By Bonnie Parsons:

Home for nearly one week. Have already had the chance to share some of the thoughts and some of the dance. Praise God.

I have the desire to catch the blossom that has flowered on this trip.

I got on a plane and traveled to the other sided of the globe to make fancy steps in circles for a few weeks. The irony was not lost on me that I traveled jet propelled so I could match my polka and grapevine steps across couple of islands on the other side of the globe. Day after day, for three weeks.

By Mark Helpsmeet:

Many Quakers today are refugees from other religions. For a lot of us, silent worship gives us space, freedom from the annoying and oppressive voices which used to preach at us. Silence can be a safe place to heal, but it has it’s dangers too. This "safe" silence can become a weight upon our tongues, a need to scrutinize each word and phrase because someone may find their wound in our words. That kind of scrutiny may keep them safe, but it can also crush all the joy, energy and spontaneity out of our expression.

By Mark Helpsmeet:

Traveling among Kenyan Friends and experiencing their unabashed and fervent prayers, it was hard not to be stretched and changed. I caught some of their spirit and shared my own prayer with them. It was something like this:

"The words you pray are good. God wants and needs the words you pray. They are good words, but they are not enough. God also needs the testimony of you hands, your feet, your whole body and life. Learn to pray with all your body."

By Mark Helpsmeet:

Many different names have been used to describe Quakers through the ages, but one that resonates profoundly with many of today’s unprogrammed Friends is "Seekers." The word implies a continuing search for God and the Light, helping to balance a sense of many religions as rigid and doctrinaire. Certainly, these aspects of the concept have drawn me to the label and affirm a part of the truth that I experience and wish to validate.

By Mark Helpsmeet:

The Friendly FolkDancers (FFD) have been "Dancing Cheerfully Over the Earth Answering That of God in All" since 1986. In February of 1999 we danced a bit further, all the way to New Zealand. There we met with truth prospering among Friends and spoke our measure of truth and light to them through the dance we shared. Our "peace movement" took us to 8 of the Friends’ communities there as well as to a Friends’ wedding and a Maori gathering.

(author unknown):

When I meditated on the word GUIDANCE, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word. I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing. When two people try to lead, nothing feels right. The movement doesn't flow with the music, and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky. When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music. One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back or by pressing lightly in one direction or another. It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

By Keith McDonald, originally published in The West Australian Weekend Extra, 3/4/2006:

Singing and dancing are activities perhaps not many people associate with Quakers, who worship mainly in silence. But an American group in Perth last week showed that Quakers, also know as Friends, are not just strong, silent types.