Dear Friends ~ It always seems to me that September invites us to things new. My grandchildren have been back at school for two weeks now, but when I was their age, September, just after Labor Day weekend in the U.S, announced the "New Year": new books, new teachers, a world of new ideas. All leading hopefully to learning, understanding, and perhaps gaining some clarity. I'm still drawn to that search for clarity — not in math or science — but in life amidst this cosmos.
After all, even the angle of the September sun speaks of clarity. Quakers call the discernment process "Seeking Clearness." In a context of transparency, bringing the Light to shine on an issue or decision can bring clarity. With September's sun translucent at my window, I invite you, dear readers, to consider this realm of clarity with me in the hope we may all, if we are lucky, see waiting wonders in snippets and voices, illuminating our homes, our hearts, and our needy world. Take heart, as true clarity may prove itself a life work as fleeting as September's butterflies, ready to gracefully swoop in again and again calling us to see things in a different light. ~ Mary Ann
To be able to love material things, to clothe them with tender grace, and yet not be attached to them, this is a great service. Providence expects that we should make this world our own, and not lie in it as though it were a rented tenement. We can only make it our own through some service, and that service is to lend it love and beauty from our soul. Your own experience shows you the difference between the beautiful, the tender, the hospitable, and the mechanically neat and monotonously useful. Gross utility kills beauty. We now have all over the world huge productions of things, huge organizations, huge administrations of empire–all obstructing the path of life. Civilization is waiting for a great consummation, for an expression of its soul in beauty. This must be your contribution to the world.