Joys and Concerns

Yesterday one of the young Friends spoke up during the "joys and concerns" part of the announcements, to say that the start of school (today, here in North Carolina) was both a Joy and a Concern. Perhaps the concern part is more on my mind today.

We were watching "Rocky and Bullwinkle" last night, and Rocky says, "How are we going to get to Mt. Flatten?"

Bullwinkle answers, "Let me worry about that."

"You mean, getting to Mt. Flatten?"

"No, worrying about it."

I think I'm doing the "worrying about" part of most things around here, just not the "doing" part.

Korea in First Day School

I'm teaching First Day School today, and I am going to talk about Korea, especially AFSC's work in North Korea. I am going to try to tie in how the US considers North Korea our enemy, but we should love our enemies and do them good. I'm not having much luck finding visuals to interest the kids, but there is at least the story of Ham Sok Hon, a famous Korean Quaker. Also, we are going to take pictures of our Meetinghouse to send to other First Day Schools.

Centering Prayer again

I had a real sense of peace in my centering prayer group this week.

Visiting a Programmed Meeting

We visited our first programmed Meeting, in New York State, and the hymns and music and
sermon were wonderful. There was silence but the boys didn't get restless. We had just been to the radio museum the day before, where the boys were fascinated by Morse Code. The children's bulletin at the Meeting had a phrase from Jesus in Morse Code!

Wasting Time

I don't know if there is a Query like, "Do I use my time wisely?" But I spend way too much time reading political sites on the 'net, and very little time actually doing anything to change the political situation.

Simplicity

Where do I find shoes that I can be sure were made by fairly paid workers?

The Surfaces of Things

Anne Lamott talks in her new book "Grace, Eventually" about the untidiness of her family, and how important it was to have a neat public appearance to disguise the problems of her family. She finally learned when she grew up that taking care of the surface of things could also be a way of nurturing their insides, not just putting on an appearance.

This has been a great help to me this week, and I have been trying to clean and straighten up more, just to make our lives easier, and free up energy for what is truly needed.