In the last 2 months, I’ve made it to Meeting for Worship only a few times. During my absence, QuakerQuaker has kept me feeling grounded. The variety of topics covered by QuakerQuaker is like a rich tapestry. QuakerQuaker has created a real, cohesive online Quaker blogging community. Instead of Quaker bloggers reaching out feeble tendrils on the World Wide Web, hoping to be found and read by other Quakers (or other Seekers), QuakerQuaker allows each Quaker blogger the chance to become part of a thriving online community.
According to my email, I joined QuakerQuaker on October 2, 2006. I don’t remember how I found it; I suspect it was through Livejournal’s Quakers community. Other than the livejournal community, I wasn’t aware that there was such a thing as a Quaker blogosphere. There were a few technologically-inclined Quakers at my Meeting, but I never expected to find such a diverse, thoughtful, and thriving Quaker online community as QuakerQuaker.
I do most of my communicating with people online. This is not to say I don’t like interacting with people face to face, but I’ve come to accept two things. First, I have some serious physical limitations that prevent me from leaving the house more frequently and limit how far away I can drive. Since my Meeting is half an hour away, I rely on other Members (or my husband) to drive me. My chances for spiritual conversations in person within my Meeting are low because of that. I’m not resentful that people in my Meeting don’t bend over backwards for me; I wouldn’t want that. It’s just the way things are. Second, I truly do prefer writing as a form of communication to talking. Writing gives me the opportunity to truly say what I mean to say (or as close to it as I can) and immortalizes conversations in a way that my memory just can’t do with oral communication.
So when I found out about QuakerQuaker, a weight that I didn’t know I’d been carrying was lifted. QuakerQuaker has given me the chance to communicate in the way I prefer with other Quakers who I would likely have never communicated with otherwise. It’s broadened my horizon of what it means to be a Quaker. It’s given me hope that Friends are united, even when we are deeply divided.
A couple of months ago, way opened for me to start a Quaker blog. I’d been thinking about it for a while, but was concerned that it would force me to divide my life into “religious” and “secular” since I already had a livejournal. But Zach A said I could have a blog on his domain name, and I decided to give it a chance.
There is no way to quantify the effect having this blog and being part of QuakerQuaker has made on my faith and spiritual journey. I feel infinitely closer to God now than I did months ago. But the best gift having a blog as part of the Quaker blogosphere has given me is the ability to be part of a group that has no physical presence. I don’t have to worry about finding a ride, or if I feel up to going out.
All I have to do is go to QuakerQuaker.org and find my soul enriched, each and every day. Thank you, Martin Kelly, for giving the Quaker blogosphere its center.