"Be like a watered garden: open to grace, and loose the bonds of injustice"

The richness of spontaneous and planned encounters—real time, real space, 3-d, and real life—at our annual gathering energized me and I'm confident many others. On the gently rolling campus of Castleton State University in Vertmont we conducted some of the business of New England Yearly Meeting including endorsing key minutes/statements about Palestinian rights. The theme of this year's 363rd annual gathering (on line during 3 years of the pandemic, hybrid in 2022) drew some 300 people to the campus with another 150 on line at various times. This is part one of my three part series.