"Say not: 'It was God's doing that I fell away,';

     for what He hates He does not do.

Say not: 'It was He who set me astray,'

     for he has no…

I am a middle school teacher. Our lives as teachers are models, whether we want them to be or not. The children notice everything about us. They even notice the things we don't notice about ourselves. Their gaze is like cold, clear water that washes away the self-created fictions of adults and bares us for exactly who we are. They assess us from eaves to foundation. It can be soul-crushing, as anyone who has been on the receiving end of a 13-year old girl's sarcasm knows. The only…

Last year I attended Lake Erie Yearly Meeting and heard Lloyd Lee Wilson speak. His message was Christ-centric. I was not ready for that. It disturbed me, and led to some deep questioning about whether I belonged in LEYM.

Friend Paula helped me though that time. She reassured me that I need not feel a unity with Christ in order to worship with our monthly meeting. So I stayed, and tended to the light.

A few months later a message in our meeting spoke to me,…

Our meeting has been struggling with growth. It feels odd to think of growth as a struggle, but I think that's the most apt description.

Every couple of weeks for the past few months we've had a new family visit. Some have stayed, some have not. We've doubled our offerings for children, and we've been talking about investing in improvements to our meeting house to make it more accessible. There is a sense amongst us that our numbers are increasing and we need to grow with…

A friend recently commented that being a Quaker is "hard. Really, really hard." Immediately the old Catholic guilt started flowing, and I asked myself whether I was working hard enough.

The past few months have been joyful. I've been happier than I've been in a long time. After many difficulties in my life, things are finally starting to come together, and I'm waking up happy to see the sun and start a new day. I credit some of that joy to the spiritual nourishment I receive…