Release it Gently ~ The Quaker Scholar

"Most often, I think, we are wounded during our childhood. There is a reason that as people age, they tell the stories of their childhood over and over again. In the telling, there is acknowledgement. In the telling, we remember the story, sometimes relive the embellishments as much as the facts and acknowledge how much both elements have wounded us. In the acknowledgement, slowly comes the acceptance. Acceptance of both fact and fiction, of pain and joy, of the wholeness of the story and complexity of reality - it is this acceptance that brings us back to a state of healing. For we learn something much deeper than the lesson of forgiveness. We learn what it means to love even the hard pieces. To love them healthily. Not to cling, hold and cherish our pain - but to love it enough to hold it softly and release it gently. To love ourselves enough to shift into new understanding. To love ourselves back to wholeness."

~ The Quaker Scholar

More at  http://quakerscholar.livejournal.com
Artwork by Frances Gearhart https://artsy.net/artist/frances-gearhart

That Which Overcomes ~ George Fox

"All friends and brethren everywhere, that are imprisoned for the Truth, give yourselves up in it, and it will make you free, and the power of the Lord will carry you over all the persecutors. Be faithful in the life and power of the Lord God and be valiant for the Truth on the earth; and look not at your sufferings, but at the power of God; and that will bring some good out of all your sufferings; and your imprisonments will reach to the prisoned that the persecutor prisons in himself.... So be faithful in that which overcomes and gives victory."

~ George Fox

More at http://www.strecorsoc.org/gfox/title.html

Artwork by Alvaro Marquez (still searching for good link with more about this artist).

So Short a Time ~ Cat Chapin-Bishop

" How many times do we turn away from a neighbor, because their lawn ornaments are too bright and slightly tacky, or because they clench a cigarette between their lips in concentration as they work in the garden, because they give us too much advice, or don't hold exactly the same values that we do?
It is one thing, that we turn away from those among us who do real harm in the world.  But if we are honest, how much more often do we refuse to see the humanness in ordinary men and women....... if we would only allow ourselves to see them properly--unique, whole, and beautiful, and here for so short a time?"

~ Cat Chapin-Bishop

More at  http://quakerpagan.blogspot.co.uk/
Artwork from R.C. Goreman http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._C._Gorman

Return Home to Within ~ Francis Howgill

"If you build upon anything or have confidence in anything which stands in time and is on this side eternity and [the] Being of beings, your foundation will be swept away, and night will come upon you, and all your gathered-in things and taken-on and imitated will all fail you… Why gad you abroad? Why trim you yourselves with the saints’ words, when you are ignorant of the life? Return, return to Him that is the first Love, and the first-born of every creature, who is the Light of the world… Return home to within, sweep your houses all, the groat is there, the little leaven is there, the grain of mustard-seed you will see, which the Kingdom of God is like; … and here you will see your Teacher not removed into a corner, but present when you are upon your beds and about your labour, convincing, instructing, leading, correcting, judging and giving peace to all that love and follow Him."

~ Francis Howgill 1656

More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Howgill
Artwork from Jane Walker http://www.janewalkerprintmaker.com/

Times of Quiet ~ Advices and Queries

"Do you try to set aside times of quiet for openness to the Holy Spirit? All of us need to find a way into silence which allows us to deepen our awareness of the divine and to find the inward source of our strength. Seek to know an inward stillness, even amid the activities of daily life. Do you encourage in yourself and in others a habit of dependence on God's guidance for each day? Hold yourself and others in the Light, knowing that all are cherished by God."

~ Advices and Queries Britain Yearly Meeting

More at http://qfp.quakerweb.org.uk/qfp1-02.html

Artwork by Alexandra Buckle 
http://www.alexandrabuckle.co.uk/About-My-Linocuts.htm