Is Violence our Religion?
What religion is most dominant in the world? Is Islam on the rise accompanied by its US shadow Islamaphobia? Is Christianity flying high with curving right wing? Is it atheism? Buddhism ? No. Truthfully, it’s the religion of violence: our belief that war (with...
Aldo Chiri-an engineering Quaker
Aldo Chiri, 21 years old, is studying engineering at the Main Campus of San Andres University. He is in his third year, and expects to graduate in 2014. “This semester I’m studying the complex Variables in Calculus, Differential Equations, Basic Advanced Physics...
Divine Chemistry
In high school I avoided chemistry as much as I refused to eat kale. But most teens don’t understand what’s good for them. I guess I couldn’t get past the chemistry of Scarlett and Rhett. What I never knew was how the falling leaves is all about chemistry. The...
Witch New Year?
Halloween is first seen in the 1500s as a Scottish version of All-Hallows-Evening. Centuries before that, the Celtics called the festival Samhain, a term meaning ‘summer’s end.’ Christians began observing All Saints’ Day on November 1 in 837. By the 1100s many...
Poems for a Forecast
WINTER Cold, spiny. Wind that sucks the sap from your skin The sky itself is frozen blue Yet i am safe while i can light one soft candle My mind can burrow further than the cold can freeze My eye can dance on the ice even when i dare not open the door. For the...
Forgiveness after Murder
Kim Odom is a friend who lost her 13-year-old son because of a drive by killing. She speaks openly about the pain and need for forgiveness in order to help others. She, and a group called Mothers for Justice and Equality are looking at how do you offer curricula to...
For-Give-ing to Whom?
There’s 3 types of forgiving. The first type comes like a sharp pebble in your shoe. Usually I wiggle it around a bit, I tap my shoe trying to shift the stone so I doesn’t poke me. This pebble is when I’ve said something unkind, or maybe when I’ve ignored someone who...
Four deaths and a Bird
The hot summer gusts bow to a rain squall. A hard rain pours into the ground and the air is sharp and ivory. A bluebird flickers among the cedar tree out my window. His eye like a wet stone, fixes on a reality I cannot know. Boston has seen humid days, but the sultry...
Bolivian Messenger of Music
Mabel Lourdes Mena Fonseca is a 29 year old Aymara Quaker living in El Alto, Bolivia. Mabel plays the ancient Andean flutes, las sampoñas. Like many Quakers in Bolivia she is poised to use all her talents for the good of her people. Here is her story: Do you want to...
When murder is Holy Ground ?
In July humidity hits you like a wall of heavy cream. This July floods, flash storms, and droughts abound. Heaven, please pour down on us. We live in dangerous times. In that spirit six of us arranged our lives to walk for a few hours near Franklin Park. We prayed at...