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each
has 2-4 concise pages in one thorough book. To read them is a powerful
antidote for recent Washington's talk of U.S. military growth, reappearance
of nuclear weapons, military invasion(s) and countries of evil.
To
summarize, in these days of risk, violence and terrorism, I heartily recommend
this book for individuals, for monthly meeting libraries and for our peace
committees across Illinois Yearly Meeting.
A Story About Grace
By Mariellen O. Gilpin
Recently my niece Amanda
wrote me this email:
I have been reading a lot
and hearing a lot about God's grace. What is meant by grace?
I thought maybe you could answer this question.
Love, Amanda
Hi Amanda,
Basically, grace means gift
from God. Examples are better than definitions, so maybe it'll
help if I tell you a story about God's grace. It's a story connected
with my mental illness.
For a number of years, I
had been angry with a person who figured very largely in my hallucinations.
One of my devices for taking control of the illness has been to ask the
voices I hear--what I now know are aspects of myself--how "we" are feeling.
My analogy is that I have a hairline crack in my psyche, and the normal
lines of communication between the parts of myself have been broken.
So talking to my voices and learning how "we" feel has rebuilt some of
those connections that were broken. If my broken parts have a channel
of communication that is legal, so to speak, it makes it easier for "us"
to avoid hallucinating in order to talk about those feelings. You
might say these are bedtime conferences with myself.
For years I had been listening
to myself be angry about the role this person had played in my illness.
Each night I listened, thinking, "This is a process. Letting go of
anger requires |
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