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.