That of God In Everyone
Queries:
Do you live life in the spirit of love and truth
and peace, answering to that same spirit in everyone?
Do you reach for the best that is within
yourself?
Do you look for it in others?
Quotes
”.
. . Walk cheerfully over the world answering that of God in every
one.”George Fox, 1656
“Each
person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it
and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world
needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes
courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on
it.”Pablo Casals
“Learn
to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself
so that you can hear it in other people.”Marian Wright Edelman,
1992
“There
is a principle, which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in
different places and ages hath had different names. It is, however,
pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no
forms of religion nor excluded from anywhere the heart stands in
perfect sincerity.”John Woolman, 1774
“Though
all of us are attracted to physical beauty, cleverness, wittiness,
and intelligence, the Quaker affirmation that there is that of God in
each person asserts that being worthy of respect does not depend on
possessing attractive qualities or skills. Until we can respect
another person without justification except that he or she is a child
of God, it is not really respect.”Paul A. Lacey, Growing into
Goodness, 1998
Integrity
Queries:
Are honesty, truthfulness, and respect for others
central in our School community?
Are you honest with yourself as well as with
others?
Do we stand firm when an ethical principle is
challenged?
Quotes
“Personal
integrity and academic honesty are fundamental principles that must
be upheld by all members of the community in order to create an
atmosphere in which trust, scholarship and friendship may
flourish.”The Honor Code, Upper School
“Speaking
the truth is so central to Quaker belief that Quakers have always
refused to take oaths. Since they are expected to tell the truth at
all times, they reject the idea that there are two standards of
truth—one for everyday concerns and one for the courtroom. The
prick of conscience that comes with the violation of truth is a
reminder that integrity is the first principle of life, . . .
Truth-telling simplifies life – Lying burdens and complicates
life.”Robert Lawrence Smith, A Quaker Book of Wisdom
“This
above all: To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the
night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.”William
Shakespeare, Hamlet
“Truth
is the only safe ground to stand on.” —Elizabeth Cady
Stanton
Peace
Queries:
Do you live in peace with yourself and others?
Do we recognize and address the causes of
conflict and all forms of violence within our community?
Quotes
“George
Fox was in prison in the early 1650s because of his beliefs. He was
offered freedom if he would fight for Oliver Cromwell, the leader of
the Parliamentary forces in the Civil War at the time. He refused in
words that Quakers have quoted ever since:
I
told them that I lived in the virtue of that life and power that
takes away the occasion of all war....
“Peace
is not just the absence of war. It is about our day-to-day
relationships with our families, our neighbors, people in our towns
and cities, and in other countries. Peace is also how we cope with
people we may find difficult and different from ourselves. It is
about accepting that there are different cultures and ways of doing
things and that different does not mean worse.”Harvey Gillman,
A Portrait of Friends
“Peace
is the state in which we are in accord with God, the earth, others,
and ourselves. . . A Peacekeeper holds the vision of peace for all
beings in all worlds, as beauteous expression of harmony and balance
resonating through thought, word, and deed. . .”North Pacific
Yearly Meeting, Faith and Practice
“Peace
is not a distant goal that we seek, but the means by which we arrive
at that goal.”Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Victory
attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is
momentary.”Mahatma Gandhi, 1919
Compassion
Queries:
Do you put yourself in others shoes and try to
understand their experiences?
Do we reach out to persons in need?
Quotes
“My
religion is kindness.”The Dalai Lama
“You
never really understand a person until you consider things from his
point of view
until you climb into his skin and walk around in
it.”Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird
”If
you do not care for each other, who will care for you?”
”The
heart is like a garden. It can grow compassion or fear, resentment or
love. What seeds will you plant there?”Jack Kornfield, Buddha’s
Little Instruction Book
“If
I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If
I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one
fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in
vain.”Emily Dickinson
“We
have to continue to practice mindfulness and reconciliation until we
can see a child’s body of skin and bones in Uganda or Ethiopia
as our own, until the hunger and pain in the bodies of all [people]
are our own. [Then] we can do the real work to help alleviate
suffering.”Thich Nhat Hanh
Simplicity
Queries:
Do we spend our time and energy doing what is
truly worthwhile?
Do you clear away the clutter in your life so
that you can more readily hear the "still, small voice of God"?
Quotes
”’Tis
a gift to be simple,
‘Tis a gift to be free,
‘Tis
a gift to come down
Where we ought to be.” —Shaker
Hymn
“Living
simply is the right ordering of our lives and priorities.”Leonard
Kenworthy
“Everything
should be made as simple as it can be, but not simpler.”Albert
Einstein
“Simplicity
is not just simple clothes and a simple lifestyle. It’s an
organization of the mind that enables you to sort out the unimportant
details that often clutter your thoughts.” 7th grader
“Simplicity
is cutting away all that is extraneous.”North Pacific Yearly
Meeting, Faith and Practice
Stewardship
Queries:
Do you use and perfect your gifts for the benefit
of others?
Do we regard our time, talents and wealth as
gifts to be shared?
Do we respect the balance of nature?
Do we act to preserve the natural world rather
than seek dominance over it?
Quotes
“Those
who think to win the world
by doing something to it,
I see them
come to grief.
For the world is a sacred object.
Nothing is to
be done to it.
To do anything to it is to damage it.
To seize
it is to lose it.” —Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching, version by
Ursula K. Le Guin
“Our
greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.”Jonas Salk
”.
. . all we possess are the gifts of God to us; now in distributing it
to others, we act as his stewards . . .”John Woolman
“All
things are connected. We did not weave the web of life. We are but a
strand in it. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the people of the
earth.” —Chief Seattle
“The
world we are told was made especially for man—a presumption not
supported by the facts . . . [W]hy should man value himself as more
than a small part of the one great unit of creation??”John Muir
Justice
Queries:
Do we act fairly after considering all
perspectives?
Do we examine ourselves for prejudice based on
race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and economic advantage?
How does our School community respond to
injustice and promote fairness?
Quotes
“A
story is told about Fiorello LaGuardia, former mayor of New York
City. Before becoming mayor, LaGuardia served as a judge in a local
court. It was during the Depression, when jobs were scarce and many
people were poor and hungry. A woman appeared before him who had
stolen food to feed her children. Wanting to satisfy the demand of
both justice and mercy, LaGuardia ruled as follows: ...fine the
defendant ten dollars for stealing, and I fine everyone else in this
courtroom, myself included, fifty cents each for living in a city
where a woman is forced to steal to feed her children. The money was
immediately collected from everyone in the room and given to the
woman, enabling her to pay her fine and have some money left
over.”adapted from Jewish Wisdom by Rabbi Telushkin
”.
. . [C]ease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct
oppression . . .”Isaiah 1:16-17
“This
country will not be a good place for any of us to live in unless we
make it a good place for all of us to live in.”Theodore
Roosevelt
“Stability
and peace in our land will not come from the barrel of a gun, because
peace without justice in an impossibility.”Desmond Tutu
“The
only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing.”Edmund Burke (1729-1797) – English statesman
“Speak
truth to power.”American Friends Service Committee, 1955, taken
from a charge given to 18th century Friends
Service
Queries:
Do we understand that just as service is a gift
so too is the opportunity to serve?
Are we generous with what we have?
Do we seek opportunities to use our gifts to
serve others?
Quotes
“Past
the seeker as he prayed came the cripple and the beggar and the
beaten. And seeing them, the Holy one went down into deep prayer and
cried, ‘Great God, how is it that a loving creator can see such
things and yet do nothing about them?’ And out of the long
silence, God said, ‘I did do something. I made you.’
”Sufi teaching story
“Unless
someone like you
Cares a whole awful lot
Nothing is going to
get better.
It’s not.”Dr. Seuss
“A
small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world;
indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”Margaret Mead
“Be
the change you want to see in the world.” —Mahatma Gandhi
“Let
your life speak.”Quaker tenet
Learning
Queries:
Do teachers and students get to know and
appreciate one another as individuals?
Do we maintain a challenging and vigorous
learning environment?
Do we help imagination and creativity take
flight?
Do we let learning change both our minds and our
lives?
Quotes
“Rabbi
Tarfon sat conversing on serious matters with other learned men in a
house of Ludd. The question was raised: ‘Which is more
important – learning or action?’
Rabbi
Tarfon replied, ‘Action is more important. Of what earthly use
are fine words and preachments unless they are put into practice?’
Rabbi
Akiba upheld the contrary viewpoint ‘Learning is more
important,’ he said.
The
sages finally concluded that both were right. ‘Learning is more
important when it leads to action,’ they declared.”Jewish
folklore
“The
secret in education lies in respecting the student.”Ralph Waldo
Emerson
“The
real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but
in having new eyes.”Marcel Proust
“A
teacher translates the rudiments of hope, will, purpose and
competence [and] conveys logic much beyond the literal meaning of the
words s/he teaches and outlines a particular world image and style of
fellowship.”Erik Erikson [Paul A. Lacey p 79]
“Formal
education is only a jumping-off point for a lifetime of learning and
doing, and what concerns good schools and good teachers is how
students apply the learning they acquire to living their
lives.”Robert Lawrence Smith
Community
Queries:
Do we help make our community a safe, secure and
loving place?
Do we face conflicts with patience, forbearance
and openness to healing?
Do we offer assistance when someone is in need?
Do we truly welcome newcomers and include them in
our community?
Quotes
“Our
Religious Society endures as a community of friends who take thought
for outward society by first taking care of one another. Friends are
advised to maintain love and unity, to avoid tale-bearing and
detraction, and to settle differences promptly and in a manner free
from resentment and all forms of inward violence. Live affectionately
as friends, entering with sympathy into the joys and sorrows of one
another’s daily lives. Visit one another. Be alert to give help
and ready to receive it. Bear the burdens of one another’s
failings; share the buoyancy of one another’s strengths. In all
the affairs of the community, proceed in the peaceable spirit of Pure
Wisdom, with forbearance and warm affection for each other.”Advice
from the Epistles of the Yearly Meeting of Pennsylvania and the
Jerseys, 1694 and 1695
“Alone
we can do so little. Together we can do so much.”Helen Keller
“Perhaps
community is a constellation. Each one of us is a light in the
emerging collective brightness. A constellation of light has the
greater power of illumination than any single light would have on its
own. Together we increase brightness.”John O’Donohue,
Eternal Echoes
“I
note obvious differences between sort and type, but we are more alike
my friends, than we are unalike.”Maya Angelou
Meeting for
Worship
Queries:
Do you come to meeting with heart and mind
prepared for the silence?
Do you listen openly and expectantly in the
silence and to vocal messages?
Do we feel the power of the community drawing us
together in the meeting for worship?
Quotes
“One
of the main characteristics of a Friends Meeting for Worship is
silence. We usually affirm children for their words, but do we ever
affirm them for their silence? Silence can be the capacity to not
have the easy answer. We need to affirm the time for dreaming, for
imagining, for vision-making—the time for the interior images
to meet the images of the world. . . Silent time can become a
centerpiece of the school’s rhythms, a way to deal with
problems, to celebrate, to respond to tragedies, either in the school
or in the world.? —Dorothy Flanagan, The Mystery of Meeting for
Worship, Friends Council on Education “Be still and know that I
am God.”Psalms 46:10
“We
listened and heard the silence.
We listened and felt the
silence.
We listened and tasted the silence.
We closed our
eyes
And saw the great silence dwelling within.”Moses
Shongo, a Seneca Elder who lived in the 1800s
“A
true message from out of the silence may stick in the listener’s
mind throughout the meeting, throughout the day, or throughout a
lifetime.” high school senior
