
What Canst Thou Say?
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Read stories on christian conversion by Robin Mohr. Robin is a relatively low-tech, Green, feminist, convergent Quaker, with lots of references to children and the occasional pie recipe.
What Canst Thou Say?
1M ago
In September, I started a new course at the Wharton School of Business Executive Education program. It’s a Chief Strategy Officer certificate program.
I’m now about half way through the course and I am really enjoying it. Here are four things I have learned so far. I will probably elaborate more on each of them in future posts.
New ways to quantify and use equations to express concepts. Sometimes it is just making an insight sound science-y instead of intuition-based. But sometimes it helps to put a framework on a jumble of ideas in order to weigh them more accurately and to look for ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3M ago
1. Every day that starts with swimming is a better day.
It’s good for both my mental and physical health. I sleep better and I’m just in a better mood all day long.
2. I actually prefer to swim at the end of the afternoon.
Like at 4:00 pm when I wasn't really getting anything done anyway, and then I can go home and make dinner. I just learned this since I left my job in August. I can go at 7:00 am if I have to. But I prefer to do desk work in the morning and physical work in the afternoon.
3. I am externally motivated.
I clean my house because other people are coming. B ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
I received my membership card from the Philadelphia Museum of Art today.
The front of it has an excerpt from a painting by Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in a Circle, 1923. [See the whole painting here]
I am not usually a fan of abstract art. But this little piece spoke to my condition. Any way I hold it, any side up or down. It is still fascinating.
I realized that while I had heard the name before, I knew nothing about Kandinsky, so I googled his name. I read almost the whole Wikipedia article about him (it’s long). He was born in Moscow and grew up in Odesa, Ukraine. He originally studie ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
In late spring of 2021, my monthly meeting began preparing to return to in-person worship in June. We made the transition to hybrid worship-some folks in the meetinghouse and some on Zoom-pretty easily.
Early in the process, God laid it on my heart that we needed to have in-person first day school (FDS) when we returned to the meetinghouse. One reason was to have childcare for our clerk and other parents to be able to attend worship. Another reason was that in the 15 months when we only had Zoom worship, the children and parents had been clear that the kids did not want to participate in anoth ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
I love opportunities to get together informally with Friends – this was the original basis of the convergent Friends dinner parties I organized a few years ago. In the last year, the Quaker Revival and Nursery of Truth had some of the same characteristics of taking advantage of the presence of a visiting minister to gather local Friends for worship and conversation and a shared meal. I think the most important part of these gatherings is the opportunity to share our joys and concerns with other Friends, some familiar and some new faces, and the encouragement we take home from them, knowing we ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
I may be suffering from a lack of ordinariness. Most of my life, I have wished for exciting things to happen to me. And now that they are happening, I miss the simple things that I don’t have time for. Like making jam. Gardening. Sewing. Teaching First Day School. Serving on clearness committees.
Recently, I was at an international committee meeting that was hosted by Friends in a thriving meeting in a small town. I was really touched by the obvious care and concern and interwoven nature of their personal lives and their meeting life. It made me think of two passages on marriage that I love ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
I don't know Rob Bell. But I'd like to thank him for his work. Thank you for writing books that I like to read. But thank you even more for writing books that my 15 year old son likes to read and that we can talk about afterwards.
I first heard about Rob Bell in 2006 when he appeared in a series of Nooma films. I arranged to show a series of these short, postmodern films about God at San Francisco Friends Meeting after reading about how Gregg Koskela had shown one at Newberg Friends Church.
The first one of his books that I read was Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith. It's a remin ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
My new meeting is having one of those recurring conversations about what do we want from First Day School? (FDS = our children's religious education program). I was not able to go to the first meeting because I was leaving town. So rather than expecting my husband to communicate my opinions, which are not always the same as his opinions, I decided to write some notes in advance and send them to the meeting's email group. I think it's important for a wide range of people to share their opinions about this, not just parents. This post is largely based on that email, with further embellishments a ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
George Jones died this last week. Many country music singers said George was the one they admired most. But back in the early 1980s he wrote a song about all the singers he looked up to, called "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?"
Who's gonna fill their shoes?
Who's gonna stand up tall?
Who's gonna play the Opry and the Wabash Cannonball?
Who's gonna give their heart and soul to get to me and you?
Lord, I wonder, who's gonna fill their shoes?
Last week I thought a lot about leadership. I found a 35 year old report on leadership in the Religious Society of Friends that could have been written la ..read more
What Canst Thou Say?
3y ago
I've been entertaining myself today with a single handed game of "I'm going to Grandma's house and I'm taking a..." Did you play that when you were a kid? Or with your own kids?
Well, I'm going to the Friends World Committee Section of the Americas Meeting of Representatives next week, and I'm taking
an Agenda
a Bible
some Crayons
Donation Envelopes
Friends
a Glossary/Glosario
a Hymnal
Ideas
my Journal
Knitted hat
Laptop
a Mission
some Nominations
I hope to find some Opportunities when I get there
a Pencil
a QUNO report
Respect
Socks
Thermal Underwear
Vision
Workplan
Xtra paper
Yahweh
and Ze ..read more