Beginning-again Peace

When you have huge pinnacles in your work/life/love, there’s an odd sort of moment when you realize that the what you thought of as a destination is really just a way station. The path leads on from there, and after your rest, you need to refill the backpack and get back on the road — which is all right, because you chose your work/life/love for the journey, it’s just a bit disorienting.

Time to take stock, examine your heart, get out the compass and the GPS, and “ease on down the road.” This time, however, you’ve got sweet memories, and not just great hopes, to keep you going as you set off down the Peaceroad.

If you haven’t recently plotted and planned for something at which you could succeed wildly, after a lot of good work accomplished and new relations built, let me recommend you try it. Aid if it’s a project you’ve done for the world? You might just find you like it enough to keep working for Peace.

Saying Yes to Peace

What would it mean if we were to say yes to Peace? If we really wanted to do that, it would mean that we would have to exercise our options to say NO! to war. We have to go to work on many fronts each where we work best and form a Peace wall of people working together.

There’s too much sadness in this world. Too much violence. Why aren’t we searching as diligently for an end to war as we are for a cure for HIV or cancer. Why aren’t we funding great studies? Let’s ponder together.

Picnic Peace

Moments of silence for fallen warriers, short but boisterous parades and sweet picnics at a friends: These are the joys of a good Memorial day. An important part of remembering is making new memories against moments of loss and grief. I hope yours was splendid. (and let us not forget to count the blessing of the three-day weekend! Let’s hear it for Unions!)

Honoring, Seeking Peace

Today is a day of remembrance for all who have served and all who have sacrificed. We remember not only the soldiers, but also those who supported and those who waited for those who never returned.

It should also be a day of commitment. First, that those who are in harms way will return to a warm welcome and not just adequate, but excellent care.

Secondly, with our global reach, we must find new ways to build peace so that such sacrifices can be looked back on one day as inconceivable and unacceptable. That will happen only as we turn our considerable power toward Peace. May it be so.

Rest in Peace, Beloved. Your homes are now in our hearts. Our prayers are with your families.

Resting Sabbath

At some point, we’ll gather and wonder what comes next. But not not yet. Today’s for the telling of stories, the reveling in new connections and the exalting in work well done. The UUCSV and its friends got on a bus, came to Staten Island with some elbow grease and more food than anyone could imagine and made Peace. We were taken on a tour of the affected areas. The need we encountered was staggering. The ongoing problems daunting. We didn’t change the world, but: There’s a little less mold and a lot more shelves. A kitchen remodeling moved along. Data entered. Calls made. Parties set up and carried out! Friends made, Heroes encountered. Labyrinths walked, Maypoles danced, Songs played and sung. And then they got back on the bus exhausted and happy.

Today, we’ll rest and reminisce. Thanks to everyone who participated. Thanks to everyone who gave. (it’s still not to late, go to Love Flows if you’re able to share some resources with people so hard hit by a storm.) Three of us will provide the service for our host church as one more chance for people to sit back and put their feet up. What happened, happened because you participated.

Thank you. I’m sure I’ll be finding new things to give thanks for about this trip for a long time.

But you know what? I’m a tired girl… and other people were doing great things in the world while we were working on this little one. So sit back, put your feet up and relax. Enjoy the Sabbath. Yesterday was all about the hard work. Now, we could all use a little Peace and quiet.

Even Tiny Bits of Realized Peace

Sometimes you just have to stop and take stock and say, “Wow. we did that.”

Today is one of those days. 40 some people are on a bus from where I live to Staten Island (I’m already here, bouncing impatiently up and down.) We haven’t put hammer to sheetrock, or bleach to mold, but we will. But what we have done is run a successful campaign and organized ourselves and our talents and our gifts and gotten them on the bus headed toward good, but hard work and good celebration.

The road to Peace is long and tiring. So it’s important to celebrate the milestones, however tiny. I’ve said before that we’ve only got a teaspoon of water to an empty well, but if we all filled our teaspoons and took them to empty wells, not only would we be caring for one another, we would be filling wells. And when many of us come carrying teaspoons, people with buckets will be inspired to do what they can. And then engineers who can tap into the groundwater will think… “wait, I can solve that problem.”

So my dears, teaspoons up, click, fill, pick your empty well, and start walking. And every once in a while along the way, remember to say, “Wow! we did that!” (and I’m proud of all of us, myself included!)

Ritual Peace

As Beloved Niece graduated, there were two ceremonies. The first, smaller, more intimate (uh, 1,600 graduates, is that intimate?) event I spent mostly focused on her. Although as it always does for me, ritual made itself known.

But the second event was huge and about the notion of commencement and the celebration of honors for those who either commenced earlier and arrived someplace important, or for those who were engaged in helping to shape both these young minds and the process of education and study. It was large and sweeping and moved from the intimate to the grand and bold.

It was a lovely public ritual, secular, inclusive, effective. The graduates felt both tied to their groups and launched into the world. As I quoted only last week, thinking about our church’s bridging ceremony, “letting them grow, but not letting them go.”

Such a ritual helps make order in the lives of those undergoing, provides a benchmark for those who have been observing, supporting, celebrating the graduates, and gives those not yet there something to which to aspire. (and I should have checked, but I’m sure the stock in Kleenex went up around the world on graduation weekend.) Secular ritual can also unite people across traditions and culture… creating a large oasis of Peace, as accomplishments or yearnings are celebrated. On that day, regardless of where you came from, what mattered was that you had completed the requirements of the degree and were being admitted to the ranks of graduates (with all the attendant privileges and responsibilities hereto attached!).

And for me, such a strong reminder of why I do what I do. Ritual, it does a body and a community good. What a privilege to be part of people’s lives in this way. Celebrate! And by the way, Hannah, your auntie is so proud. Way to go, my dearest!

Peace of Uncomfortable Belonging

I have a very mixed relationship with my pride in my country. or really in any group. I’m very happy to be an American. It’s shaped me, made me who I am. There are many opportunities here. At the same time, there are many things we don’t do well, and I worry we’ve stopped trying. And blind nationalism scares the hell out of me.

But you don’t spend a lot of time in a small country without beginning to see how some sense of national pride and unity changes and strengthens you. There I am, back and forth, one foot and and the other. Mostly I get to ignore it. I’m not sportive, I don’t wind up in places where there’s a lot of singing of national songs. (Well other than when Hope and I sing for the elders. Then we sing them all, and they sing with gusto. It’s another way you realize how important both the celebration of unity and the singing of these songs are.)

I wonder if the national ambivalence about belonging has lead to the notion that it’s ok that we not be the ones who sacrifice. It’s fine for others to sacrifice for our country, but we aren’t asking ourselves to support that in any way… hello, can you talk about health services for returning vets? Would singing national songs change that? I don’t know, maybe if they were the right ones. I certainly think that singing in groups can solve lots of problems!

But there I was, caught off guard when the graduation ceremony started with the Star Spangled Banner. And to be truthful it’s not just my ambivalence about nationalism that makes me hesitate to like the SSB. It’s hard to sing and so many people sing it badly. And there’s this new rather lamentable (at least to me) trend to sing with so many notes that the song is obscured. But this young woman stepped out on the library steps in front of 30,000 people and sang her heart out. Simply with great conviction. The teletron was right there, so you felt as if she were singing to you. No manipulation, no over-the topness, just joy in the moment and the possibilities…

Caught me off guard. I certainly wasn’t the only one wiping tears from my seat. It was a good reminder to keep my opinions flexible. And to stay in touch with the pride, not focus only on the disappointments. Freedom of speech, willingness to question: we need these things. But Balance. it’s important too.

And of course, everything was meaningful that day, because my sweet Hannah was graduating. But I’m very grateful for the song.

Shared Peace and Success

I’ve been watching my dear friend’s joy in his daughter’s accomplishments. It’s such a joy to see and participate in. It’s struck me that we need to do more of this, more living in our friend’s lives. Opening our hearts to what matters to them… The more we can do this with our friends, the more we can do this with others… Caring about people’s lives is what makes us Peacemakers, I think… Peace is personal… stretching out our hands, opening up our hearts, opening up our eyes… This starts the Peace process. It’s easy with our friends, easy when love is already established… More challenging when we’re asking ourselves to really move beyond our boundaries… but this is what Life and Peace require of us.

It’s been a wonderful celebration of my godchild’s graduation here in NY. A lot of memories catching up with me, about these friendships, this city, education, shared life… Making new and wonderful memories, but always, thinking about Peace and how it makes us richer. Does that sound fatuous? I don’t mean it to. But writing every day about Peace does make me think about Peace.

I certainly wish you all a sip of the heady, mix of love and pride and celebration I’m living in at the moment. as Jim Scott says: And may your life be as a song!

The Peace of New Beginnings

Such an incredible, bittersweet moment. My darling goddaughter is crossing the college stage today. That’s all sweet and wonderful. She had a good experience in college. She has a dream internship. If only her mother were here to watch. Yes, I know, watching from heaven, but still… I want her here. One of those days when Maggie will be so sorely missed, by all of us, and especially by that sweet young woman who will always be my girlie.

I have (of course I do!) so much advice for her and for anyone else who might be listening. But mostly, my dear, I want you to cultivate the knack of happiness and a great big hunger for a better world for everyone. Life is so grand. Sure, there are hard times, but drink it in, do your part, and revel. It’s fleeting, this life thing, you don’t want to put off being filled with the wonder of it all. you don’t want to, as some wise person said: postpone joy. And dream very large dreams… and then make them come true.

I’m off to get ready. You’re already ready! Make the most of it. I’ll be watching and loving you with open (but supporting) hands and an open and loving heart. You’re ready. I almost am. and… You’re off!

I love you. I love you all. I have such great anticipation to see what you’ll accomplish and who you’ll become.

and oh! Stay in touch. Visit your auntie!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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