 |
| A quilt made by one of the Quaker elders who helped welcome RantWoman |
Potluck contribution. Need Potluck contribution. If RantWoman got out the door in time, RantWoman could "cook" at Safeway on the way. That did not happen. RantWoman did have a bag of tangerines. RantWoman kind of wanted protein but did not think of her lightly salted almonds. Tangerines it was.
Da bus was nearly empty. Even though the route goes through two bridge onramp rush hour traffic chokepoints, on Saturday morning before God herself is vertical, the entire bus part of the trip took less than 20 minutes, compared to between 30 and 50 minutes at other times of the week. Wow.
The phrase "spiritual obligation"
Healing touch? Holy Crap. This workshop is about conflict and we are supposed to TOUCH each other???
RantWoman partnered with one of her safe people, an elder RantWoman dearly loves and feels no call to go on further about here.
RantWoman was slightly undercaffeinated but RantWoman's brain was still flitting around like a hummingbird on a holiday for basically the first exercise.
Rub hands to warm them.
Now settle hands onto the receiver's shoulders
Think of deep love.
Now think of something yucky.
You mean like the slime in RantWoman's refrigerator more likely to evolve into a sentient being than ... ?
RANTWOMAN, STOP IT with...
Now back to... Be grateful for connection.
Side note: touch releases oxytocin for both sides.
When others reported back, the point is connection is stronger after the yucky.
Transition out of exercise:
Imagine a wave of blue washing over a screen.
You mean like the Blue Screen of Death?
The next color due was apple green and all RantWoman could think of was green hi-vis clothing. Possibly the perfect uniform for the crip transit mafia worship auxiliary, but...
Back to the blue screen of death; report back and break.
(Hearing check: not using sound system but turn on passive microphone system in worship room. The system plus hearing loop works for one Friend. It emerges that people hear the workshop leader fine but cannot always hear Friends speaking from the room. Workshop leader promises to repeat what other speakers say. RantWoman refrains from commenting further.)
The second half of the morning was a longer touch exercise. RantWoman received an offer to partner. At first RantWoman equivocated but then RantWoman decided Oh what the hell? RantWoman does not regret the decision at all except for one point: Exercise partner loves scents and no matter how wonderful something else going on is, scents drive RantWoman crazy sometimes. RantWoman has the same problem sometimes in the community when people from different cultures use WAY more scent than RantWoman does. Part of what made RantWoman cry was the lovely tangled with ....
Report back included the following moments RantWoman found memorable and of course other undoubtedly worthy moments that just leaked out of RantWoman's head.
--Mention of a deceased Friend. The Friend had passed away shortly before RantWoman arrived at Meeting for the first time. Not to nitpick about the timeline but it was longer ago than...
--Mention of multiple long-distance "touches" of the mystical connection time.
--Discussion of consent to touch, praying for (whether consent or not, kind of like RantWoman's "I pray for you" Twitter list.)
--Something about the grace of God breaking through.
The goodness workshop was lots of personal work. RantWoman thinks the personal work might get its own post.
useful phrase "stewardship of gifts."
From the end of the afternoon's goodness workshop, people most able to work around trauma share two traits:
--Emotional Flexibility
--Sense of own goodness
Five elements (of centered life):
1. Giving and receiving love
2. Using personal power for common good
3. Taking stands of conscience
4. The 5 rules one keeps (RantWoman was feeling pretty snarky here. So...)
5. Direct experience of the divine / sense of awe about creation.
Things that tumbled out of closing worship:
Thoughts about growing up in Meeting and life today x 2
A comment RantWoman registered as from sort of a frequent flyer whose nom de blog RantWoman omits; RantWoman remembers the comment but did not register the content.
One Friend about the importance of continuing connection. The metaphorical part of this got squashed in RantWoman's head until a later conversation.
RantWoman: who had partnered with a retired nurse: it's flu season and we should not overdo touch. RantWoman is glad for many people she does not know at the workshop. RantWoman would so have appreciated hearing more people's names say in a general go-around and not just some of the people who spoke, a small percentage of the people there.
Stay tuned for reading from John's books at Adult Religious ed.
Oh, and whine from RantWoman about eBooks vs print.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment