ONLINE: Wed, Aug 27: “Quaker's WAY OPENING”

“Do you have the patience to wait ‘til the mud settles and the water is clear? Can you remain unmoving ‘til the right action arises of itself?” Lao Tsu

“And if he closes before you all the ways and passes, he will show you a hidden way which nobody knows.” Rumi

“As way opens” is a reference to the old Quaker saying that we should “Proceed as way opens” after patient, prayerful waiting for Spirit to move in the world, and open or reveal the way forward.”
(www.quaker.org 1-7-2018 sermon)

You will never see past, what you refuse to acknowledge.
Instead, we typically we see our limitations as a lack of ability, or due to natural or artificial limitations.
Example: Americans chafe at limitations placed upon us as guardrails meant to protect us -why?
To what degree do we unwittingly adopt boundaries that we share or create for ourselves?
For tonight's meeting, bring an example real or imaginary, of where you feel you may be stuck.

“The perception of an inability to move ourselves forward is a powerlessness many of us have experienced. How do we regain that power to move forward? Is there a letting go that can facilitate such change?
It’s the Quaker concept of Way Opening. ‘Way will open’ is a phrase used when we know some kind of change or action has to take place, but we can’t quite figure out the pathway to accomplishing the necessary action. We’ve all faced this moment. Maybe you’re there right now. It’s when you want or need to make a change, to move forward, to pivot. But you’re unclear as to how to make that happen.
Allowing Way to Open is different. It demands a period of expectant waiting that can feel sometimes like you’re not making any forward progress at all. It means you have to be OK with not having a solution for a period of time. You have to let the effort go, and allow yourself to just be in a place of uncertainty for an unspecified period of time, “capable of being in doubts, uncertainties, mysteries, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason...”
(excerpts from https://www.wearetiderisers.com/blog)