Medical uses of honey in the news

A number of Witches and other Pagans have used honey for a long time for an assortment of ailments, from helping to heal cuts/scratches/lacerations, to soothing coughs and sore throats, to supporting and stimulating the immune system.

Honey is in the news again for its use for medical purposes. Two main items: the FDA recently approved Medihoney products for the use in the US, and recent studies and articles indicate that honey is better than over-the-counter cough meds -- which are being investigated for safety issues -- for kids' coughs.

Go, Mother Nature.

Financial assistance for MWG

A message from one of our (FLGBTQC's) co-Clerks to the listserv:

Please send your requests for travel assistance for midwinter gathering to the co-clerks by January 10th. That way we can let you know the amount you will receive before the registration deadline of January 15th.

Please ask for a specific amount. We encourage folks to also ask their local meeting and/or yearly meeting for funds, although we know that those funds are not always available. Don't let financial concerns keep you away. There is money in the budget for travel and we love to give it away. While we give first preference to folks serving the community and first-time attenders, there is enough $ to go around, so please ask!

If we don't receive your request by Jan 10th, we can't guarantee there will be funds left. So don't delay!

Love and Light,

Karen

To email the FLGBTQC Co-Clerks, please visit this link. For registration information, click here.

I am looking forward to time with our blessed FLGBTQC community!

FLGBTQC Mid-Winter Gathering 2008!

Hurrah! Complete information (including registration forms) is now available for the 2008 Mid-Winter Gathering of Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns.

Mid-Winter Gathering is a wonderful, magical experience, and I encourage LGBTQ and allied Friends to attend.

A number of my F/friends who are in mixed-gender relationships have expressed concern about coming. Please don't worry: you are welcome, and there will be other mixed-gender couples there. You will not feel awkward.

If accessibility is a concern, please do not let that concern prevent you from coming -- including financial accessibility. We are committed to making it possible for all members of our community to attend our Gatherings. (If you've ever been to any of our events, including at FGC Summer Gathering, if you're on our mailing list or email listserv, etc, if you feel like you are part of our community, you are.) For more information, see our philosophy of full accessibility.

I look forward to seeing Friends there!

What is FLGBTQC?

Friends for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Concerns is a Quaker faith community within the Religious Society of Friends. FLGBTQC deeply honors, affirms, and upholds that of God in all people.

We seek to know that of God within ourselves and others. We seek to express God's truth in the Quaker and in the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transsexual/transgender communities, as it is made known to us.

It is our hope to offer an oasis to those who have been spurned by the world at large. We are learning that radical inclusion and radical love bring further light to Quaker testimony and life. Our experience with oppression in our own lives leads us to seek ways to bring our witness to bear in the struggles of other oppressed peoples.

We gather twice a year, at our Mid-Winter gathering and at the Friends General Conference Annual Gathering of Friends in the summer. At these times we worship together, discern our corporate witness through Meeting for Worship with attention to business, share our individual journeys, celebrate our lives, heal old wounds, and draw sustenance from the Spirit for our work and life in the world. After almost thirty years, we are still learning to spread love in the face of rejection and hostility and to embrace new friends. We have found faith and voice to speak truth to power and the courage to be open to new revelation.

(adapted from a minute approved 15 Second Month 1999)

Besides looking forward to the chance to worship in wonderful community and spend time with neat people, I am looking forward to things like sledding down that "wicked sledding hill." And I'm thinking about taking my snowshoes. :)

This is so cool!

This year, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of the South Jersey Shore (NJ) had a Winter Solstice Celebration based on A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual for the first time. They've been emailing me and Julie, and it sounds like it went really, really well.

In addition, they had some good coverage from their local newspaper, which you can read here.

Is that too cool or what?

Eight nights!

For the first time -- in my life, I think -- I have actually lit candles for all eight nights of Chanuka.

Third night

Blessed are You,
Goddess, our Goddess,
You Who are the universe,
in Whose honor we kindle
the Chanuka lights.

Second night

See Roz Chast's Eight Nights of Excuses.

Snow and birds...

We went back East for Thanksgiving, and returned to a confectioner's sugar dusting of snow on the ground here. Then over this weekend, a major storm came through the Midwest which started with snow, progressed to ice, and ended with rain. We had lots, and lots, and lots of rain.

This morning, we've had about an inch of snow, and it's quite lovely. (I confess that I like snow.) We have several bird feeders in front of our place, and the bird community is a lively place this morning.









from the top: dark-eyed juncos; mourning dove; fox squirrel; wren?; downy woodpecker.

First night

In my window
Where You can send Your glow
From my menorah
On newly-fallen snow
I will set You
One little candle
On this the first night
Of Chanuka.

- from Chanuka Chase (traditional? I find different sources for this)