Family

Raising Quaker Youth

It would seem that writing about raising Quaker youth would be an easy undertaking, especially as my husband Rick and…

1967 Friends World Conference: A Youthful Recollection

My sister Jane and I bumped our suitcases down the stairs from our bedrooms on the second floor and headed…

On Being a Grandmother

Everyone said just wait—being a grandmother is the most wonderful thing in the world. I thought to myself: yeah, yeah…whatever!…

A Sacred Walk: Parenting as a Way to God

Nothing has taught me more about the constancy of God’s presence and continuing creation than being a parent. From the…

Circle Time

I loved it when we would sit down to have Circle Time. First we would light the candles so we…

Children, War, Play, Violence (and Barbies)

When I started out on the adventure of parenting, I assumed that I was too smart and enlightened to have…

Thinking about Faithfulness

In 1986 I was a mother of young children, struggling, with my husband, to make ends meet on his salary…

Could Any Friend Really Understand what It Feels Like for a Quaker Mom to have a Child who Is a Soldier?

Though I grew up and then served as pastor in a different denomination, I’ve been a lifelong pacifist, culminating in…

The Wandering Leadings of the Spirit

A great swoop over my head, and a steady beat of wings. Suddenly a dark shape banks, turns, and disappears…

Moses and the Tantrum

If everything worked perfectly, we would be only five minutes late, I told myself as I hurried my two-year-old daughter…

The Civil War Swords

They came to us, my husband and me, in 1977, after my mother-in-law died. Long ago she had laid them…

The Need for Radical Acceptance

I’m a 26-year-old African American Quaker. There are parts of my life that seem typical to the lives of young…
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