A parent of one of my daughter's friends recently found out we attend Quaker meeting and exclaimed "You can't be Quaker!" I didn't have the time to get into a deeper conversation about this impression ("Can too!" "Can Not!" "Yuh-HUH!" "NUH-UHH!") but it got me reflecting on how I was able to navigate the journey from childhood Episcopalian to h
I’m just getting out of a 5-hour long meeting for business of Adult Young Friends, a Friends General Conference group for Quakers between the ages of 18 and 35. They’re wrestling with a tough issue that has the community in constant tears. But they’re doing it in a productive, spiritual Quakerly manner, which has been lost in many venues of Friends.
At its heart is babies. Beca
For the last few months I have been working like a dog to try to get a large body of work that would represent me in an exhibition in November at the Elliott Fouts Gallery.I have been able to post a few paintings on ebay but because my effort has been on the show I have not sold many paintings on ebay. I intend to do some smaller pieces this month.In my latest venture, this large canvas of an old
The free Quaker Simple Harvest sample is live again, so get in on it while it lasts! I posted this back in January, but they’ve since updated the freebie options to include your choice of either a dark chocolate chunk granola bar or a maple brown sugar with pecans hot cereal packet. Personally, I’m going [...]
If you live in a warm climate, you may have noticed a big flock of noisy gray and green parrots flying about. These birds are Quaker parrots, a popular pet for many bird lovers. Because Quakers are so hardy, they have colonized in quite a few spots, including Florida and California. These little guys can really do some damage to your local farm crops. Concerns about crop destruction and competition with native birds have caused lawmakers to ban ownership of Quakers in quite a few areas. Before you decide to buy a Quaker, make sure these birds are legal in your area.The gregarious Quaker is a fairly good talker. While these birds do not have the mimicking ability of some of the large parrots, such as the African gray, they do develop large vocabularies fairly easily. One major drawback to t
An old friend who's known me for years emailed me to say that she was sure I was attracted to the Quaker Way because of the bonnets. Well, the fact is that I am a "hat" person but I had to laugh. Actually, the Quaker philosophy is new to me and is certainly something I plan to explore further--with or without a bonnet.The fact is that the more I thought about Parker J. Palmer's discussion with Friend elder Ruth, the more interesting I found it. What if...the bipolar "limitation" isn't a limitation at all but rather a potential?Marja from Roller Coaster and I probably agree on this (see her comment from my earlier post). What I mean is that for years I was proud of myself for persevering despite adversity. And I believe that one of the main reasons I felt this illness was an adversity--in addition to the psychic pain of the depressions--was because of its stigma.But what if being bipolar truly isn't a bad thing? What if God chooses us for this illness because we're more sensit
This is a continuation of yesterday's post and the quote is from Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer."Ruth's honesty gave me a new way to look at my vocational journey, and my experience has long since confirmed the lesson she taught me that day: there is as much guidance at what does not and cannot happen in life as there is in what can and does--maybe more."Palmer goes on to recount his background and then he says something that truly resonated with me. "Each of us arrives here with a nature, which means both limits and potentials. We can learn as much about our nature by running into our limits as by experiencing our potentials. That, I think, is what Ruth and life were trying to teach me."As I have reread Palmer's book, this passage is the one that I think about...over and over. What have I learned from the limits of bipolar mood disorder? What has this illness taught me about myself?
One of my new favorite authors is Parker J. Palmer, a writer, teacher, and activist, whom I've written about in an earlier post. The only book of his I've read (and reread) thus far is Let Your Life Speak, Listening for the Voice of Vocation (but I've ordered a few more books and will keep you updated).By the time Palmer was 35 years old, he'd changed careers a few times (He dropped out of seminary school to get a Ph.D. in sociology, left academia to become a community organizer, and returned to academia to teach students how to get involved in community organizing) but he still was floundering, which was why he was taking a sabbatical at Pendle Hill, a Quaker community.He writes: "But when I arrived and started sharing my vocational quandary, people responded with a traditional Quaker counsel that, despite their good intentions, left me more discouraged. "Have faith," they said, "and way will open."Palmer felt he did have faith, but that he was approaching middle age and was str
Wal Mart has an offer for some free Quaker Granola Bites up, but I want to talk about the picture on their site first. We’ve got an image of the freebie Quaker bites and then in the corner there’s a small shot of a girl with a soccer ball in the air. What’s that all about? How is that telling me anything about the product, much less getting me interested in signing up for it?! Am I supposed to be thinking, “Gee golly, if I get this free granola snack, I too can toss a soccer ball up in the air! Oh man, I so can’t wait to show gravity who’s boss now!”
[via Matt - thanks!]Technorati Tags: Wal Mart, Quaker, Granola, freebie
It's days like today that I thank God for people like Lisa Samson and her timing. I woke up feeling a little better this morning, so between chapters of her new book I worked on laundry and cleaning. I have to pick the kids up from the busstop at 4, and I always try to get out the door by 3:45 so they don't have to wait in the cold. I couldn't find the van keys anywhere. Jess had to move it yesterday so his dad could plow the driveway, so I thought maybe he left them in the ignition. Mia and I had to walk through 18" snowdrifts just to get to the van, and the sliding door was frozen shut. Mia climbed into the front and hopped in her seat, but no keys in the ignition. I ran back inside and searched everywhere (almost) while frantically calling Jess on the cell and his work number. By the time he answered, I screeched, "WHERE ARE THE KEYS?" To which my wonderful loving husband responded, "I didn't use them yesterday, and I made sure that I didn't have them today when I left." I yell
Brand : Quaker OatsCompany: Frito Lay ( Pepsi co) Brand Count : 122 Quaker Oats is the latest entry into the tough market of branded breakfast foods. Indian Branded Breakfast market is worth around Rs 300 crore. In volume terms it is 140000 tonnes. Oats market is worth around 4000 tonnes. After the Kellogg's foray in to the breakfast market in 1990, Quaker is the only high profile product launch in this segment. Kellogg's grew the market from 1000MT to around 3000MT through heavy spent in advertising. Now Kellogg's is ruling the breakfast market but yet to break even.Quaker's launch is significant because it comes from the Pepsi stable. With the marketing muscle and deep pocket, Will Pepsi be able to displace Idli from the Indian consumer's breakfast table ?All through this decade, Kellogg's has been trying to do that: changing Indian consumer' s breakfast habit. With high decibel promotion targeted at adults and kids alike, Kellogg's was able to make a mark in the Crispy Cornf
