A Shot of Light - Live from (a Cactus) in Arizona

C Wess Daniels

21 Mar 2025 • 7 min read

Wess with Evan Welkin, Executive Secretary of the Friends World Committee for Consultation (Section of the Americas) and Guilford Graduate together in Paradise Valley, AZ.

True love is not magic,
It is certainty,
And what follows from certainty is
Mystery.

-Bill Callahan

A selfie, worship with Quaker Connect folks, and a ton of Cacti!

Hi Friends,

I am here in Phoenix, AZ for the week working with 8 Quaker meetings from El Salvador, Peru, Jamaica, and the United States for a program I helped create called Quaker Connect. Quaker Connect is a 5-year grant funded program focused on congregational renewal among Quaker organizations that draws on the Convergent Model of Renewal from my book by the same title. Now that we have the program up and running, I am here consulting with the program, and participating in some of activities of Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC). I love coming to these gatherings. FWCC is a global Quaker organization that draws Friends together for worship, community building, and learning together. My love and appreciation for the Quaker tradition continues to grow as I meet Friends from across the Americas. Plus, I love seeing f/Friends I did not expect to see for the FWCC "Section meeting" which started Thursday evening.

As far as the Quaker Connect retreat, it has been wonderful. Meetings in the program have shared maps of their communities and contexts (including economics, demographics, geographical), shared their styles of worship with us, learned theories and key ideas of congregretational renewal, particiapted in a "mini-AVP (Alternatives to Violence Program)," discussed ideas and plans for possible experiments (think, things that might help with outreach or rejuvenate their meetings in other ways). Being here this week, seeing all of this work come into being in this way, and seeing how people have positively and enthusiastically responded to our program has been nothing short of a dream come true and an affirmation of calling. My hope and prayers are with these Quaker apprentices as they return home and get to work in helping to guide their meetings into new phases of life.

If you're a Quaker reading this and would like for your meeting to consider joining our next cohort (January 2026) we will be opening up a new round of applications this summer (go to the webpage for more information).

True Love

In the song, "What Comes After Certainty," Bill Callahan sings, "true love is not magic." It is connection. It is effortful and effortless. It is ongoing care and attention. It is certainty. That is, it is dependable, always there, committed, steadfast, and sure. But it is also a mystery.

I love the recent Modern Love podcast with Lucy Daucus where she tells a story of a couple who started to run out of things to talk about and how they eventually found their way back to love. A hint, it took time together and attention to each other. After spending a week with all of these Friends committed to their meetings, I see another form of love in their passion and desire to not see their meetings fade away. Love is faithfulness even when things are bleak and sometimes feel overwhelming. Love is courage and creativity and sometimes, love requires being a little bit stubborn and not giving up.

Consider Supporting Guilford College

Tony VanWinkle talking to a class I co-teach with Bronwyn Tucker called Food and Faith. Here Tony is talking to us about Ethnobotany and the Underground Railroad during a lovely afternoon class a couple weeks ago in the Guilford College Woods.

I am in my tenth year of work as the Director of Friends Center and Quaker Studies at Guilford College. I love Guilford, my colleagues there, and the students we serve. Guilford needs not only Quakers to show support but anyone who believes in the project of small liberal arts colleges, especially one as powerful and unique as Guilford's mission.

Guilford is running a much-needed, three-day fundraising campaign. I wanted to share my highly produced (wink) video and share an ask with you.

Would you consider making a gift (of any size) to the college during the campaign? As many of you know, we face a number of challenges but I believe that Guilford can remain strong with the support of our community.

Thank you for all of your support and even if you aren’t able to give at this point, would you share this with others? And if you've already done so, thank you!

Here's my "fancy" video! :) - https://www.givecampus.com/zuis8c

Here's the campaign page where you can learn more.

Links of Interest

Some links I've been stuffing in my pocket for when I had a moment to share with you. You can find more links here.

How to Get Talking Again With Lucy Daucus: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/12/podcasts/lucy-dacus-forever-is-a-feeling.html

“I think I have a reputation of being the person that will put the issue on the table and be like: ‘Here’s this. Let’s speak on it.’ I’m a conflict lover, because where else are you going to learn?”

Pedro The Lion's album, Phoenix, is on my mind as I spend the week here. The album is an autobigraphical sketch of the lead singer's time spent living here. Give Yellow Bike and Quietest Friend a listen.
Is your brain structured differently: Good at Reading? Your Brain May Be Structured Differently
The third installment of Eyes on the Prize, a documentary covering the Civil Rights Movement, is online now. This documentary covers 1977-2015 and events like, "Reaganomics and the AIDS crisis," "The Million Man March in 1995," "The soaring police brutality of the Obama years," and "The birth of the Black Lives Matter movement."
Donald Trump and His Allies Don’t Really Care What Kind of Leftist You Are - a great read from philosopher Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò on Teen Vogue no less!
I love Marie Howe's poetry. Maria Popova writes a little about Howe's latest work and shares her new poem, the singularity (video).

In Case You Missed It

Some recent posts on Gathering in Light you might be interested in.

Another Cacti (maybe Senita?) at the Franciscan Retreat Center here in Paradise Valley

A Final Thought - The First Time

By Andrea Gibson

My friend, Brenda Esch, pastoral minister of New Garden Friends Meeting in Greensboro, shared this during campus worship two weeks ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since then. It is a poem she came across from Andrea Gibson.

The first time I visited the Grand Canyon
I was in a shame-deadened terrible mood,
And saw nothing but a hole in the dry-boned earth.
Left cursing that overrated wonder of the world.

The next time I visited the Grand Canyon
I was high on having just discovered poetry,
But rolled up to the place expecting to see
The same mediocrity l'd seen before.

Instead my jaw dropped five thousand feet
To the flushed face of a primrose blooming
Beside a river that was licking six million years
Of tectonic plates serving the best meal
My eyes had ever been served.

I didn't know what had happened
until many years later when I heard
Anais Nin say, "We do not see this world how it is.
We see it how we are."

Regularly reminding myself of this sentiment
Has changed my life for the better in so many way
We do not see the world how it is.
We see it how we are.

Thanks for reading!

C. Wess Daniels
Writing from the Indian Bend Wash Watershed (Paradise Valley, AZ)