Listen! Peace. LLVL

What would we hear I wondered? What was the angel listening to?

For me this morning, she was listening to the sound of my friend Jean, whose life was ending. She heard her distress. And I was asked to listen as well.

To her family. To her friends. I got there too late to listen to Jean.

And I was able to share everything she’d told me about her wishes for a service, giving her family some comfort and structure.

And I could tell her stories. And take in the ones being told. I could savor them and consider how to use them.

Sweet to have an angel to remind me to incline an ear. Peace has many faces. Sometimes the face is covered with tears. Oh, Jean. Your community will miss you. So will I. I loved you. We all loved you. But there you are with everyone we know. who knows what living la vida local is like in heaven… I’ll bet it’s fun. I’ll bet it’s beautiful. and I know it’s filled with Peace. Say hi to my family, will you?

Knowing, Being Known, Peace & LLVL

Well, it certainly hadn’t occurred to me that poking my head out my door and getting to know the neighborhood made me part of the neighborhood to be known.

Huh.

So, it is in my own best interest to have a good idea who I am even as I seek to know who you are and where I live. It’s an opportunity not just to deal with my gifts, flaws and foibles, but also to determine who I’m going to be. I believe that living your life deliberately helps you to become that person. Making a difference in the world makes a difference in who you are and how you think about things.

If I’m going to be Peace, I have to know it, really be on speaking terms with it. I have to embody it. I have to admit that it’s possible. I have to do that for me, because I want it to be true for you. You have to be careful when you start your writing; you don’t know what you’re stirring up. I guess if I’m going to live locally, I have to be part of the scene. I maybe even (oh, heaven forfend) get out now and again (despite the winter chill). To be comfortable being known, I’m going to want to know myself — and well. Because I’m just as happy knowing things about myself before you do. Time to use that mirror beside the door! Living la vida local. Living in the present!

Vulnerable Peace, LLVL

When you live where you live, and when that place is a small town, you have to get to know yourself, because other people will know you well — sometimes better than you want to know yourself.

But it’s never a great idea for someone else to know you better than you know yourself, so it behooves you to keep looking.

I’ve been tired, emotionally up against my physical boundaries. It’s a wonderful privilege to do the work that I do, but sometimes it’s very demanding. You can’t always tell the demands to take a hike. or rather, you can’t always tell all of the demands to take a hike. Sometimes when you’re a minister, people need you. So you show up.

But it’s important to pay attention. Sometimes you can pass things off… And when you can, you probably should. For a lot of reasons, but two big ones. Those you love need to know you trust them to be as big and powerful as they are. And you need to honor what’s too much.

I love sermonizing. (ya think?) This week I had set myself a high bar. I was headed toward a more researchy sermon than I normally do. But post Charlie-memorial and post Jean visits in the hospital, there really wasn’t any brain power left. I finished the sermon. sorta. And went to bed, because bed was what was needed.

The next morning, as the poem says, I watched the river. And something about that flow reminded me. I wasn’t alone in this. I certainly wasn’t alone in mourning Charlie. I wasn’t alone in my fears for Jean, now, thank goodness somewhat allayed. And I am not alone in my ability to chew up a bunch of ideas and get something out of it. And this is a crowd who trusts me to love them.

One of the places that people get ministry wrong, I think, is when we don’t trust them to love us back. And there’s that awful hubris where we think we’re the only people who can… you fill in your own blank. Ministers could be the only people who have that problem, but I’m not taking any bets. So I went to church said, I’m going to give you my premises and my research… see if you can help… lots of thinking happens in the heads of my community… so there was a lot to be said for that. And in the end… it was a great sermon, jointly preached. I was supported and they were grateful to be asked. And the next time? I’ll do my stuff…until I need help again.

Ah, the timeless, sacred river… encouraging me to show up and be present, facilitating the moments of reflection, forgiving (even encouraging) the vulnerability, and offering the Peace of being right where you are, in this place, in this moment of time. Living la vida local has lessons I hadn’t any notion I might want to learn. ah, that darned praying constantly thing.

Sabbath Peace, LLVL

Trying something new this year thanks to a friend’s wondering. When we were talking about this year’s LLVL adventure, Sarajane got excited about the weeks’ starting on Wednesday.

I hadn’t really thought about when I would change the pic, but I found this interesting. How would it change our thinking, if at all, if the rest days were the center of the week rather than the end? What if Tuesday became the day we finished things up at work and Wednesday was a new beginning.

What if we began to think about recalibrating our week with a period of rest in the middle?

Would it change things? Would we use the sabbath differently? Embrace it more fully?

Whatever your tradition, whenever you take it, giving yourself a day of relaxation and reflection once a week is a good idea. Holding that day as sacred, understanding it as a responsibility to yourself is a great gift. There’s Peace in the looking at life and breathing deeply. Peace in the moving forward with all that play and silence within you.

Falling in Love, Peace, LLVL

I wonder if it’s that simple. Just to fall in Love. To allow myself to become curious and infatuated with everything outside my door. What is this and why is it like that?

When I was in seminary, I spoke about finding the new Eden… but it’s really more like co-creating a new Eden, isn’t it. If we want to live in Eden, we have to make it. Not by walling ourselves off or excluding people, but rather by making a place where everyone is welcome, where we work for Justice and Life is revered.

Some of that starts with not hating my life, with being welcoming of the Beauty I live in and celebrating the Beauty I contribute to. It means focusing on what is important — not in ignoring what is ugly and unPeaceful, but on working to change that.

There are so many ways to make a difference. We all “see” from a different perspective. But if we begin to celebrate what we see that’s beautiful and to make better the stuff that’s not… it’s got to get better.

Part of what I’m beginning to see as important — or should I say, what I’m beginning to say that I can do — is to help see and describe one place where people can make a difference — a lot of one places… maybe this, maybe that. There’s not just one place, but there might be one place for you.

What do you (allow yourself to) fall in Love with outside your door? It’s a fair question, isn’t it. If nothing does, open your heart… there’s something wonderful waiting for you.

Being Present to Hope and Peace LLVL

Snow brings me joy. Even hunkered down against the cold. I’m happy for the brightness and the mysterious piles of white. Days like this when it’s cold and the sun shines, the entire world sparkles… It’s too cold for even the cars to make the snow gunky.

While I know it’s dangerously cold, and you have to be well-clad against its dangers, when you’re on the inside, it’s a soft and comforting blanket, keeping me safely indoors. (easy to wax eloquent when you don’t have kids clamoring to be out!)

Sitting last night by candle light, writing Charlie’s memorial, flanked by Marlin’s picture of Deb and Mary’s portrait of Charlie, there was a lovely feeling of gratitude as I remembered the love. That certainly brought in Hope in the midst of the melancholy. Love really lasts. And we can call on it when we need it. We’ve got to make room but it’s willing to rush in.

Gratitude for the Past. Love in the Present. Hope in the Future. That’s what Peace is built on when you’re living la vida local. Right here. Right now.

Fresh Peace LLVL

Dorothy Parker.

I could probably just finish up the post right there, eh? And for a family that laughed at sarcasm, she practically became a pin-up in my young hip days in New York. I ran with a snappy crowd. She was the Queen of Funny. Her snark still makes me giggle.

But those were the days of discos and dance clubs. While I hope I wasn’t deliberately unkind, I was pretty unconcerned. Who among us was most surprised when I chose seminary in the middle of my degree on Organizational Development? (ok, probably my mother, she loved telling that story, she dined out on it for months.)

And I admit that I was very well loved as a kid which allowed me to laugh at sarcasm’s sting when it was directed at me. It didn’t dawn on me not everyone was given that childhood blanket.

Dorothy and sarcasm got sanded off in CA, sigh. Moving from New York and it’s pithy one-ups-manship to a world of earnest and nice. I got it. But oh I treasured my visits home. Thank goodness I have a couple friends back here where I can sharpen my tongue occasionally… I’ll miss Deb for many reasons, but zingers and insane cackling are certainly part of it. Deb was snorting with laughter on her deathbed. Someone made a comment in the livingroom, which Deb caught. No energy for a comeback but the snort was definitely there. Her nurse was astounded. I don’t think she’d ever seen sarcasm reach past coma before! That’s my sisty. I’m so proud. (and lonely!)

OK, that was off-track.

But when a friend posted a meme with DP’s “What fresh hell?” I giggled. So many snappy comebacks cascaded over the dam in my mind behind which they were corralled and made me laugh, one after the other as they spilled out.

However, when I was writing, it seemed clear to me, that I’m not looking for fresh hells. The resigned, intentional ennui, while it still amuses me, doesn’t aid in the pursuit of Peace. But Fresh Peace? hmmm. what a sweet notion. Sorry, Dorothy, you’d probably be horrified. But I’m looking to turn the corner and be surprised by life’s beauty and possibilities.

Even while I’m looking at living la vida local, you had to know I’d not be dumping Peace. We spent our year becoming Peacemakers. Now we’re going to be gathering up signs and portents of Peace right here where we live.

If you’re curious about the format… fourteen lines, not a sonnet, are dictated by the desire for an easily viewable pic, readability and the need for the rest of the “stuff.” So it’s an artificial length determined by format. Right now walking out the door interests me as a starting point, but will that always be the case this year? Who knows! Will Fresh Peace make a frequent appearance? Who knows. The last two years I’ve had a tag at the end. I’m letting go of this this year. But for now, walk out your door and follow the trail of Fresh Peace. (in a couple hours, the trail’s going to be easy to find around here, when we’re blanket in blizzard. Yep, you’ll be getting the weather along with Fresh Peace. All part of LLVL.

HNY, LLVL, Peace

Whew! there are a whole buncho assignments! Is it possible to have a happy year, to live la vida local and to keep stretching out toward Peace?

I guess I think that the openness to the new (built on the old), the decision to pay attention leads us down the road toward Peace. Provided, of course that we agree that others in the world are invited to walk those paths with us.

Consciousness. Wonder. Love. Determination. All supremely difficult and challenging; all consummately simple. So, reflect a little. Determine to fill 2014 to the brim with wonderful memories. Commit to laughing a lot, a lot, a lot. And crying once in a while. Dream deeply. Resign yourself to the constant starting over a little smarter a little saner. Keep going down that Peace Road.

It could be a great year. Many more people might have what they need and the space to become who they’re meant to be. We could claim that space because the likelihood is if you’re reading me, you have a great many options. And then we could start expanding that space for others.

Want to resolve something? Resolve that you’ll be as kind as you’re meant to be. As generous. As observant. As happy. And then make it so. You’re already a wonder! Peace in 2014.

(and how about Deb’s opening photo? Pretty great, eh? Here’s to Deb Slade and her challenges to appreciate the beauty where we are.)

Happy New Peace

A year filled with ups and downs, marvels and mourning. A full year. A year of my life. I’m not wishing it away — after all, this is the year I discovered I’m a Peacemaker. The last year of my sister’s life, and the year of the sweetest connection. A year with Alaska in it. Visits from the kids and grands. How can I fail to give thanks? And I refuse to wish it away, even the painful bits. They were sacred as well.

A year of trying to be present no matter how painful. At the end of this year I’m tired and I start the year having to hold my hand and heart open once again so that I can say goodbye to an old friend. But once again presence.

So, I’ll thank 2013 for the lessons learned. And welcome 2014 for what’s in store and settle my intention not simply to be present but to be a presence, to act on 2014 so that it might grow in beauty.

Thank you my friends for Love and Peace and the demand that I be the best Ann I can. I hope I’m asking the same of you. I leave you in 2013 and I greet you in 2014 with a prayer for Peace, with prayers that we might be Peace — wild, wonderful burgeoning, laughing Peace.

Wild Chaos, Sweet Order, Sacred Peace

All very important words. Too many people think that the first two terms are in opposition with each other. But when they’re in cahoots with each other, they really work. (maybe they should be called Sweet Chaos and Wild Order!) But I say in my musing that I believe that Peace teeter-totters between the two. My guess is that the sweet spot is always moving!

Peace isn’t orderly. or should I say, Peace isn’t only orderly, it needs creativity to explode all the preconceptions of what Peace might be. But Peace isn’t only chaos. It helps to establish a foundation for Peace. You want your foundations to be well-crafted if they’re going to last. The Practical and the Possible need to keep talking to one another.

They need, in fact, to find one another beautiful.

Too often, they get shoved and maneuvered into taking sides and made to fight with one another. Only one can be “good.” Dualism. Pah! Sacred Peace requires the best of each of us. And it demands a pretty healthy sense of humor. If you’re more gifted in Chaos or Order, look for Peace Accomplices. You can’t make Peace on your own. It takes two to Tango… It takes two to Peace… and so many more! But find the balance and enjoy the ride! It’s good work. It’s good play. It’s Peacemaking!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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