2009 NPYM Annual Sessions: John Calvi

Notes from John Calvi's plenary talk

Our theme for Annual Sessions was, "Experiencing Light in Hard Times: How Do We Stay Faithful in Times of Trouble?"

italics = my thoughts as I was taking notes

• "maybe faith is an aspect of our response to trouble" (when experiencing injustice, danger)

• "[trust Allah] but tie your camel" --> practical work, practical support

• how maintain cxn to Divine?
• "when trouble comes, can we still be working in the love?"
• "can we be creative when trouble comes?"

• my responses to crisis/trouble:
• when trouble comes from w/out my community, can stand w/community support
• from w/in my community: that isolation replicates the isolation of early trauma
• --> trauma separates and isolates us from community

• MFW as soaking in the silence and stillness ("like a bathtub"), "asking to be washed in Light," "ground opening beneath us"

• "Quakerism, as one of the mystic religions, is a somatic experience, is something we feel in our bodies"

• "is is a burden to dislike someone"
  
• sometimes we enjoy it, and "that's pathology"

• "sometimes we can hug someone and say, 'when i am angry at you, i miss you' "

• "now there are some people who have been very wounded by christianity... b/c there are some aspects of christianity which are very mean"

• "we cannot blame christianity on jesus"

• encourages folks who have been wounded by christianity to become familiar with the teachings of jesus
• and folks who experience jesus need to share that in ways that "don't bump up against those wounds"

• "now these look like opposites, but these are Friends dancing together"

• difference between knowing and believing
• is "your respect for other people spiralling upward or spiralling downward?"
• if you know how things are constructed and someone shares other experience, increased disrespect for them
• if you believe: open to continuing revelation; can listen w/respect
• i know my experience, but not others' --> different kind of knowing

• what is your response to pain? how is that different from that of people around you?
• "i find that if i cry about 2 hours a week, i can keep even"
• "what are the circumstances under which you allow yourself to cry?"
• how has that changed, is changing, changes with different kinds of pain?
  
• it's okay to cry for the pain of others which you experience (remember this)

• "what brings you back" to your deepest wisdom, experiencing guidance, etc?
  
• --> ask for that

• trouble and pain have a function, "and that function is learning"
  
• understanding it moves it to wisdom
• --> lessens the intensity
• --> break the pieces down so there can be some learning
• no learning, it remains pain, trouble, conflict

• as Friends, we have a duty to come to that pinnacle where we are in awe of creation
• where we can look at the most wonderful and horrible

Q&A:

• "we can't always see where our love goes and what it accomplishes"
• --> "no love is ever wasted"

• "feeling that anger is very important"
  
• "anger needs to be given its place and respected"
  

• "i have to balance the anger so it doesn't obstruct my love or the Light that's been given me"