A QUAKER POEM

 I AM A QUAKER

BY DIANE FAISON MCKINZIE

It is loud, the silence that I hear, 

I am a Quaker and in my silence, I draw God near.

 

Respect for other religions is always in my sight, 

I am a Quaker and know the different paths to God are alright.

 

Bear witness to the humanity of all people, no matter if they are White Black, Tan, or Brown. 

I am a Quaker, and I know and respect that all the different people make the world go round.

 

Plain in our dress is no more, I am a Quaker and wear clothes of today 

but this modern attire does not steer me from my “Quaker Way”.

 

A gun, a sword, a lynching rope of death, a vile of poison to end a life these are all venues that I cannot use or understand. 

I am a Quaker, and using these tools of violence is not what I want to hold in my hand.

 

My meditation and my “still” minutes in my every day, 

help me to hear what God has to say. 

I am a Quaker, and we are just that way.

 

Some say our faith is strange. Some say “We are not Christians”. Some say our meeting houses are too plain.

I say “Yes, we are Christians”, and say “I’m sorry you didn’t know”. If
our faith seems strange, it’s because their search for Quaker facts truly
lacks.

 

Meeting houses stand in beautiful “plain” sites so the spiritual mind won't stray, 

so we can keep focus, and pray.

 

  I am a human, I am a woman, I am a Christian, and all of these are me.

THAT MAKES ME A QUAKER YOU SEE.

 

I and the Dragonfly

I and the Dragonfly

Indian-style, I sit by the lake,                                                                                                                                                            with no more movement than the tall grass that barely stirs in the breeze.                                                 The trees shade my still form on the path,                                                                                                    but on the lake, the reflected sun shimmers unchecked.

The water is almost still on the surface                                                                                                        and from its depth, earth colors mirror land and sky and clouds precisely.                                                     I look closely and see small circles all across the skin of the water;                                                                                     tiny water insects gliding noiselessly.

Across, on the far shore, the sun runs yellow down the hill between the tall pines,                                 spilling into the water just where the red earth joins it.                                                                                      As I sit longer, an. audible splash to my left signals the feeding one of the fish on the surface riders; another on my right signals the quick return of a frog into the water from whence he came.  

Time slips slowly away, and I become part of this natural world,  an interlude in life that does not often occur.                                                                                                                                                                 Then a fairy comes to light in front of me on a long, pale green frond.                                                       Not a real fairy, lest you think I have sat too long in that enchanted spot, but it might have been, the beautiful dragonfly that sways there.                                                                                                            His body is long and slender, and his double wings are iridescent, catching all of the sun's warmth and radiating the blues, pinks, greens, and silver of the sky as he sways.

He stayed only a short time, sharing his world with me, before he moved quickly away to other grasses on the far edges of the lake.  I remain behind him, unable to move as gracefully or as fast, but with a renewed spirit in the magic of the moment. 

       

ACTS OF KINDNESS

“AOK”

By Diane Faison-Mckinzie / 2023

Have you ever seen someone at the checkout counter that needed that extra penny to pay their bill? Did you offer to give that person that penny? If you did, that was an AOK.

In a moment of sadness, a person is in tears beside you, did you offer that person a handkerchief or a tissue? If you did, that was an AOK.

It’s raining, and you see someone that is trying to get to their car but doesn’t have an umbrella, and you do. Do you offer the protection of your umbrella to walk with that person to their car, so they won’t get wet? If you did, that was an AOK.

Galatians 6:9

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

 

Is there a person in your neighborhood or family who is having difficulty with transportation to get to needed appointments? If you can offer transportation for that person, that is an AOK.

Handing just a dollar to that person on the street that is asking for help, is an act that may help that person eat for the day. That is an AOK.

AOK stands for “acts of Kindness” Acts of kindness don’t have to be large, they can be as small as giving away a smile to a person, and that small jester won’t cost you anything.

See what ACTS OF KINDNESS you can do today, and experience the joy of showing love to your fellow man.

GARDEN OF GOOD & EVIL

Bird Girl

Telfair Museum 

Savannah, GA

This statue was created by Sylvia Shaw Judson,the sculptor who sculpted the statue of Mary Dyer which is on the campus of Earlham College. For years the above statue was in the Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah Georgia. It was moved to a safer place after it gained fame through the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil which was set in Savannah.

Cover Photo for novel Midnight In the Garden of Good and Evil

"For Jack Leigh, his iconic moment came in 1994 when he was commissioned by Random House for the cover of John Berendt’s non-fiction novel Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The book was about the repercussions that the murder of a local male prostitute and its subsequent trial that ensued. The titular “the garden of good and evil,” referred to Bonaventure Cemetery in Savannah, Georgia. Bredent suggested to Leigh to go to the cemetery for a suitable subject." 

This post would not appear on this blog were it not that Sylvia Shaw Judson became a convinced Quaker in midlife. She was instrumental in beginning the Lake Forest Meeting

In a simple book of pictures and quotations Judson showed how art could evoke a state of mind which encouraged spiritual values. On the website of the Telfair Museum we read:

"In The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures (1982), Judson emphatically connected her Quaker beliefs to her aesthetic practices. She emphasized the term 'divine ordinariness,' which she defined as the 'delicate balance between the outward and the inward, with freshness and a serene wholeness and respect for all simple first-rate things, which are for all times and all people.'

These principles of simplicity, equality, and inwardness may very well have been applied to the work that we have now come to know as the Bird Girl. The young figure, plainly dressed, holds two bowls in either hand, which could be interpreted as a gesture of weighing and balancing. The overall simplicity of the composition, or its 'divine ordinariness,' helps explain its enduring charm; the sculpture reveals very little even after prolonged looking and retains an air of compelling mystery. Originally unassumingly titled 'Fountain Figure' (1936), the sculpture stood anonymously in Bonaventure Cemetery until it was featured on the cover of John Berendt’s bestseller Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1994) and the subsequent Clint Eastwood film (1997)."

---

The image of the innocent child with arms outstretched, holding two vessels speaks of the choices we are constantly called to make. In the novel that became associated with the picture of the statue, the choice was presented as between good and evil. More often the choice is between self and others, or between following guidance or following the trend, or between truth and falsehood, or between any two things which lead us in opposite directions. The point is that we must choose; indecision is a choice also.   

Picture and words from The Quiet Eye: A Way of Looking at Pictures

by Sylvia Shaw Judson 

Yale University Art Gallery

Grave of William Penn

Edward Hicks

1847

"all in order sweet & lovely"

 William Blake

 

Lean on God

 LEAN ON GOD

By Diane Faison-Mckinzie

2023

God gives the most challenging battles to his strongest spiritual soldiers.

Belief, trust, and prayer are the weapons that I believe God’s soldiers can use to

fight the anxiousness, anger, depression, fear, and exhaustion that becomes the

darkness that covers caretakers, and the person suffering from illness.

Leaning on and trusting the Lord is sometimes the hardest thing to do when a

life-threatening illness becomes the issue that devours the years, months, days,

hours, and minutes in a person’s life; both the person that is ill, as well as the

caretaker.

At the beginning of my caretaker responsibility, I experienced anger and was

confused about why I was experiencing this emotion. I spent several months

praying every morning for an answer. I finally received my “spiritual answer”.

I heard God speak to me, letting me know my anger was perfectly normal. I

was angry because my life had changed; both in my everyday activities as well

as in my marriage. I could no longer go out with my friends as much because my

place now was to be at home; to be there to address whatever needs my

husband may have. We, as a couple, no longer could experience a physical

relationship, or have a nice meal at a restaurant, because my husband now had

cancer of the esophagus, therefore cannot eat solid food. So, I was selfishly

angry.

I began to realize from my “spiritual answer” that I needed to “lean” on God to

take care of my husband and be assured that my emotion was a normal stage I

had to go through in order to take my next step. I then experienced “calmness”,

and I was willing to allow God to fight this battle, and I learned to lean on Him.

They say all these emotions that I had been experiencing, were the same stages

that a person goes through when a loved one dies, so it’s normal.

When you break a foot, hip, or leg, you need support to lean on to function

(like a crutch, walker, or wheelchair). Well, at that time, my life had a “fracture”

in it. So, God was my crutch, my walker, and my wheelchair to lean on and give

me the ability to function, and I am so thankful He was my support. Without

HIM (GOD), giving me his powerful support, I surely would have fallen.

DON’T BE AFRAID TO LEAN ON GOD, HE IS STRONGER THAN YOU

THINK!

SEA JOURNEYS

 

Gutenberg Files

A SIXTY-GUN SHIP OF LATE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
From John Smith’s Sea-Man’s Grammar (1694 edition)

 

"There many people received the Truth with gladness, and Friends were greatly refreshed." George Fox

George Fox made a visit to the colonies in America during 1671-1673.

Today's post quotes Fox's account of difficulties of the passage of their ship across the Atlantic and danger they encountered. Fox noted the parallel of their journey to that of Apostle Paul from Palestine to Rome to appeal his case to Caesar. We read of that journey in the 27th chapter of Acts. First we read of Fox's journey. 

THE JOURNAL OF GEORGE FOX
Edited with an Introduction and Notes By
Rufus M. Jones

From the 1694 First Edition

CHAPTER XVIII.
Two Years in America.
1671-1673.

"In the afternoon, the wind serving, I took leave of my wife and other Friends, and went on board. Before we could sail, there being two of the King’s frigates riding in the Downs, the captain of one of them sent his press-master on board us, who took three of our seamen. This would certainly have delayed, if not wholly prevented, our voyage, had not the captain of the other frigate, being informed of the leakiness of our vessel, and the length of our voyage, in compassion and much civility, spared us two of his own men.

Before this was over, a custom-house officer came on board to peruse packets and get fees; so that we were kept from sailing till about sunset; during which delay a very considerable number of merchantmen, outward-bound, were several leagues before us.

Being clear, we set sail in the evening, and next morning overtook part of that fleet about the height of Dover. We soon reached the rest, and in a little time left them all behind; for our yacht was counted a very swift sailer. But she was very leaky, so that the seamen and some of the passengers did, for the most part, pump day and night. One day they observed that in two hours’ time she sucked in sixteen inches of water in the well.

When we had been about three weeks at sea, one afternoon we spied a vessel about four leagues astern of us. Our master said it was a Sallee man-of-war, that seemed to give us chase. He said, “Come, let us go to supper, and when it grows dark we shall lose him.” This he spoke to please and pacify the passengers, some of whom began to be very apprehensive of the danger. But Friends were well satisfied in themselves, having faith in God, and no fear upon their spirits.

[When the sun was gone down, I saw out of my cabin the ship making towards us. When it grew dark, we altered our course to miss her; but she altered also, and gained upon us.]

[Note - A Moorish pirate ship, named from Sallee, a seaport of Morocco. This incident not only indicates Fox’s simple faith in God but it also is a good illustration of the way in which he inspired confidence in others. The captain believes in him.]

At night the master and others came into my cabin, and asked me what they should do. I told them I was no mariner; and I asked them what they thought was best to do. They said there were but two ways, either to outrun him, or to tack about, and hold the same course we were going before. I told them that if he were a thief, they might be sure he would tack about too; and as for outrunning him, it was to no purpose to talk of that, for they saw he sailed faster than we. They asked me again what they should do, “for,” they said, “if the mariners had taken Paul’s counsel, they had not come to the damage they did.” I answered that it was a trial of faith, and therefore the Lord was to be waited on for counsel.

So, retiring in spirit, the Lord showed me that His life and power were placed between us and the ship that pursued us. I told this to the master and the rest, and that the best way was to tack about and steer our right course. I desired them also to put out all their candles but the one they steered by, and to speak to all the passengers to be still and quiet.

About eleven at night the watch called and said they were just upon us. This disquieted some of the passengers. I sat up in my cabin, and, looking through the port-hole, the moon being not quite down, I saw them very near us. I was getting up to go out of the cabin; but remembering the
word of the Lord, that His life and power were placed between us and them, I lay down again.
 

The master and some of the seamen came again, and asked me if they might not steer such a point. I told them they might do as they would.

By this time the moon was quite down. A fresh gale arose, and the Lord hid us from them; we sailed briskly on and saw them no more.

The next day, being the first day of the week, we had a public meeting in the ship, as we usually had on that day throughout the voyage, and the Lord’s presence was greatly among us. I desired the people to remember the mercies of the Lord, who had delivered them; for they might have been all in the Turks’ hands by that time, had not the Lord’s hand saved them."

They did reach the New World, spent some time in Jamaica then came to North America where the ship landed in Maryland. By the time of Fox's arrival on the American mainland in 1672, there were already Quakers in New York and New Jersey. There were a total of ten Quakers in the party from England and they spread out to various colonies. George Fox made his way to Perquimans in Carolina where a Quaker from New England had earlier settled. The party of Quakers spent two years journeying and ministering and establishing Quaker Meetings in America. Making contact with Native Americans was also one of their priorities. Accounts of their various experiences are told in Fox's Journal. 

The master of the ship had gone to Fox for advice because he knew of the account in Acts 27 of Paul's difficult journey to Rome to appear before Caesar. Both the apostle Paul and George Fox had faith that no harm could come to them if they trusted in the guidance of God.

 

Acts.27

[1] And when it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered Paul and certain other prisoners unto one named Julius, a centurion of Augustus' band.
[2] And entering into a ship of Adramyttium, we launched, meaning to sail by the coasts of Asia; one Aristarchus, a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us.

[9] Now when much time was spent, and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already past, Paul admonished them,
[10] And said unto them, Sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives.
[11] Nevertheless the centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship, more than those things which were spoken by Paul.

[18] And we being exceedingly tossed with a tempest, the next day they lightened the ship;
[19] And the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of the ship.
[20] And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.
[21] But after long abstinence Paul stood forth in the midst of them, and said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and not have loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss.
[22] And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship.
[23] For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
[24] Saying, Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar: and, lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee.
[25] Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.

[41] And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast, and remained unmoveable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves.
[42] And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape.
[43] But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they which could swim should cast themselves first into the sea, and get to land:
[44] And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land.

Acts 28

[11] And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria, which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux.

[12] And landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days.

[13] And from thence we fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli: 

[14] Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome

 

Map in Phillips New Testament

Paul's Journey from Caesarea to Rome 

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Matthew 8

[23] And when he [Jesus] was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
[24] And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
[25] And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
[26] And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

He is with us

  HE IS WITH US

By Diane Faison-Mckinzie 2022-2023

“Get rid of all the sins you have done and get for yourselves a new heart and a new way of thinking”. That is from Ezekiel 18:31. Couldn’t we use that as a guide to starting our new year coming up, in 2023? “Yes, the years 2020 through 2022 have been a test of our faith, and our health”. I think this epidemic has forced us to get a new heart and forced us to think differently about ourselves, our families, and others.

As we leave the old year behind, with all the horrors we never expected to endure, let us learn from what we have experienced. I think we have learned that we truly now understand that, tomorrow is not promised to us, and we have been forced to learn a new way of thinking. As we are given a new day, our new way of thinking should encompass not wasting any time of the day, whether it is spent in prayer, doing something for your neighbor, calling someone to let them know they are thought of, volunteering at some organization that helps those in need, and many other things.

I think as stated in Ezekiel “a new heart” is an accurate statement which I believe means a “new you, ”. What if you could consider setting a weekly Christian goal for yourself? This small effort would be a start in creating a “new you”. One week, my Christian deed turned out to be, putting $20 towards the grocery bill of the person behind me in the grocery line. Something as simple as that has made me one step towards me becoming a new person. In the year 2023, it is my hope that I will continue to grow in my new way of thinking. Let 2022-23 be your year of Christian love, understanding, giving, and prayer.

We really don’t know what the new year will bring, but we do know for certain we can bring God into it. “Do not fear....When you pass through waters, I will be with you” (Isaiah 43:1-2). I am certain that 2023 will be filled with uncharted waters, it can be disquieting, we don’t really know what will happen or what storms may come, but we must try to remember He (GOD) is with us. Whatever the new year brings, we need to thank God, because in all things HE is with us. Let us rejoice, being able to see a new day and a new year that will soon be upon us, that God is with all our new days and our soon-to-be new year.