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Migrating Peace

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It’s interesting. For those of us who have lived many places, we know the differences, however slight between who we are/were and how we lived in all those places.

I’ve always been a person of the in-between places. I love to travel and I have dear friends all over the world. I am the luckiest!

I wonder if the geese remember, either all the time, or when they arrive, the sweet delicacies of being here or there. Or are they simply present, delighting in being. Both could be very sweet…

What is Peace for those of us who migrate? Where are we most truly ourselves? Something lovely to ponder as I fly — from one place I call home to another.

Entwined Lives, Richer Peace

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In the woods, vines use trees to grow on. In that process, their lives become entwined.

Now it’s true there are vines that strangle their trees. And there are probably some trees that throw off their vines… Here Ann enters into dangerous metaphor territory, because frankly she doesn’t know…

But when I look at this tree, I see coexistence. And it’s filled with gorgeous messy entanglement. Life is about figuring out how we live together.

We need to consider how we braid ourselves together, like unto unlike. We need to figure out how to coexist. Therein lies Peace. Woven together, we have to figure out what’s good for everyone.

 

Sunshine and Snow Squalls: The Peace of March

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This is the beautiful River Valley in which I live. Yesterday the March skies and weather filled this basin with wild and conflicting moments. One moment it was sunny and still, with white fluffy clouds; the next a huge grey front lowered in and plunged us into early dusk and a white out squall.

You try and make sense of it and then you remember. It’s March. This is what March does.

Today it’s frigid; tomorrow it may be balmy. All your coats need to be lined up and ready.

This is not cause for complaint; this is cause for celebration. It’s March. Hooray! Make Peace with its dramatic and capricious beauty. (Really is there any other month in which capricious is so frequently used?)

Faces of Peace, Wherever You Look

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There are so many places on cliffs and in streams where a profile or a whole or partial face appears. Geologists can explain how they were worn or why the rock broke in that way.

But even the not so fanciful among us are caught by those faces. It’s easy to anthropomorphize… As a species, we’re built for that.

But I always wonder… being me… about the spirit of that rock. Although of course, I wonder about the spirit of that stream or cliff… but the face always catches at my heart.

Speak to me of Love, o Oracle of the Rock. Speak to me of Peace.

Making Peace with the March Lion

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It wasn’t clear yesterday what we would get, who March would be as it started, lion or lamb. Today, it’s very clear. It’s a warm and very blustery, rainy day. We’ve been promised (oh joy!) electricity and wifi outages. And through the day the temperatures will plummet.

Ah, well, you get what you get.

And you make Peace with that. It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

Wishing you an interesting and capricious March and lovely Peace(s) to make.

Compassion and Peace

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In a world that is roiling with and reeling from hate, compassion is desperately needed. Foreigners, Muslims, and Jews have been targeted, although the horror of the death of Srinivas Kuchibhotla is compounded by the reality that he was probably targeted as a Muslim, simply because he was dark.

We must demand Compassion. We must be Compassion. We must demand Justice. We must be Just. If we cannot do this, we cannot be Peace.

February is over. Tomorrow, March pours in.

Peace of Stuff I Do Not Know

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There’s so much in this world that I don’t know. Some things, I will never need to know. But some people do want or need information that’s of no interest or import to me. What’s astonishing is that the stuff I want and the stuff others want is all there.

Stuff someone needs to know. It’s really quite wonderful.

And I don’t need to worry about that stuff in the slightest, yet should I have someone who wants information that’s completely outside my ken, I can help them find it.

There’s great Peace in knowing that there are some things I’ll never need to know. What deer do in the Springtime is one of those things. Yet deer do it without my needing to know. They ask no permission, just go about their lives. And people, like my sister-in-law, can happily know that stuff.

Homes of Comfort and Peace

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what the home of a spiritual community looks like since mine is about to (finally, at long last!) buy their building.

It’s never seemed important until now, but not only are we growing, but it feels as if we’ll need a place that can serve as refuge in the time ahead. Refuge to us; refuge to others. We don’t have a kitchen, our bathrooms aren’t as accessible as they should be. Spiritual Homes should offer all the amenities.

And in these tumultuous times, I’m aware (you’d think I’d think about this more, given I’m the preacher lady) how essential the role of the religious community is, to the community itself, to the wider community, and to the individual.

So, a building, with a good path… free of ice and snow in the winter… seems like a lovely luxury on the Peace journey… because there we can find comfort and Peace ourselves and offer it to our neighbors…

Home Is Where the Peace Gets Made

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This faith community seems very much like my forever shell, and this Valley seems like my forever beach.

Some of it is familiarity, some of it is skill, some of it perseverance and dedication, and some of it is just luck.

I am lucky to have found the tribe who makes Peace in ways that are familiar and complementary to mine.

Peace. Make it at home. It’s where you best know how to go about it. It’s where you’ll most easily recognize it.