OLD MEETING HOUSE

Thanks to Peter for providing this picture.

Caption from The Sun

Members of the Religious Society of Friends gather in front of the building they used to meet in on NW 2nd Avenue in Gainesville. The building was used for that purpose for at least 50 years. They are building a new “meeting house.” From left: Annie, Jean, Don, Richard and, front, Marilyn. 

Reported by TRACY WILCOX of The Gainesville Sun

April 2, 2005

"Dick says that people often have misconceptions about Quakerism.
'We're modern people. We dress like other people, except sometimes more simply,' says Dick. 'There is an emphasis, though, on living responsibly and leaving a small footprint on the Earth.'"

Read the full article in The Gainesville Sun.

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CIRCLE OF LOVE

 First posted on QUAKERS IN OCALA in December 2015.

This drawing of the breaking of Silence at a Quaker Meeting appeared on the website of the Miami Meeting. I was curious about who had created the image and wondered it it was drawn by the artist Bobby Buskirk who had formerly been a member of Miami Meeting. Bobby's daughter Sally Gillespie who was my friend in the Friends Meeting of Ocala for many years was able to confirm that the picture was done by her mother. Sally is a member of the Gainesville Friends Meeting although she now resides in Northampton, Massachusetts.

Bobby and Phil Buskirk were married in Miami after Phil moved there in 1974. It was a second marriage for both of them. Bobby's first husband Robert Slane had died in 1972. Phil was divorced from Frances Hamer Kanzler to whom he was married from 1942 until the early seventies. Phil and Bobby were distant cousins and knew each other as children in Palisades, Michigan. Bobby was born August 18, 1916 and named Rosamond Mack Clark. She and Robert Slane parented four children, Mack, Robert, Sally and Susanna. Phil and Frances were also the parents of four, Charles, Philip, James, and Martha.

Phil Buskirk had been a powerful spokesperson for peace, justice and reconciliation as he worked for AFSC for many years. He held the position of Field Director for AFSC in Israel from 1959 to 1961. Bobby became a Quaker and joined the Miami Meeting after her marriage to Phil. She was always interested in art. She drew pastel portraits of people and animals.  She designed wood block prints, and she painted in oil and acrylic paints. Her love of art was passed on to her daughter Sally who became an art teacher in public schools.

Later Phil and Bobby moved south from Miami to the town of Florida City very near Homestead and the Everglades National Park. In 1994 extreme south Florida was in the path of Hurricane Andrew which became the costliest storm to hit the US up to that time. The home of Bobby and Phil was destroyed along with 25,000 other homes in Miami-Dade County. Instead of rebuilding in south Florida Bobby and Phil moved to higher ground in central Florida. They settled in the small town of McIntosh 18 miles south of Gainesville. Although they became a part of the Gainesville Friends Meeting their time in central Florida was short. Phil died in 1995 and Bobby's death followed the next year.

Sally said of her mother, "She loved Quaker Meeting. She enjoyed getting to know the people.  She loved making up poems about people and playing word games and family games.  She liked to laugh and she loved to read." One daughter followed her mother into art, the other became a college librarian at Tulane. 

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BYGONE DAYS

Clear Creek Meeting House
Built 1875

Laura contributed this memory from a past that was already long gone before the Coronavirus raised its ugly head:

The rural farming Quaker community where I grew up is still the home of Illinois Yearly Meeting.  The old Meetinghouse, with its divided sides for when women and men were separated, still stands in a large field surrounded by corn fields. 

Forty-five years ago when my son Phil was 16, we visited Illinois from Florida during yearly meeting.  Many cars were parked near the meeting house in an unorganized sort of way.  Phil ran up to me while I was talking to one of the Quakers.  Phil said he wanted to drive to town (population ~100) to buy something the teens wanted, and come right back, but our car was blocked in. The Friend with me said, "Oh just take any car.  They all have the keys inside."  Phil was shocked. After making sure that this was OK, that's what he did.

I think those days are gone forever.

RIGHT SHARING

Right Sharing of World Resources is a small Quaker organization attempting a very large job. It works to foster change among both the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.' It is a grass roots organization which gives small loans to disadvantaged women to facilitate their producing crops or products which can make them self-supporting as well as raising their status in their communities. From the abundance and generosity of those of us to whom much has been given, those in poverty can share the world's resources rightly.  

  
These are the stated goals of RSWR:
"Goal 1
To provide resources for marginalized women in developing countries to improve the quality of life for the women, their families, and their communities, and to empower these women in a sustainable and self-determined way.
Goal 2
To provide opportunities for those blessed with material resources to explore the burdens of materialism, the power of enough, and global responsibility; and to promote balanced sustainable lifestyles and sharing rightly from abundance."

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ANTIBODIES

Since I have no material from the meeting to post, I will pass on what I can share from my family. The picture shows Paul and his young friend visiting a plane from the charitable organization Samaritan's Purse at the High Point, NC airport last fall. You may have noticed a field hospital in New York City bearing their name. 


Here is a recent report from my son in Winston-Salem:
"My friend Dee's daughter, son-in-law and grandson have all been confirmed by the CDC to have Covid-19 antibodies. They all were sick in early January, before the first confirmed case in the U.S. Dee will be tested for antibodies next week. She was sick in mid-January with the same symptoms as her daughter.

Dee's daughter is O-negative and donated blood immediately after she got the confirmation from CDC. Blood with the antibodies can be transfused into Covid-19 patients and appears to help a lot."

None of us are unaffected and everyone can help in some way. 

HEART 2

After Anya was released from Shands with a new heart, she and her mother resided at Ronald McDonald House for a couple of more weeks. Considering the virus situation her doctors recommended that the best place or Anya now is home. They quickly decided to leave. Yesterday Liz and Anya traveled to Bradenton. Each week they will return to Gainesville so that the doctors can monitor her condition.

Here is the new address:

Liz and Anya Groulx

4219 62nd St W
Bradenton FL 34209

Thanks for the update Gary.
 

BENCHES IN WOODS

A few Friends have availed ourselves of the circle of park benches in the woods on meetinghouse grounds for Meeting for Worship in Nature when weather permits.  We sit no more than two to a bench, keeping appropriate safe distance apart.  It is quiet except for the chirping and singing of birds.  We look forward to this restorative opportunity to Meet for Worship in this beautiful peaceful safe setting. 

From Susan 

FACE MASK

Mary wrote:
"Here is a picture that shows the mask shape that all surgeons and nurses like best. This pic is the one that I made for Frank."

Here is a video showing how to make a face mask. Thanks to Homemade Homestead.

Send your directions and pictures of your face masks to ellie by email so that I can post them. Don't hesitate to ask questions.

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Dear Mary, I am Happy and Grateful.

PLAYING FOR CHANGE

peter contributed this post the the blog. I hope others will be inspired to contribute too.

VIDEO SERIES

Songs Around The World

Playing For Change is a movement created to inspire and connect the world through music, born from the shared belief that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people. Our primary focus is to record and film musicians performing in their natural environments and combine their talents and cultural power in innovative videos we call Songs Around The World.

Click on title to view and listen to video.

LaBamba

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The pandemic has engendered a sense among many of us, even some of us that may not already have felt so much this way, that we really are all in this together. I expect many of us around the world have experienced this new sense of connection with people we may even have felt estranged from just a little while ago. This is of course a good thing. Playing For Change describes itself as a “movement” that attempts to do something very similar.
 
So, I decided to contribute this video of musicians from around the world performing “La Bamba” to our blog courtesy of Ellie, a song which was made famous in the United States and also around the world decades ago by Ritchie Valens.

There is another reason I chose this Playing for Change video of “La Bamba.”

I like to dance.

I like to do international folk dance and Contra Dance and English Contra Dance. And for years I have enjoyed dancing “freestyle” to all sorts of music from the blues and pop music, Cajun, jazz and so on, even including to some rather unusual (some people might say weird) avant-garde kinds of music.

But I can’t go out dancing right now. Ever. Well, until who knows when.

Luckily, I have enough space in my apartment where I can freestyle to just about any kind of music that gets me moving.

OK. I’m sort of crazy. But I do try to make sure I don’t disturb the neighbors.

But there’s more.

If you listen carefully to the words of La Bamba, and I have included below both Ritchie Valens original Spanish lyrics, as well as an English translation of his lyrics, which pretty much match those in the video best I can tell; “La Bamba” is about grace, and I think in one way or another about more than one kind of grace. Fortunately, as the songs says, “a little grace is needed for me, for you” and “for you I will be only. . .”

So, here I am. I hope you enjoy this video. I enjoy watching and listening to it from time to time. And sometimes dancing too.

Peter

Ritchie Valens Lyrics in Spanish

Para bailar La Bamba

Para bailar La Bamba se necesita una poca de gracia

Una poca de gracia

Pa' mi, pa' ti, y arriba, y arriba

Y arriba y arriba

Por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré

Yo no soy marinero

Yo no soy marinero, soy capitán

Soy capitán, soy capitán

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba, bam

Para bailar La Bamba

Para bailar La Bamba

Se necesita una poca de gracia

Una poca de gracia

Para mi, para ti, ay arriba, ay arriba

Para bailar La Bamba

Para bailar La Bamba

Se necesita una poca de gracia

Una poca de gracia

Pa' mi, pa' ti, ay arriba, ay arriba

Y arriba y arriba

Por ti seré, por ti seré, por ti seré

Ritchie Lyrics in English

To dance La Bamba

To dance La Bamba you need a little grace

A little bit of grace

For me, for you, and up, and up

And up and up

For you I will be, for you I will be, for you I will be

I'm not a sailor.

I'm not a sailor, I'm a captain

I'm a captain, I'm a captain

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba

Bamba, bamba, bam

To dance La Bamba

To dance La Bamba

It takes a little grace

A little bit of grace

For me, for you, oh up, oh up

To dance La Bamba

To dance La Bamba

It takes a little grace

A little bit of grace

For me, for you, oh up, oh up

And up and up

For you I will be, for you I will be, for you I will be only

MEETING IN WOODS

After social distancing was recommended and before 'stay at home' policy was enacted, a few Quakers continued to gather for Meeting for Worship in the Quaker woods. Thanks to Susan for this photo which records the beauty of being together in physical presence as well as in spirit.

Some of our group continue gathering through the technological wonder of a virtual meeting. Virtual worship using the ZOOM platform is available beginning 3/29/2020.  Request additional details by email to Bonnie.

If, wherever you are, you continue to use the 11 o'clock hour on First Day as an hour of worship you will be in the company of others who have entered the silence to seek the power of the Spirit which is present everywhere to everyone.

POINTS OF LIGHT

Image from janethyun.com 

Ironically the desperate circumstances brought on by the pandemic seem to be releasing a burst of creativity in response to our awareness of the need to participate in healing the world's suffering.  

In reflecting on the words "Points of Light" which George Bush used in a speech and which became something of a mantra for him, I was led to CS Lewis' Magician's Nephew from his series Chronicles of Narnia. Although the speechwriter did not attribute "Points to Light" to Lewis, I am happy to connect it in my mind to to the image of the creative moment when the Light and the Music join to reveal a new, more perfect, world coming into being.
 
"In the darkness something was happening at last. A voice had begun to sing. It was very far away and Digory found it hard to decide from what direction it was coming. Sometimes it seemed to come from all directions at once. sometimes he almost thought it was coming out of the earth beneath them. Its lower notes were deep enough to be the voice of the earth herself. There were no words. There was hardly even a tune. But it was beyond comparison, the most beautiful noise he had ever heard...
Then two wonders happened at the same time. One was the voice was suddenly joined by other voices, more voices than you could possibly count. Then there was harmony with it, but far higher up the scale: cold, tingling, silvery voices. The second wonder was that the blackness overhead, all at once was blasting with stars. They didn't come out gently one by one, as they do on a summer evening. One moment there had been nothing but darkness, next moment a thousand, thousand points of light leaped out - single stars, constellations, and planets, brighter and bigger than any in our world. There were no clouds. The new stars and the new voices began at exactly the same time. If you had see and heard it as Digory did, you would have felt quite certain that it was the stars themselves who were singing, and that it was the First Voice, the deep one, which had made them appear and had made them sing.
...Polly was finding the song more and more interesting because she thought she was beginning to see the connection between the music and the thing that were happening...When you listened to his song you heard the things he was making up: when you looked around you, you saw them."
(Page 99)  

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VISITING FRIENDS

When we had a small meeting at our house in Ocala, we had a bolg named Quakers in Ocala. In January 2016 I posted this to our blog. Until folks start sending me items for Quakers in Gainesville I'll try to pass on other material which may interest Friends.

1906 SE 8TH ST, 

Attending Friends Meeting of Ocala yesterday were were ten worshipers: five regulars and five visitors. Among the visitors was one from Minnesota who was visiting his grandmother's home in Ocala. This was his second visit in two years. He is our only attender who arrives by foot after having run two and a half miles to get here.

Two visitors were attending a Quaker meeting for the first time. Like many first-timers they were very interested in Quaker history and practice. They went home with a copy of Friends for Three Hundred Years and hope to return next First Day. They moved recently to Ocala from Alaska.

Two visitors were from northern New York spending a month in Homosassa. Although seasoned Quakers they attend a Unitarian group in New York because of the distance to the nearest Quaker Meeting. Visiting Florida gives them an opportunity to visit a variety of Quaker Meetings and taste the diversity of Quaker worship. The man of this couple is a birthright Quaker who grew up in the over 300 year old London Grove Meeting in Pennsylvania.

Even the regulars in our group have their Quaker origins in distant groups. It makes for a rich fellowship to bring together folks of different backgrounds and experience from several regions of our country. We get a sense that recognizing the spirit within each of us binds us together, cementing our unity with the God who is in everyone

HEART

HEART QUILT BY MARY

Gary wrote:

After receiving her new heart on Tuesday night (March 24), Anya is doing well. She is walking and they are hoping to remove the chest tubes today (Sunday) or tomorrow.

Here’s her address for friends wanting to send cards:
Mail comes her to the Ronald McDonald House. It's 1600 SW 14th St Room 11 Gainesville FL 32608

Ellie replied:

There is so much to be thankful for: the determination of Anya and her family, all the research and and skill which made such a procedure possible, the availability of a heart that matched her system, and the fantastic team of medical professionals who performed the surgery. Let's keep her in the light as her body adapts to her new heart and grows strong as she moves forward. I feel that you have been serving the family and the meeting by being a liaison when you were much needed.  


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