Moonlit Peace, llvl

Well, it was difficult with an evening like last evening not to have the musing turn back toward Paradise.

There we were, the temperature was perfect (and there were no bugs!); the food, amazing; the patio, filled with friends; the moon was up and the band was smokin’ and mellow by turns. Steve was playing again! His wrist is getting stronger. That would have been enough… but he’s not just playing he’s playin’ those drums. oh, such joy.

What a life of privilege I lead.

And I’m grateful for it, because all last night I thought about what I had to do this morning, and was uneasy. But I did it. I went and sat down at a table in the restaurant I often go to and told them that the racist jokes have to stop. The one guy looked at me and said, I wish you’d been here 5 minutes ago the guy just left. But it was really just that everyone laughed. And he told me he’d talk to the guy. (I don’t know if he knew i wrote a letter to the editor about it, and that it was in today’s paper.) The guy I was sitting beside looked at me only once, he obviously was not open at all… And I need to decide. Do I just not go back? Do I go back for a bit in case someone wants to talk to me? Do I go back and take my whole tribe of folk and just begin to own the place? I don’t know. I’ll finish shaking from this morning’s encounter and think about it later. I owe it to everyone I love to keep thinking about it. I owe it to them and myself to keep stepping up. You can’t make Peace by ignoring the ugliness and the folk who can’t have Peace.

And I’m grateful that I have such fine experiences to sustain me. So that I can do what I’m called to do… And I’m glad and lucky beyond belief that I have such a wild, weird, wonderful community. Growin’ up. it ain’t for sissies.

Nature Peace, llvl

Mother Nature not only offers us good eats, she offers us Beauty. Here’s this squash, portrait by Deb Slade in wild and beautiful color.

We come in wild and beautiful color too, but somehow that’s never as celebrated as the different colors of, say, heirloom tomatoes.

But what are we, each and everyone of us, if not precious heirlooms?

Peace is a many colored thing… Let’s embrace that. Let’s act on it.

Peace and Reality, llvl

I talk and talk and talk about how beautiful it is where I live. And it is.

But the reality is everything isn’t beautiful and while I’m enjoying the people chatting on Market Street, other people are having to listen to hateful jokes told about people who look like them. Oh, right. Of course it’s lovely for me. I (mostly) “fit in.”

Yesterday made my friend even happier she’s leaving. Can I blame here? No. Do I have work to do? Yes. I will talk to this group. Will it cause them to change? Probably not, at least deep inside, but it may cause them to quiet in public. It’s at least a start. Do we need to be more open and active about rooting out such close-minded hatefulness? yes. Are they horrible people? Ignorant, certainly.

And then someone posts on FB a story, another story, about my hometown where a kid in a KKK hood harassed a young coed. Harassed… it doesn’t really talk about how horribly frightened she must have been does it. Because she at least knows her history. She doesn’t have the luxury of not knowing history, because she’s on the downside of it. Who knows what happened to her people.

At the same time, there are people in my hometown

This is on the people who look like me to confront, so that people can be safe where they are. I’ll probably get a symposium together. I hope you’ll come. I hope you’ll step up. I hope we can make a difference.

Because Peace for only some of us is no kind of Peace at all. I’m really sad today.

Here she is, starting college… and being hassled. Ok, threatened, not hassled. I’m so grateful she went to the cops. And that must have been scary. Especially if she’s new there, because who would know, if the KKK is hassling you that the cops are going to be receptive.

Folks, this one’s on us. What do we do? I wrote to the editor. I will talk to this group. I may talk to the owner. I will probably try and organize a group to teach and talk about this. But each of us need to stop these jokes… in the streets, in our families, in our friends. The racist jokes, the sexist ones, the rape jokes, the… you know them. we have to speak up each and every time. We have to step up.

So, Peace, my dears. It’s on us. And so’s Reality. It’s our community. what do we want it to look like?

Paradise & Peace, llvl

I should have written this before breakfast. You would have had a happy post then. Full of last night’s feast and friendship.

Instead, I’m filled with this morning’s hatred at my local breakfast eatery. I wrote about sitting at a table where people came from other places, other races, where the food was foreign and the drink was local and the conversation, simply delightful.

And now I’m drowning in the ugliness of simple hospitality shattered. Of a quick bite that was to talk of challenging things that talked instead about that and not about good news to share and prepare for.

My friend is not safe. Neither is yours. Do I think they would have physically hurt her? No. But does this do incredible damage? oh, yes. oh, yes. oh, yes. Casual racism, homophobia, sexism is incredibly damaging. If people will think that, we have to find the courage to tell them not to share.

Saturday, I have to go back to breakfast and say, no more… And then I have to find a place where my friend is welcome.

peace. we have to be doing it. and we had better be fueled by good times because we have work to do. Last night was really wonderful. This morning was really hard.

Farewell and Peace, llvl

The seasons keep turning. I take incredible joy in summer… bodies in bodies of water… ahhhhhh. I’m sure I leave the town pool at the end of every summer, even knowing that I’ll be swimming the day after, with some of the same feelings I had when leaving the womb (developmental crowd, did i have feelings or just sensations?). Well, at least I was reluctant.

But every season brings its joy. The trick is to celebrate. I positively gushed about how beautiful this region is in the Spring. Wait… the fall and its colors are coming. And then the snows. Sure the storms are annoying. If the Almanac is right it’ll be a snowy one. thank goodness I have snow tires. I may actually put them on this year.

I think it’s important to find sweetness in every season and to cling to that… enjoying. Every season is too something: hot, cold, grey, snowy, polleny, rainy. But every season is astonishingly something as well: green, sultry, colorful, clean, clear, shady… Life on Earth… we’re so lucky.

Now if only we could find ways to embrace the differences in all of life and not just the seasons and the landscapes, we’d be making progress toward Peace. Let’s do that, shall we? It’s a large job… but if we each do our tiny little piece… we can do this. Peace. it’s what we’re made for.

Celebrating Community Peace, llvl

My bro- and sis-in-law have the world’s blowout on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. It’s huge. They spend weeks preparing and friends come by and help garden and generally spiff. Did I mention I have the world’s best bro- and sis-in-law? This marriage business has all sorts of benefits you don’t expect. Not just a great husband, but kids and a great family. Sold to the Priestess!

The all-important porta-potty arrives. Tents go up. Lights get strung. The fire gets laid.

Then people arrive in droves, carting in sound boards and mics. The world’s biggest beer ice chest gets filled. Missy Margaret’s fabulous redone antique cooler gets stocked with soda.

And we’re off. hundreds of people show up toting food and beverage, chairs, and instruments. savory food on these tables. dessert on that one. hotdogs outside on the grill. It’s a madhouse where no one gets mad. You rarely have a good long visit with anyone, unless you do.

Last year, i could barely show up because Deb was newly dead. This year, I was thrilled to be there and delighted that the woman who took Deb’s blood was hanging out. Three years ago we fretted that Than wouldn’t make it to the next party. This year… the party was bigger than ever and he was king of the hill… and that makes his world happy and grateful.

Not only was there no hurricane yesterday, the rain held off.

Living la vida local. Outside with good food and neighbors and music that was sometimes great, sometimes not… sometimes Peace is elusive. But sometimes Magic happens and Peace shows up right along the river with loads of laughing people… Peace… and today, i’m off for my last outdoor swim at the town pool… magic enough for me.

Sabbath Peace and New Beginnings, llvl

There are extraordinary people I suppose who are world Peacemakers. But most of us live la vida local. That means we must make Peace where we are.

Not just that convenient little Peace where you think what I think and I think what we think and we’re all happy and self-satisfied. But that slightly uncomfortable yet oh-so-satisfying Peace where we stretch beyond the known and really do the work. We look at what needs to be done and do it. And then we stretch our reach a bit to the next place in our lives and spread what we’re doing.

There are places all over the world we can look… and there are places here. We can’t look at our borders and see people refusing children and think we are doing well with Peace. We can’t look at Ferguson and dream for one minute it couldn’t happen here… unless we do something…

This is a Sabbath for some of us. Some of you had it yesterday. Let us rest. Let us take pleasure, and then let us get to work. Let us stretch across boundaries. Stretch where it is uncomfortable… Let us do yoga of the heart and soul… Let us stretch for Peace. It’s really kinda urgent…

Gradual Peace, llvl

Building Community is a slow and gradual effort. It means making the effort to go to picnics in the park. It means showing up at the church yard sale and talking not only to the strangers but also to the people you know. It means hearing what’s right and what’s wrong in their lives. It means sharing the same. It means laughing at whatever nonsense occurs and soberly waiting for the hard news.

All in all, it’s a pretty amazing exercise.

And here’s the great thing, it makes life better. Building community is as much making life la vida local as is appreciating the local landscape.

Today I was thinking about it because I was working at the church yard sale. I ran into lots of my fellow members, no big surprise, but I ran into a whole bunch of people I knew from other places in my life. Nurses who cared for my parents, my 10th grade American History teacher, a woman who eats breakfast at the same diner that I do… someone I see when I go there, but we’ve never chatted. A dear friend that I never run into. It’s a rich and wonderful stew.

I’m an extrovert, so yard sales are overwhelming. Too many people and too much stuff. But hey, this contributes to my salary, so I’m going to be there. And it’s fabulous if tiring. And some people love doing this. Some love setting it up (some just do what they’re supposed to) and some love shopping (and some just hold purses!)

But all in all… it’s building community. And Building community is building Peace. And that? is a very good thing.

Local Peace, llvl

This was a real living la vida local peace. Picnics made easy… set up in the park and get comfortable. Walk to the food truck and get fabulous food (really? Egyptian and Mexican food in downtown L-burg?). Wander back to the vendors for ice cream… local ice cream of course.

Chat with old friends. Wave at acquaintances. Cuddle the kids that haven’t yet grown out of it. Take pleasure in watching the connections grow up. Hear from the local committee about plans for the riverfront reclamation. (hopefully they’ll reclaim it from the poison ivy… oh, yuck!). Tubing was discussed at length.

This isn’t a perfect place. There’s a lot of work to do. But when you spend some time building connections, it’s easier to do the work.

And hey, sometimes you just have to put your feet up and have a little local Peace. And who knows? You might just run into your nephew at the bar when you stop for a drink to hear the band. And life? will be just all right! Peace and la vida local. it’s all right.

Re-membering Peace, llvl

For some reason I’ve always liked the prod that the hyphen gives this word… to-remember, to put the body back together.

Today it’s a year that Debbie died. It’s extraordinary. It’s excruciating. and… it’s life.

And we remember so many as we remember one beloved… so many beloved dead. Which means nothing more than one was incredibly lucky in life, I suppose… to have loved and been loved so well.

I will remember the morning. Katy and I giving her a bath. Watching Katy, learning from her gentle conversation and loving touch.

At the end, Kathy, Nancy, Tom and I gathered around the bed. Elijah, were you there? can’t remember, because memory is faulty. Friends gathered in the living room. Keeping watch, sitting vigil.

The last moments. That last moment of goodbye. Oh it pains and tries to obscure the joys and the laughter… But re-membering means putting all the joy and the laughter back in.

That’s where the Peace is… hmmm. still piece work, eh? piecing together Peace. And the sun rises and the sun sets and the sun rises again.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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