Memphis Friends Meeting

Five year old Friend Walker recently said to his parents, “The meeting house feels like our second home.”  Home…a place where we can be comfortable, where we can be ourselves, where we can prepare ourselves and refresh ourselves to step out into the world to offer our gifts.  And sometimes…a burden.  But another Friend said it well:  We have been in the midst of bounty, and there is stress in dealing with this bounty.  At times when the responsibilities seem many and the business mundane, we can look with the eyes of a child, the eyes Jesus would have us look through, and find a perspective that fills us with awe.  We are awed at the gifts the building itself enables and how much it has been used.  One Friend reported that someone who just drives by our meeting house told her that she noted our presence as a good thing.   Two part-time mental health practices, classes offered by The Memphis School for Servant Leadership, retreats and meetings of our own group and of widerQuaker organizations, Quaker guests and sojourners, and four spiritual nurture groups gently led by Pat Jessup throughout the year have enriched us…gifts flow back and forth in surprising ways.  Yard work, repairs and renovations give us informal opportunity to brush shoulders with neighbors walking to and from the local grocery and post office.