Thoughts on the Journey

Tomorrow afternoon, evening and part of Wednesday, I'm going to be spending at dodger_sister's. The plan is watching movies, talking mainly about writing, dinner and taking full advantage of the delicious AC in her place. I was feeling better today but my rather nice dinner ended up not staying where it should, I'm not happy. My sleep schedule's off again, last night I didn't get to sleep until six and the night before my coughing woke me up at six. Tonight I hope for a fairly solid night's sleep, though the fact the weather's gotten hotter again probably will make it trickier.

Good things have been happening, I figured out what I need to do for canceling various services before moving, I had a fantastic conversation with my family. My parents are babysitting my nieces and my sister is down there as well, that meant the phone conversation was full of everything. The nieces talked about Wonderstruck, my sister raved about her Mac, she's finally getting actually digitally connected, books with my father and just general health and planning with both parents. It's weird to think that they'll be here in about a week and by August I'll be out of Michigan. For context, my sister is in her older 40s and she's had email and access to computers but it never really stuck for her. This has worried me and my family as she's wanted to change jobs and it seemed like things were passing her by, but she sounded excited and asked for my help. I look forward to what I can do for her. A lot of things in her life have been moving forward and it makes me so happy to see it. Oh and I've been acquiring some good music of late, a Wallflowers' cd, Tori Amos' To Venus and Back, The Dark Knight soundtrack, that one's fully adiva_calandia and lienne's fault <33s and then one called Songs of the Civil War with a lot of good artists I know. I'm going to be enjoying a few of these on my drive tomorrow and at other points.

This coming week is going to be quite chaotic with Art Fair and many shifts, which is why I'm going for a break. I'll have my laptop and phone, so will definitely be doing some tagging, I just won't be on as much as I normally am.

If you'd like five topics just comment with five or something like that for me.

Now for the last round of five topics, this time from innerbrat:

1. Children's literature.
I love children's literature from picture books to young adult stuff. It's amazing how much the concept of children's literature has changed since I was a girl in the 80s, 90s to now in terms of adding depth and quality. There are fantastic authors who are reaching out to connect with their readers, publishers doing the same and kids going YES back at them. I love seeing how my nieces have reading as a part of their life and I hope in my professional life to become someone kids know they can trust about books they like and want to read. When I was young, I read children's books and grown up books, everything I could find and I had librarians who helped me figure out my way. That's why I want to be a librarian, I also love getting to explore books as part of my life and the constantly growing world of children's literature.

2. Friendship
I consider myself a loyal friend and feel blessed for all my friends from those I've met to those I haven't. To me being a friend means doing what I can to support someone however I can, sometimes that means not doing anything. My oldest friend is someone who our mother's met while pregnant and our birthdays are both in June. Mine at the start, hers at the end and we've been close since elementary school. When we were younger, we always seemed like almost mirror images to me. She was the oldest in her family with two younger brothers and the house full of all the toys, cable and sweet snacks, I was the youngest with two older brothers and an older sister and parents who watched my television watching and had healthy food. Though I did get sneaky with the TV and they finally gave up trying to cut me off after I learned how to plug it in and they realized I read as much as I watched.

Now this friend and I have stayed in touch all over the world, she moved when we were both in high school but we're constantly visiting each other and calling and texting. I know that no matter what she's there. Then there's all the Milliways' friends and friends of friends who form my other network that I love and hope to get to see when I'm back on the East Coast. Life is short and friends make it sweet and rich.

3. Textures
Textures aren't something I'm constantly thinking about, but I'm always aware of. I play with my jewelery, touching my earrings, twisting my ring and bracelets, thinking about what's there. At the moment, I'm wearing a long silk skirt that feels light and cool and sandals that I can feel supporting my tired feet. My lips are cracked as I fiddle with them and my hair is feeling light and not heavy as I washed it yesterday.

4. Changeling
I don't recall which came first reading Charles de Lint or playing Changeling: the Dreaming, but both of them hold my idea of magic in the world. Magic where it's just out of the corner of your eyes, complicated and itself, you will be changed by it and it by you. The roleplaying games I've been proudest of running were Changeling ones. The LARP and tabletop that I ran at college, my players had their dramas but we had some great adventures. That was where I learned the great lesson of don't plan too much and trust the creativity of those around you, it's served me quite well so far.

Tiwa, piwakawaka my glorious fantail pooka is one of my favorite characters to play as she's a part of me. She's my creativity, my love of New Zealand and the teacher part of me all out there in the world and going, I want to know and explore and fly. The kind of stories I want to tell and write are those of magic just at the corner of your eye that gives you wings and shows you your possibility.

5. Faith
My faith is fairly simple. I was raised in the Swarthmore Monthly Meeting, which meets every Sunday in a lovely building with odd green cushions and paint on the edge of the Swarthmore campus. I spent my childhood going to First Day School, Quaker Sunday School, got marigolds on Easter, played in the pageant and after every meeting, spent time with wonderful people. One of the traditions of this meeting is after the Sunday meeting, there's brunch and everyone talks and laughs and you feel the community. That's the root of my faith, the joy of being with people, walking through lilacs and knowing that God is everywhere. I've addressed God with many names in my travels and felt his touch from Pennsylvania to jewel box churches in Greece to by the water in Wellington or with family. Faith to me means that we're all connected and have something rather strange inside us that says, yes, there is more.

I hope these answers make sense, I ended up being rather philosophical.

One thing I always enjoy about Easter is learning about everyone's various traditions and rituals because as a Quaker growing up we didn't have too many. The main Quaker rituals of my childhood for holidays were getting a marigold on Easter and the holiday pageant.

As I'm applying for private school jobs and finding ones connected to Quaker schools, I keep thinking of how even though I'm not currently a member of a meeting, I consider myself a Quaker. Another more formal name that gets used by the larger Quaker organizations is the Society of Friends, but Quaker is the better known one especially the farther you get from Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. I've found it interesting how one reason I define myself as a Quaker is how often I've spoken about it to people who don't know much of Quakerism as in Pennsylvania, it's quite well known and a major part of the state's history. Both my parents converted to Quakerism when they were adults while for me, Quakerism is something that's a part of my identity that I grew up with and I hope to join a meeting when I next move.

Today feels like the right day to try and write about how I see myself as a Quaker and what role it takes in my life. The basic principles of being Quaker and the ones that I hold dear are that there is the light of God in everyone, that there is no need for an intermediary between you and God and that each soul is precious which makes war something that we need to stop doing. There are other ones but these are the ones that I come back to in my daily thoughts as a Quaker.

In terms of practice, what these mean are the Quakers are active in peace making throughout the world and though some Quakers have fought, many of them are pacifists and conscientious objectors. Silent worship, which is what I grew up practicing at the Swarthmore Meeting is fairly simple, a Quaker meeting begins with clerks going through the daily business, sometimes there's a singing and then silence into which people choose to speak. When I was younger, I attended First Day school as opposed to Sunday school, it's the same general idea but the naming comes from something called the plain calendar. This is something I actually just found out the reason for because growing up all I knew was I went to First Day school not Sunday school. Before I was about thirteen which was when I became a full member of the meeting, I would to First Day school for the first half of meeting and then sit with my parents for the last fifteen minutes. Then after meeting, there would be a friendly gathering in another room of the meeting house. These various gatherings and the lack of ritual define my own ideas about my own spirituality, that its about community, I can connect to God anywhere and to the inner light of others.

I hope this all makes sense as I feel that my thoughts are a little scattered. Please feel free to ask questions in the comment and I'll try to answer them. Some good resources for more detailed questions can be found here on the Friends General Council site where they answer some frequently asked questions. To end I'm going to leave you with a beautiful quote I found that captures a lot of what I love about being a Quaker.

It would go a great way to caution and direct people in the use of the world, that they were better studied and known in the Creation of it. For how could Man find the Confidence to abuse it, while they shoud see the Great Creator stare them in the face, in all and every part thereof?

- William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1692