End of Day 8 - Early Friends, Awkward Apples, and Journals

It was another long and interesting and nourishing day. I think each session of it requires it's own post, but this one will have to do. I am after all, about to go to bed. So, we were talked to about the early friends, yet again, and the tensions in the community between order and structure, and radical ecstatic outpouring of the spirit. We then reflected on these tensions in our own lives.

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I think the first session summed up part of, if not all, of my issues during my masters. Inspiration meets structure, and does not always come off well...

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I learnt that George Fox and James Naylor had a strange kind of leader/anti leader kind of relationship. Fox having a more ordered approach, and Naylor was given to the spirit. And the pair at some stage fell out, which is tragic, because we are talking about two people who loved one another, being pulled apart by outside forces. In some strange away this was all beginning to sound like my life once again...

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Naylor offered Fox an apple whilst in prison, and did other dramatic actions. I personally thought the apple offer to have an homoerotic subtext, though perhaps it is more likely it pointed towards deep friendship created through shared persecution, maybe something about Eve tempting Adam, or he was just sharing his apple, like any good friend (I would have to decline being allergic, if you can believe).

A part of my mind recognised with that agony of two people who a friends, but being pulled apart, it felt like something I had experienced in life to a certain extent. If only they had had Myers Briggs in 1600...no, that is nonsense, but it is true that we are pulled apart from people we love, sometimes because we simply didn't understand one another enough.

Whatever the truth, I wanted to know more about the early Friends, and really enjoyed our mini history seminars, which were also in touch with the present day.

And then came another lunch. I have now figured out how to avoid being over feed by Woodbroke catering.

Our afternoon session focused on journal writing as a spiritual practise, and there the clouds parted and the sun shone down from heaven, and the spirit moved. Of course I was in my element. I saw journal writing as a means to God, rather than an introverted indulgence or just an addiction I can't escape.

I have been told off so many times for being a bit of a radical journal writer, and not kind of respecting the 'boundaries', everyone has a different comfort zone, so to speak. But fair play, sometimes you just have to respect the comfort zones of others, for sure, but you don't have to entirely give up radical live online journal writing of the ecstatic spirit, for certain.

I found a quote saying that the journal writer is one who writes to find themselves, to find their strength. In a very happy way, ten years of my life came together. I wondered around the lake in a state of bliss with my soul saying, 'yes, yes, yes', over and over (take that as you will). Such joy. So much joy.

Needless to say I will probably end up doing a life writing class at some stage.

I also learnt today that the welsh have a strong longing to return to their homeland, and I wondered if even non welsh people could pick it up from having spent time in Wales. I did visit the country at least once a year as a child, even still inside my mother's womb, and my grandmother wanted me to be born there. I guess it is a part of me, despite not actually being welsh (as far as I know), and it has been nearly ten years since I have visited, and it is time to go back.

 We are a group ran the final spiritual session of the day, Epilogue, and dedicated it to the new UN Treaty banning nuclear weapons. Each of us read out a statement from a peace activist who had paddled out in front of a nuclear submarine many years ago. To contemplate the dream, the dream of an alternative world, was deeply moving.

The day was rich, and I was content. I was home, and my spirit said yes.