Tag: Inspiration

ONE BRUSH STROKE OR ROLLER AT A TIME

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

One of the places I’ll admit there’s progress is in the realm of house paint. The mere fact you can go in and have a custom color on the spot that will match one you had mixed earlier is a huge advance. No more guessing. And that’s even before we get to latex, which cleans up with water, rather than oil-based or lead-infused paints.

No more color chips that were way off what showed up on the walls. Oh, how I remember my mother’s lamenting on that one, especially when they’d hired a family friend who was part of a professional painting crew. She hated the color, especially after they tried to correct it.

Now, if the blue tape only worked so well.

KEY WORDS OF FAITH TO CONSIDER

~ Jnana Hodson ~ Leave a comment

A new Pendle Hill pamphlet, Robert Griswold’s Marking the Quaker Path: Seven Key Words Plus One, has sparked some fresh thinking on my end.

I’ve previously posted on the ongoing series from the press at the Quaker retreat and study center in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, and often advise newcomers to Meeting to peruse its display rack in our library for titles that might best touch their interests, whether theological, historical, peace and social justice action, or simple daily living.

What I like about Griswold’s volume is the way he identifies some basic terms that are also found in other religious traditions while noting ways we Friends have come to apply our own unique understandings.

I’m sensing that each of his eight words (OK, one is a phrase) would be a fertile topic for group discussion, and not just among Friends.

His list:

  • Condition
  • Experience
  • Covenant
  • Discipline
  • Discernment
  • Authority
  • The Beloved Community
  • Submission

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I won’t try to define them here, but each one can be stimulating, even controversial, as we look at the fullness of their implications in contemporary life. It’s also instructive to think of words he hasn’t focused on, starting with Belief, Worship, Prayer, and the like.

To learn more about his pamphlet and more, visit the Pendle Hill website.

DON’T BLAME EVE

~ Jnana Hodson ~ 6 Comments

You know the usual slant on the Garden of Eden, that it’s all Eve’s fault.

Look more closely, you’ll see it’s the Apostle Paul and Augustine’s reading.

That’s it, blame the woman.

But it’s wrong.

Give me a breather. There’s Jewish tradition, after all. Listen up!

For all of its brevity, it’s a complex story. It’s where humanity – and history – begin.

For my part, I believe it’s only one of many similar gardens – where else do you think their sons found their wives? The only one we’re told of, all the same.

Eden 1

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For more on my book and others, click here.