Quaker Decision Making

 Quakers come to decisions by "discernment"- which involves listening to the inner voice and taking due note of what everybody concerned has to say.  It can take time. 

We try not to argue. 

And we try not to demonise any person or opinion. One of our key texts (though no Quaker text is accorded the weight of "Scripture") is this-  that we should "look for that of God in everyone." 

Natural leaders emerge within a Meeting but no-one is set above anyone else. Each Member's opinion counts. If there is disagreement then the matter should be set aside until a common mind can be reached. Forcing a decision through in the teeth of opposition is most unQuakerly.

When the Meeting is asked to decide whether a certain decision has its approval the proper form for showing assent is "I hope so,"- which allows for the possibility that with the best will in the world the Meeting and the individual may have got it wrong. 

I Love My Pigeons But.....

 I have a clever gadget- a sort of scraper on a pole- that allows me to clean the gutters from an upstairs window. This needs doing regularly because pigeons.

I had a go this morning in the rain. I figured that in wet conditions the mud and grass would turn to a kind of soup that would be easier to shift. I wasn't wrong.

But I've made a frightful mess and all that side of the house- indoors as well as outdoors- now stinks of guano.

Writing For The Sake Of Writing

 Yesterday morning we woke to mist on the low ground but the full Moon beaming from a clear sky. It was a super Moon I'm informed. Afterwards we had a lovely clear day and I let the grass dry a little in the sun and then I cut it. In the afternoon we sat out on the patio and drank tea with Terry who is giving up his apartment and leaving some suitcases with us while he decides where to go next. I like to sit out on the patio in Spring and Autumn but not so much in summer.

This morning we woke to rain and I cleared out the gutters (see previous post) but  the rain cleared off and the sun came out and I planted daffodil bulbs until I decided I'd had enough of it. My project for this Autumn (I've just decided) is to fill the furthest part of the lawn with daffodils- my favourite flower. This afternoon I spent more time on the patio and drank tea and read some random poems from my Collected Kipling. He wrote so many and I keep finding ones I don't know. and which- at least when I'm reading them- seem to belong among his best. Did he ever publish anything in verse that wasn't, at the very least, clever and well-turned?