{"id":4453,"date":"2023-03-25T15:36:46","date_gmt":"2023-03-25T15:36:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/?page_id=4453"},"modified":"2023-03-25T18:14:26","modified_gmt":"2023-03-25T18:14:26","slug":"friends-from-outside-the-meeting-self-inquiry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordquaker.com\/newsletter\/april-2023\/friends-from-outside-the-meeting-self-inquiry\/","title":{"rendered":"Friends from Outside the Meeting: Self-Inquiry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lucia Sellars <\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0Socrates: Well then, what\u2019s a human being?
\nAlcibiades: I don\u2019t know what to say.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Alcibiades being taught by Socrates (1776) by Francois-Andre Vincent (Musee Fabre) Public Domain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am.
\nWe, as I speak, as you hear,
\nas the silence remains.
\nWe are.
\nAs our thoughts build a tower
\nwithin this moment.
\nAll of our thoughts,
\nwhich make our present.
\nBuilding an immortal tower,
\ntimeless and spaceless.<\/p>\n

A structure detached from our woken life.
\nBecause of its un-graspable matter to our senses,
\nindependent of cultures and races,
\nthoughts,
\nreaching out, higher, deeper.
\nAnd we,
\ntheir structural foundations,
\ntheir creators.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cliff by Lucia Sellars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Far away from definitions,
\nwe exist.
\nBreathing, what we call life.
\nInhaling, exhaling the body of silence,
\nthe constant witness of eternity.<\/p>\n

The dreamers, see nor feel nothing
\nwhilst they sleep.
\nThough their musical visions are clear and concrete,
\nwithin the realms of that tower of thoughts.<\/p>\n

It is true, that faced upon luck, chance or destiny,
\nI could be nothing from now and then.
\nWe could become invisible upon eminent death.
\nSubject always to the mercy of luck.<\/p>\n

Our feelings and reason-based thoughts,
\nthose sighs and thinking vapours.
\nMakes us, I, you, he, she, and we,
\nand is not by separating the parts,
\nbut by looking as a united whole,
\nthat we will survive from our own selves.<\/p>\n

Here, in the invisible tower of thoughts,
\nlays the source,
\nvoid of life and love,
\nthough full of that which makes us God.<\/p>\n

Lucia Sellars, \u201cSelf-Inquiry\u201d from The State of Moving (UK: Beir Bua Press, 2022).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\r\n
\r\n <\/p>\n

Lucia Sellars<\/a> is a Bolivian-English environmentalist scientist, poet, essayist, artist, and dear friend.<\/p>\n

I find much of her work evokes something of Quaker values and understanding of the spirit. She selected a poem and image she felt fitting for us to include in Forty-Three Newsletter.<\/p>\n

Juliet Henderson<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This Month’s Forty-Three Newsletter Contents<\/strong><\/p>\n