A Quaker Meeting for Worship
in a Quaker meeting for worship,
there is first an expectation of quiet stillness,
within which those present work to settle selves,
to open to thoughts arising from the center,
where all of our hearts meet,
and from which we can labor together
to open ourselves to the depths and to the heights
from which the Spirit can speak to the best within us,
we can then share Light with our words
that might illuminate a bit of the elusive shape
that aches to be noticed, to be appreciated, to be seen,
it is as if all of us are in a dark wood,
and don't yet see the path forward,
until we add the glimmer we perceive
to the glimmers other perceive,
the presence, the shape, the direction of the path
starts to find itself real before us,
a Quaker meeting for worship is not like
revelation on a mountain where incised stone tablets are given to us,
instead, it is more like that old story
of a group of blind people working to perceive an elephant,
and each can only touch the part of the elephant before them,
in the Quaker meeting today we sought to see,
to remember, to appreciate a person we all loved,
one who is gone from our physical reality
but who is still very present
in the reality within which our hearts live,
each person today, standing, speaking,
helped a bit of the shape of Adrian's being
to be understood: seen, treasured, missed,
the elephant still beyond the fullness of our perception,
but the leadings of the words, together, shout of her truth.
by Henry H. Walker
June 14, ‘26
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