Imperfect Serenity Blog
I began this blog in 2005 while I was taking care of two young children and my dying mother, so the title, Imperfect Serenity, referred to my struggle to stay spiritually grounded during a difficult time. Eventually the title came to include my experiences in eco-justice activism, anti-racism work, and book publicity.
What does it mean?
Last night I woke up around midnight, remembering that we didn’t change the smoke detector batteries when we set back the clocks. When I went back to sleep, I had three odd dreams, the last of which included a row of ringing rotary telephones like my mother's—and like the one that appeared in a dream I had about my mother five years ago when she had pneumonia and was resisting going to the hospital. In that dream, there was no voice on the other end after the phone was picked up. I awoke with a start, suddenly clear that I needed to bring my mother to the hospital. In last night’s dream, I didn’t find the right phone in time to answer. When the ringing [...]
Reflections on 2009
It’s been quite a year, and in the early hours of Christmas Eve—when I could go to the gym or sneak down to the basement to finish wrapping presents—it feels like a good time to do some reflection. Besides, I’m not anticipating any other quiet time in the next few days, so I better write now. After years of feeling led to write a book on the Serenity Prayer, 2009 was the year that leading came to fruition. This time a year ago, I was waiting for the editor’s feedback and revisions, slightly anxious about the fact that I would be revising while teaching two courses at University of the Arts. My blog post from Boxing Day 2008 only hints at my struggle to live with serenity. Despite [...]
Copenhagen
I haven’t blogged in over a week, and the kids’ school break starts in four hours and seven minutes (less by the time I post). I still have some Christmas shopping to do without my little helpers, I have to drop the family calendar I just finished at Staples, so it can be copied and mailed to the extended family ASAP, and I forgot to buy some key ingredients for my daughter’s birthday cake for her party tomorrow, which may happen in a blizzard. There are also the work items I wanted to finish before break. Still, I keep thinking of Copenhagen and the global climate change summit happening there and want to write about it. It’s inspiring that so many people—including so many leaders—from [...]
Merry Multiculturalism
It’s that time of the year again. There are “tiny tots with their eyes all aglow, folks dressed up like Eskimos,” and messages in meeting betraying the mixed feelings Quakers have about Christmas. Two weeks ago several messages focused on consumerism, the role a material gift can play in expressing love, and the fact that we’re destroying the planet by buying so much stuff we don’t need and dumping it in the landfill afterwards. Last week there were a greater variety of messages. One reminded us that for most of its history, Germantown Friends School was open on Christmas like any other day because historically Quakers believed that every day was sacred, a principle that might be lost if we made a big fuss on [...]
Conspiracy
I don’t know who these people are and frankly don’t care, but here’s my question: why are they upstaging the escalation of the war in Afghanistan and the fact that we’re destroying the planet? Yesterday I happen to have lunch somewhere with CNN playing the White House press conference that was supposed to be about Obama’s announced 34,000 troop increase in Afghanistan. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs got noticeably annoyed when three different reporters asked him about the couple that crashed the president’s first state dinner, apparently because they like pretending they are rich and famous. While reporters hammered follow up questions about the potential danger to the president that their gate-crashing signaled, I wondered about the danger to democracy posed by such a shallow, scandal [...]
Giving Thanks
I hope people really do take the time on Thanksgiving to reflect on the gifts of the year. It is a great attitude shifter and one that need not be confined to November. Although Thanksgiving has become in the popular culture as much about the beginning of the shopping season as anything else, it's a good opportunity to practice giving thanks, even when we are aware of all the things that are not going well. Counting our blessings has a way of making our problems seems smaller. When I roll through the list of blessings in my mind, the theme that emerges is love. I'm blessed with much love in my life, and for that (and many other things) I'm very grateful. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
New Community Building Tools
A few nights ago, I joined a group of Friends interested in learning how teleseminars and webinars could aid their work. First, Sarah O’Doherty showed us the kind of online classes she offers in her healing practice. Then, Ginny Christensen shared how Friends Council on Education is bringing those involved with Quaker schools together from all over the country without the expense or carbon cost of travel. (There is a place on their site to register for new webinars or to listen to old ones.) Then we all had a fabulous dinner at the home of Laura Melly—who has fostered the life of many Friends institutions and communities, partly through her ability to bring people together—and talked about the exciting possibilities of this technology and our desire to see ourselves and the [...]
My Life in France/Philadelphia
After leading a workshop in October, one of the participants sent me Julia Child’s memoir, My Life in France, as a thank you gift, noting that it was partly about Julia “getting in her lane” (a phrase from my book). It was a wonderful surprise, and I’ve been cooking slightly more elaborate meals as I’ve read my way through it. Cooking is not my calling, however, so Julia’s enthusiasm for different kinds of fish almost lost me in the middle of the book, though I’m glad I kept reading. I got to her story of publishing her now classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking just as I was getting discouraged about the publishing business. Hearing her unfailing optimism in the face of rejection and frustration [...]
10 Etiquette Queries for Social Networkers
Quakers have a practice of writing questions (called queries) designed to prompt self-reflection. Since I have been reflecting on my own attempts to publicize a book using social networking (and have been getting annoyed with other people’s attempts to publicize their stuff on these same networks), I offer these 10 queries to all of us. I look forward to hearing your thoughts as well as any questions you want to add. Feel free to link to this post—especially if you think your Facebook and Twitter friends need to ask themselves these questions, too: Is it appropriate to invite someone to an event that is more than 100 miles from where they live? If you have three events in the same region within a month, should [...]
Grateful
Between leading a retreat at Woolman Hill last weekend and giving two book talks in the DC area this weekend, I never managed to write a blog post. A few fun things have gone up on the Internet, though, so I’ll offer these links: A few weeks ago, Therese Borchard, who writes the Beyond Blue blog on Beliefnet, asked me to list 5 clues that you should be letting go of something, and 5 clues you should be making a change instead of giving up. The post got picked up by Psychcentral, where you can retweet, comment, give it stars, and all that stuff. I don't normally write in the list format, so it was fun to force myself to be that pithy. The Wisdom to [...]