Messages

  • Demanding Representation for Women

    “It wasn’t easy because I had a young child and we were separated. I couldn’t hold him in my arms. But I think what kept me going was the belief that I was contributing to something that would change for our people: demanding that we get a better education, demanding that we get the right to vote, demanding that we were citizens in our country. And as somebody who had to overcome not only racial discrimination in my country, but also gender discrimination, we demanded that women should be present in large enough numbers in the peace talks, in the structures that were writing our constitution.”

  • All Men and Women Are Created Equal

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men and women are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

  • What to Do When Everything’s Not Going to Be Alright

    “With the change of leadership here in the US, many people are scared. They are facing threats to their security, their health, and their freedom and looking toward an uncertain future. They find themselves in “an ocean of darkness,” as George Fox wrote, though he also wrote that “an infinite ocean of light,” of God’s love, flowed over the ocean of darkness. Our faith does not tell us we will not face challenges, but that we can trust in the guidance of Spirit to show us how to love one another in ways that make a difference.”

  • Quotes by Quaker Women

    April 2025: This is a collection of quotes by Quaker Women. We learn from the wisdom of 400 years of ministry from women and folx with marginalized genders and identities. We read about the inspiring lives of Quaker martyrs, mystics, and leaders, and listen directly to people whose voices are not always heard.

  • The Children’s Meeting of 1663

    “‘The children’s meeting’ of 1663 is famous among Friends. In 1906, some Friends made a book about it, [a fictionalized account] told in the words of fourteen-year-old Judith, who was there in 1663.

    At the end of that first week, on Saturday, with their parents still in jail, Judith’s friend Maria came to visit and asked:

    ‘Who will gather the meeting tomorrow?'”

  • Winnie the Pooh and Grief

    “One day Winnie the Pooh went to visit his friend Rabbit. Rabbit, always the consummate host, offered Pooh some honey which Pooh gladly accepted. Pooh, true to form, ate rather too much honey and as he was leaving got stuck in Rabbit’s door. 

    Pooh was stuck half in and half out. He couldn’t go back in and he couldn’t get out. He was stuck so tight he couldn’t even sigh.

    (That’s what grief feels like for many people.)”

  • Whatever’s Been Uprooted, Let it Be Seedbed

    The plow has savaged this sweet field / Misshapen clods of earth kicked up / Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view / Last year’s growth demolished by the blade.

  • Your Pain is the Breaking of the Shell

    “Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

    Even as the stone of the fruit must break, that its heart may stand in the sun, so must you know pain.

    And could you keep your heart in wonder at the daily miracles of your life, your pain would not seem less wondrous than your joy.”

  • We Were Made for Joy and Woe

    Man was made for Joy & Woe;
    And when this we rightly know
    Thro’ the World we safely go.
    Joy & Woe are woven fine,
    A Clothing for the Soul divine;
    Under every grief & pine
    Runs a joy with silken twine.

  • A Seasonal Perspective

    “Night and day are a continuum. Our planet is constantly turning day into night, and back again to day, with some of the loveliest times being dawn and evening, when it is not sharply either day or night. Our planet is seasonal. Winter gives way to spring, to summer, to autumn, and back to winter. Our lives, too, are seasonal and cyclical.”

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