Letters - 25 March 2016
From God to conflict in Meetings
What is God?
In her devotional anthology, A Month with Isaac Penington, Beatrice Saxon Snell quotes from Penington’s Some Questions and Answers:
‘Question: What is God?
‘Answer: The fountain of beings and natures, the inward substance of all that appears.’
I find this beautiful and awe-inspiring and want to share it as widely as possible!
Harvey Gillman
Open to new light?
‘Are you open to new light, from whatever source it may come?’ Quaker faith & practice 1.02.7
A friend of mine on death row in Arizona with whom I exchange letters recently introduced me to the Navajo term Hózhó. He wrote: ‘It means beauty surrounding one – beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty on my left, beauty on my right, beauty above me, beauty below me, beauty within me. This is how one is supposed to view life, to live life. Hózhó.’
In order to learn more, I searched for Hózhó on the internet and read: ‘Hózhó is a Navajo word that means “walking in beauty” – or living in a manner that strives to create and maintain balance, harmony, beauty and order. Hózhó is similar to, but much richer in meaning than, the term “conservation” as it implies a deep connection between people and land.’
Many thoughts come to mind but any further comment from me would, I feel, be superfluous.
Don Mason
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