After tea, we listened to Amanda Palmer reading Wislawa Szymborska's poem, Life While-You-Wait. The poem, translated from Polish, contains these lines:

If only I could just rehearse one Wednesday in advance,
or repeat a single Thursday that has passed!
But here comes Friday with a script I haven’t seen.
Is it fair, I ask
(my voice a little hoarse,
since I couldn’t even clear my throat offstage).

After listening to the poem twice, we took turns responding to it, using these guidelines from the Quaker community:

• Reach as deeply as you can into the sacred centre of your life. Note: We suggested that "sacred" could be replaced by stillness, wisdom, peace - whatever word captured it best for each person.
• Speak out of the silence, and leave a period of silence between speakers.
• Speak from your own experience, about your own experience. Concentrate on feelings and changes rather than on thoughts or theories.
• Do not respond to what anyone else has said, either to praise or to refute.
• Listen carefully and deeply to what is spoken.
• Expect to speak only once, until everyone has had a chance to speak.
• Respect the confidentiality of what is shared.

We ended the evening by listening to the poem one last time, followed five minutes of silent meditation.