Hi all, I wanted to send a short note to thank you all for your notes, thoughts, and prayers for my dad and our family. I mentioned last week that he had a massive heart attack last Thursday. He is still in ICU and not out of the woods yet,
Continue reading →Friendship is a Spiritual Practice Hey all – it’s been a cold and rainy week here in the American South. I’ve worn my wool socks, boots, and gloves several times. I’m trying to accept it as it comes. Speaking of accepting things as they come, my wife, Emily,
Continue reading →This is a sermon on Friendship I shared with First Friends meeting on 2023-04-23. This text is based on the story known as the “Walk to Emmaus” in Luke 24:13-35. Why Did We Choose Loneliness? In a recent episode of The Ezra Klein Show titled “The ‘Quiet Catastrophe’ Brewing
Continue reading →Friends, As I mentioned in the weekly chat, it’s been quiet here because the family and I took a little vacation to our favorite beach here in NC, and then I took a trip to Philadelphia this past weekend. There’s not much to report from the vacation, just
Continue reading →I want to share the sermon I preached on April 15, 2023, for the American Friends Service Committee’s annual gathering in Philadelphia. Each year AFSC gathers for business, workshops, and community building. During this time, they have a programmed worship service as a part of their time together. This
Continue reading →Three Palm-Sunday Processionals That Show the Way Hello Friends, I hope that you found rest and restoration with the past weekend and are finding hope amidst so many tragedies, from the natural ones to the human-made ones. Particularly on my mind are the transgender bans running rampant across the country,
Continue reading →I have a little trick, it’s kind of silly, but it helps me when I’m in trouble. I do it whenever my attitude isn’t great or I feel resistant about something I have to do. I call it the “hat trick.” While I consider myself to be
Continue reading →Is Imitation Better than the Real Thing? The sermon this Sunday at our meeting was on the topic of belonging. It was a great message that I’m still thinking about. Belonging is a topic I’ve written about some in the past and think about often. I have also
Continue reading →Content warning: Mention and discussion about suicide. Yesterday I went to the record store with my wife and 10 year old son C to work on building my collection. I love visiting record stores not only because I love music but because of the memories encased in dust jackets. I
Continue reading →Fire-Flowers And only where the forest fires have sped, Scorching relentlessly the cool north lands, A sweet wild flower lifts its purple head, And, like some gentle spirit sorrow-fed, It hides the scars with almost human hands. And only to the heart that knows of grief, Of desolating fire, of
Continue reading →In my last post, I wrote about Natalie Ramsland’s zine-making Quaker Project, Fold in the Light. It’s fresh, original, and inspiring. But I left out an aside I wanted to share here: One of the zines she included in the mail sent to me is of a Quaker
Continue reading →A few weeks back, I got some mail from someone I didn’t know. As I opened it, these cute little booklets fell out, and a letter addressed to me: Hello, Mr. Daniels. The letter writer, Pacific Northwest Quaker Natalie Ramsland, told me a little about how she came into
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