Friends General Conference

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Message from the Clerks - August

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August Message from the Clerks - Photo of a roadside burr oak among farm fields

Something in the Air

The other day I was contemplating air (because it’s pretty much everywhere). Air is to land creatures like water is to fish, though fish may not think about water much. People may not think about air a lot, either. We tend to believe air is “nothing”, until it’s filled with particulates like smoke. Air is also filled with invisible particulates like viruses and odors.

Air became a thing that I think about when rooming with a woman who was allergic to peanuts. If someone touched a peanut and then walked by her without washing their hands first, she could have a life-threatening reaction. That’s a very small PPB (Parts Per Billion) of peanut molecules. At that time, I realized that being able to smell someone’s aftershave, perfume, laundry product or garlic breath as they walk past, also means inhaling their exhaled breath.

Apparently, there are molecules in the air that have been around since the beginning of, at least, our Earth. Air that was exhaled by Jesus, Margaret Fell, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Maya Angelou is mixed into the air we breathe.

I am never alone wherever I am. The air itself supplies me with a century of love. When I breathe in, I am breathing in the laughter, tears, victories, passions, thoughts, memories, existence, joys, moments, and the hues of the sunlight on many tones of skin; I am breathing in the same air that was exhaled by many before me. The air that bore them life. And so how can I ever say that I am alone? ~ C. JoyBell C.

Air is often used as a metaphor for Spirit, which makes air more than the sum of its parts. The wind rustling leaves, a storm knocking on the door: are these reminders that Spirit is seeking us as much as we are seeking Spirit?

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” ~ John 3:8 (NIV)

When things are spiraling in a way that feels “out of control” (well, at least, out of MY control), I try to step back, take a breath and think about the Spirit. If the Divine is omnipresent, perhaps when I sit perfectly still and breathe slowly in and out, that of God in the air will blend with that of God within me. It seems to me that looking at air through this lens makes the gasped cry “I can’t breathe” even more deeply heartrending.

Blessings,
Suzanne Siverling on behalf of The Clerking Team

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