Plays for Peace, llvl

Yesterday was exhausting. There were too many articles about women’s being targeted for being good at what they do… and the responses’ ranging from lower pay to death-threats. In one article there was a nonchalant… oh two women had to move out of their house because they were being targeted for — talking about gaming. Seems it matters enough that one woman, who was supposed to speak at an event in Utah, cancelled when the University wouldn’t install metal detectors for her event even though someone had written a letter threatening to kill her and all the other feminists. I’d say “hunted down like dogs” but we don’t talk about our beloved pups that way. Women, meh. And those weren’t the only posts about women’s lives being endangered.

And then there were the articles about the children. One is dead, one has killed. They’re trying a 10-year-old boy as an adult — which is much better than getting him mental health services earlier in his life, eh… and finding out what provokes that kind of action in a child. Certainly, I know there are psychopaths with badly wired brains. But often, there are kids in trouble. Who knows what he is… But he didn’t get what he needed. No, I’m not excusing him. But I’m not excusing us either.

So, you read, you think. You try not to live in the rage. I know its value, but I know its cost as well.

I had meant to have my musing written before I went off to the theater last night. I just got involved doing other things… so that didn’t happen. Looking to balance myself a bit, I reminded myself about the artists I live among. There are so many who just open their hearts and minds to us… It’s quite magical. Songs, poetry, books, and plays. I’ve got to believe, if you look around, people like that are everywhere, people with their hearts leaking out, spilling out. Magic in the air, Change on the ground.

And then last night, one man, on the stage talking about climate change, but also talking about a moral imperative to act and his willingness to trust that we would stand with him; that people would do the right thing.

I’d just been talking to Dr. Jojo about this… a very smart woman had just written a sermon about people’s needing to act from their love and willingness… their needing to feel it… But I have to tell you, if I didn’t feel the imperative, whether I define that as the Goddess with her hand firmly shoving me out the door, or a simple understanding of what is wrong and a willingness to work for that not to be true… I think we have to get up off our collective asses. We have to vote in the voting booth and on the streets.

Peterson Toscano believed last evening and offered that, slyly, pointedly, inspirationally, laugh out loudly. We are so lucky. “Apocaloptimist!” oh, yes, Peacemaker, Hope Giver… let’s get up offa those things! The world waits for our strong hearts and gentle hands.

Peace for Children, llvl

Such a sad story locally, a nine year old has died of a drug overdose. Somewhere else a ten year old has killed his 90 year old grand mother (and oh! is being tried as an adult!). I know these stories are sensational. But they are also profoundly sad.

I’m sure we’re going to find that there are underlying causes for each of these boys. I’m sure we’ll hear more about what set up these awful scenarios.

I’m not sure that we can claim that the sky is falling on the basis of these two kids, but we can use it as an opportunity to find what our children need. In the local case, it sounds more and more that what that child needed was not to be in the home of a predator. The second child, after reading just a bit, sounds like he has needed mental health support, which he didn’t get.

Tragedies do happen. Neither of these feel like accidents, however. In the first, even if the child ingested the drugs, what’s he doing getting childcare in the house of a convicted felon with drugs and guns lying around? I’m sure we’ll here all sorts of justification, but one bottom line reality may well be a lack of childcare. And accessible, affordable mental health care is what the second child needed and perhaps protection, who knows.

We honor these children by working to ensure that any one of a number of supports are in place: food, shelter, medical care — for them and for their family system.

Until every last little is tended and provided for, our children are not safe…

No answers here, lots of questions, very little Peace… and we’re the only Hope, although it’s not clear what next steps are… not the usual upbeat ending to an Ann Post… There’s mourning, but mourning is not enough…

Utopia and Peace, llvl

I don’t suppose it really matters that I’m not a fan of dystopian literature. The world doesn’t come to an end, and neither does the genre. Plenty of people are.

And as someone asked the other day, are optimists simply insane for believing in possibilities despite some very good evidence to the contrary? Has any utopia, ever, worked? No. But for some reason, my heart continues to yearn for Hope rather than acquiescing to discouragement.

Did hundreds run out to say no to the hatred and fear that the other day’s course offered? No. But twenty-five did and more wrote. Do I wish some of those that wrote would have been there to stand with us. Surely. Talk’s cheap. We know that.

“Great Job! Thanks!” doesn’t move the world. Maybe it’s stupid to think that more movement will gather more believers. But when our children are hungry, I have to believe we’re going to want to feed them. Because we can make a difference. I sometimes say I’m clapping for Tinkerbelle, but really, I don’t believe this requires magical solutions. It simply needs people to open their hearts and their wallets. $10 a month feeds a kid for a year.

Believe in all the vampires you want… I’m going to believe in my neighbors’ wanting the world to be safe and sane. And I’m going to keep working to help this Valley become the Valley with no hungry children. This is the Work I believe in.

Disappointments in Peace, llvl

I’d been doing really hard work on my Five-Fold Goddess presentation with Kelly. When the conference was cancelled, it was really disappointing.This is work I’ve wanted to do for such a long time. And it’s not as if it were going easily… bah.

Now I’ll have to find a new venue, which means trying to decide what stays, what goes… To keep tasking the material and ourselves, what if any difference it makes. It’s part of the process of doing your work, I know that… It’s not just the moments of self-reflection that make our work hard, it’s the fact that the outside world bumps along and things don’t always go the way you’d like them to.

So… it also means dealing with the disappointment. They weren’t getting the registration they needed and they pulled the plug. A wise decision, certainly… but it put at least a temporary halt to the deep fun of working on this… and the urgency…

I’ve been away from the Goddess and that work for a long time. It was nice to have a reason to be back. Now I have to readjust. I can do that.

And I have to mourn a bit. And give myself a bit of Peace about my discouragement, before I go back to slogging away, and finding a way to open it to the world.

So here’s to the uncomfortable parts, because Peace is actually not a straightforward process or journey…

Quiet, Sabbath Peace

Sometimes, when life has been very busy. Sometimes when life has been very disappointing. Sometimes, just because life is life, it’s lovely to take a day off. A day where something gets accomplished, but the biggest milestone might be a visit to the drugstore to restock your kleenex supply. A day where you indulge yourself in a new book and a luxurious read. A day when you sit across a table from friends and catch up.

It’s been a busy week. No one had planned on the need to respond to fearmongering. It didn’t take a lot of big work, but a fair amount of busy work. It was very satisfying that we showed up, a diverse interesting bunch of folk. We stood around and chatted, dropped some cash in the barrel for Love Flows, drank some cider and just generally said Peace and Community matters. It was very sweet.

It’s been a disappointing week. I’d been very excited to be doing a workshop on the Five Fold Goddess, so when the weekend folded, I was sad. I’m sure I’ll do something with it, but it was a chance to step into some work I miss doing.

And there were just things that need to be done around the house. I didn’t make much of a dent in that list, but a little. Here’s to civilization.

And for me, nothing says luxury like a long comfortable chat with friends. I had not one but two of those.

All of that adds up to a day of gentle, simple Peace, the kind of which I would wish for all of you. Maybe today… who knows… Your life will be the sweeter for some quiet indulgence. Blessings on your day. May it be joyful.

Peace in the Park, llvl

Peace makes its start locally. The work that you and I do here where we live is a building block for bigger Peace.

It’s not that hard to respond to what’s needed. You make a few calls, put out a bit of Love on Social Media, and next thing you know, you’ve got a couple dozen folks standing around in the park drinking cider on a chilly night i October. People were standing around getting to know one another, while across the street, people were getting the 4-1-1 on how the world was going to come to an end.

I’m always going to be more interested in how Love is going to come to fruition. What possibilities do Love, Peace, Community offer us? Maybe it will be a dinner for our communities, maybe not. Maybe we’ll keep building on the Love Flows Project… but one way or another… Love happens most easily from easy invitation.

And then there we are, being Peaceful and laughing all the way. Let’s here it for Love and Peace in the Park.

Bits and Pieces of Peace, llvl

Noticing. We have to pay attention to what’s around us. If we don’t, we miss wonderful things. And not only big things, small wonderful things… As I say below, it’s finding that local shop that gives a good haircut or the place where they know how you like your sandwich fixed. It’s the little things that act as both a reminder and a goad. The reminder is that there are many things in life that are good and that those things add up to a good life. Then we can let those lovely little things act goads to preserve what is great and to make it better.

And the world needs little prompts so it continues to be wonderful, or maybe even starts being wonderful for everyone. Because let’s be clear, privilege makes things great for some, but not all of us. It’s up to those of us with privilege to keep widening the circle, inviting people in.

It’s easy, goodness knows, to whine about what’s wrong. We do that a lot. All of us. But if we put our minds — or is it our hearts — to it, it’s very easy to notice small things that make our lives lovely. It’s actually fairly easy to do little things to make it better. One of the things that makes life lovely for us is when it’s lovely for everyone.

That’s why a bunch of us are going out today to stand together and drink a little cider across the street from a group promoting a hateful point of view. We’re not protesting, we’re just witnessing to Peace and Community. A lot of us. Standing around. Chatting. Getting to know one another. Maybe even planning to do something more. Something that makes a bigger difference.

But if my friend Sonia and some of her friends who wear a headscarf feel better loved — and safer, let’s not forget safer — because we stood in the cold and the dark, then so much the better. Simply by being present, we’re working for Justice. If it’s this easy to do good, maybe we’ll do more…

If I want Peace, I have to be it. That simple. And I’ve got to invite other people along on the journey. Because Peace isn’t for the few.

Moon Peace, llvl

Oh, I loved seeing the eclipse, loved getting up early to see the Moon slowly veil her face. Loved the wacky fact that it didn’t show up in pictures that she was doing that very thing.

Next year, you’re going to see a lot of the moon in my musings and on my blog. I keep trying to think about different ways for us to pay attention to where we are in time and space, how we use where we are to celebrate life and make it better. Next year, let’s see what the lunar rhythms have to teach us.

Part of the time I lived in CA, I lived high on a hill overlooking the Bay. We had a huge panorama vision of much of the Bay Area, looking out to the Pacific Ocean. We watched the sun travel up and down the coast through the seasons.

If I wanted to see the moon rise, I’d have to go out and stand in the driveway and look up the hill. And I did. oh, so often. This year, if I want to see the moon rise, I’m going to have to get out and look for her. And won’t that be a good thing. (She’s very generous though and often slides down my bedroom window to set.)

In the area I live, the Native people once organized their lives around the seasons of the moon. When you hunted and when you planted was a reflection of which moon was in what phase. It will be interesting to see how life and the work of Peace changes as we watch her waxing and waning. I started to type whether it will change, but how I look at life has changed every year as I stop and really look… Thanks for looking with me. (and there are two more eclipses coming! Apparently they come in fours. Who knew?) Peace and the Moon. More to come.

Peace-colored Glasses, llvl

I’m wearing Peace-colored glasses, and I’m not taking them off.

I watch a lot of my people I know and respect tell me both about what’s wrong in the world (the big world) and what someone needs to do about it. I can only wrap my arms around what’s wrong in my world and what I can do about it and if you join me how much more we can do about it. It’s not that I don’t try to understand what’s going on out there, but I know it’s a lot more complicated than I know and that I am unclear what to do to help — and I’m not completely convinced that we’re in a position to make good decisions about the whole world. I see genocide happening, and I don’t have a clue what sort of intervention stops that.

The only intel I’m getting that I trust completely at the moment is from the teachers and parents who tell me how many children are hungry. I know it takes $10 a month to feed a child. I’m making Peace here. I believe in Peace here, all evidence to the contrary. I’m going to wear the glasses, I’m going to clap for Tinkerbelle and I’m going to keep taking your money to feed hungry children. I’m also going to shout out when I see injustice running over people in my neighborhood… however loosely defined that is. I’m going to celebrate when someone else leads. What do your Peace-colored glasses have in sight? Where are you making a difference for Peace? Deb Slade is taking pictures… If hers aren’t Peace-colored glasses, I don’t know whose are!

Peace, Love, Community, llvl

We all need a reminder that life contains more possibilities. It’s easy sometimes to look at the folk who capture our attention with their fear and misinformation (and how the hell did that get to be a word???), and think that that’s where the world is. But it’s not.

Most of us are looking for something to believe in. Something to participate in. We want a way to make the world better. I believe this. It keeps me going. My friend points out, we’re no worse than we’ve ever been. Which is probably true. We just have more data. Which we drown in. (I’m thinking I see tomorrow’s musing rising out of this, what do you think?)

So join me in Cameron Park on Friday and remind me life is hopeful. Don’t live here? Join something, start something and remember, life is filled with possibilities — but your life is only filled with possibilities if you look for them and take advantage.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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