As Way Opens
Last week I had the opportunity to travel down memory lane. My parents asked if I would like to go to Fort Wayne with them to possibly retrieve some of my late grandfather’s artwork. Since moving back to Indiana, I have only been to Fort Wayne a couple of times – and then came the pandemic. I believe it has been nearly two years since I traveled up I-69 to the place where I grew up.
As we drove around town, I noticed how much things have changed. The familiarity of the streets, the home I lived in during high school, and the places I frequented brought back a variety of emotions and remembrances both good and bad. We passed the empty lot where the grocery store I worked at used to stand. Our favorite Chinese restaurant (as the sign read, “Under New Management”) had recently reopened but now has a Dairy Queen in its parking lot. I saw my high school campus and my parking spot down by the St. Joe River where I parked when getting to school early to work in the art room (even though I lived a block and a half from school).
When we turned down River Forest Drive, the street with the grass median where my dad taught me to drive a “stick,” the memories really began to flood back. There sat the home where I spent countless weekends hanging out with friends in the basement and where my wife, Sue, ended up living for a year before we were married, while I finished school in Chicago. Where I would sit and laugh around the table with my grandfather one last time before his cancer came back and took his life. Where Sue and I celebrated with family after getting engaged at Franke Park just outside the entrance to the Fort Wayne Children’s Zoo. Where we came the day following our wedding to open presents with friends and then pack our moving truck to leave for Orlando, Florida to begin our life together.
As we turned to leave the area and head back across town for dinner, I could not help but think how much my life has changed since those days. I am not the same person today that I was back then. Actually, I probably would not even hang out with the Bob Henry that lived on River Forest Drive for so many reasons. Yet there is an importance to remembering where you have come from, how it has shaped your story, and how the Spirit may continue to use it to shape your present. Fredrick Buechner in A Room Called Remember says,
One way or another, we are always remembering…there is no escaping it even if we want to, or at least no escaping it for long, though God knows there are times when we try to, don’t want to remember. In one sense the past is dead and gone, never to be repeated, over and done with, but in another sense, it is of course not done with at all or at least not done with us…
I don’t think these memories are done with me quite yet, I just need to be open to how they will shape me in my current phase of life. Is it time you took a trip down memory lane? I wonder what the Spirit will reveal to you?
Bob
Quaker-Affiliated Organizations
Right Sharing of World Resources -- Something to Give Thanks For!
With Thanksgiving approaching, Right Sharing of World Resources (RSWR) offers a way for us to think about all we have that we so often take for granted. This "gratitude calendar," available in both adult and children's versions (see links below), lists one item a day for each day of November. For each item earning a "thank you," participants are invited to give a small donation to Right Sharing. A way of giving to Right Sharing while becoming more aware of the many things we have to be grateful for…
Give 1 cent for every electric outlet in your home
Give 1 cent for every bike, ball, skateboard, Frisbee
Give 1 cent for every faucet in your home
Give 25 cents for the right to vote...
In gratitude for the support of First Friends of RSWR over the past year. -- Phil Goodchild
https://rswr.org/gratitude-calendar
https://rswr.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Adult-Gratitude-Calendar.pdf
https://rswr.org/sites/default/files/2018-06/Childrens-Gratitude-Calendar.pdf
Announcements, Reports, & Opportunities
Daylight Savings Time ends at 2am this Sunday, so don’t forget to set your clocks back an hour before you go to bed, or you may show up to church an hour early on Sunday!
VOCE Centennial Celebration ~ VOCE, a semi-professional group that Carolyn T sings with will be performing a free concert at St. Joan of Arc Church, 4217 Central Avenue on Sunday November 7th at 3PM in celebration of their Centennial year. The concert will feature the World Premier of the “Mass for St. Joan of Art” by Joseph Burrows. We hope you will attend!
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Indiana is seeking volunteer Bigs. Volunteers must be at least 18 years old and they can be matched with children from 8 to 18. Currently, 1,285 matches are being served in our area (Marion, Hamilton, and Johnson Counties). But, over a thousand boys & girls are still on the BBBS match waitlist. Please let the office know if you or another are interested in becoming a Big.
Madge Oberholtzer, the woman who brought down DC Stephenson and the Ku Klux Klan ~ At 2 PM on Saturday, November 13, in Fellowship Hall, First Friends of Indianapolis is pleased to welcome Charlotte Ottinger to speak on her recently published book Madge: The Life and Times of Madge Oberholtzer. Her talk will effectively build on a recent First Friends event which explored the downfall of KKK leader D.C. Stevenson; Ms. Ottinger's book and presentation focuses on Madge Overholtzer's life--and her death at the hand of Stevenson.
We welcome all who are interested to join us in Fellowship Hall of the Fist Friends Meeting House at 3030 Kessler Blvd, East Drive, at 2 PM, Saturday, November 13.
Madge is available from the Irvington Historical Society, the book's publisher.
Celebrating Shawn P ~ Please mark your calendars for Sunday, November 14th when we will gather in Fellowship Hall after Meeting for Worship to have a goodbye celebration for Shawn! We will have food and an opportunity to give Shawn a card, note or gift to thank him for his years of ministry. We hope you’ll join us!
First Friends Financial Update: The Meeting seeks financial support. We are experiencing a considerably larger deficit than in past years, and your help is needed to close the gap. To donate online, go to indyfriends.org/support/#givenow, or text to give at 317-768-0303.
Other means of helping are available through automatic giving, stock gifts, estate planning, and donation of IRA Required Minimum Distributions. For more information, please contact the office at office@indyfriends.org or 317-255-2485.
Additionally, members and attenders are encouraged to visit the 2022 pledge webform to plan ahead for next year.
Overman Scholarship Fund Drive ~ We are kicking off a fund for the Overman Scholarship! This fund, in memory of Jesse & Marilyn Overman and Mark Overman, awards scholarships to members of First Friends attending higher academic or vocational/Quaker institutions. If you’d like to support this worthy cause, we encourage you to donate. For the next 5 years, the Overman family will match donations up to a certain amount. Checks can be payable to “Indianapolis Monthly Meeting of Friends Trustees.” In the memo line, note "Overman Scholarship Fund.” Or you can donate securely on our website at https://www.indyfriends.org/support. Just choose “Overman Scholarship Fund” as the fund. Or text “Overman” to 317-768-0303.
Blue Christmas Service & Luncheon ~ All are invited to our special Blue Christmas service which will be held during Meeting for Worship on Sunday, November 28. We will honor loved ones who have passed in the last couple of years. This service recognizes the struggles that many people face during this season. After meeting for worship, we’ll meet in the parlor to share a light lunch and fellowship and have a facilitated discussion about our losses and grief. If you’d like to join us for this gathering, please RSVP to the office (office@indyfriends.org) and let us know how many people you plan to bring.
Oak Leaf: Meeting for Reading would like you to join us from virtually anywhere in the world as we discuss Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss by Margaret Renkl
Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents--her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father--and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child's transition to caregiver.
And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds--the natural one and our own--"the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love's own twin."
Illustrated by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.
We will gather at the Meeting House and via Zoom starting at 7 pm EST on Tuesday, November 30, 2021 led by Sue H.
Queries for the Week
· How am I embracing a “both/and” outlook of worship and activism?
· In what ways do I need to “reconnect to the whole” and be proactive in creating a supportive community at First Friends, that encourages those led by the Spirit to act?