Mark Wutka's Top 7 Most Quaker Bible Verses

RantWoman should just let Mark Wutka speak for himself, but God seems to keep dropping a different calling into RantWoman's lap.

--RantWoman is not sure how to get to "walk worthy of one's calling" but one strand of calling keeps arriving with about the same finesse as the average housecat with claws fully extended against some gravitational excess. RantWoman would not mind a gentler approach.

--Mark Wutka mentions unity but does not cite any Bible verses. RantWoman actually considers that omission a GOOD thing. Here would be an example of events straining a sense of unity or even quest for unity: On Yearly Meetings Releasing Meetings RantWoman finds herself wondering whether Friends should start with some sense of communion and THEN try for unity.

--One of the most interesting parts of presenting this video to blog: figuring out which of RantWoman's tags apply.

--RantWoman's biblical understandings tend not to have specific chapter and verse attached, though she is fond for instance of steadfast love that endures forever and recurs many many times in the Psalms, and also having life abundantly.

--It's the end of the summer and the phrase "fruits of the spirit" is evoking images of wrinkled, overripe and half rotten, half fermented plums. Between RantWoman and God, the kitchen is versatile, but if everything is overripe, God is just going to have to make jam. 

The best thing anyone did on earth this week.

Clip from a few weeks ago, with further remembrance of Cecil the Lion:

To quote John Oliver Three Chechen teenage girl scamming ISIS is "the best thing anyone did on Earth this week. It's the exact opposite of shooting a lion with a bow and arrow."

John Oliver on Chechen Girls "catfishing" ISIS

(RantWoman does not feel called at the moment to troubleshoot the technological pieces of presenting the link above without visual cues.)

YouTube items on alternative service in Russia (in Russian)

This video starts a playlist with several videos about the history of Alternative Service in Russia since the new constitution following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The right to alternative service was written into the Russian constitution, but it took a great struggle to create the channels for conscientious objectors actually to realize this right.

This first video is a fun chipper promo; it definitely was not always as easy as this video makes it sound.

Purple argyle, phone, and ...product review

And the Lord spake unto RantWoman and the Lord said, besides still being stuck in the narrative KJV subdialect,

"Wear the purple argyle socks You are having dinner at RantMom's. Wear the purple socks"

And lo, RantWoman fussed about a couple other options and lo, the wardrobe elements aligned and verily this is a GOOD thing. The purple argyle socks are a birthday present from RantMom. They are 100% cotton and RantMom does not even have to lie about the fabric content! So RantWoman needs to be esxtravagantly grateful and to TRY to impress upon RantMom that sometimes having ONE VERY NICE THING even if a little spendy is MUCH preferable to 3 perfectly hideous inadequate and much cheaper things.

And the Lord spake unto RantWoman after the weekly holy bus ride and the Lord said "Go to Starbucks. You are undercaffeinated and you know yourself well enough to know you should not attempt civilized discourse in this state. And plus I have equipped you with gift cards with various mysteries attached: the one with a surprising sum left over and the one, was it perhaps from the #ada25 goodie bag with braille but no money."

RantWoman had budget reasons just to aim for the caffeine options at Meeting, but, obligatory Quaker mystical experience alert, God was pretty firmly saying "Starbucks. Starbucks." (Really!)

While RantWoman was completing her coffee buying in came...a Return Phone Call, a return call from someone RantWoman was just going to try again about. RantWoman had a GREAT conversation related to an ongoing discussion involving the phrase
training the next generation of Quaker leaders which RantWoman would really like to rephrase as one of several ways to invest in the future of the Religious Society of Friends. RantWoman will elaborate on this thought in another post.

One small addendum here though: one way to train future Quaker leaders is to uphold people both finding their voice and listening in shared discernment during Meeting for Business. As with RantWoman's Frequent Flyer list of people offering vocal ministry in worship (Yep, RantWoman herself is on this list, but..) RantWoman is seasoning a mental list of people including VERY weighty Friends, who RantWoman wishes would only present ONE item each Meeting for Business. This is partly RantWoman's recurrent twitch about people just wearing too many hats and partly really this sense of growing new voices. Please hold the leading to raise this concern in the Light.

Okay, and RantWoman, if new voices come, are you going to have endless snitfits and wals of implacable hostility?

Look, um, I am to be true to the Light I am given. I cannot promise anything one way or another. I AIM to do the best I can about delivery at least, but perhaps if we all discern together...

But back to the returned phone call, RantWoman was also THRILLED to know that questions of spiritual nurture are on many people's minds. Again, RantWoman will meditate further on her conceptions of this in another post. Here RantWoman will reflect simply on what does or does not seem like shared discernment. If everything goes into a black box or a closed email group RantWoman has no idea whether others resonate with her concerns. If only one person from the involved subcommittee comes to Meeting for Business, how is RantWoman going to have any sense of multiple sets of ears?

RantWoman knows from careful listening that people hearing the same discussion pick up different elements and RantWoman would always rather people hear directly than filtered. RantWoman says this with great humility knowing many people's time constraints. RantWoman is unsure whether anyone besides herself would weigh in online with comments options, but an advantage of an online forum is that the discussion is visible to other people besides those present in a room. Consider this an invitation to offer comments even though RantWoman is humble about the time involved in reading and responding to comments.

And lo, RantWoman walked the rest of the way to Meeting, and the Lord spake unto RantWoman and said "No today is not the day you get to be soothed in early worship silence. Go to Adult Ed. Go late but definitely do not just go hide out in the library with the wi-fi and listen to Lloyd Lee Wilson on community.. And lo, between the 10th anniversary of Katrina and the massive wildfires of the summer, disaster preparedness was on many Friends' minds. A very rich discussion occurred and the results get their own post(s).

And lo the Lord intervened in RantWoman's inner monologue about getting all hopped up in Meeting for worship and going out to kick some infidel butt. Um, yeah, the thought needs other words AND at least it did not make it out of RantWoman's mouth until AFTER worship.

And NO, RantWoman was still not done: the Lord has blessed RantWoman with a truly astounding array of "Customer Services EXPERIENCES" this week. For instance, Fire not wildfires reviewed

Bless us oh Lord and all of our ABUNDANT life.

Hold North Carolina Friends in the Light

Hold North Carolina Friends in the Light:

http://afriendlyletter.com/breaking-carolina-bombshell-three-nc-meetings-expelled-will-it-stand/

Family Reflections from Trauma Mama

RantWoman would be inclined to add TraumaMama's blog to blogroll, but new entries have been discontinued. Instead here are a couple entries that spoke to RantWoman.


http://traumamamat.blogspot.com/2012/02/dear-teacher-six-dreaded-assignments.html?m=1

RantWoman is interested in the alternative assignments suggested in this post and the point that school is not automatically the most sensitive place for LOTS of kids. At the same time, RantWoman thinks it is more important for parents to do the best they can to walk with kids as they go through rough spots than necessarily to try to protect them from everything that might come along. Parents cannot protect kids from everything!

http://traumamamat.blogspot.com/2014/12/dear-church-stop-guilting-christians.html?m=1
This is a powerful post about being called to adopt and lots of other tangled family formation issues.

LLW on Spiritual Authority within the Meeting.

Via the Santa Barbara Friends Meeting Facebook page.

This passage comes from Lloyd Lee Wilson's pamphlet, published through School of the Spirit, entitled The Exercise of Spiritual Authority Within the Meeting.

RantWoman's intent in posting is PARTLY to generate some resources and options for SHARED CONVERSATION. Please hold RantWoman's call to insist on more attempts at shared conversations in the Light.

Understand, this is RantWoman and the content is subject to the usual array of RantWoman mental misfires, mininterpretations, and general mumblings.

**

The Religious Society of Friends, contrary to popular belief, is at heart a corporate spiritual journey, not an individual one. It is not a place where each individual gets to have their own self-designed spiritual growth program. It is only in our joint practice, in our joint experience, and our joint testimonies as Friends that we become communities of believers who can do the work that God has set out for us. God's project, as understood by Friends, is not so much the sanctification of myriads of individuals as it is the transformation of all creation. We are not sent out to win souls to Christ, we are sent to restore Creation to harmony with God: to establish God's Kingdom on earth in all its fullness [. . .]

 The measure of our faithfulness is not how many hearts we have won to Jesus or God or the Divine Power or the Inner Light. It is how real we have made the Kingdom of God. How much we have been willing to learn and do together. Have we learned how to live in harmony, justice, and love in our meetings, and have we taken what we've learned with us into the world?

 

RantWoman checked the Way of the Spirit webpage and found the following page of publications:

http://schoolofthespirit.org/publications/

 

RantWoman considered the option of having one of her trademark temper tantrums about print-only publication lists.. Fortunately, RantWoman also discovered this wonderful Library page with files in PDF and MP3! Now RantWoman means to listen to the whole MP3 file!

http://schoolofthespirit.org/library/

Pacific NW QM Fall 2015 Registration opens.

RantWoman is a little unclear about what is available from pnqm.org in the way of registration forms, information about deadlines, etc.

Leave a comment if you need more info or info in a different format than itis provided here, and RantWOman will supplement what is here.

Jesus Trumped

RantWoman humbly in appreciation of ALL the inappropriate things actually really and truly emerging from the mouth of Donald Trump, celebrates the following item which RantWoman assumes is satire.

Trump Calls Jesus a Socialist Loser

Reminder to Self for Next Year

RantWoman's life is full and her brain is still full of the kind of loose threads that make it difficult to be sure her brain has returned from Annual Session.

Memo to self:
Next year when you register for annual session, just use the Notes Section and list as follows:
1. As a reasonable accommodation for RantWoman who cannot read regular print, especially print that is hanging on walls, please post all state of society reports to the Annual Session webpage, preferably before the beginning of AS.

[RantWoman this year is grateful to have received the State of Society reports fairly early in Annual Session and one in particular for a fond and tender personal reason even though it involved mention of recovery from a broken hip.]

2. As a reasonable accommodation for RantWoman who does not read print and because epistles from other Yearly Meetings all seen to arrive by email either as web links or separate emails / files, please post the epistles to the Annual Session webpage preferably before the beginning of Annual Session.

[RantWoman received emails providing either electronic copies of or links to this year's epistles a couple days AFTER the end of Annual Session. RantWoman sometimes likes to suggest that the Daily Bulletin editor excerpt a paragraph or two in the Daily Bulletin. RantWoman also sometimes likes to reflect on whether or not other Quaker bodies have similar problems. And furthermore, RantWoman is just peeved with the clerk of epistle committee on other grounds to begin with. (How many times does RantWoman have to tell you, it gets REALLY tiresome when you complain about being overwhelmed AND turn down RantWoman's REPEATED offers of help. RantWoman does NOT apologize for needing to make this requestion. So next year, RantWoman will ask IN ADVANCE in plenty of time for SOMEONE to .. please do te best SOMEONE can to get the epistles from other Yearly Meetings and Quaker gatherings posted on the NPYM website before Annual Session.]

and while we are on the subject

...of epistles

...of rendering invisible

...of RantWoman's overabundance of things to fly off the handle about.

The link to the 2015 epistle http://npym.org/?q=content/2015-npym-epistle

RantWoman calls readers' attention to the opening paragraph:

"Friends from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana gathered in the sunshine among the ponderosa pine trees at a university campus in Spokane, Washington, from July 15 – July 19, 2015 for the 43rd Annual Session of the North Pacific Yearly Meeting."

"at A university"? WTF????

RantWoman was told "well, we are not advertising the university?"

Did not the site committee deem it suitable?

Can you not fathom that maybe someone reading the epistle might have visited the Whitworth campus and have fond associations as they read of NPYM's experiences there?

Can you fathom the possibility that someone like RantWoman might really appreciate the names of places as aids to keep straight memories of the good the mediocre in the realm of accessibility? More than once at Annual Sessions RantWoman has had to wander into university tech support; RantWoman can tell you it matters a great deal with the tech support staff deals easily with accessibility software. RantWoman is also happy to tell anyone who asks that sometime venues are cheap because they have not invested in needed accessibility upgrades. RantWoman is not opining about architectural accessibility at this year's site, Whitworth University. RantWoman is simply bearing witness AGAIN to the point that sometimes little things matter a great deal, and RantWoman refuses even to apologize for needing to bless our body being nearly insufferable about her concerns!

Today's HuffPo Item about Quakers

New Tag: Pressroom for collecting items from media about Quakers.
Probably not retrospective. Oh well.


Todays HuffPo item, about Meeting for Worship and ...:
Four things we can learn from one of (this country's) oldest religious communities

Read the comments. Rantwoman regrets that she does not have time, except for this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-burklo/quaker-mode_b_7973804.html

In appreciation of the re-opening of the US Embassy in Havana

Release? Reject? Continuing Revelation.

RantWoman has been holding the following blog posts about the decision by the NWYM board of elders to "release" West Hills Friends for continuing faithfully to be out of unity with the NWYM Faith and Practice standards about same-gender relationships.


To be blunt: the NWYM Faith and Practice proscribes Same-gender relationships; West Hills Friends is open and affirming. West Hills Friends just recently celebrated the marriage of one same-gender couple, welcomes another couple who used to be part of RantWoman's Meeting, and faithfully persists according to their Light.

Readers can read for themselves; RantWoman apologizes but she canot find the link for a statement by Becky Ankeny, Superintendent of NWYM.

http://queerquaker.blogspot.com/2015/07/dreams-that-cannot-be.html

http://nancyjthomas.blogspot.com/2015/08/nwym-and-human-sexuality-to-remember-or.html

http://sillypoorgospel.blogspot.com/2015/08/release-vs-reject.html

RantWoman has also come to realize, she herself has a little bit been refusing to get it. Twice recently, in spite of clear streams of words before RantWoman in multiple social media fora, RantWoman has tried to elicit a sensse that the question of same-gender relationships and God is settled. Clearly it is NOT:

Full marriage equality is certainly the law in the state of WA. So if Friends are led to work together for example about common concerns related to criminal justice or climate change, they may have simply to leave marriage equality alone as a focus for policy work.

RantWoman's Meeting has also been discerning some matters related to our QuEST fellows program and Quaker Voluntary Service. Part of the conversation has been pitched as "training the next generation of Quaker leaders. RantWoman takes vigorous exception to that phrasing and would much prefer speaking of one of many ways to invest in the future of the Religious Society of Friends.

One of the points of discernment to RantWoman's ear is how to broaden support for the program to include all the unprogrammed Meetings in Seattle as well as at least one Friends church. In either case, even if the program is open and affirming, even if everyone who may be involved with the program is welcoming of LGBTQ people, friction will still occur.

Parents who had not previously considered the possibility of an LGBTQ child will be invited to meet a same-sex partner. Other parents will be introduced to a child's new gender identity and pronoun gender preference. One term for this: continuing revelation.

People will still come to the program trailing whatever religious understandings they may have growb up with.

And many states still teach children that there is no safe way to have gay sex.
http://rantwomanrsof.blogspot.com/2015/08/sex-ed-with-john-oliver.html

And Supreme Court ruling or no, county clerks in some states refuse on religious grounds to issue marriage licenses to same-gender couples. And when couples get marriage licenses, they may still find that the local baker refuses to sell them a cake.

Quakers, too, in RantWoman's experience sometimes gamely do their best to work and pray together and then step on each other's toes and have to balk some more and pray together some more and go forward. So in the world of RantWoman it is well not to take for granted any of the realities that people in urban Seattle revel in, to remember that the world is very different surprisingly close to home.

Maybe someday NWYM will experience the kind of opening and release that rantWoman felt early in her life at her Meeting as the Meeting came to unity about calling same-gender relationship marriage; maybe that sense of release will wash away whatever hurts and rudeness might have occurred along the path. Maybe grief over abandoning traditions that try to bind what cannot be bound will give way to Divine openings.

Maybe.

And in the meantime...

http://reconciliationpapers.blogspot.com/

and this item about a Quaker pastor and his brother's wedding, while RantWoman is trying to restrain herself about pastors and Quaker weddings....
http://www.indianapolismonthly.com/back-home-again/phil-gulley-without-hitch/

And another post for the collection:
https://throughtheflamingsword.wordpress.com/2015/08/15/spirit-authority-and-northwest-yearly-meeting/

To Some of My Fellow White People in Seattle!

(Warning to a Tweet Stream that objects to use of phrases like "tone-deaf" and "blind" as ableist: Get a grip! RantWoman as a legally blind person who tries to speak to a diversity of experiences about all kinds of things, just says get a grip.  RantWoman would say in the metaphorical sense some of these terms might be more easily cured by education and dialogue than their actualy physical disability faces, but RantWoman has no patience for depriving the language of valuable and precise language. Now we return to the intended tirade)


Dear Some of my fellow White People of Seattle


So you waited hours in the heat at Westlake Park to hear Bernie Sanders.


SFW?!?!?!? You think that gives you the right to Boo #BlackLIvesMatter????


Look. Bernie is a great guy and a powerful voice, but he is not some magical white savior who is going to sweep away all pain and inequality and hatred and sorrow by himself. If we want to make a better world for all of us, we are ALL going to need to step up, and sometimes we are going to be asked to step up in uncomfortable ways. COPE!


I have finally had a chance to read and listen to various slices of media about the  #BernieinSeattle. I am REALLY disgusted with some of my fellow white people. I think it would have been nicer f someone engaged about Bernie's campaign had been able to say in advance, "Look, #BlackLivesMatter is a really important part of our country's political life right now. The 4.5 minutes of silence would be a really important gesture. Can we just do it as part of the program? But that did not happen.


Instead #BlackLivesMatter activists took over the mic to call for 4.5 minutes of silence in honor of the 4.5 hours that Michael Brown's murdered body lay on the ground last year in #Ferguson and all a bunch of pasty white low melting point Seattleites could think about was hearing #Bernie. Okay, folks, now what do we need to think about if we want a serious step forward?


RantWoman did not vote for Hillary in 2008 because Hillary is so tone-deaf about racial issues. RantWoman was rewarded by an AWESOME Obama ground game that drew a whole bunch of new voters into our electoral process. RantWoman is not clear how she is going to be called to interact with the 2016 Presidential campaign, but one thing at a time.


RantWoman also wants to thank Friend Bicyclist for asking RantWoman whether she was going to the Saturday evening #BernieinSeattle events. RantWoman at that moment was fogging around her neighborhood food co-op trying to find tahini and mulbling to herself "What the hell kind of food co-op is this if I can't find the tahini?" Even though RantWoman ultimately did not go, she was glad to hear of the event. RantWoman appreciates being nudged out of that particular funk and also appreciates a rich stream of conversations the next day at Meeting.


Some additional links for consideration.


(RantWoman apologizes for losing patience trying to include specific links.)
see coverage including a powerful statement by WA Senator Pramila Jayapal D 437 at the.stranger.com .

http://theredelectric.blogspot.com/2015/08/bias-bungles-story-of-bernie-and.html

Sex Ed ... with John Oliver

This post dedicated to:

--Two gay uncles who just came back from AZ where they had gone to welcome a new great niece--born to 15 and 16-year-old parents.

--The amazing coincidence of abstinence-only sex-ed and teenage pregnancy.

--The fun fact that in AZ, as in several other states, sex ed tells people there is no safe way to have gay sex!

--The fetid stew of intercultural issues and parental twitches informing what Irrepressible Nephew is likely to hear at home. RantWoman for now just gets to climb the walls in silence. Talk about Worse Auntie. John Oliver may or may not be the best messenger anyway, but...

--The PUBLIC LIBRARY and the internet and people with the guts to learn however they can.

Grumbling with Pictures

Warning: this post contains #hashtag s . If you do not know what a #hashtag is or why they would be used, please feel free to leave a comment and RantWoman will explain.

RantWoman has a LONG list of topics about which pretending things are all right is NOT a happening concept. If Friends can live with the point that RantWoman appears to need a minimum daily requirement of howling, yowling, complaining, grumbling, and general interpersonal charm, probably everything will be fine. Please hold RantWoman and all and sundry around her in the light.

Today's grumbles, considering this link:

Pictures from the PlayShop organized by MInistry and Oversight before Annual Session

--The actual url looks like in a year or two when new pictures are added it might not take RantWoman back to the pictures here. That is a geek point for people who administer webpages to think about.

--The pictures are lovely. That is when Rantwoman is equipped with sofware that blows things up, oops, screen enlargement software, RantWoman can recognize that the link includes pictures of people an actual activities. But the pictures are not tagged with descriptive tags that might identify people and  / or the activities  they are involved with. This is a really basic internet accessibility point. RantWoman knows there are people with topical expertise who might assist and advise, but RantWoman in her endless quest for world domination in the realm of universal accessibility #a11y notes that tagging photos is something almost anyone can learn.

--RantWoman is also peeved that something about the presentation makes it hard for RantWoman to click on individual pictures and enlarge them enough to think about how she might caption the photos just for an example. That is another geek point for the people who tend websites.

--RantWoman works in a realm where getting photo releases before posting people's pictures all over the internet is highly on point. There are both intellectual property / digital rights issues and gigantic #privacy considerations. RantWoman also notes concerns related to minors and to people with complex personal lives, stalkers, and other topics they may not want to stir up. RantWoman recommends that at a BARE minimum people ALWAYS be warned that someone is taking pictures and offered the opportunity to ask photographers not to use pictures that include them.

--RantWoman has had to get all this off her chest before even starting on the other things on her mind.

The Summertime SNAP Challenge

adapted slightly from our weekly bulletin, with full good intentions about seeds for further posts.

Summertime SNAP Challenge. Could you feed yourself and your family on Washington State's SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) allowance of $4.19/day/person?

The Subcommittee on Homelessness invites you to try it for a day, week or month.

What do you predict?

How will you feel?

Will your health improve or degrade?

Will your weight change?

Will you try new recipes?

Keep a diary. Take photos. Calculate the difference in your normal food expenditure and the SNAP budget. We humbly ask you to donate these savings to the  Subcommittee on Homelessness.

On September 27, at rise of meeting, please join us at light lunch. We plan to recount our experiences, tell what we learned, and contribute our monetary or other donations--artwork, recipes, poetry, or photos.

How will the money be used? The Subcommittee is (Meeting's)  direct link with SHARE (Seattle Housing and Resource Effort) nightly shelter hosting 20 people in our worship room. Our fund provides meals to SHARE shelter residents at times when they remain in our building during inclement weather or join in special events. We also endeavor to give thoughtful and useful gifts at Christmas.

Contact (the clerk of the Subcommittee on Homeless People)

Fistfighting with God in Worship

God and RantWoman were, um, wrestling during Meeting for Worship. FWIW, Eye Roller Friend was also feeling prophetic in advance of multiple messages. RantWoman does not recall whether this includes her own. Below is a distillation, subject as usual to RantWoman distortions, including imperfect memory of the order: RantWoman has a sense that others did not feel nearly as strongly called as RantWoman did to fly into a lather. WHAT ARE THEY MISSING? Thank heaven?

 

Message from very articulate woman about Mary Dyer and her friend Anne Hutchison, a Puritan both of whom were killed by the male power structure of the 17^th century.

[RantWoman inner monologue: Yep, still happening. Long Laundry list. Robin Morgan (?) quote: to be female and conscious anywhere on the planet is to be in a constant state of rage,” and… Why does RantWoman not want to go there just now?]

 

 Message from Preach it to the Heathen Friend, whose Nom de Blog RantWoman will explain anon: Quakers do not go out and demonstrate…Instead we sit and wait until….

 

[HUH!?!?!?! Speak for yourself Friend!!!!! Actually could it be that’s the PROBLEM????

And Furthermore:

RantWoman has been trying to figure out how to say this for awhile and so far gentle is NOT what is happening so hold the problem in the Light.

Furthermore, um, actually, speaking of #ada25, RantWoman has observed you in a number of work situations preaching the gospel of electronic accessibility to various flavors of completely unenlightened heathen. Like RantWoman can tell you more ways they are unlightened because of also walking among them. But STILL, you had a JOB, however thankless, and now you have a nice pension because of a bunch of people who DID organize and go to marches and stood firm on the need and the possibility…. This of course does not guarantee that any individual on whose behalf…. (Okay, RantWoman, CHILL. It’s too hot already for that today. CHILL.) ]

 

 Message from newcomer about a woman being vulnerable and ill in public.

[The only message delivered by someone male that did not make RantWoman mumble under her breath about mansplaining. Is this a wacky RantWoman brain circuit or the age of the speakers or….?]

 

Some kind of message noting an announcement in the bulletin partly about disaster preparedness a

(RantWoman apologizes. It is her moral defect not to remember anything but gratitude that someone else called attention to the message in the bulletin.

 
Wonderful message from another comparative newcomer about her daily twice a day practice of silent worship for 20 minutes.

 

Good spell of silence.

 

(Instant clarity. Message, selection from library on RantWoman’s mind about ferocious disability, difficulty, oh good grief personal decisions, and someone who is dying going to the hydroplane races in spite of annual fighter plane buzzfest Blue Angels irritation for the rest of us)

 

 Something long from Conflict is a Gift of God Friend about how do we find God among….

Children come in. YES! Starting to outgrow the Toddler Brownian Motion than…

 

Message about how mood shifts (yes) when kids come in and about a 5-year-old inviting his doctor to lunch and message RantWoman heard as can’t we all just lighten up and be more like 5-year-olds because adults have forgotten…?

 [Okay Doc, here’s the deal. RantWoman probably would not have thought to invite anyone anywhere. When RantWoman was 5, one theme was “I am SO outta here!” RantWoman was THRILLED to be going off to kindergarten, even though for awhile RantWoman’s favorite part of kindergarten was naptime. Traumas included some kind of broken zipper on a winter coat, oh, and not being able to color within the lines, probably because of slightly off glasses prescription; the color within the lines trauma eased somewhat midyear with new glasses. But NO, more like five-year-olds is not automatically a thought that works for RantWoman, but nice try.]

 

And closing meeting is….”RantWoman I’m not Interested in your Thought Processes “ Friend. I’m not interested… Friend’s perennial sin is to need to be exhorted multiple times by different people  to speak up andto remember the presence all around the room of people with challenges about hearing. Is there a dramaturg in the house? An elocution teacher? A Public speaking coach? [One of these days, RantWoman is going to figure out a context for blurting out something else “I’m not interested …Friend” is missing out on, but the how of that is still seasoning—and RantWoman is wishing for fewer opportunities to collect data about…. Hold in the Light….

 

(After worship RantWoman learned one child visitor sat through all of Meeting for Worship. GO KID!)

Hell, meditations

RantWoman celebrates the following comments about afterlife.

"I'm a Buddhist. I believe in reincarnation. There is no way I am committing suicide because I do not want to have to come back and spend 40 years relearning all this hard stuff."

"I'm a unitarian. We think meetings are just about as sacramental as Quakers do. There is a joke about the Unitarian guy who died and was not sure he was in the right place until he found a sign pointing one direction to "Heaven" and another direction to "A discussion about heaven."

And a wonderful Quaker meditation on the afterlife
http://queerquaker.blogspot.com/2014/07/what-hell.html