Friends Journal

1 week ago | friendsjournal.org | Peterson Toscano |Martin Kelley

For three years, I regularly worked with bright but struggling ninth graders at a small private school in Hartford, Connecticut, helping them manage their attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and executive functioning challenges. Perhaps the most transformative of all the strategies we employed was teaching them how to understand and unlearn their fears. Fear profoundly affects our brains, impairing our memory, critical thinking, and decision-making.

3 weeks ago | friendsjournal.org | Martin Kelley

There is said to be a Chinese proverb that acts as a curse: May you live in interesting times. Like most pithy phrases, its authenticity is doubtful (it seems to have been coined by Neville Chamberlain’s father, of all people). Our pop culture is full of dubious things never said. Yes, I’m sorry but Gandhi never told us to be the change we want to see in the world, Washington never copped to cutting down a cherry tree, and Fox never told Penn to keep wearing his sword.

2 months ago | friendsjournal.org | Sharlee DiMenichi |Martin Kelley

Read in English. Oponiéndose a la aplicación de las leyes migratorias en los lugares de culto, la Conferencia General de Amigos (FGC) se unió a una demanda interreligiosa contra el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional de los EE. UU. (DHS por sus siglas en inglés) y dos de sus  agencias de aplicación, la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP por sus siglas en inglés) y el Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE por sus siglas en inglés).

2 months ago | friendsjournal.org | Martin Kelley

A Quaker author chat. Kat Griffith’s article, “Rhapsody in Purple,” appears in the Feburary 2025 issue of Friends Journal. Links:One Quaker’s Excellent Adventure in Politics Kat Griffith archive in FJKat Griffith lives in Ripon, Wis., the birthplace of the Republican Party, and serves on the Fond du Lac County Board. She is a past co-clerk of Northern Yearly Meeting and worships with the small-but-mighty Winnebago Worship Group.

2 months ago | friendsjournal.org | Martin Kelley

I believe it was Friend Lloyd Lee Wilson who introduced me to the spiritual metaphor of the fire drill. Most of you will know these rather annoying exercises from schools or workplaces: a few times a year, the building’s fire alarm will be intentionally set off, and we will immediately put aside our work, stand up, and march quietly to the nearest fire exit, and from there to a designated waiting spot.