so THAT'S the way to honor an anniversary...

Two days of Quaker mayhem. Some good, some just so-so, any complaints are only due to my ignorance and youth.

Today's meeting-for-worship-for-business rocked the house, however. Tempers flared, everybody was offended, confusion, bitterness, tears, frustration.....

and yet.......

Spirit moved us to somewhere. I don't know where yet, but I am convinced it is as a group, a whole. It was suggested that we might want to continue in small groups, and we firmly resisted, as so much seemed to be gained in our larger full meeting.

There's so much pain around changes that I personally feel we are being led to. Many have spoken of how we must find the blessing in grappling with these challenges. I am struggling to find a blessing within all these seemingly polar opposites, these views, these trenches we have dug down deep into. Can we see above this, to a greater good for all, perhaps even a new way out?

I have spent the past few months looking towards a split in American Quakerism as I have come to believe it stands now. Perhaps that possibility still remains, and perhaps it is meant to be. However, I now have glimpsed for a moment a brief peace, not of resolution, or even of unity, but of a love for us all to come together and work through our differences. There was a true respect tonight, not because we felt it initially, but because we WANTED it to remain with us.

I am leaving tomorrow, but am hoping to return for at least one more day of discernment. It's now officially "one year" of Quakerdom for me - and what a reintroduction today has been!