It's only TWO pages

RantWoman is having one of those mornings when all the threads of her life are tangled in a big jumble and the RantWoman verbosity transmogrifying reflex is working at full power.

--RantWoman is the designated recipient for the reflection papers for the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference . RantWoman thanks everyone for the stream of papers arriving in her inbox and is quite looking forward to worship and sharing with everyone at the conference. RantWoman heartily exhorts everyone else to do as she is trying to do and finish their papers.
RantWoman is deeply touched by several writers' simple clarity. Simple clarity is eluding RantWoman. In fact, RantWoman is doing really well trusting the part about fanning flames and rebelling about points that seem to get the self-discipline part wrong. Unfortunately, if RantWomen herself does not always know what to do with the torrents erupting from her soul it is not necessarily reasonable to expect anyone else, even the best mentors to know either. So we continue to sit with...--and to EDIT.

--RantWoman has a thread in her email about "plain text." This is a computer reference highly topical for blind geeks, not for instance more blog roll about Quaker plain dress.

--RantWoman has commitments at Meeting both Saturday and Sunday. RantWoman means to keep them even though these events conflict with events outside Meeting related to RantWoman's bent toward peace testimony, radical equality, nuclear disarmament, justice and equal rights for immigrants. Under the circumstances, RantWoman is just meditating about "the Light and Power that takes away the occasion for war" and all the cross currents coming in, out, and through Meeting life.

--RantWoman continues to find herself not only inadequately versed in the history of splits among Friends but pulled more toward the frontiers of relationships among many different faith traditions, Friends and otherwise. RantWoman supposes this makes her somewhat ill-equipped even to hear the language of different traditions; sometimes RantWoman wonders whether she just handles the importance of such questions differently in the first place.

--RantWoman came to Friends from peace and justice activism and a lifetime of mainline Protestantism of various flavors. RantWoman is so grateful over time as her experience of the life of silent worship has deepened; RantWoman feels a lot less certain and experienced about Quaker practices such as clearness processes and even queries. RantWoman feels considerably less than well-steeped in these traditions. There is a "peace begins at home" aspect of this uncertainty that makes the theme of the conference feel very real but the whole of RantWoman's thoughts and experiences is not fitting into only two pages.

--RantWoman is having the umpteenth conversation with herself about the "why meet as women?" Over her life, RantWoman herself has been all over the map about this question: taking a lot of science and match courses at a university which, at the time was about 1/3 women, women-only political activism, plenty of mixed-gender activism.
RantWoman recalls being touched a few years ago when a Friend from her Meeting said an older rather academic Friend thought RantWoman came on a little strong. In RantWoman's more outspoken youth, she would have said "Kind of?" At the time she was touched when younger Friend just said RantWoman is nice about it at least.
Anyway, RantWoman has been on the planning committee a couple different times with a gap between. The question of mixed gatherings keeps coming up and there are less frequently regional mixed gender FWCC gatherings, but the leading to preserve the women-only space for this conference has been clear and strong and expressed very distinctly in several ways. Guys, if you want to get together and do narrative theology, there's absolutely nothing stopping you!

--RantWoman is still working on her reflection paper for the Pacific Northwest Quaker Women's Theology Conference . The morning's first mental hiccups have to do with the title, "Walk With Me, Mentor, Elder, Friend."
RantWoman has not yet digested some comments from a Friend about the book of Job and the "walk with me" part. What the heck does that mean? The subject is highly topical in RantWoman's life right now and the reflection passages are not doing much to help. "Don't try to play God, get out of the way and let God work" is the thought coming to mind, but even that needs details to flesh it out. RantWoman's research geek instincts want more reading at least and the paper is due....TOMORROW.
RantWoman's other mental hiccup about the title has to do with the word "elder." RantWoman understands that the word is probably meant in the church tradition sense. Even that has a certain "what the heck do we mean" aspect, but RantWoman also notes the march of time the problem and some signs around many edges of the difficulties that come with aging. In fact, RantWoman should quit procrastinating and do something work-related about that topic. Instead, RantWoman is cross with a peer in her Meeting for being unwilling to face the "walk with me" part of being present about this even if it means being both observant of and a little forgiving about some lapses that probably need quiet watching.

--The reflection paper is only TWO pages. It does not have to be everything, as Russians say, from Adam and Eve to the crucifixion. In fact that won't all fit. So back to editing!

Bible in Accessible formats

RantWoman is going to assume for the present that people reading this entry either already understand some of the blindness-related buzzwords herein or can go look them up their own dang selves. RantWoman herself does not even understand the importance of some of the arcana listed but that does not stop RantWoman from posting.

RantWoman hereby collects assorted ways to get the Bible in accessible formats. RantWoman will dump out Quaker bookmarks in a separate entry at some point.



http://www.guidedogswa.org/books/scriptures/
Downloadable files. Lots of format minutia which also means lots of detail about what formats work with what tools.

http://www.biblegateway.com/
Searchable, multiple versions accessible. Plays well with RantWoman's screen reader.

http://www.biblesfortheblind.org/



http://www.braillebibles.org/Braille.htm
charming info for readers like RantWoman who have neither the patience, the Braille fluency nor the funds for some of those spiffy Braille devices, this site includes helpful info such as one version of the Bible requires 60 inches of shelf space.

Present

RantWoman is thinking of a certain conference theme, Walk with me, mentor elder Friend. RantWoman still smiles more than a year after a Very Young Friend offered a wonderful ministry of walking with RantWoman.


This was when RantWoman was still clerk of Hospitality committee. RantWoman had been seasoning the idea of promulgating a policy that children must be at least as tall as the counter to be in the Meeting kitchen without one of their own grownups in very close proximity.

RantWoman is all for children and all for children participating in various kinds of life and duties in kitchens. However, kitchens, particularly semi-commercial kitchens are full of sharp objects, hot things, and containers that challenge some who would move them. Furthermore, sometimes the problem is not the child, it's the grownups. RantWoman sees very badly. RantWoman had another committee member who due to age and stature also was cautious about the kinds of carafes full of hot liquids and trays full of crockery involved in social hour at our Meeting.

Much as RantWoman loves to cultivate children's love of kitchen matters in household kitchens, not every child should get mixed up in kitchen matters at Meeting. RantWoman intended to be present with these realities and to have uniform basis for evoking safety standards in an industrial kitchen. In any case, Very Young Friend was not yet as tall as the counter, but he had both his parents in tow, so what could RantWoman say?

RantWoman does not remember the beginning of the conversation; she suspects it may have involved a gentle request that Very Young Friend move because RantWoman needed to carry something and does not see well. Very Young Friend, in the matter-of-fact way children have, looked at RantWoman and said "You should get your eyes fixed." RantWoman heard both of Very Young Friend's parents gasp. RantWoman herself felt a couple tears but tried to smile and explain about things that cannot be fixed and much to be grateful for. Looking back, RantWoman wishes she had the wit to say a sincere "Thank you for noticing. Thank you for acknowledging! You're way ahead of...."

Aids to Prayer

RantWoman is:

--trying to write her reflection paper for the Pacific NW Quaker Women's Theology Conference on the theme "Walk with me, Elder, Mentor Friend." This is a tougher exercise than its length might suggest: RantWoman has several tales of mismatches between what would-be elders can deliver and what is needed, several tales of missed connections when she really needs mentoring, correction, steadying, several tales of mentoring coming not in pleasant well-intentioned forms but rather in awkward stumbles and breakdowns of various sorts.
RantWoman is seasoning a list of her preferred qualities in elders / mentors though RantWoman also freely admits sometimes she is so in need... that she gets to take what she gets and just run with that. And this does not even begin to speak to the "just walk with me" task. RantWoman also has assorted flip and sarcastic observations that she needs to distill into one exercise for the conference and perhaps more than one contribution to the blogosphere.
RantWoman is also thinking of quoting Bob Dylan, "Ah, but i was so much older then, I'm so much younger than that now." Either that or an airplane-like announcement, bear in mind the best elder for your situation maybe younger, less experienced, less completely crystalized, ...

--Meditating about themes in a separate post about how people with differeht theological / spiritual orientations frame the experience of silent worship. RantWoman is having such fun collecting different references to such in her blog.

--thinking with great affection of a Friend on the planning committee for a previous Women's theology conference. This Friend has a wonderful ministry of quilting which she has carried to many places and circumstances. At that conference, women spent considerable time reflecting on a labyrinth that another group at the retreat center was using as part of their meditation process and whether walking a labyrinth is a form of idolatry.
RantWoman has surprisingly to her strong reactions sometimes regardin idolatry, but the question would never have occurred to her about a labyrinth. One of the miracles of the Women's theology conferences for RantWoman is sharing the evolution of women's thinking as they grapple with different questions. RantWoman is also feeling grateful on total tactile grounds that after the conference, the Friend with the quilting ministry sewed RantWoman a wonderful hand-sized labyrinth that RantWoman sometimes runs her fingers around as a way of calming at least some of her many twitches, a way of centering, breathing, rooting in gratitude.

--checking up on another blog she reads with some followup comments about Biblical grounding for "an Anabaptist rosary."
http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2010/01/21/anabaptist-rosary/

http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2010/01/21/anabaptist-rosary/#comments
One of the things RantWoman enjoys about blogging is the sense of extended conversation, extended worship as different themes. RantWoman was the first but not the only one to point out that the original poster had completely deleted Mary from the new themes; other comments included a great deal of non-gender-specific praise language. This seems to RantWoman to be an interesting and not necessarily undesirable approach, but RantWoman's fast read is making her want to read and think more about carrying spiritual disciplines in tactile forms.

--Digesting some young people's efforts to grapple with privilege
http://young.anabaptistradicals.org/2010/04/23/young-church-of-the-brethren-radicals/

and wishing her schedule permitted her to attend exercises on similar themes in person at the second Creative Resisitance Conference
http://nwbreakthesilence.wordpress.com/

The Transformative Power of Silence

RantWoman is REALLY not doing well about staying on task. This is unfortunate because she really, really needs to accomplish some VERY simple tasks. But first, she must note, hopefully for future reference a new book being discussed on the radio, Anne LeClaire: Listening Below the Noise: the Transformative power of Silence

RantWoman is interested in the book based on the author interview at www.kuow.org . However, RantWoman notes crabbily that the author is not distributing the book with audio enabled, a separate accessibility step. This oversight makes it less likely that RantWoman herself will plunk down cash to interact with the book though RantWoman might still greatly appreciate book digestion from an interested Friend.

Also mentioned in context of women especially needing respite, okay by a female author so RantWoman supposes interestd men should consider an invitation to weigh in: Anne Morrow Lindbergh The Gift From The Sea

Ritual

This item is just collecting different language people use for talking about what happens during silent worship.

Gathered worship, really diverse

http://aquakerwitch.blogspot.com/2010/04/quintessential-pagan-quaker-ritual.html

(RantWoman notes in passing that the whole question of a Quaker pagan ritual seems so modernist, so separated from the early Quakers' efforts to free themselves of the pagan associations of the common English-language names for the days of the week and the months. Not to mention the whole giant historical question of graphing Christian forms and terminology onto other festivals and other events deeply rooted in pagan traditions. RantWoman has NO clear thoughts about what that means for people of the current century so maybe there is just more to be written at some point.)

Gathered worship as Quaker Communion
http://gatheringinlight.com/2010/04/19/the-resurrection-and-quaker-communion/

New Foundation Fellowship International Gathering

If Friends in RantWoman's orbit have been feeling a strong but hitherto unexplained leading to visit Lander WY, perhaps the reason is the following international gathering sponsored by the New Foundation Fellowship:

http://www.nffellowship.org/calendar.html


Announcing an International Gathering, July 12-16, 2010, Sinks Canyon Center near Lander, Wyoming, USA.
A Faith That Transforms: The Message and Experience of the Early Friends.
Come and experience the life-transforming power of being gathered and led by Christ Jesus.


RantWoman notes that living conditions are spartan and travel arduous. RantWoman for instance would not even try to stop by on the way to NPYM Annual Session in Missoula. However, Friends who really want to be there and can handle the travel costs and register early will pay only $50 for 4 days.

RantWoman has never heard of the New Foundation Fellowship and is decidedly not used to thinking of Lander WY as a hub for much of anything, let alone a Quaker gathering. Hence the resort to the search engine of choice. Here are a couple items turned up by Google

a blog entry by Martin Kelley with a link to a very geographically dispersed Meeting based out of Virginia.

http://www.quakerranter.org/visit_with_christian_friends_conference_new_foundation_fellowship.php

A very brief Wikipedia entry referring to George Fox and Christian Quakers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Foundation_Fellowship


RantWoman imagines there are people this very event might speak deeply to. Hence this post.