Becky and I began attending the Quaker meeting at Arizona State University in the small chapel across from the main campus library. We felt welcomed and grew close to Friends in Tempe. I learned that we do not make our journeys alone. Often during worship, through the chapel’s open door, we heard doves cooing and saw the desert plants in the sunshine….

The silence of Quaker worship spoke to me before I knew anything of Quaker faith or witness. It appeared that little was happening, but there was an inward drama unfolding. I liked the way I could not predict who would speak, what words would be spoken, or what words would rise to the surface within me.

The silence offered me an opportunity to go inward and listen, and it was an opportunity to be with others with long experience in this inward listening. John Woolman speaks of uttering words that arise “from the heavenly spring.” From that first Quaker meeting that I attended with Becky, I had felt comfort in this careful waiting upon the Spirit.

–Mike Heller in Pendle Hill Pamphlet 389: From West Point to Quakerism