“When all comes to all, the most precious element in life is wonder. Love is a great emotion and power is power but both love and power are based on wonder. Plant consciousness, insect consciousness, fish consciousness, animal consciousness, all are related by one permanent element, which many called the religious element in all life, even in a flea: the sense of wonder. That is our sixth sense. And it is the natural religious sense.”

“Rather than ceding the major holidays to corporate America, I believe that it is time to reclaim them. Starting with Thanksgiving. We are a nation that is over-worked to the point of exhaustion. We are a people desperately in need of Sabbath. Sunday was once widely reserved as a time of rest and worship, but now it is considered fair game by many employers. Even those of us who are privileged enough to be exempted from working weekends have largely lost the rest that our ancestors once knew. If we do not spend our weekends putting in extra hours on our electronic devices, we are out shopping, chauffeuring kids around, and generally catching up on all the unpaid work that we had to defer during the week.”

“Many years ago, I was present at a monthly meeting for business seeking to discern whether to hold worship on Thanksgiving morning. Thinking of all the work I would be facing that morning, my contribution to the discussion was, ‘You all can go ahead and worship Thanksgiving morning, but I will be home baking pies.’ As soon as the words left my mouth, I felt humiliated. How could I make such an unworshipful comment? Wouldn’t Friends think me a bad Quaker for prioritizing pies over worship? After the business meeting, many Friends responded to my comment. To my surprise, none scolded me. Instead, many seemed astonished that anyone knew how to bake homemade pies anymore. Reverently, they said, ‘You bake pies?'”

It’s been a little over two years since we embarked on this journey to give Quakers a platform in the digital age. We believe Quakers have something to offer in the 21st century, and by telling our stories and exploring our practices, we can both deepen and broaden the modern Quaker movement.

“Gratefulness is the key to a happy life that we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy — because we will always want to have something else or something more.”

“A dreadful alarm of fire in the night on our premises; but through the unspeakable goodness of Providence, it was got under without any material damage.  O, how do I desire to be made thankful enough for this renewed instance of divine preservation! But alas! I feel so poor and exhausted, both in mind and body, that I fear my gratitude is not enough lively and fervent: yet a little hope revives my drooping soul that our merciful Creator, who knows the weakness of our frame, will be pleased to accept the integrity of my heart.”

“Our lives are in the hand of a kind Providence, to give or take away; and I desire we may be helped to be thankful for his dispensations. I wonder my days are thus prolonged; but amidst afflictions, I have cause to be thankful for many mercies. We have an unwearied enemy, who seeks to draw us aside; and if he cannot by great things, he will by little ones.”

“After some weeks of practicing gratitude, I found that a spiritual joy was growing in my heart. Being thankful made me more fully aware of the great love and gifts God was continually giving me. How wonderful! Glorious! To know that God was so close, constant and loving. That feeling of the joy of God’s love became the bedrock of my emotions.”

“If it’s truly gratitude, I’m not sure if there is a dark side. [Everyone] has the opportunity to access gratitude, no matter where they are in life. […] I think gratitude pairs well with humility; it counters that smugness or arrogance you mention. I also think it’s important to recognize gratitude most importantly for those things that are not possessions: family, friends, relationships, community.”

“Instead of waking up in the morning and thinking about what feels bad and wrong, what I am striving toward and what I don’t have yet, I’m going to focus on what feels good and right, what I am blessed to experience and humbled to witness.”

“I believe I may say that, in a retrospect of my complaints, I have scarcely, if ever, dared to desire that things had been ordered for me other-wise than they have been. I am ready to be surprised, that so unworthy a creature has hitherto been preserved in the degree of composure which I have been permitted to experience.”

“Most of us have known some degree of real suffering or sorrow. Even those of us who have led a seemingly charmed life have seen the suffering of others or known the very real sorrow of a dear loved one who has lost all or nearly all, or some who live in a near constant fear of death, physical, spiritual or emotional. It is not pretty. How then is it that we could, or should be expected to be thankful?”

“One of the most vivid experiences [of individual worship] on my part was sitting quietly for at least an hour before a picture by the Dutch painter Vermeer, and absorbing its sheer beauty… The room was crowded with people, but I was oblivious of them, as I was equally oblivious of the passage of time. As a result of this act of concentration the vision of this particular masterpiece is indelibly stamped on my mind which has forever been enriched by it. I know that my ordinary acts of seeing and observation have been sharpened by that experience. There was drawn from me an acknowledgement of the greatness of the artist and his painting and I caught, with awe, the light of his inspiration and creativeness. Further, something was given to me that I can only describe as, literally, a transcending of the normal everyday world. This quite simple secular act was for me a truly worshipful experience.”

“Worship is the response of the human spirit to the presence of the divine and eternal, to the God who first seeks us. The sense of wonder and awe of the finite before the infinite leads naturally to thanksgiving and adoration.”