Testimonies Rock! The virtual version...

Testimonies are such a powerful tool.... useful beyond the framework of Quakerism as a faith.

Quaker testimonies are commonly recognized by Friends and Quaker Schools alike as the core values inherent in leading a right life. They are often referred to as SPICES as a handy way to remember them: simplicity, peace, integrity, community, equality, and stewardship.

Be thoughtful, however, there is a risk in getting too comfortable 

with this memory device. By using SPICES, we sometimes 

limit the field of potential growth. 

Testimonies are not limited to those 6 - those 6 are the starting point!

From the Sidwell Friends School archives

Consider your friendships...


How do you tend to your friendships? Do you work at them? Compromise? Apologize? Show love? Feel respect? 

How do you begin a new friendship?

All of these ideas are testimonies. We might call them personal testimonies. If the six above are the Quaker testimonies that we work on as a community, then these personal testimonies are those tailored exactly to each individual's needs - personal testimonies.

If you look at the trees and flowers above again more carefully, you might notice some of those testimonies on the small flowers. What do you notice? What would you add? What do you wonder?

Spend some time thinking about what you might need to work on - maybe around building friendships, maybe around reflection, maybe around taking action. What is an area that you need to work on and grow in order to live a kinder, friendlier life? 

Write or draw your thinking. Make a list, find the one or two ideas that are really popping out for you.Draw your own testimony tree. Print this one out. Build a tree from found materials.

Create testimony rocks. Print these and cut them out. Create some rocks out of found materials. Find some actual rocks and paint them.

Add some Quaker testimony rocks around the base of your tree. These are the starting point. 

Add some leaves. Print these and cut them out. Create some leave out of found materials. Find some actual leaves and write on them.

These might be your personal testimonies. These might be family testimonies or classroom testimonies.

What is your personal testimony? Should it be a rock or a leaf? What makes you think so?

                  

Post your testimony tree someplace that you'll see it. The most important part of this is the reflecting on and planning about how you will live your personal testimony.

Check in with yourself about how you're doing... Are you holding your testimonies in your "pocket"? What steps are you taking to work on these testimonies? Are they working? How do you know?

For added information about testimonies:

https://www.pym.org/introducing-pym-quakers/quaker-testimonies/

https://www.afsc.org/testimonies/introduction

https://quakered.blogspot.com/2020/03/testimonies-rock-course-for-personal.html

Types of thinking encouraged: 

• Encourage Inquiry
• Slow Looking
• Practice Articulation
• Develop Questions
• Make it Safe
• Introduce a Topic or Object

Artful Reflections

An interesting scene... before you set your ideas about what might be happening here, follow this path:

Look carefully. Slowly.

Look at the corners, the top, the bottom, the middle.

What do you notice? What items or beings do you see? 

Don't think yet about what might be happening, just notice what you see.

What does this scene remind you of?

What do you think of as you look at this painting?

What about this painting might feel unexpected?

What surprises you about this scene?

What do yo think is happening in this painting?

What questions do you have?

What do you wonder?

Take some time to reflect on these questions in writing or using art or by video recording. 

Don't rush. 

Let some silence fall between your ideas and keep looking carefully.

This painting is called Peaceable Kingdom.

It was painted by Edward Hicks.

This version lives at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. You can visit it here.

Hicks was renowned as a minister - he had a much respected ability to share aloud the inner light rising from his silent reflection.

For Hicks, painting was an extra - preaching was his passion, what he believed he was born to do. He painted Peaceable Kingdom more than 62 times! Rumor says that you can see signs of his own state of mind, at the time of each version, in the facial expressions of his animals.

George Fox, founder of Quakerism wrote:

“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.” Statement of 1656, from The Works of George Fox (1831)

George Fox is getting at the idea of Letting Your Life Speak here.

How is Edward Hicks letting his life speak in this artistic work? 

How will you let your life speak?

Feel free to share your visible thinking with me at coffind@sidwell.edu. I will add them to this post. If you wish, include documentation (photos, video, writing) of your process.

For added information about testimonies:

https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.59908.html
https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1396.html
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Hicks

Types of thinking encouraged: 

• Develop Questions
• Connect to Prior Knowledge
• Slow Looking
• Practice Articulation
• Safe Exploration of a Topic, Idea, or Object
• Wonder about Differences or Similarities

Source:

A twist on the See Think Wonder thinking routine: https://www.smore.com/emm0s-see-familiar-surprise-wonder