Current News from
Western Quaker Meetings and beyond

QUNO Climate Actions at U.N.
from Detmer Kremer, Programme Assistant Human Impacts of Climate Change, QUNO (3/13/2020)

FWCC Sustainability Conference
from FWCC World Office (3/12/2020)

Information on Border Issues
from Vickie Aldrich and Kathy Kapenga, New Mexico Regional Meeting Registrars (2/28/2020)

Woolman School Designated Historic Landmark
from Sierra Friends Center (2/26/2020)

Uprooting Racism
from Peter Lin, SCM Newsletter Editor (2/24/2020)

Women’s Theology Conference 2020
from Joy Preston and the PNQWC Planning Committee (2/23/2020)

Medical Equipment Sharing Program
from LuRetta Fairman, Sacramento Friends Meeting Contact Information Clerk (2/11/2020)

Quaker Studies Program in Boulder
from Rebecca Morris, Boulder Friends Meeting (1/30/2020)

FCLCA Plans for 2020
from Jim Lindburg, Legislative Director, FCLCA (1/6/2020)

Ugandan Safe Transport
from David Albert, Friendly Water for the World (1/22/2020)

Emily Provance at Multnomah Meeting
from Joe Snyder, Multnomah Monthly Meeting (12/11/2019)

Intra-Visitation in IMYM
from Gale Toko Ross and Valerie Ireland, Co-Clerks of IMYM (12/9/2019)

U.S. Military and Climate Crisis
from Emily Wirzba and Alicia Cannon, FCNL (12/ 6/2019)

Browse the full archive of "Extra Extra" here.

Help out!  Click HERE!
Share your local Quaker news.
It's quick and easy!

If more Friends took just a couple minutes to share their short news items with Western Friend, I could produce Extra Extra more frequently and more quickly. A word of thanks from me go out here now to Joe Snyder and Rebecca Morris for sharing news with Extra Extra this time around. The rest of the news items in this edition were gleaned from my email inbox, which is not a pretty place to go gleaning . . .  Mary

The Breakdown

by Kayona Rose, Olympia Friends Meeting
 
There is beauty here
In the mess of it all.
Smashed and torn.
Wet with tears and clinging to hope.
 
This is where I've prayed for peace,
but haven't found it yet.
So, I bathe even deeper in the chaos.
Colors flood and waters surround.
This place has seen me before.
We are comrades.
 
My thoughts stir and the uncertainty rises.
I start to panic as I beg for serenity.
But then I remember,
I must first,
be here.
 
I make the most of my time in this place.
Splattered paint and scratched words.
I am known here.
My art lines the walls of rock.
I remember those tears.
They were worth it.
 
No matter how uncomfortable it can be here,
I still love it,
in a way.
Here is where my thoughts and emotions battle to make sense of their existence.
Longing to understand.
Here is where I become.
 
Good things come from this place.
After all, there is beauty in the breakdown.

Support Western Friend

Western Friend is a unique service for keeping Friends in the West connected with each other. About a third of our daily expenses are covered by donations from indivuduals like you. We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
Please give generously.