"And
Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi,
Let
me now go to the field,
and
glean ears of corn after him
In
whose sight I shall find grace.
And
she said unto her, Go, my daughter."
Ruth
2:2 KJV
“R” is for Reconciliation . . . My original thought, when I decided to write about reconciliation, was to go back and reflect on that part of
the Ireland Pilgrimage I was a part of last summer, when we read, heard and talked about the reconciliation efforts of our Irish Friends and others in Northern Ireland. When I laid down in bed, several weeks ago now, and tried going to sleep, my thoughts turned to this post and my mind began to work on overdrive . . . and yes, I got up out of bed, grabbed my tablet and began typing the thoughts that were running through my head . . . so much for getting any sleep.
However, recent events, in the
news and elsewhere, have help to remind me that the ‘troubles’ in
Northern Ireland isn't the only place or event where reconciliation may be helpful. Reconciliation, to some degree, goes on in most of our lives nearly everyday . . . in our families, at work, in our Meetings and just in our everyday encounters.
And this has led me to look at reconciliation in a different light and to
approach this post from a much broader, or more general scope.
When I looked up
reconciliation, the
Merriam Webster dictionary, it said in part: “the act of causing two people or groups to become friendly again after
an argument or disagreement and the process of finding a way to make two
different ideas, facts, etc., exist or be true at the same time.”
So, the process of reconciliation helps
assist &/or guide individuals or groups back into harmony with each other.
Among the Quaker community the process of reconciliation could apply to individuals,
small groups of Friends, Committees, Monthly Meeting, Area Meeting, Yearly
Meeting OR some combination of these OR one of the above plus an outside individual or group.
With Quakers I can see a bit of this in our practice of discernment and seeking clearness. These two pieces of
Quaker practice help to guide us - through our worship, in prayer and also help us listen
more carefully – listening to God, ourselves and those around us as we strive
for unity with what God would have us to do or where God would have us to go –
rather than to act or react from our own reason, logic or our emotions – both individually
and corporately. I also see our Quaker Testimonies helping to guide Friends through the reconciliation process.
A Friend kindly reminded me that
reconciliation can’t happen unless or until all parties are willing to come together and work to reconcile
their differences. It only takes one, individual or group, to resist or remain
hostile to prevent reconciliation from happening and in that case, the other
individual, group or community must do what it can to protect themselves from further
harm.
I’d like to briefly go back to my original
thought for this post – the reconciliation efforts in Northern Ireland. Our first
day in Northern Ireland, we took a Black Taxi Tour around West Belfast. I’m not
sure whether it was later that day or maybe the next day we were talking about
the ‘troubles’ and I commented that
they just needed to “get over it and move
on.” What I meant, by that, was that
I didn’t think it was really healthy for them to continue to dwell on what
happened, but at the same time I did understand that somehow talking about what
happened would help them heal.
This topic also seems to tie into what we
talked to our campers up at Quaker Haven Camp about, just a few weeks ago . . . making choices; it’s all a matter of our choices. We are each
responsible for both the individual and corporate choices that we make/are a
part of and we each have to deal with the consequences of those choices. We
make the choice to say something, or not. To say or do something that might
cause some sort of conflict, or not. And if/when a conflict arises it’s our
choice how we deal with that conflict. Do we ‘feed’ that conflict? Do we ‘ignore’
that conflict? Do we ‘walk away’ from
conflict? OR Do we work to 'resolve' that conflict in a Quaker/peaceful way?
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Recipe time and since it's August I've gone with two of my mom's rhubarb recipes. Growing up in South Bend, Indiana, we had several rhubarb plants out in our garden, out back of our garage . . . my dad loved rhubarb, something I never had a taste for.
Rhubarb
Drop Dumplings
2 cups Bisquick Baking Mix
2
Tablespoons sugar
2/3
cup milk, scant
5 cups rhubarb, cut-up*
¾
cup water
1
cup sugar
1 Tablespoon butter
DUMPLINGS: Mix Bisquick, sugar and milk to drop consistency.
SAUCE: Mix rhubarb, water, sugar and butter together. Bring to
a boil and boil 15-20 minutes.
Drop dough, by Tablespoons into juice. Cook 10 minutes, with
lid off and then 10 minutes with lid on. Let set a while, before serving as dumplings
will get a little dryer. (If you use your pressure cooker, with lid; it is just
right size, but do not pressure it.
Notes on recipe card: use small skillet or
wider pan (1 ½ quartnot enough). My mom also noted that she used frozen rhubarb.
Rhubarb
Whip Cream Pie
4+ cups rhubarb, frozen
1
cup sugar
2
packages gelatin
½ cup cold water
red
food coloring
½
pint whipping cream
Baked pie shell or graham cracker crust
Stew rhubarb – reducing to 2 ½ cup, cook till soft. Add sugar
and bring to a boil. Soften gelatin in cold water and red food coloring. Add
softened gelatin mixture to rhubarb. Cool. Whip whipping cream and fold into
cooled gelatin mixture. Pour into crust.
