Jonah Sutton-Morse

Went for a walk yesterday and found an old family cemetery not far up the road from us. Headstones from the late 1860’s. A lovely and peaceful space.

Close up of a weathered grey headstone. It is a tall and thin rectangle with a carved sheaf of wheat on top, the name "True K Mason" below and date of death may 7, 1889. Additional dates and a passage engraved on the stone below are not legible.A rock wall, slightly over knee high, built of irregular rocks comfortably larger than a human head, enclosing a cleared space with a handful of rock headstones standing erect. Trees full of green leaves rise up behind.

NEYM Advices & Queries number 6- “Ground your spiritual life in your own experience of the Divine. Speak and act from that experience. “ #quaker

Harvesting some of our goldenrod for a dyepot, which should end up turning more yarn into something like www.heliospherefarm.com/yarns/p/c…

Looking down at the blond head of a young child in a hoodie, holding a pair of scissors, which are positioned to cut one green stalk of goldenrod. The hands and leg of the adult helping are also visible.Looking down into a big metal pot, partly filled with cut goldenrod stalks - green and yellow bits cover the bottomA stand of goldenrod: tall thin green stalks with a profusion of little yellow buds at the top, and gray gravel and wooden fence posts in the background

Morning chores - the left door in the picture became in-hinged a while back & I fixed it over the weekend 💪

Looking down at a barnyard scene. A blue-handled shovel is leaning against a wall. A cat is crouched with her tail curled around her, and a black-and-white speckled chicken is walking near the barn door where the photographer is standing. The ground is a mixture of green grasses and brown dirty and hay debris.A view through a barn passage. An orange chicken is walking, and the butt of a white goat can be seen as she walks to another section of the wooden barn. The passage is about 20-30 feet, and at the end are two big wooden doors, swung open inwards so that beyond them can be seen a brighter outdoors where a group of sheep mills around. They're eating from buckets on the ground, so mostly their rear ends are visible.

Two days of Quaker Ministry

A somewhat long post about two days of Quaker Ministry.

Yesterday at my in-person Meeting we had three messages all on the theme of being present, and the difference between appearing present to receive guests or messages and actually being present. The first was a personal anecdote, the next two quoted biblical passages/stories - once the story of Abraham and Sarah receiving guests, and the second “Let Those Who Have Ears, Let Them Here”. This morning, I attended Woodbroke’s Monday morning worship, and there was a collection of messages related to service, and the need to be able to receive as well as to give service.

I’m grateful for both sets of messages. As I said in my Meeting afterwards, “today the vocal ministry was definitely intended for me.” I have not been present recently, I have been tied up with worry and frustration, in ways that aren’t helpful and make me less able to be present as a parent, partner, or friend.

There are a few things I want to notice, and think about more.

In both cases, I, specifically, did need to hear those messages. The Good News (Gospel!) of Quaker Ministry - that in all of us is the gift and responsibility of Ministry, and that there is one who speaks to our condition, has again been borne out experimentally in my life. I hope and pray that more people may learn this good news.

There’s something different about receiving a message that’s a personal anecdote, versus a message that’s grounded in a more universal text. I have to do more thinking about this, but the reminder that “some have entertained angels unawares” applies both to people and to ideas, and that the appearance of an open front door with no one home connects directly to that letter, and the older story, carries different resonances than the anecdote of the person with a broken arm needing to both ask for help and also gratefully accept it when it was offered. I appreciate the resonances between individual experience and broader spiritual messages, and I worry about Ministry that contains only one or the other.

I need to actually sit with the Ministry I received this week. How do I break out of my own anxiety in order to be present and a humble learner?

I wish that this good news, and the sudden inbreaking of spirit that speaks directly to our condition, was better known in the wider world. Quakers should be evangelizing! (See also the faithful waiting of the Sabbathday Lake Shakers)

It’s hard to have that universal connection, since there’s an assumed common framework of of passages and verses that people will know. I don’t recognize quotes from Hebrews unless they’re pointed out, though I do know enough of the biblical stories to know about Abraham and Sarah entertaining visitors and hearing the news of a child. I know that “Let Those Who Have Ears Let Them Hear” relates to a parable, but I couldn’t tell you which one or why it’s important it’s there. I’m not sure if I were to talk about “we are all humble learners in the school of Christ” how many people in my Meeting would recognize it as one of our Yearly Meeting’s Advices. I wonder about whether we’re “losing” that (probably) and both whether it’s a problem (both messages yesterday included some explanation of the source of the quote), and if so, whether there’s a way to do enough scaffolding to help it be better. (And now I’m wondering how many links I should have in this post. There’s probably a half-dozen more I could add. Would more references to the allusions I’m making help?)

(As an aside, I think about the letter from the elders at Balby here, and the final passage about “these things we do lay upon you as a rule” being often quoted, but not the many not-a-rules laid out above that conclusion)

One thing about quotes is that sometimes they get jumbled. There are multiple yearly meetings with different advices beginning with “take heed, dear Friends, to the promptings of love and truth in your hearts”, and when I hear about “we all”, I don’t jump immediately to humble learners, since one of my mom’s favorite quotes was about how we all have sinned and fallen short … a great reminder of forgiveness!

I’ll leave you with an afterword from today’s message, which will be my next passage to memorize - Milton’s Sonnet 19. “They also serve, who only stand and wait”

The thing about a high-tension wire is that if your anchors break, you can get a pretty big gap.

A close up of a plastic anchor intended to hold the wire, nailed into a block of wood. The top piece that holds the wire in place has broken offForeground is a sandy space with a bit of grass going up a slope. Background is thick green woods and bushes. They are divided by a wire fence that is nearly invisible except for the multiple posts floating between 2 to 4 feet in the air.

Op Ed by the AFSC NH Program Director about my state yet again choosing to hurt people when it could… not… indepthnh.org/2024/09/0…

Nice way to start the morning with kids and flock

A child walks away from the camera towards a flock of sheep. In front of here is the butt of a goat, who's staring at the kid. In the left background is a red-and grey wooden barn. The ground is mostly green with different plants, and the camera is pointed towards the sun, so there's a rainbow effect

Obligatory First Day of School social media overshare (including pronoun pins)

3 kids stand in front of a metal gate and wire fence, with grass, trees, and sheep behind. All are wearing backpacks and bemused expressions. They range from kindergarten to teenage.

“Face your fears and your powerlessness. Have faith.” New England Yearly Meeting Young Adult Friends, Advice 11. #Quaker

New England Yearly Meeting sets apart the Advices from Young Adult Friends in the midst of the rest of the Advices and Queries, which makes referencing them hard, in addition to visibly setting apart this part of the community, which makes me sad. Nevertheless, they’re there to engage with.

Current bedside reading … seeing if I can catch up to Kip

A book, with a fire hydrant on the cover, titled "City of Roses vol 1 'Wake Up...'" by Kip Manley, sits on a wooden table, on top of a children's book, and near Ross Gay's "Book of Delights". Behind this are windowpanes and bright green grasses and trees

Saw a snake swimming and a heron while out kayaking with kiddos today. Also a capsize, and probably about 2 hours more on the water than planned, but fun was had.

A mostly brown scene a shallow water rippling a few inches over a sandy river bottom. In the middle of the picture can barely be seen the ripple of a snake's body perpendicular to the watery patterns, and with its head sticking out. There's a yellow kayak and some trees in the background.The same grey bird with long legs, neck, and beak is turned in profile. The whiteness of the neck and darker wings are easier to see. The bird stands on a riverbank with green plants behind.A grey bird with long legs, neck and beak is standing a staring towards the camera. The bird is on a riverbank, and there are green plants behind

Probably the last paddock of rotational grazing before we put them back in the main pasture for the winter.

Brown and white sheep standing in green grass. In the foreground is very short grass, bordered by a white stranded fence in front of the sheep. The grass they're in is noticeable taller. Behind them, the posts and wires of permanent fencing is barely visible, where even taller green and brown plants can be seen. There Are trees behind.

“Trust that the Inner Light can lead us beyond our individual perceptions and desires into action grounded in God’s truth.” NEYM Advices & Queries number 7 #Quaker

A black goat stands of a rectangle outlined by red bricks, and mostly covered in gravel. Behind her can be seen 2 grey wooden doors, and the path into the barn beyond, including stairs up, and another goat looking out

Pasture with new clover & volunteer pumpkins

Close up shot of small green clover plants amid grey rocks and grass stalksA pumpkin plant: big green triangular leaves. 2 or 3 orange pumpinks almost the size of a head. The plants are growing amid tall grasses and a black goat is standing near the plant.

Moving into the new paddock

The backs of four sheep, their faces buried in the green bushes on a hill slope. To the left, grass can be seen, and trees behindA white sheep's face, eating green leaves from a bush. Other sheep can be seen behindA line of sheep walking up a hill, mostly dirt-covered with grass behind them. A brown sheep is partly visible walking out of the frame, and a white sheep with a long face is next in line and at the center of the frame3 sheep, 1 brown and 2 white, standing in tall grass and big leafy plants that are in some places almost as tall of them. There are trees behind them

Pennington - Give over thine own willing

Give over thine own willing, give over thy own running, give over thine own desiring to know or be anything and sink down to the seed which God sows in the heart, and let that grow in thee and be in thee and breathe in thee and act in thee; and thou shalt find by sweet experience that the Lord knows that and loves and owns that, and will lead it to the inheritance of Life, which is its portion.

Isaac Penington, 1661

#Quaker

How it started / How it’s going (Sheep in portable netting, and then in their main pasture after a breakout)

A flock of brown and white sheep clumped in a corner of grass with green and white portable netting around them. A grey driveway is in front of them, and the background is a green hill slope and trees behindA bright green scene. Lots of tall grass and small bushes with a handful of of sheep visible standing among the grass. There is a chest-high wooden post with wires stretching towards another post visible in front, and the corner of a red barn visible further back.

I have, I think, migrated jsuttonmorse.me over to micro blog. So that and the new Quaker podcast-thing I’d like to get off the ground are together. It’ll be interesting to see if I can get a squarespace site moved - would be nice to have Cabbages And Kings hanging out with the rest.

Left the sheep in a well-grazed paddock a bit too long and woke up to a bust-out. Fortunately they mostly just want to stand around a building munching grass, and the house was right there.

A flock of sheep standing in short grass. Some portable net fencing is visible in front. A White House with solar panels and a striped progressive pride flag is behind them. It's a foggy day.A dark and fuzzy shot, though glass. A white sheep is standing and looking at the camera. The lumps of a few other sheep can be seen in the background. Closer is the reflection of a wood-floored room, and outside some chicken food equipment in green grass and yellow flowers.

I reallyy enjoy Johan Maurer’s weekly #Quaker reflections & links

blog.canyoubelieve.me/2024/08/r…

Found some breakfast while out cleaning the barn. Also, a distant supervisor

A view out a high barn door at the muddy ground beneath, with bright green grasses starting a bit away from the entrance, and trees in the background. A small cat with a white belly is visible in the picture staring up at the viewer.6 eggs in two rows of 3. One brown the others speckled and off white, sitting in a nest of hay.6 eggs, ranging from off-white to brown, sitting in a nest of hay. Behind them is a dirty wood floor and an open door with dirt and green plants below, showing that these are on the second floor of the barn

After a day of fasting (and anti-parasitic yesterday evening) we let the sheep out on a fresh paddock today.

Another shot of sheep, this time in shorter grass. A small floofy brown one is walking deliberately towards the camera (hi Golda!). The side of another brown sheep, and side and face of a white goat busily eating grass can also be seen. A few other sheep bodies are in the background, along with green trees and some blue sky farther back.A black goat in the foreground is chopping on a green leaf. Behind here are the backs of white and brown sheep and a red barn with a window. There's a proliferation of trash and leafy bushesA mass of a half dozen sheep are turned away from the camera, busily eating. Two have their heads up to snack on leaves from a bush just above their body. The same red barn is in the background.