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  • Knitting Retreat at Woolman Hill

    In a previous post I described the knitting retreat I’m leading at Woolman Hill Nov. 4–6. (You can download a flyer with registration form there.)

    I don’t have a very firm plan yet, but it will probably go something like this:

    Friday evening:

    • collecting ourselves in the present with some silence
    • invite people to take out their knitting (if they haven’t already)
    • introduce myself and the retreat center, outline my plan for the weekend
    • ask each person to tell us what they like to be called and share one thing they hope for from the weekend (I’ll encourage people to go slowly around the circle, giving space between each person’s speaking to really hear what they share. This is pretty standard Quaker technique, and I expect to encourage it throughout the weekend unless it turns out not to sit well with the participants. I will have some discernment time after the session to consider any adjustments to the schedule based on people’s hopes.)

    Saturday morning session 1 (optional, 1/2 hour, no knitting):

    • brief introduction to Quaker worship<
    • Quaker worship

    Saturday morning session 2 (knitting and conversation):

    • as we knit, go around the cirlcle and tell what we’re working on
    • break
    • show and tell our resources, ask for help on any knitting problems we’re trying to solve

    Saturday afternoon session (knitting in silence):

    • ask people to knit together in silence for a period of time (I’ll need to get a feel for how people feel about silence in order to decide how long. 1/2 hour to an hour.)
    • break
    • discussion about what it was like to knit together in silence (probably encourage them not to knit; perhaps split them into small groups)

    Free time Saturday afternoon

    Saturday evening (sharing our knitting):

    • ask people to reflect and share on what about knitting is (or isn’t) spiritual for them
    • break
    • ?? encourage people to seek out one or two others they’d like to talk with and move chairs into small groups
    • ?? closing silence or epilogue (prepared reflection, maybe a song)

    Sunday morning: meeting for worship (optional) 1 hour

    Sunday morning session (knitting together, content tbd)

  • Desert photos

    These photos were taken here (Midway Wells doesn’t seem to be searchable, but that’s that intersection there; you’ll have to zoom out a few notches to be able to see satellite photos).

    West

    Northwest

    North

    And these were taken from here.

    Summitnorthwest

    Summitnorth

    Summitnortheast

    Summiteast

    Summitsoutheast

    And of course, I grew up here, just west of the dunes.

  • Beth Stroud on the nature of a call to ministry

    Check out this UCC blogger: Chuck Currie: Beth Stroud And The Call To Ministry. He comments on a sermon preached by Beth Stroud, a lesbian United Methodist minister currently appealing the revocation of her credentials. Here’s a snippet. (He includes a link to the whole sermon.)

    It’s taken me a while to learn that my calling is not about me. It’s still often hard to remain clear about that. It’s not about my gifts and potential, and it’s not about my limitations, either. It’s always about a need or a hurt in the world that God has seen, a cry that God has heard, and what God intends to do about it.

  • Visiting Brawley

    I flew home to California to see my family at the end of last week, and I took a few pictures to give an idea of where I grew up. Here are a few pictures taken just a few miles west of my parents’ home (they live in town).

    Westofbrawley

    Hayfield

    Haystack

    This photo was taken driving east toward the Chocolate Mountains. You can see the Algodones Sand Dunes just before the mountains.

    Towardschocolates

    Here’s the lifeblood of Imperial Valley:

    Irrigationditch

    And here’s my family:

    Joycekennethwalt

    Me with my parents.

    Kellysteverussell

    My sister, brother-in-law, and nephew.

  • Wrist distaff

    I made this wrist distaff by crocheting single-ply yarn spun on a top-whorl drop spindle.

    Wristdistaff

    (click on thumbnail for larger image)

  • Tropical Storm KENNETH

    At the National Weather Service Hurricane Center: Tropical Storm KENNETH is in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Who knew I was on the list!

  • The Anvil of the World by Kage Baker

    Kage Baker’s Company series is one of my favorites. (Time travel, cyborgs, mysterious mysteries with hints and revelations doled out book-by-book. Not for everyone, but then that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla.)

    My friend Barbara also likes the Company novels, and didn’t like The Anvil of the World, a fantasy number. On that poor recommendation, I put off reading it for a long time, even though I owned it. I recently did read it (I forget now when–probably after we returned from Canada.) I liked it ok, but it’s definitely on the juvenile side. (It’s not for juveniles, because it’s quite salacious in parts, but the humor is pretty juvenile.)

    Baker has a knack for the bizarre, and she gives it free rein here. I’d say try her Company novels first (in order!), and if you like her check this one out of the library. (Same for her short story collections, some of which are hard to find.)

  • Soul at Work by Margaret Benefiel

    A member of my meeting has a new book out. Today is “Amazon day”, when she’s encouraging people to buy the book from Amazon (to boost rank). Margaret will donate $1 for each book purchased today to Grayston Family Support Services, one of the organizations profiled in the book.

    As some of you know, the book features stories of people and organizations (businesses, health care, and non-profits) who integrate soul into their work (where soul at work is not a theological abstraction, but a way of being and doing). The stories are interwoven with principles of spiritual discernment and spiritual growth, with the aim of giving practical help to all who want their workplaces to be more life-giving. The principles and practices apply broadly (to Meetings and families and schools, for example, as well as to the types of organizations featured in the book).

  • The bull in the china shop

    Here’s what the Guardian has to say about the upcoming UN summit: World summit on UN’s future heads for chaos.

    The British government is mounting a huge diplomatic effort this weekend to prevent the biggest-ever summit of world leaders, designed to tackle poverty and overhaul the United Nations, ending in chaos. . . .

    Ricardo Alarcon, speaker of the Cuban parliament, whose hopes of attending the summit along with President Fidel Castro were dashed when he was denied a visa by the US, said in Havana the summit “has been totally devalued, its original purpose kidnapped”. . . .

    Mr Bolton has so far made only one significant concession, dropping his demand for the term “millennium development goals” to be deleted.

    But Mr Bolton said the US will not renew a promise to pay 0.7% of gross domestic product towards aid, regarded as necessary for meeting the millennium development goals.

    Controls on arms is likely to be dropped. But agreement is almost certain on creation of the human rights council. A deal could be reached on the peace-building commission, in spite of disagreements over who should run it.

    There is a divide over the definition of terrorism, with pro-Palestinian states objecting that the proposed terminology be amended to exclude Palestinian fighters.

    The most significant reform, expansion of the 15-member security council to about 25 members, has been shelved until at least December.

    What really got me was the part about the US denying a visa to the speaker of the Cuban parliament. This summer at least two Cuban Friends were denied visas to attend Quaker gatherings. What a foolish and shortsighted situation.

  • Montréal to Boston

    On our drive home we decided on the spur of the moment to visit the Bread and Puppet Museum in Glover, Vermont. It was time for us to have lunch, so we stopped at the general store in Glover. Generous deli sandwiches. And stuffed animals. Lots of them. One aisle has freezer cases on one side, shelves of chips on the other, and a row of deer down the middle. One of the deer is being attacked by a small bobcat. In another room is a moose. Sorry, no photos.

    The Bread and Puppet Museum is in an old barn. It is a surreal space, packed to the rafters (literally) with puppets of all sorts.

    Musicpuppets

    Sewingpuppet

    Ironingpuppet

    Museumceiling

    Domesticinsurrection

    the WHY CHEAP ART? manifesto

    PEOPLE have been THINKING too long that
    ART is a PRIVILEGE of the MUSEUMS & the
    RICH. ART IS NOT BUSINESS!
    It does not belong to banks & fancy investors
    ART IS FOOD. You cant EAT it BUT it FEEDS
    you. ART has to be CHEAP & available to
    EVERYBODY. It needs to be EVERYWHERE
    because it is the INSIDE of the
    WORLD.

    ART SOOTHES PAIN!
    Art wakes up sleepers!
    ART FIGHTS AGAINST WAR & STUPIDITY!
    ART SINGS HALLELUJA!
    ART IS FOR KITCHENS!
    ART IS LIKE GOOD BREAD!
    Art is like green trees!
    Art is like white clouds in blue sky!
    ART IS CHEAP!
    HURRAH!

    Bread & Puppet Glover, Vermont, 1984