Sometimes it works. When it does, take a moment and celebrate. Fasten that in your memory. Won’t always be this smooth, won’t always be this great. But when it is, it’s a reminder of why we do the work. It’s a call to be present so you don’t miss the moments. It’s all about the Joy. And on your way to Joy … and bien sûr Peace? Dance to the music!
This concert was one of the sweetest moments I can recall, because so much was right. hurrah!
At least around here, Mother Nature really has made up her mind. It will be Spring this year. Get out and revel in the wonder! One of the things I try to remember is that Spring comes everywhere with its messages of rebirth. If we find joy, so do others. Our appreciation is something we share with the world. So let us see the Peace of the Blossoms in this upwelling of Nature and let us give thanks by taking time to breathe it in (I know, I know… allergies! Achoo!)
Right. So yesterday you say stay in the present and today you say stretch? Yep.
Oh, you wanted a bit more commentary? Stretching just means expanding the experience. Learning new ways to overcome your obstacles. Trying new ways to open your heart and extend your hands. Finding new ways to be delighted and thus attract wonderful people to your side (both physical and philosophical.)
You may know who you are, but you can’t necessarily imagine all you can be. Stretch. You are one of Creations extraordinary wonders. Make some fabulous memories to encourage you on the Peace journey!
It’s so easy to want to move forward more quickly than life is ready to. Our wants and our passions and our willingness to work hard say that change ought to come quickly, now, in fact. But change comes as it does.
Leaning too far forward only makes us tumble headlong into puddles. The present isn’t always comfortable, there are often things that need to be worked out, sticky things that take time. But the future has its own problems — and we take our own problems along to it. Sure it looks glittery and easy, but that’s only because we haven’t brought ourselves and our stuff into it.
And what’s hilarious, well in that awful sort of way, is that most of us hate change because it’s hard. So why would we be leaping into it? Ah, because we don’t think we’ll have our same problems in the future. But that only happens if we work out the problems now and leave them in the past. And if we don’t get that done, and just leapfrog over things, then we’re going to spend way too many hours recovering from our premature forays into the future. (ok, get to the good news, Ann!)
The good news is the present is the crucible for the change we want. We’re the people stirring the pot… and we’re also in it, becoming the changed, alchemized metal that will build a new world. But we have to be present to be changed… and we want to leave as many of our “issues” behind as we go into the present. It’s in the crucible that we’re purified. Life doing its work. It’s hard work, this present. It’s amazing that future we’re envisioning… But it’s the path between them that is our Peace work. Happy Trails!
While enjoying my Sweet Pea’s music last night, I had a wonderful conversation with some young men who are enthusiastically becoming farmers. These guys are passionate about their peas and their pigs. They love food, they love the dirt and they really love the notion of feeding people. It was fun to be in the midst of their enthusiasm.
I’m a big food fan, so it was fun to talk to them, but what really caught my attention was their passion. They glowed with it. They filled up with it. And they were working it. They’re not making a lot of money, but they are making a difference. And that’s all they care about right now.
And that’s what’s important. It doesn’t matter whether they continue this for the rest of their lives or choose something else. But I doubt they’ll ever settle for less than exhilaration in their work again. Who knows where they might have wound up if the business landscape offered more opportunities, but it doesn’t. All over the world you watch people either settle or take the risks and decide for the good. Keep your eye on those taking the leap. Let them inspire your own leaping. When we’re doing what makes our hearts sing, when we understand that everyone should be doing what makes their hearts sing, we’re on the Peace Road. And that’s a good thing. Embrace your passion. Live your vision. make Peace, with yourself first, then with the wider world.
Most of us hate the neither this than that, which is always more accurately both this and that. But we? like one thing or the other. Evolution and Change are demanding partners.
So we complain when Spring gets sunny but not warm. We hate when the sky fills with Spring clouds and spits snow. And while we all relish the longer days, we also want to be done with our winter coats. (The dry cleaners are just waiting for our coats to show up!)
One of the hard things in the midst of the transition times is holding tight to the Vision. We’ve made plans and initial essays, but we need the full vision if we’re going to implement it. And it’s almooooooooooost time to implement it. In the meantime we keep preparing. Putting on our coats and taking them off. But if you can, find a protected corner and turn your face up to the sun. That rush of joy is what Peace feels like when it spreads across the land. It’s what Paradise feels like when everyone can participate. Grab those little reminders. They’ll give you (me!) fuel for the continued slog. Inhale. Exhale. Begin again with your Vision like a flag before you. We can get there. I have no doubts about that. But getting there means being present in this instant. Because remember, Audre Lorde reminded us in Litany for Survival, “This instant and this moment, we were never meant to survive.” So her advice was to thrive in the moment, to count your blessings and enjoy it, because tomorrow will be different and how stupid if you’ve just wished this away.
In the old myths, Paradise is created, we’re placed in it and then we’re chased from it. These days we point to all sorts of tragedies in the world and say, see? see? See how we’ve mistreated the gift?
No question, we have. But what if paradise is just a bit more resilient than that? What if Paradise is creeping back, all the time, working, working, working to inspire us? Helping us to remember. If Paradise is working to break out, can we inspire it, coax it, encourage it? Can we make more space for it? Can we aid it and do what’s needed to see that it flourishes here on Earth?
Living in Peace means beginning to make the Earth Paradise. You can’t live in Peace and ignore the environmental degradation. You can’t live in Peace and ignore the prisoner or those shoved to the margin by the world’s greed and left there by our indifference or hopelessness. Nope, every little shoot of hope you uncover, whatever your work, you are helping Paradise to thrive. This is our work, folks… creating Peace, uncovering Paradise!
Oh, April Fool… I’m thinking I’m going to be one all month long. I am steadfastly going to believe in the impossible and do the undoable. (I’ll be the Red Queen and think of six impossible things before breakfast! — I just ignore her penchant for separating her servants’ heads from their bodies… even for a cartoon, that’s pretty brutal!).
Let’s get right back to Peace-ibilities. They’re endless you know and our Peace-abilities are enormous. So let’s stretch and see what we can accomplish. I’m never one to underestimate the power of the frivolous, but it’s easier to start off being an April Fool on the first, and then begin as you mean to go on! And keep having fun while you do it!
And don’t you love the spiffy new design by Nancy Cleaver? She says about Peace Squares: “There are many ways to see peace, and sometimes one has to repeatedly look forward and back to gain perspective. Then the pattern emerges which allows the entire vision to shift, and the present moment to take hold.” I like it for those reasons, but I also like it because it reminds me of tulips. And nothing says April to me like a buncha tulips! (unless of course, it’s being a Fool for Peace!)
So many people are celebrating today. This is a day in which many find an essential piece of their understanding of the world. It gives me so much joy to know that people are aware and opening to others’ celebrations. Here in the East, in the natural world, the sweet exhalation of Spring begins. Life will be easier and perhaps more joyous in the coming month. This is the season of Joy. Air, which is the element, is scented with the flowers that the Sun is calling forth to cover the ground. Oh rejoice. Feast! Celebrate what moves your lives. Celebrate what moves your neighbors’ lives. Enjoy this lovely Sabbath. (and if peanut butter eggs make your way into your life, well, so much the better!)
Do I follow the weather or is it just the season. I feel stuck in my journey at the moment. Lots of little details. Very little progress. ‘Way too much repetition. Incredible opportunities to see where my bounding forward caused issues that need to be reworked. I yearn forward, and the work is in the present, right here, right now.
Maybe a good image is that of raking away the winter cover. It is a necessary and tedious job. It must be done carefully, or you’ll rake away the shyly emerging bulbs. This is a good time for allies, if you like me, have a fair amount of Tigger-esque qualities. Bouncing isn’t part of the needed skill set. Patience and deep breathing are.
These holidays and this cusp are important. Dwelling where we are, being present in the moment is as well. Peace. Rake slowly.
