Quaker Quaker blog carnival

Thank you Martin Kelley for QuakerQuaker. I don't remember now how I came across QuakerQuaker in my browsing but it was a happy day when I did. I recognized some of the people, like Rich the BrooklynQuaker from back in my time with New Swarthmoor. Some like Amanda, I had met at New England Yearly Meeting. I remembered Marshall and Johan from my days on the Quaker email lists. Then there was LizOpp and RobinM who I got to know on line first, and then have had the pleasure to meet in the real world, too. Since Quaker circles are so small, I can hold out hope that I can meet others as time goes on. But Cherise, I will miss your visit to Boston because you are coming to give your talk on the same day my daughter graduates from Haverford.

The other joy is seeing people exploring Quakerism with a real desire to learn from each other and to get to know each other in the Divine and to get to know the Divine in each other. It gives me hope that, in spite of the evidence to the contrary, that Friends can indeed learn to live together. Many years ago I felt a call to revitalize the Society of Friends. It seemed a pretty audacious idea at the time, but now I see that other people have been hearing and heeding a similar call. Even though we do not meet face to face, I have found refreshment and encouragement in the writings I have found on these blogs. I have also been helped by those people I disagree with because I have had to learn to listen (and read) better and to feel down beneath other people's words. I have also had opportunities to think about what I have said and to see where I may have fallen short of the Truth myself. So thank you readers and thank you bloggers and thank you friend Martin for providing a way for us to find each other in the byways of the Internet.

Will T