Quakers have a talisman phrase that may be useful to many of us in these moments of stress, whether over personal, regional, national or global issues. That phrase is “Proceed as Way opens,” which has helped me time and again when things look impossible.
“Way” is a description of “the hole in reality through which we can look if we wish,” to borrow a phrase from John Steinbeck. It’s a path to follow when there is no apparent path, one step at a time. It is a way of thinking that may offer us a way of moving forward in this time of terrible conflict.
Formally named the Society of Friends, the faith of Quakers has held my heart’s attention since I returned to religion for guidance. Most of what I’ve learned about Quaker faith has come from the books of Parker J. Palmer, which led to writings of early Quaker mystics and more contemporary writers such as Frederick Buechner and Thomas Merton, the Catholic priest who contributed to the spiritual development of my mostly-unwashed yet seeking generation.
Palmer is not a birthright Quaker, but a convert from the secular world of sociology and smatterings of childhood Protestant Sunday school, which makes his path a little more like mine. In his book “Let Your Life Speak: Listening to the Voice of Vocation” (2000), he tells a wonderful story of learning about Way from Friends at Pendle Hill, an intentional Quaker community near Philadelphia where he’d gone “on sabbatical” after abandoning both academia and community organizing as professions.
Searching for a new job title, he followed the Friendly recommendations of his elders, praying and waiting for direction, trying to Proceed as Way Opens. Impatient or perhaps just feeling the press of time, when Way didn’t appear, he approached an older woman known for her wisdom. She told him:
“I’m a birthright Friend, and in sixty-plus years of living way has never opened in front of me. But a lot of way has closed behind me, and that’s had the same guiding effect.” (p. 38.)
Palmer reports that he laughed hard and long, likely in the relief that I myself feel just reading her two sentences. Hopefully they provide some relief for you, too.
I have Methodist and other Christian friends who are comforted by the phrase “God’s got this.” That may be just another way of describing Way opening or closing, but it tends to disable me (which can be a good thing sometimes!) The more mystical approach better suits my understanding of how God (or the Light, in Quaker terminology) works through us, however. It keeps me at my post, looking for direction, the next step to take.
I feel that we are in an emergency at most levels of our lives at this moment, some more slow-moving than others. Our national war threatens to upend the global world order and already has begun to impact the economic stability of families and local human services, including the food supply. One of my assignments is to put words to that which, hopefully, others can hear and take action or solace from them.
I feel that we Americans, at the 250th mark of our democratic existence, are being dismembered. Looking around the world, the same forces appear to be at work, with quiet pockets of resistance holding things together amidst the bloodshed. I live among people, even friends, who cheer this dissolution, not knowing any more than I do what it will mean, but without the fear for us that I live with daily.
Just last week, Way closed behind me again, a gift. At first it felt like a door shutting in my face, of course, but when I turned around, the world I need was still there. I could see, suddenly, what I’d been missing. Perhaps the dismantling of our country is pointing us toward the revolution we have been needing for awhile, providing for real reform instead of demolishing everything. More Wayseeking is definitely required. Look for that crack of Light.
Trudy Wischemann is always evaluating what we do next. You can send her your ideas c/o P.O. Box 1374, Lindsay CA 93247. This column is not a news article but the opinion of the writer and does not reflect the views of the Mid Valley Times newspaper.
