Movie Theaters of Peace

I am not the world’s biggest movie buff. I do love our little meticulously restored Art Deco theater in town, however. There used to be thousands of these, and now simply a few remain. But ours is gorgeous. And the beauty is a big seller for the woman who goes to movies sometimes begrudgingly. In addition, they have butter, real butter, for their popcorn. Large buttered, parfait style, please… (they layer it!). If that doesn’t help me wander a long way down the Peace road, what would?

I try to be judicious about movies if I’m going to go. A long time ago I decided no violence. I keep trying to find movies that lead me toward possibilities and hope. Or giggles. I’m big on giggles.

Every day and every day as i see more ugly parsimony taking over my country, I try to push more hopeful encouragement out. We can get by with a little help from our friends.

Together, let us watch films that encourage us to keep building Hope and Peace in the world.

Fleeting, but Powerful, Beauty

Because flowers come and go so quickly, it’s easy to think of them as fragile. I guess, in fact, they are in one way. But they are also immensely powerful. All of the plants energy has gone into this beauty whose job is fall apart after having attracted the pollinators and protected its reproductive organs. We’re not supposed to cut the leaves while green because they’re doing their little photosynthesis thing for the plant.

But as far as most of us think, the tulip’s job is Beauty. Proud, loud Beauty and delicate, fragile Beauty. (if you cut them, remember to put a penny in the vase and it will keep them happily upright — not fake news!). They come in Spring and offer themselves for our delight. They remind us the Sun is returning. If rain and wind don’t do them in, they stand as proud sentinels until they fall apart.

But they grow tall and beautiful and please us mightily. They bring their own kind of Peace. And they are instructive. They use their energy to do what they’re best at and then they go away for the year. May the Fourth, Friends!

Filling Baskets with Peace

This photo of baskets is colorful… and brings to mind not only the many practical uses for baskets, but the beauty of them and the artistry of the people who wove them.

Baskets are sturdy and useful.

I have a beautiful purple one that holds all a raft of scarves as it sits boldly atop a bookcase.

I wonder that I don’t carry one to market… why do i have those other bags when I could carry (and sadly for about the same price) cheaply manufactured cloth bags… Why don’t I support artisans and carry color in the world.

There are so many ways we can support the world in flourishing… Ways that are easier than we think. Why not carry baskets and fill them up with the essentials in our lives.

Why don’t we fill baskets with the tools of Peacemaking and carry them out into the world? I’m going to have to think about this… See where they make sense in my life… see how their color can change my life… Baskets of Peace. I’m not sure I know what it means, but I like the sound of it…

The Roads to Peace

A friend just posted a pic of a signpost that read: Happy with an arrow.

I immediately thought of that song the one that I think goes (and if it doesn’t it should!): If you’re going my way, I’ll go with you!

We can get to Peace if we want to. Every road we take has a turnoff. It’s not always well-marked… we sometimes stumble in finding it… but the Peace Road is there…

More and more and more in this world, you and I need to make the choice. If we lead, others will follow. Peace. Shall we go together? So what if we don’t know the way, those trips make the best adventures and give us material to laugh about later. Can it be terrifying? Sure. But it’s Peace… it’s worth the work.

Read a book (or a bunch of books) for Peace

Books have always been both escape and educator for me. They have been friend and challenger. And always, they have been beloved.

I find Peace in their pages, and they disturb my Peace. What could be better?

And welcome to a month of the photos of Tedd Wenrick.

Remembering, Considering, and Contemplating Peace

There are lots of ways to think about a task. We find the ways that work best for us.

For me, one helpful way is to look at the roots, to be present to the plant, and consider the probable bounty. I had a logo once for some work that I did, which could easily be the logo for any work I do, Past, Presence, Future.

Peace although perhaps grander in scope than any task in the world has the same needs to be rooted, scrutinized, and dreamed about. That’s how we figure out the best direction forward.

Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? It’s not, but it is fairly elementary.

And that helps. We’re all about anything that helps us get to Peace.

The Open Road to Peace

Traveling… wending your way away from home. For me it’s an itch I get in the Spring. Is it the faintly remembered graduation impulse? or is it the newer my work stretches to the end of June and then… summer vacation, is taking me away…

I love the going away and the coming home.

Part of the going away that we need to remember is to keep our hearts and minds open to the people and cultures we encounter… When we’re leaving we often think about fleeing… getting out of town… but we’re also journeying to some place… we just might not know where yet…

Hitting the open road… hitting the open mind… Setting out with our minds set on Peace.

Off and running on the Peace journey…

Conversations in Peace

The conversations that get struck up in locker rooms are often totally fascinating.

I don’t know whether it’s the complete physical exposure that makes them so revealing… it may be. Older women are used to getting undressed and then dressed in locker rooms as they do at home. Take your clothes off, put your work out clothes on. Take your work out clothes off, get in the shower, put your clothes on. All the while, talk, talk, talk.

Young women don’t seem to be as comfortable. (It can’t be that they just find us and our conversations horrifying, can it?) But they tend to change under a towel facing a corner.

We talk about everything: Life and death and everything in between.

Yesterday I had a fascinating conversation about genealogy and how this chemist used it to teach research methods.

We talked about my family’s arriving from Wales to go to the coal mines and she, because of the local research she did, could pretty much tell me where and when he might have entered the country. History. So fascinating. Why didn’t someone teach me this way in school. For years I thought history was only about war.

But whatever it had been it would have been fascinating, because she was talking about something that completely captivated her.

Oh, there’s such Peace and Possibility out there. We just have to touch people’s Passions and get connected. Have a nice day. Talk to people about what interests them and what interests you! Make some Peace.

Rocks of Peace

I am a rather reluctant outdoorswoman. Now more than ever there’s that allergy thing. And I don’t know whether it’s inertia or friends, or what, but it’s hard to get me outside, unless there are friends dragging me along. And then I remember I like things.

And it’s not every time I am in Nature that I remember how much I like heart shaped rocks. I have a beautiful California jade heart i wear, picked up on a beach, and wrapped in silver wire. They fit well in our hands and it’s plenty grounding to play with stones.

The Riverkeeper tells me that those rock cairns can interrupt Nature and we’re better not making them. So maybe if we find heart rocks we can just set them out a bit more prominently.

Some people are painting rocks and leaving them around towns. Maybe we could just leave plain, unpainted, pretty heart rocks. Reminders to the world, I love you. I come in Peace.

They remind me every time i hold them: I love. I come in Peace. I have Peace in my hands for you in the shape of a heart shaped rock.

Peace Mirror

I love this picture. Is it a mirror reflecting an object? Is it an object? Is it flat and painted? Is it three dimensional? Is it convex or concave?

At some point, I have, in looking at this picture, considered all these things. I don’t know. I think I know, but I’m not sure. Here’s what I do know. Reflection or object, it’s beautiful.

If it’s a reflection it asks us to consider whether what is reflected in the mirror is truthful and beautiful. If it’s truthful, I’d hold that it was beautiful. If it’s an object do we know our beauty and our worth?

Somehow the notion of Peace dances with all of these possibilities. How do we show our Beauty and our vulnerabilities? Does our reflection tell the Truth? And how are we generous reflectors of what we see?

Peace… it’s such a lovely and confusing dance!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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