I tried to post a long comment in response to Liz's comment on my last blog post as well as her spouse Jeanne's blog post that referenced it, but putting several links in a comment did not go well, so I'll just make this a new post. I agree with what I understand to be Jeanne and Liz's major points: 1) From Jeanne, that many Quakers carry middle class assumptions that we are unaware of, and so we are unaware of how they make people who are not middle class uncomfortable. I think it's a fair point and while it's not fun to be made a public example of our failings, I appreciate having that blind spot illuminated in the hope that I'll be more sensitive [...]

I’ve been posting less frequently, as faithful readers may have noticed. It’s connected to my last post about clearing space, which I’m still trying to do. The papers are finally graded, and though there are always little things that need doing, I’m trying to make inner nurture the priority this month, if not this season. That means I’m going to take an official break from blogging—which I’ve now been doing for 5½ years! I expect I won’t post until at least the New Year, unless I feel specifically led to post something, which is the point. I want to eliminate the things that have become habits or duties so I can better sense what I’m called to do (or “led,” using the more common Quaker phrase). [...]

I’ve been hit with a cold and with a pile of high school applications for my eighth grade daughter, so it’s going to be short this week (though I do have a blog post on the Huffington Post today, if you want to check that out). I’ve been listening to a series on “integral spirituality” called Beyond Awakening and particularly enjoyed the conversation with Rick Hansen, a neuropsychologist who also teaches meditation. Here’s the nugget I’m taking away from him: Hansen says that our brains are hardwired to imprint negative events more quickly and effectively than positive events. (It was important that our ancestors learn to be afraid of tigers if they wanted to pass on their genes, so we’re wired to always be on the [...]

The night before my kids went back to school this year, my eleven-year-old son sliced off the very tip of his left index finger while finishing a back-to-school project. His dad and I took turns holding pressure on it for 3 ½ hours, until the blood finally stopped bubbling to the skinless surface, which was just about the time we finally got to see a doctor at the Children’s Hospital ER. There was no need for stitches, the resident explained, because the hole was too big to stitch, so they just cleaned it out and sent us home with a lot of gauze. I didn’t believe the attending physician when he said my son would be playing guitar again in a few weeks, but yesterday [...]