Finding Peace When Winter Threatens

I like Winter. Don’t get me wrong. I like starry nights and snowy days. I like cozy candle-lit rooms and reading and writing and eating clementines.

But not unlike Summer, Winter must be respected. All these Summer fans forget that people who lived without air-conditioning in their houses and cars were not always so sorry to see summer end. Winter offered respite from working in the fields and gardens as well. It wasn’t that there wasn’t hard work, but there was time in the dark for stories and mending of lives and the tools of our livelihoods.

But in this picture, snow threatens. I actually like snow… but the picture captures ominous. And threatening is the way I’m feeling about my world right now.

We can wring our hands, or we can prepare. We can ask ourselves how we will work for peace. I’m not great at countering what’s going on… and besides, we don’t know what’s going to happen. But we can build relationships and connections. We can practice radical hospitality. We can prepare to wage Peace. We can practice. We can Love.

everydaypeacesaturday48nov26

 

Leftover Peace

We have somehow fallen, together with my husband’s family and a couple friends, into a cozy habit of Second Day Holidays. I was introduced to Second Day Christmas in Sweden. At the time I was there, there were strict social laws about what you did on Second Day Christmas. On Christmas Eve and Christmas day you were home with your family. On Second Day Christmas you went out and visited friends and exchanged any gifts you might have with them.

It was wonderful.

It’s a bit ironic, as Margaret says, because I feed left overs to the ones I love the most. But it is (drumroll, please) deliciously ironic (rimshot!).

These second day gatherings are relaxed with little to do but press the buttons on the microwave. There’s no frenzy about preparing or eating. And in this year’s case, we’re building on a visit we just had from Steve’s (now my) kids. So we’ll be cozy and warm and filled with joy and thanksgiving (and Thanksgiving food).

We’ll keep a close eye on the eagle nest to see if they won’t dash up and down the river to amuse us. But mostly we’ll just laugh. And we’re pretty much on the same political wave lengths, so we won’t have land mines to negotiate.

It brings me new life and love. It eases my heart, because the holidays were always so filled up with my family — Steve and I are relative newcomers at being family to one another. And almost as long as we’ve been together, my family has been aging or sickening and dying. So day-of holidays can be hard.

Enter his lovely brother, sister-in-law, and her family, a few choice friends, and love and Peace arrive on the second day. We’re taking our extended family and friends and deliberately making family. I am truly grateful. I hope you all found Peace on the holiday.

I hope we all make Peace going forward. We’re going to need it.

everydaypeacefriday48nov25

 

Thanksgiving Peace 2016

Thinking of all of you wishing us Peace and thanksgiving in this tumultuous year.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t escape thoughts of Standing Rock and watching America break Peace with our Native Americans. I’m heart-broken, horrified and trying not to shut down. Need to stay aware of what’s happening.

We all have a delicate balance… Gratitude is always important. And there is so much for me to be grateful for.  I hope there is much for you…

And there are many who are frightened. And many who do without. Let us remember them. Let us be generous as well as thankful.

But let us also be thankful for food and family — and as one friend reminded me, but many of you celebrate — football. Demand Peace at the table. I know there’s not much hope for that in the den in front of the games! But cousins are together; let us be together in Peace.

everydaypeacethursday47nov24

Giving Thanks for Peace Received

Looking at empty fields can remind us of how long it is until green begins to sprout — or it can remind us of the bounty the field offered up to nourish and delight us.

It’s our choice — do we choose to see the lack or do we decide to be filled with the memory of goodness?

I don’t know whether it was my mom who said this, but somewhere I found this and it’s become part of my personal mantra… begin as you mean to go on… I’m going to choose thankfulness.

I’ll keep deliberately choosing it until it becomes a habit.

There’s a lot of fear out there, it’s good to strengthen ourselves with all we have. It’s good to give thanks… Nothing prepares us better for generosity than gratitude. Nothing prepares us better for Peace.

If you’re traveling this weekend, please come safely home! I’m grateful for you and treasure your life and love.

everydaypeacewednesday47nov23

Reminders of Past and Harbingers of Present/Future Peace

Early this Spring the trees budded and we rejoiced. And then they leafed and we were so pleased with all the new green rustling. In the summer, they offered us shade… we enjoyed the shade right through the warm fall… and then were amazed as they oh-so-slowly this year transformed into their Fall Beauty.

At last, the trees let go to settle down to sleep. These leaves drifted onto the river and are off to become sediment and mulch for the land downstream.

Beauty fades and becomes new Beauty. The Beauty of the tree branches, the Beauty of enriching soil. This is the way of the Earth. Let us build Peace on such beauty. Let us build Peace.

everydaypeacetuesday47nov22

Peace from the Little Things

Let’s hear it for the little things. Let’s hear it for those who take the time to make the little things lovely.

And then let us dedicate ourselves to saying thank you. Practicing not just generous tipping but also that looking your server in the eye and saying thanks, this little gift changes my life.

When people do things that make you stop and notice, stop and notice. Be appreciative.

The more appreciative you are (not smarmy, just appreciative!) the more generous and painstaking people will be with the next thing they do.

I believe that Gratitude and Generosity beget each other, beget Peace.

everydaypeacemonday47nov21

The Peace and Beauty of the Day

Every day you get up the world is in the midst of being beautiful. I’m writing that today when it’s grey and blustery… when it’s November to its very core.

Some places they’re celebrating snow… not here of course. Welcome to Snowhole PA…

I’m simply delighting in the leaves swirling and dancing in the streets. I get to go to wowrk and do things I love. And then I get to come home and be with friends and family, family, family… my birth family who are local are coming to dinner to meet my beloved family who have arrived from California. Last night I held grandchildren in my arms and two amazing women who have allowed me to call them daughters of my heart. Way to go Steve Mitchell… thanks for the great gift of Love!

The times are as turbulent as the wind. But Love is as constant as time — if we let it be so. And Peace is there for the making.

everydaypeacesunday47nov20

How Will We Fuel Peace?

It’s time to reconsider where we get our fuel.

I’ve been so caught by Van Jones’ notion that what’s in the ground is dead… and we don’t dig it up…

And we’ve clear cut this nation at least once… and that’s proven itself not a good thing.

But we have winds and we have sun… And they’re not going anywhere anytime soon…

Let’s think differently. Let’s Peace differently, shall we?

everydaypeacesaturday47nov19

Trusting in Our Devotion to Peace

We’re the ones. I don’t know if we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for, but we’re the ones we’ve got. And we aren’t waiting any longer — because people are going to need us.

Are you a refuge? Are you an ally? are you an organizer? Are you a politician? Are you a donor? Are you a good friend? Are you — am I, because these questions aren’t just for you — trustworthy?

It’s going to come down to being a good friend to the world and our country: its peoples, its land, air, and waters, its climate. What kind of world are we going to demand of ourselves? Will it be kind? Will it be just? Will it be one that acknowledges the realities of all people, not simply ourselves?

Oh, I hope so. I’ve said this forever. Now more than ever, let’s Peace. (and Peace means so much more than many think… and we remember: No Justice, No Peace.)

everydaypeacefriday47nov18

The Last Leaves of Peace

Beauty has been hanging on the trees. But the stark bones of life are slowly revealing themselves. Tree branches write their story against the sky.

Some of what we’re seeing is ugly and frightening. But some of it is beautiful. It’s a long while until spring… We’re going to have to see the Beauty that is and help reveal it to the world. We’re going to have to be the Peace… both leaving and staying and coming.

And this just in — a friend just quoted Annie LaMotte: “We do not need to get it together before we show up.”

everydaypeacethursday46nov17