested that RantWoman ask Weighty Friend from Far Off Philadelphia about his experience with blind people in meetings. RantWoman duly emailed him. He emailed back that to his knowledge he had never dealt with blind person in meetings issues. ONLY THEN were weighty Friends locally ready to engage directly with RantWoman's experience.

Act 2.
...I don't like it (sudoku)...feels like we're held hostage...
Hostage. Hostage. Hostage. Did you not read RantWoman's latest Women's Theology conference reflections,  say something about dragging others along on a journey they would not necessarily choose either http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2014/05/reflection-paper-redacted-with-glimpse.html?

Act 3.
RantWoman woke up at 4 am one year during Annual Session stunniingly, resoundly clear to persist in dealing with blind person in Meetings issues.
But another circumstance intervened.
RantWoman why did you spend so much time on....?
You, Friend, should be grateful that Friend's help deal with it NOW concerns took precedence over scorching the airwaves with fury.

RantWoman why did you spend so much time on...?
RantWoman actually did not spend a lot of time. RantWoman looked from time to time. RantWoman noticed things. RantWoman sent email. RantWoman noted a couple moments where, if there had been no return email, RantWoman would have taken other steps. There are MANY other pieces RantWoman is clear NOT to spell out.
 
RantWoman why did you spend so much time on,....?
Here RantWoman's inner Data aggregator kicked in around her meeting.
--Parent of special needs child.
--Parent of special needs child.
--Parent of special needs child?
--Parent of special needs child?

Holy crap. The number is not as large as when RantWoman did a mental census of people around her Meeting with severe vision issues, but there are things to hold.

Okay, God, NOW WHAT?

Notice: Festival of Gratitudes

Partly in an effort to fight the onset of post time-change winter gloom and muck, RantWoman has decided to observe a festival of gratitudes. There will be at least one posting a day for awhile. Some of the posts will not look like gratitudes. Nor will they necessarily be tagged as gratitudes. There are gratitudes there. Sometimes they have funny disguises. COPE!

Today RantWoman's peculiar moments of actual gratitudes:
RantWoman from time to time out of her various email streams receives pleas for RantWoman as a blind person to participate in some survey or another. RantWoman sometimes has tirades when these pleas involve free accessibility testing, but RantWoman finds other surveys interesting and a valuable antidote to tiresome repetition of things important to RantWoman but the importance of which is little recognized by others.

RantWoman is terribly grateful when SOMEONE is listening.

RantWoman is always grateful to find out she is not the only freak on the planet with some or another problem.

RantWoman is also grateful when other freaks who share RantWoman's concerns are willing to speak up and live out the line about alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.

RantWoman is also grateful when there is evidence of sound design early enough in a process to mean that doing something important to RantWoman, not only to RantWoman but also to others, can be easily built in instead of creating conniptions and obstructions further downstream.

A long while ago, RantWoman received a survey from a young blind student in TX. Blind college student had instructors who had no concept of blind people and employment so he was doing a survey of blind people about transportation, a subject near and dear to RantWoman's heart.

RantWoman did the survey and expressed willingness to read the final paper. RantWoman forwarded the survey to several smart blind people she knows. RantWoman in a phone interview encouraged young man absolutely to network with other blind people. In due time, RantWoman received a copy of the paper. It was sociology, descriptive data, a little boring. Sometimes one has to be grateful for boring. What really pleased RantWoman though: at some point later, RantWoman sent something to Young college Student. In return, RantWoman was thrilled to learn he was through school and had become an instructor in American Studies!

Awhile ago, while in the throes of some or another of RantWoman's MANY opportunities for vexation, RantWoman digressed to read her Twitter feed. RantWoman was THRILLED to see some FCNL Twitter ID's mixed in with the tweets tagged #CRPD about Senate consideration of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

More recently, RantWoman received a half-baked plea for blind people to participate in some survey about sexual assault. RantWoman sent the student involved and his advisor a very grumpy email about preferring surveys that reflect evidence of human subject review and do a better job of explaining their anonymity and confidentiality provisions than the offending email had done. RantWoman was VERY grateful to receive a reply admitting that the version of the plea RantWoman received had been mistakenly sent beyond its initial target audience. RantWoman really really appreciates it when people can say an honest OOPS!

Finally, this week, RantWoman gets to be peculiarly grateful that someone decided to grab an invitation RantWoman extended awhile ago. RantWoman has the book Sin Boldly A Field Guide to Grace on her mean to read list and suggested awhile ago that might be a good meme for certain lurching conflicts. RantWoman gets to be grateful that the title has been seized with so many alarming echoes that RantWoman has grist for several posts on favorite themes such as reasonable accommodations, children of all ages and sizes, and the close of worship. RantWoman truly would not mind having such a warm steaming pile of occasions for gratitude in this realm, but RantWoman gets to be glad for the opportunity to get into the spirit of the season! Stay tuned.

Tantrum with blessings

RantWoman are you sure you want to spend part of your precious 20 minutes we have allocated this month out of our busy lives for that stuff you deal with all the time talking about Sex Offenders?

 What did not make it out of RantWoman’s mouth:

Well, ya know, we could all bingewatch every episode of Law and Order or Law and Order SVU that RantWoman remembers about crime and people with disabilities, plus one with other searing and somehow topical circumstances.  (RantWoman knows that Law and Order is kind of Last century. Cope. RantWoman is not really conversant in anything more contemporary. Cope.)

 Or, we could geek out on data about the rate of sexual assault among people with disabilities being twice the rate of people without disabilities.

 Or…Yes, actually I do. RantWoman goes considerably more often than you do to Quaker events where some issue or another can be guaranteed to cause Controversy. RantWoman has fresh information from two meetings you were not at, information that could be timely and shed Light on some registration questions for an upcoming event.

 RantWoman’s comments generated what she considered helpful questions to elucidate RantWoman’s thinking. RantWoman made a clear unambiguous recommendation though maybe it would have been helpful to spell out some timeline points.

 

Maybe it’s toxic sludge somehow mixed in RantWoman’s spiritual compost heap, but further thoughts also did not make it out of RantWoman’s mouth in terribly concise terms.

 Bless your heart! RantWoman cannot decide which of the following overtones of your comments to be more peeved at:

 --Sure, of course, how could RantWoman doubt that you know more about how to advocate for RantWoman’s needs than RantWoman herself does?

 --Why thank you for a sense that RantWoman has nothing to contribute to that conversation!

 --RantWoman also especially appreciates  the thought that you somehow know more about managing relationships with people you don’t even know but RantWoman does than RantWoman herself does.

 --Bless your heart. RantWoman gets that you are trying to fulfil a role. Please excuse RantWoman for the thought that what is needed is more knowledge in a whole network of people than one person trying to stay in control of things there is no controlling. Trust RantWoman on this. RantWoman goes considerably more often than you do to Quaker events where some issue or another can be guaranteed to cause Controversy. Consider pagan spirituality at the Women’s Theology Conference. Consider the FLGBTQC epistle at the World Gathering of Friends. In the best case Themes that cause Controversy work because there are many Friends able to hold different pieces and to witness in ways that seek shared language.

 

--Bless your heart. RantWoman also lately has been reading insurance policies and, peculiarly or not, the vulnerable adult statute for something else in her life. RantWoman considers it a GOOD thing when people can talk matter-of-factly about basic concepts.

 Bless your heart. May we please hold this tantrum in the Light!, especially because it was only one of several tantrum topic options after a recent meeting of…

 

Uncharacteristically Brief

One of the threads of Meeting life that seems underatrticulated in the life of RantWoman's Meeting right now is "survivors."

Survivors of what?
Possibly pointless digression, more RantWoman family strangeness: one year Little Sister's birthday gift to RantWoman was...a wooden plaque..with a plastic trout affixed. Somewhere there was a switch; when switched on, the plastic trout would writhe and a plastic electronic voice would warble Aretha Franklin's I will survive."

Survive what? The plaque maybe? That moment between utter stomach-turning revulsion and howls of laughter?


Survivors? You mean like voted off the island? Uhhh, RantWoman is the WRONG person to ask about that meme just now.


Survivors of what, seventh grade and what RantWoman snarled recently about "snot nosed twits who won't talk to..."
Uhhh, hold both seventh grade and snarling in the Light.

Surviving .... with the power of prayer, the wonders of worship....peerless spiritual accompaniment...?
Uhhh,to RantWoman's ear one of the zones of serious underarticulation.  For now, in the zone of spiritual accompaniment, the wonder of the day: what is it about RantWoman's face that causes people to be able to tell her about their restraining order issues?

Bear in mind, people in RantWoman's Meeting use different language to talk about their spiritual lives. Some have official mental health credentials or job responsibilities.... Many do not. Even arriving at a common language of words and experiences seems not to be straightforward.

To illustrate:
Newcomer to RantWoman about Friend with whom she has life circumstances in parallel: Do you think she will ever get over it?

RantWoman No (and you do not have to put up with anyone expecting you to get over it either but you are still both brave and cool people and what is in the present for you besides all that YUCK?.)

RantWoman has listened to the second Friend referred to above many many times. Often RantWoman just listens for some specified interval and time and space intervene to limit the repetitions. But one time after such listening, it came to RantWoman to....SEND EMAIL
The email was uncharacteristically brief.
It involved about four questions using the verb "forgive" and various subjects and objects.

Friend of the Forgiveness questions called RantWoman up a few days later. At first she was growling. Then she admitted the questions are on point. Then she growled a little more about email.

RantWoman to herself, ever able to access the vein of communications manglement, Sheesh. You growl that much about email. Can you possible fathom why one might duck away from the phone or in person?

For Kristallnacht: Sweet honey in the Rock's Would you harbor me?

RantWoman is borrowing the idea of posting this in memory of Kristallnacht from the Friend who posted it thus on her Facebook wall.

Release Return Receive Respond

RantWoman thought the only things she needed from an article in her Meeting's newsletter about the 2014 NPYM Annual session were the words in the title of this post.

Upon rereading, RantWoman also decided to highlight:

Above all, stay Truthful. Love requires Truth and, in return, Truth allows Love.”

Hold in the Light!

Report on NPYM Annual Session 2014 by Ann Stever, UFM member of NPYM Coordinating Committee

At the Annual Session of North Pacific Yearly Meeting, 280 people met at Pacific University in Forest Grove, OR, July 24 – 27. Highlights for many includedmaking new friends and connect-ing with old friends. Worship groups and interest groups fedminds, hearts and spirits.

A Meeting for Memorials remindedus of Friends we have known and loved from all corners of the YM. A binder with the memorialminutes is in the Library.

We had some Spirit-led Meetings for Business, clerked by Tom Rawson. We were presentedwith the revised “Practice” section of our Faith and Practice. It is available atnpym.org/q=fandp/all-versions and click on Faith and PracticeTransitional Version. A print version is in the UFM Library. We are urged to use it and provide feedback to the Committee on the Discipline.

We approved the budget with an increase in assessments, paid by Meetings,from $48 to $60 per member in order to fund the new Children’sProgram Coordinator. JayThatcher served in this position last year and Friends were delighted with his work, which will continue.

We approved Nominating Committee recommendations, including Warren Ostrom as rising clerk of the YM, meaning that he will become presiding clerk for 2 years, starting in October 2015. We approved a minute on Repealing the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. ...

Each year a highlight for me is the message from the Friend or Friends in Residence. This year, the FinR were Katherine andKen Jacobsen from Ohio YM. Katherine has Parkinson’s disease and sometimes has problems speaking. Because of her difficulty speaking, we were given the gift of transcript of what she said. She ended with the heart of the message she had been given. “The power you seek,seeks you as well. Trust the 2-way motion of Love. Reciprocal and co-creative Love generates Life. She ended saying “So, Friends of NPYM, release your expectations for these annual sessions and listen deeply together in expectancy. God is not far. Call for silence when the two-way motion of Love is interrupted and/or Life seems to have gone out of the proceedings. Above all, stay Truthful. Love requires Truth and, in return, Truth allows Love.” What a wonderful reminder of how to act in Business Meeting.
Ken spoke particularly of our worship and how we can work at this. He gave us four words for the rhythm of worship.
Release what is on your mind, the chatter and the world.
Return to the ground of connection, to the wordless mystery of God; expectantly await an encounter.
Receive – feel a quickening, a senseof the wordless Presence, and thejoy of responding to the invitation to dance with the Divine.
Respond to what we have felt andunderstood in worship to go out into the world and bear witness.
Quakerism is no halfway religion! We are asked to be co-creators in the motion of Love.
Ken and Katherine gave us a lot to think about. The depth and strength of their connections with the Spirit were apparent. But it was the sight of them in front of us, the tenderness of the way they shared and cared for one another, that made, at least for me, the motion of Love absolutely visible.

Big Debate on Racism: as held on a S African TV show

RantWoman found this while digressing from a Facebook discussion of a Hold ALL in the Light situation at Upper Dublin Monthly Meeting in PA.

RantWoman finds the language and social dynamics including role of large corporations fascinating. RantWoman will season what to post of the situation above separately and may not manage more than Holding in the Light.

Way of the Spirit 2015 Apply by Nov 15 to Avoid Late Fees

RantWoman has received the following item by email a couple ways, most recently with particular invitation to Young Adult Friends:

Way of the Spirit retreat January 16-19, 2015 — Spiritual Discernment

Shalom Prayer Center, Mt. Angel, OR

Will 2015 be your year to come home to who you are meant to be? Deepen faithfulness and explore leadings in life-changing community from the wisdom of the Quaker tradition. Join Way of the Spirit presenters Christine Hall and Wess Daniels for an experiential approach to spiritual discernment, integrating readings, worship and small group sharing. Attend Discernment as a stand-alone retreat ($375) or as the first in the Way of the Spirit cycle ($2,700/yr).

Apply by November 15^th to avoid late fees. Details online: www.goodnewsassoc.org/spirit/

Additional RantWoman commentary:
--Read more about Chris Hall at the site listed above

--Wes Daniels is a young and weighty Friend from the Portland area. He writes the blog http://gatheringinlight.com/

--RantWoman has never participated in a Way of the Spirit retreat but knows that they do provide participants opportunities to worship and study with a variety of seasoned Friends including Noah Baker Merrill of New England yearly Meeting, Wes Daniels mentioned further below, and
 

--A community of ongoing in-depth spiritual support after the retreats.

Then the Lord Spake unto RantWoman:
M-m-money?

First, make a budget. Do not forget to include travel costs. If you wind up carpooling and expenses turn out to be less than you asked for this is not a calamity. But planning for transportation costs is part of helping Way Open.

--RantWoman has been VERY grateful for much support from her Meeting to attend many Quaker events and definitely encourages people to apply to whichever Meeting you feel closest to, EVEN IF YOU ARE NEW both to a Meeting and to Quakers! At RantWoman's Meeting Worship and Ministry administers the Spiritual Enrichment Fund. Talk to RantWoman in person or ask someone else for help making direct contact.

--The NPYM Youth Opportunity Fund has two or three cycles per calendar year. RantWoman is unclear the upper age limit but more info can be found somewhere on www.npym.org

--Read the words of another Young Friend: Ashley Wilcox at http://questforadequacy.blogspot.com/ has several entries listing other resources. Most of them have timelines tht would be too short for the intro retreat but could be invaluable for those wanting to participate in the whole series.

RantWoman warmly hopes this is enough to encourage peoplewho are curios and have the time to hurry up and think in more concrete  terms.!

And furthermore:

Warning: the following item comes with a possible excessive zaniness alert:
Then the Lord God Jehovah or whatever Quakers in these parts are currently calling Him / Her /Zir again spake unto RantWoman:

C-c-continuing Ed Credits or some kind of useful credential????

RantWoman, why does God keep speaking to you of continuing ed credits?
Um, Why is a metaphysical question, but RantWoman is conscious that one's work and one's spiritual life should feed each other; RantWoman is aware that many professions come with requirements for continuing education. RantWoman is all about continuing revelation which sometimes masquerades outside Quakerdom as "lifelong learning." In any case, RantWoman wishes this like some other Quaker experiences would interact with the world of continuing education enough that people might draw on the study to meet other life requirements. RantWoman humbly offers this suggestion in her usual Captain Picard "Make It So" spirit but leaves to the program organizers to consider ways to accomplish this.