Come, stand by me and watch the flames dance.
Come stand by me and talk of Peace.
There is so much Peace to be made. Let us fill our minds with Beauty and our hearts with friendship. Let us make Peace.
I’ve always loved visiting castle. They seem so romantic in those novels.
But most of them were built to withstand sieges. Those moats weren’t things of beauty (and they often threw the sewage in) but built to drown knits in mail and chain armor.
Additionally, since i have a hard time seeing myself in the midst of a siege, they weren’t clean or comfortable to live in.
And that’s where the romance goes poof for me!
But many of them are beautiful and soar over the towns built around them. Today that’s tourist attraction and history teller. The moats, while free of sewage and knights in white armor… will still as the sign shows you eat cars. So put on your parking break before you settle in for your coffee break.
But all of these things, the danger, the wars, the history, the moat… they all teach us about Peace if we look for the clues. It’s the Peace we want to know about. For me it all leads back to building Peace.
My brain, always darting about. Since my “illness” (shall we call it that?), it’s even less tethered than usual. Trusting that I’ll see more connections as I heal.
So when Lorraine sent me a picture of this beautiful silver “lake,” what else would I see but a place for fairies to bathe?
We can’t, particularly in these trying times, let our child-like wonder and imagination disappear. Occasionally, we have to come out and play. Because we have no idea what will spark our imagination for Peace.
Everybody loves a rainbow it seems. I laughed last night that my niece posted a very similar pic (although it’s true, hers included her oh-to-cute lil boyo as well). But Evans girls finding joy.
I love looking at this pic because it’s beautiful, and I still love the mythology that surround them — but this pic was particularly fun because Lorraine and I, my friend of 50 years, were standing together looking at beauty and an arc that joined two points together. Since Lorraine and I live 5000 miles apart and it was the day before I was leaving on the train, it felt not only auspicious, but comforting.
But Rainbows always remind me of Peace and now friendship. Friendship always reminds me of Peace too.
The duck gets on the ice floe and goes in its direction. Where the wind blows off they go.
Is there Peace in this direction (if you can stand the cold feet)? Is there Peace in every direction and up to us to recognize it?
When do we paddle like hell against the wind, when do we ride the floes? Is Peace in both places? In every place? Are we Peacemakers enough to know and to Peace?
Ah, youth… At least I think we can blame defacing trees on youth… it seems so romantic then and trees so permanent… and love so overwhelming. Although love, it seems is always overwhelming.
But this pic made me laugh and made me remember the joy and the passion (and if truth be told, the heartbreak and deep sorrow only possible in the years of teens and twenties. These days I just don’t have the energy for the drama!)
But love. It’s important to know who we love. It’s important that we love the sweet self-involvement of passion to deepen into love the sustains not only us but also our communities. Love is the ground that Peace grows in…
All across the political spectra, accusations of “Liar!” are being leveled. And quite actually the amount of lying is prodigious.
As always, the only thing we can do anything about is ourselves. How do we lie to ourselves. What to we tell ourselves that really isn’t true?
How do we let go of that? Because it gets in our way…
Of what you ask? Of Life. Why make that more difficult. Of Peace, which is already so damned difficult.
If I’m going to give Peace a chance, I’m going to have to ferret out my favorite lies. They’re so deeply ingrained at this point… and weeding was never my favorite thing. Nonetheless… here we go! Peace!
There are so many different burial practices. All of them make sense within the cultures from which they developed. The ones I have experienced have all given me heart’s ease.
Part of the work of Peace is to find where each of us find Peace, where in joy, where in sorrow.
And then to honor that in one another. Peace be with us all.
I know that tree houses are a country thing — in countries that have trees that support them. But to have sacred spots in the woods — even for those of us who are not outdoors gurls and guys… is a lovely blessing.
I don’t know what it’s like in places that are not like mine, you’ll have to tell me…
But there are places we each hold sacred. In those places we touch Peace. Where is that in the world for you?
No, i don’t want a pair of 8″ brown suede heels — but I have fond memories of some brown suede heels I owned in high school. they were grown up shoes. They went with very little I had, but they did spark my mom’s longing and imagination.
Seems a plenty good reason to laugh and remember, no?
It’s the little things that bring us Peace, just a moment of Peace.
I bet most of us have some little something from our past, that when we see today’s equivalent, make us remember and make us smile. We all have memories, even if the scale varies. It’s good for Peace that we remember them, and share them with one another.
I just wish my mom had had the courage to buy the shoes for herself. That would have been a different kind of Peace. But I’ll take this one. I’m sure Lorraine had no idea how sweet a memory she was unleashing when she sent me a photo she called “window shopping!”
