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Courage and Peace and Lunacy

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To be courageous is always a bit lunatic, isn’t it? To dare to do something that is outside our comfort zone. Luckily it’s the Ripe Garden Moon and it’s full of comfort for when we do the crazy courageous things.

It’s funny what supports us in courage. In the case of my friend, she relied on simple good manners to carry her up and over.

In my case, I just didn’t want to have an unmatched set. And really, everyone else had forgotten I made a mistake and even if they were holding it against me, who cares? It’s my life I want to have organized, nothing to do with anyone else. (so who’s my harshest critic, right, me). So I could just do what I needed to do.

Things happen that need to be dealt with. Sometimes they’re fairly small things. Sometimes they’re big and horrible. But we do what we have to… or at least what we can of what we have to. We step up and do the hard work.

And that is just that…

A certain kind of Peace comes in doing what needs to be done. In doing the right thing. In daring. We like ourselves when we dare for things that matter.  so, let’s shall we, let’s Peace.

GardenMoonLunacyJul25

Everyday Peace in the Ripe Garden Moon

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I am extraordinarily lucky to work in a UU church which takes the preparation for the year seriously. I have a moth of study and a month of vacation. So few clergy have this, although we all need it.

We need it because we’re tired from a year of putting out. We need it because if you’re not going to hear the same old sermons next year, we need to put something in. But I get it.

And I’ve been a reading fool. I’ve been absolutely luxuriating in the reading.  Stuffing my brain full so I can let it all percolate around for a while.

What’s made my reading time more wonderful is that I’ve been able to do it in the company of people I love. I’ve been in one house and then another. And there we’ve sat being together and quietly doing whatever we do.

I’ve gotten things accomplished. In the company of loved ones. And rather than running around doing things, we’ve hung around and done what needed to be done. talked some. laughed a lot. and been quiet together.  The first week was with my Sweet Pea. I had long quiet stretches with him. ahhh. oh, the blessings to be counted.

This is a Peace I don’t often have at home. There are things to do. And some of these friends are very far away. But because of my job, I have this lovely, sacred pleasure.

I’m going to indulge this particular Peace as much as I can… and give thanks as I do it. And stare out the window at the lovely Ripe Garden Moon, whose picture his sister took, and remember the vegetables that just graced our supper table this evening… mmmmm.

GardenMoonLunacyJul24a

Give Your Heart to Peace

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And any of the rest of your organs. A friend of mine drove around for years with a bumper sticker that said, Leave your Heart on Earth, Heaven Doesn’t Need It. Be an Organ Donor. And i think she was. Bless that great big heart of hers. I hope if someone got it they learned to love like she did.

It’s a sad and awful and wonderful duty when a loved one dies to really release them. And you have to accept the awful reality to allow new reality to happen.

I watched my dear friend, who was in the process of dying from cancer, reel with the sudden accident that took her husband and then sit through the hours it took to release his body for donation. It was so hard and she was so brave. It was such an important lesson. Bless her loving heart and her stubborn right-doing mind.

So determine to make Peace and put your whole heart into it. However that happens. and consider Peace-giving organ donation.

GardenMoonLunacyJul23

Gifts of Love and Peace

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It was such a whirlwind for the family of the little girl who needed a kidney. There was a man who loved this little and wanted to give her his kidney. And then, undergoing tests to make sure all was compatible, it was discovered that he had a tumor on his kidney. If they hadn’t tested, they would never have found this tumor. It’s such a silent disease until it’s ‘way to late. So the man who would have saved Katy was himself saved.

And then a tragic accident. One family decided that the only way to find comfort in their loss was to share organs. They did and a little girl’s life is transformed.

There are so many kinds of courage in these stories. So many kinds of decency.

Peace and Comfort… may they all find new life… may we all find Hope.

GardenMoonLunacyJul22

Sounds of Summer Peace

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Funny… I’ve been thinking about summer and how noisy its sounds of Peace are.

Slamming doors, kids yelling Marco and Polo in a pool, crickets chirping, thunder rumbling, fans whirring. Sweet sounds.

All of that sounds like contentment.

And often I can hear them all from the screened in porch. Ahhhhhhhh.

Hope you have a wonderful, noisy, Peaceful day. What a joy that Peace and Quiet isn’t always quiet…

GardenMoonLunacyJul21

 

Ripe Gardens, The Moon & Peace

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In this region, this Moon has been called the Sturgeon Moon, because in the Great Lakes, they are most easily caught during this Moon. It’s also called the Green Corn Moon or the Grain Moon.

But most of us are not Grain gatherers, although I’m sure some of us are. Many people are gardeners. Even if, like me, you aren’t, you can’t escape the wild bounty that’s happening (she says, munching on a French breakfast radish purloined from my landlady’s bounty. Yum.). So Ripe Garden Moon seemed like a great descriptor. I sure hope it stops clouding up long enough to see this Moon!

Let’s celebrate the sheer lunatic abundance of this time. Do it by eating something wonderful from gardens currently going crazy with good. Do it under the light of a slyly shining moon — Why not?

“One is nearer God’s heart in a garden, than anywhere else on Earth.” (Dorothy Frances Gurney). Sweet Summer Peace, Folks!

GardenMoonLunacyJul20

Sweet Peace of the Road; Sabbath All the Time

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I’m on retreat/vacation. Every day’s a Sabbath with me for a while. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m so grateful. I’m being a reading fool. Sometimes a cleaning fool, which IS shocking.

Also a traveling fool. Steve and I took off for Maine for a week and had a wonderful time at our cousins’. Quiet, lovely coastal visit. Lots of oysters. Plenty of lobster. So many books. So many quiet conversations. Piles of Peace and Quiet. Lovely sleeping in the cabin in the woods. Lovely being together. So many blessings it was hard to keep track, let alone count.

We’re good traveling buddies. Talk. Talk. Talk. It’s nice. It was particularly nice doing our night driving on the way home. It was an easy drive with Ms GPS telling me how to get hither thither and yon. So, just lots of comforting darkness. Not even a moon, as it was the dark of the Moon. Just Steve and me and the road.

It was an abundance of plenty. Rejoicing in the Peace.

Now I have a couple more things to do before starting the great writing… but there’s time. Blessed Sabbath to you all… May there be beautiful slow days in your life this summer.

And there was this…

GardenMoonLunacyJul19

 

Eating Disorders, Honesty, and Marriage

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Dear Bartender and Priestess,

I have always believed that couples are allowed to keep portions of themselves locked away from their partners. You know, the part where we keep our deep secrets, where we can turn thoughts over as we work to understand how these thoughts and memories and philosophies have helped shape us into the people we become. (I mean, does my husband need to know Continue reading →