Journal

Living the undivided life

Integrity is one of the primary Friends testimonies. For years, I have understood that testimony of integrity to essentially mean, “Let your walk match your talk.” That certainly is a worthy and noble goal. Great damage is done to our witness when we live lives that are duplicitous.

Lessons from the garden

This growing season celebrates the 15th Anniversary of the Compassion Garden at our Meetinghouse. This garden project will not last forever at Winchester Friends, but I am thankful for the years I’ve had and the lessons I’ve learned from urban gardening in the middle of Winchester, Indiana.

Ask Tom: on leadership

How have Quaker ideas about leadership changed over time? Do Quakers have leaders? Do Quakers want leaders?

Along the Way

For the fourth of July, my son and I took a short road trip to Mounds State Park in Anderson, IN. We had put this trip off for far too long. The rainclouds followed us to the park, and we both decided we didn’t care—the rain was warm and the thick forest kept much of the water off of us. 

Messy heart

Coming home after a long day of running errands, during which I felt like a captive spectator of the Rudeness Parade, I breathed a sigh of relief. Here there would be no disgruntled post office patron huff-puffing about the queue, no crazed driver nearly t-boning me in the street, nobody screaming profanities at restaurant management for a shortage of free tortilla chips. Peace at last!

Water on the wrong side