Changing Spring Sabbath Peace

Things are what they are, I suppose. Things change as they do. Sometimes as with wardrobes and flowerbeds, we’re the change agents. Sometimes we’re the acted upon. Sometimes we’re just the observers.

All of those things require decisions on our part. Do we choose to pull out the Spring clothes now? Are we willing to be sidelined by history and simply maneuvered? When does what we see require us to act? These are all good questions.

But some days, they’re good questions for another day, and today is for celebrating what is and enjoying the changes as they develop. The lilacs are in bloom and there are still, still!, some violets on lawns. Pretty heavenly.

Today, in my household, I’m hauling off yard sale donations and reclaiming space, fighting fracking with music, (how great is that?) and eating with a friend. Sweet Sabbath Peace in a Changing Spring. Next year will be different delight. But that’s for next year. Today this is what we have, let’s enjoy it.

I hope there’s space for delight in your day as well! Enjoy!

Spring Parade Peace, llvl

Whether its from the attic to the bedroom, or from one bedroom to the next or even just front of the closet to back, the parade of clothes from Spring to Summer has a special place. (And i like it the other way, as well, but now is the time of Spring!)

Don’t know that there’s lots of important things to be said about it, but the change of mindset that’s needed… slowly moves us to a different place. Sorting out, seeing what you thought last year. Seeing what favorite thing really needs to be retired. Seeing what really never flattered… and releasing it so it can make someone really happy.

Even the flowers were being changed. I walked by this wonderful stand of tulips, who were going off to some other garden group in another town, making way for “gorgeous geraniums.” And oh, we hate to see them go, but the almost 3 inches of rain gave them a thrashing, so some other beauty is now coming to please. Nature! Having her way with us!

Don’t forget to cull, it’s always a good idea. And yard sales are waiting for your bounty. Our church yard sale is about 20% of our budget. (That’s some yard sale!) Let me know if you want to drop things off! We pay our rent, people get good deals… what’s not to like?

Enjoy Spring!

Rainy Day Peace

My corner (or perhaps my center) of PA has been a little dry. We’re three inches short for the year. Which is odd, since March and April are often very wet months (April showers and all that.) Between the dry spell here and some conversations about the California drought — and very scary fires — Water and its lack have been on my mind. All of which is balanced, in a horrible kind of way, with the heavy storms the MidWest has been having.

But I might have looked at the weather before I wrote the poem. Here we were with a front about to stall over us. It rained so hard last night that I kept being awakened by the pummeling rain… I’m so unused to the sound.

But water. We really would do well to remember that it’s a sacred resource and must be treated with respect and reverence. We don’t need long showers to wake up, we don’t have to use a hose when a broom would do. We don’t need to plant flowers that don’t grow easily in our climate. It’s hard; it’s not what we’re used to — and the reverence is what our planet needs.

We all need to learn to share. It seems like we’ve forgotten this kindergarten staple. But your neighbor has pretty much the same needs that you do, and having more money doesn’t make you more deserving. How does the saying go — the rain falls on the just and the unjust? The universe doesn’t care, we’re all deserving of the bath and the blessing!

So, let’s think about water and how we use it. In many many parts of the world just access to Water is Peace.

Landscaping for Peace, llvl

Don’t you just hate it when you grab a metaphor and find out, oopsie, it doesn’t work. I thought I had it all lined up with the beautification, planting appropriately, zero-scaping metaphor… and then realized, not so fast.

Zero-scaping is great. Plant according to your regions environment. Use no more water than arrives.

But when you’re making space for everyone, neat little rows of one kind of flower aren’t what do it. You grow a village according to who lives there. That’s the messy wonderful piece of Peace. Peace has to make room for different cultures and traditions — even in little villages, because today’s villages are global ones. And the hodgepodge is every bit as beautiful as stands of tall tulips, particularly when community is involved. And you know me, fun food from different parts of the world is a big piece of my Peace Incentive!

And that’s another weird, wacky beautiful piece about Peace… there’s room for both homogeneity and diversity.

So, consider your landscaping… and make Peace available to everyone. And go smile at the tulips, they’re sure to go in the rain later today.

Glorious Spring Peace

OK: Downtown Lewisburg is beautiful. It’s just gorgeous. Whoever the master gardeners have been over time have done an amazing job. When all the flowering pears are out lining Market Street, it’s hard not to swoon. And there are lovely lawns and people who carefully tend their flowers. Luckily we live in a part of the world where when you stick bulbs and plants in the ground they do what they’re supposed to and flower and fruit. We’ve (usually) got the water to keep them satisfied, enough sun and good soil.

And Deb Slade knows how to show it to us. Thanks, Deb, this pic is just glorious and, folks, go see the flowers, before they don’t look like this!

Small towns, even ones as prosperous as this one, have things that don’t work and aren’t beautiful. Child hunger on the weekends is less in this town than in some of the neighboring towns, but that there’s any is atrocious. There’s unemployment and under-employment. Yesterday a picture flashed across FB, one of our children has gone missing. No story, just no boy/man/child.

We’re needed to be gardeners in our villages. We need the flowers in our ground to make us delirious with joy come Spring. we need good infrastructures so all our people are happy and healthy, well-fed and educated. There’s a lot of work to be done tending the gardens. But we’re community so we can do what’s needed, each one doing her or his part.

Enjoy the beauty of these proud tulips. May they give us courage for the work to be done.

Peace Tears, llvl

I don’t know why I’m so caught by the notion that our bodies know the difference between tears of joy and tears of onions. It’s not the first time I’ve noodled about this. But, see, our bodies really ARE our temples! We knew that, now they’re proving it. Different fats along with different minerals comprise the emotions leaking out of our eyes.

And then! Someone told me (someone who actually studied this sort of thing) that young men have some chemical in them that discourages them from crying that eventually goes away. Does it change their feelings? Is it so they aren’t saddened in the same way when we send them off to war — or does it mean that they just can’t get the emotions out when we ask them to do unspeakable things and bear unthinkable memories? (I tried to google this, but couldn’t figure out what to ask to get any information about anything other than babies. But this guy’s pretty meticulous about his research and his sources.)

What is the composition of the tears we release when we witness an act of Peace? Do we release the same chemicals or is everyone a completely different chemical stew suspended in life-giving water? Is there some connection between the tears we cry and the foods we should eat to be more Peaceful?

And in the long run… We should probably just commit more acts of Peace. And if we weep a bit, in joy of Peace, it’s not a bad thing…

Layaway Peace, llvl

Ah, the odd human brain. My brain at least wanders around more like a pinball than a train… So, I move from capitalizing letters to funding Peace to storing up treasure for Peace. huh.

But the notion of the layaway brought back childhood memories and then raised that Bible verse about storing up treasure in Heaven… But I believe Heaven is here on earth (also?) and it is our job to bring it about. So, there we are, storing up treasures for Heaven.

The truth is that Heaven and Peace are accomplished in small incremental amounts. But as they sing on Mary Poppins, a penny wisely invested…

Thoughts of Peace and efforts for Peace don’t need to be grandiose, they just need to be steady…

Mother’s Day Sabbath Peace, llvl

The life of the diminished i… I’ve gone through many periods in my life where I wrote i (i wrote I?) with a little i…

At this point, some of my non-capitalization is laziness. When i’m facebooking, which i do far too much of, i’m typing quickly rather than accurately (damn the capitalization, full speed ahead). I try to pay more attention to what I’m saying… and to not saying too much.

But I think there’s an interesting exercise in this a way of measuring my importance in what I’m saying… In the face of something wondrous, i’m pretty small. Engaging with Thou, any piece of the interconnected web of life, we are both to be marveled at.

Thinking of a favorite shrink who talked about being self-centered as a goal for everyone, knowing where I am in the question vs. being selfish, thinking I am the center of everything and oh, not so much. And this is, perhaps, not a big thought and a passing one. Some thoughts aren’t worthy of LOTS of reflection, just a hmmmmnnn and a moving on.

Today I hope you move on to a beautiful day, whether you’re celebrating with your mom or mourning her, celebrating being a mom or figuring how you will mother, Hooray for you. Yesterday, in the midst of the Mother’s Day wind-up to frenzy, I thought, well, at least Deb will not have to go through another Mother’s Day mourning her children and missing being a mom. I think too about the mothers in Nigeria, and in other parts of the world, missing their children and hoping they will be rescued. A sad Mother’s Day for too many. But I honor and celebrate these women on their journey as well… and wish you Peace and joyful reunion.

I’m going to take advantage of this beautiful day and go hang out with my friend Emily. I’m sticking the champagne split in the fridge and we can toast Betty and Nadine. Thanks for the memories, girls. We’ll live a glass to the kids in our lives as well. Thanks for the future. We’ll be sitting under her umbrella enjoying the sun eating food off the grill. Then I get to hang with the kids from church and their families. Pretty fun.

Peace!

So, whether you’re celebrating or just hanging out, I wish you Sabbath Peace.

When Mother Didn’t

My friend, Peg Streep, has been writing for a while about Mean Mothers. She’s realized that if your Mother was less than she might have been and you’re watching the hype on FB and in advertising about how wonderful Mother’s Day is, it’s going to bring up ambivalent feelings about this holiday. What to do she wondered. Well, how about starting a Mother Yourself Saturday the day before. So she did. Wander on over to her author page on Facebook and see what people are saying. There’s a lot of information that will be rolling out there, on this, Mother Yourself Saturday’s inaugural day.

She asked me to think about it, and I did. I wrote a booklet thinking about what to do when mother didn’t, either because she wasn’t capable or wasn’t caring — there’s a lot to be said about why mother’s can’t, but not here. This is about you and how you get yourself what you need to succeed wildly — which is how we all want you to succeed and how you deserve to succeed. And in the end it comes to that, if Mother didn’t, you have to. Because not to because she didn’t wastes your life.

This is just starting. Next year it will be bigger and more organized and more people participating. This year, it’s a few brave souls saying “Wait, I want more. I want for myself. I want what good mothers give their children. And I’m going to give it to myself.” So Mother Yourself Saturday‘s what I thought about this year. What do you think?

You matter. We all do. Our gifts are needed to change the world for the better. So we’d better give ourselves what we need at that core and fundamental level. I love you.

Capitalize Peace, llvl

Part of me wants to ask, why don’t we capitalize Peace — as in invest in Peace?

But then I have to realize if I don’t do it myself, really do it, and encourage others to do the same, then it’s unlikely the governments of the world (town, valley, state) are going to be moved to do the same. We’re used to investing in war. We have an infrastructure for war, but not for Peace.

Sad, eh? Which would we rather have? Peace or war? It’s hard to tell. I’m not sure we’re committed to Peace. I certainly struggle every day. Not with Peace big P… but in living in my personal life as I would like the world to be living on the planet? eeeesh. hard. Do I understand my husband’s tribes and those of my friends’ as different from me and worthy of great respect and delicacy of dealing? If I don’t, what am investing in the long run? (ew, don’t you hate it when your writing takes you right into the personal? no this is about the world’s not investing in Peace, not about my being insensitive!) Making the connections between the macro and the micro is hard work, but necessary.

But I’ll keep looking. if it means I have to root around in my life a bit… ok. Will you do the same? Because Peace will not flourish without some investment. We need to put our hearts into it and we need to put our money there as well.

Peace. It’s worth the world. The world is worthy of Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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