House-holding Peace.

I confess (which is hardly a confession if you know me!) that I am not a great homemaker. While I love a lovely home, and have one, I am too easily distracted to constantly be working at upkeep. So it comes in binges from me. (and should probably come from a cleaning person on a regular basis… maybe i SHOULD start playing lotto!)

But when summer break hits, I seem to snap into motion. Calm and beauty must be restored at home! So I can leave and come back to a place of beauty and be encouraged to put away all the travel stuff really quickly so that it can be beautiful again!

The Peace of your Home supports you as you work for the Peace of your World. Everyone needs a little corner of sanity!

Summertime Peace

What is it about vacation? I had so much I needed to get accomplished today. And an equal amount tomorrow. But oh! It felt so sweet not to have deadlines from someone else. They were all my own and I churned through them!

And I kept picking away at the things that were next! Still more to do, but a lot done. So… I’ll take it.

It’s so important to have time off and to slow down and be present to that time. I’m going to be making some memories!

I’m dashing around now, because starting Thursday, I’ll be off line for a week. Look for my posts here, but don’t expect me to announce them on FB… yesssssssss.

Sweet Peace in the Summertime! I hope you also have some time to disconnect and simply be.

A Gift of Life and Peace

A guy who coaches kids’ baseball is going to give one of his players a kidney. Yesterday, woman I know raced to save a child from drowning.

We hear all these stories of humans being downright nasty to one another, and yet, and yet… so often we’re so much better than that. People are good people all the time. Everyday heroines. Everyday heroes.

When these things happen we need to stand up and cheer. We need to lift up the good stories and celebrate them. We’re so quick post negative and whiny stories on social media. And, although I know that a lot of us take joy in cute cat videos, those vids don’t encourage us to do what we can. And as the beloved June Jordan says, “More than that, what can anyone ask?”

This guy is a match and he’s willing to do it for a child he likes. And she will live to play ball another season. This woman was in the right place and saw what happened. Sometimes Peace is just as simple as that. Let’s give thanks. And let’s explore where we’re called to be everyday heroes and heroines. And let’s support each other as we do. Together, we can.

Memories, Sabbath and Peace

The mind’s a funny thing. When I put that pillowcase in the yard sale, I was only thinking that it was time to clean things out a bit.

With all the family deaths, there is stuff in my house. I’ve held it close, reluctant to let them go — as if that meant they were here. Bah. Weird human mind.

But when I sorted, I did the “use not use” test and the “love and not love” test, and this was just a spare pillowcase.

It wasn’t until I saw someone hold it up that its significance (in my life) surfaced. I was standing next to my friend and told her, she said, “don’t take it back.” “No,” I said, “the memory is enough for the Peace!”

And it was. sometimes we have to pay attention so we can be present to the moments of Peace. And then sometimes they just sneak up on you. However they come, they’re sweet. Peace of a lovely Sabbath to you. That Thunder Moon seems more a drippy moon right now, doesn’t it?

Let’s Peace on the Fourth of July

I live in a part of the world where nature is not too far from the human-constructed. And of course I live two blocks from the river.

There are a lot of things we do wrong to nature, and particularly to our river, but still the river is powerful. A couple years before I came back, they started reintroducing eagles to this area. And they’ve flourished.

Now of course we’re messing up the river with fracking and factory farms. So much for our understanding of what’s important. So much for our reverence for our national symbol.

Will they survive? Will we?

But what I thought about as I was writing this was whether or not we honored the eagle’s keen vision or just the power of the predator.

They’re not rapacious. They eat that they might live. May we do the same. Happy Fourth of July. Let us be reflective about Peace, Justice and Freedom — for everyone, not just for Americans. Happy rainy Fourth of July.

Visiting Peace, Ancestor Peace

My mom was a great sick mom. She made special simple foods. In the closet were the bed aids: Sick table. Sick pillow. If you were really poorly, she would come and set up her sewing machine or something and sew while you were sick.

I was heir to the sick accoutrements. So, when you fall and break your leg, you can count on me to run over with Great Roberts’ dinner tray, now dubbed the sick tray and a whole host of pillows. I’ll even empty out the drawers on a side table and cart it along.

And when you break your knee, you need the sick aids. You’re going to need them a long time. No problem, we deliver. In the name of the mother and the sister and all who went before, here’s a snickerdoodle or twelve I asked someone to make for you…

Peace, my sweet niece. Sure glad my nephew brought you into our lives. Here’s to healing and renewed good health.

Sister On the Rebound

Dear Bartender and Priestess,

My two sisters and I have generally been close. Recently, we have undergone a bit of an upheaval, and it’s causing some issues in our family.

The youngest, Susan, has been married to Stan for 13 years. Susan and Stan separated four months ago. Last month, Susan started dating again. Continue reading →

Community Peace Tales

I know. I go on about this, but our community’s yard sale is six days long. We raise a lot of money and the left-overs go off to support other organizations. Today we found out that we can possibly be of service to the migrant workers who labor in the surrounding 7 counties. This would be wonderful!

But one of the sweetest things for me is the chance to be in community. We get to talk to one another. When we meet on Sunday, there are so many of us and it’s difficult to find the time to chat. But while straightening out the glass ware, refolding shorts or taking a moment in the cafe, it’s great to be together and have the chance to begin to know one another better.

Sharing stories about our lives is a precious thing. We all have things going on. We all have problems. We all have laughter to share.

On Sundays we share our joys and concerns, in short pithy statements. On days like yard sale days, there’s the luxury of time and repeated encounters. What a blessing.

There’s a very special kind of Peace that grows from such encounters. Hurrah for memory making under the Full Thunder Moon. Did you see it last night? it was gorgeous!

Collaborating in the Direction of Peace

I am not a real fan of yard sales. There are two reasons for this. One: too many people intently focused. Two: too much stuff to catch the eye. It’s an extrovert’s nightmare. (No, not only introverts have problems dealing with the world.)

But the gestalt of the thing delights me. Eight little rooms, one huge room, one fair sized room and a parking lot full of stuff. Community members hither, thither, and yon, adding up purchases, fetching bags, carrying things to cars, serving up food, asking, what do I do next, or what do i do with this? People answering with confidence, whether the answer is right — or made up.

And things, moving slowly and surely, out the door, although the tables seem to stay magically full. The tables sometimes seem like those baby bottles, they just keep filling up as soon as they’re emptied.

And people are always milling around. Often the same people (back for the third time today!) And every once in a while, sitting for coffee in the cafe. There was the sweetest old couple who just needed some cosseting. No problem, someone was on that.

Life is crazy and bountiful and confusing and wonderful. Let’s keep it moving in the direction of Peace. Let’s keep working hard and making memories! This is a great way to build community!

Meanwhile, in other news, it’s the first of July… jes’ sayin’!

Thunder Moon Rumbles Demand Peace

Gay Marriage and a continuation of horrific painful death penalties. Fair housing and denials of climate change. ACA and massacres. Life is unsettled.

The Thunder Moon rumbles.

The question is, what are we going to do about it?

How are you and I going to weigh in? What thread will we unravel? Racism, injustice, unequal access, automatic weapons, climate change, the death penalty, economic justice. Pick one, pick any one.

Peace is waiting for us to step up. Let us do so — by the light of the silvery Moon. Because it is time. Because it is our work to do.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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