In chanting. Practice, yes, rather than theory. [Playing off “enchanting.”]
Stayed over in Seattle, motel. Meeting First-day and had my membership session with Jacqueline Garnett … [an older Friend; my clearness committee being just one, however unconventionally] … “And what does Jesus mean to you?” Ah, the difficult question! Turns out she’s read the Coptic Gospels … [As I’ve recalled the question, it was “what does the Bible mean to you?” I stand corrected.] “Believed he was the son of God.” Sacrifice / duty / love.
Then a late lunch with DeeDee and Jerry. Drive back for Meeting at the Scotts. “Quaked out” by bedtime Sunday …
“My desk is my altar” — AFSC staffer
~*~
Meeting in Yakima the next week, upstairs room at YWCA while Unitarians worshipped downstairs; no one else present. I’m very restless. (Big Ego in control.)
Kitty wondered why I went. Somebody had to be there.
At the Grows’, sipping wine, like birds overlooking the Upper Valley … sun and wind … session with AFSC or FCNL field rep reviewing agricultural situations, which always seem to create difficulties. Policies just don’t fit the needs at hand.
9:VIII:79
Thursday, after Meeting at Truebloods
[so sometimes we had midweek worship? Or was this more of an organizational i.e. business discussion?]
We turned to the matter of where we want Meeting to go in the next year. Study hours, dialogue, worship in homes versus in a public space like the YWCA as a Unitarian connection, First-day schooling for our children, what works best for our Ellensburg Friends, and so on … No clearness yet but two weeks to consider, with Meeting at our place next. Seeds have been planted.
The children like homes, as does Phyllis, for the personal connection. And yet a public space can be more inviting to curious seekers.
Zenny’s Zen saying: “In form there is emptiness. In emptiness there is form.”
Either way, seeking / needing / expecting some resolution.
~*~
Zenny’s Meeting newsletter goes to the printer.
~*~
Irwin and Betty dropped in Sunday afternoon after tennis matches in Wenatchee. Kitty whipped together a marvelous dinner out of nearly nothing more than green noodles and a fresh peach pie.
Thus we were late to Mtg at Grows, discussion of format was underway when we arrived. Then I realized I forgot to pick up Hans and Linda, still feel guilty and inadequate over that.
21:X:79, First-day
Still exhausted from whatever bug this is, running around the Valley: out of work a day and a half: cough, clammy, sore throat, no energy. Last weekend, mostly rest. Missed Quarterly Meeting.
A clearness committee at QM opened way for Zenny and Bloom to move to Oregon, where they might be starting a Quaker junior high and/or retreat center with the Bears and others at Deadwood, most likely. A $100,000 offering for the project a major seed.
Perhaps in five years we can join them?
Smitty Bear came back with Zenny from Oregon to help them move and stayed over Tuesday night. I don’t know what it is about him, but he stimulates my thinking, opens my head. Viz: separate men’s and women’s business meetings allowed spiritual growth in families — each spouse was free to feel and explore without worrying about the other.
No electricity at their place. That is, generator-power only. Investigating trickle generator to keep batteries charged, a small unit like the line dragged from yachts …
Ben Richmond’s concern to Zenny: “What’s the good of starting all these Meetings if there’s no fire in them?”
Smitty’s “on a scale of one to ten, Corvallis was a nine or ten. Most are two or three.” And later, “If you wanted to start a form of worship and make it as hard as possible, you’d wind up with a Quaker Meeting.” But also, he noted, the most satisfying when it delivers.
… Zenny and Bloom returning from Lamaze class …
Nancy Trueblood’s feeling she doesn’t need Meeting. Zenny told her, “You should talk to Kitty about that. She feels the same way.”
18:XI … after a trip to Seattle … Jerry was off in Philadelphia on AFSC biz. “It makes you feel important when someone else pays the fare,” DeeDee said.
~*~
From Spiralbound Cascadia with commentary.
