Summer Memories, Sabbath Peace, Berry Moon

It’s a positively beautiful day.

It’s a day for breathing in the Beauty and all the promise and possibility in the beginning of this Berry Moon Season. Strawberries, soon! Swimming, soon! Memories abounding. New possibilities ahead.

It’s the Sabbath and a day for reflection. Today among other things, I’ll be remembering an old family friend. Part of my parents’ crowd… fewer and fewer beloved elders. (as I become one despite my shock and surprise!). Jack. loved steam engines. Did the best corn on the cob. Funny, corny jokes. could fix anything. His wife and my mom shared a birthday on December 24, so we always lunched together that day. Making family every way we could.

Hope your day is grand. Hope you find some sweet Summer Peace to indulge in and some memories to make. Sweet blessings of the Berry Moon be with you…

Peace of the Little Things

Yesterday was a day of plowing through this and that. And indeed this and that was accomplished. Since the day before had been a pretty big slog, it was a joy to get things done. Even the one thing I had to do again because I had deleted it from my computer.

Sigh. and Ah well. It actually was much better the second time around.

So much of the work i do is work that has no finish point, it often just morphs into the next thing. So when I can tick a lot of things right off the list, I’m in heaven.

So little, but so sweet. And maybe only so sweet in my life because it’s not every day, but I’ll take it.

And those conversations, those little snippets of catching up and loving each other. I’ll take that too! So much of life is not about grand gestures. So much of it is about the sweet little moments.

And for me, yesterday, the sweet little moments held me upright for the hard moments of letting go a friend who died. Her memorial was on Thursday evening and yesterday we interred her ashes. She was only 44. She left a daughter who is only 12. and a heartbroken mom. So hard, so hard. I’m so thankful that I have work I can do, ways I can support that are useful, words I can find even when words can’t get at the deepest of the sorrow. I am grateful that the Earth receives us at the end of our lives after having supported us through it. I am grateful that nature is so beautiful. and I’m very sad.

I’ll take the Peace of the little things in the Beauty of the Berry Moon. They soothe the heart.

Save the World for Peace

This is the Berry Moon. it’s the Moon of growing things. The Moon of that first harvested sweetness.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, where they’re already harvesting sweetness, they’re using water they don’t have for households to produce berries for people everywhere.

And out on the coast, an oil line has burst and degorged into the sea. the beautiful, beautiful sea.

And CEOs get to say sorry and think that is a response.

Big business, fragile Earth. it’s a bad mixture. And Peace is definitely the casualty. What are we going to do? I have no idea… But you can’t unsee this… and you have to keep asking yourself questions…

Growing Peace in the Berry Moon

Oh, the gardens are busy right now. Lewisburg is one of those towns where people garden. More and more towns are those where people are growing food and flowers.

Everywhere you look things are poking their heads out of the soil, testing, tasting, how about now? Yep, now seems to be the time. The Berry Moon is trying to live up to her name as her brother the Sun coaxes things along.

But we live in the privileged lands… Even our lowered amounts of rain are enough to keep our gardens juicy. In May we can hope that the unseasonably warm 90˚ weather isn’t the harbinger of 100˚ weather in July and August.

Our job is not simply to celebrate the bounty; it’s also to push for its protection.

As I write this another oil spill has devastated the coast of California. 100,000 gallons lost, as if the loss of oil is the problem rather than the damage done to the coastline. And oh, have we noticed that all the people cleaning up the spill are people we say we don’t want here… the people willing to do the hard work of cleaning up? There are so many things wrong with this picture, it’s hard to know where to pull the first string.

But taste something fresh from the garden and remember why we’re called to work for our beloved planet. “Oh, Earth Mother, I’m standing on you…” May we live in peace.

This and That Peace

I don’t know that what I’m working at has a lot to do with the Berry Moon, although if you saw it go down yesterday evening, you were thrilled. Jupiter was bright and beautiful and the tiny, tiny sliver of moon was orange… ahhhhhh.

But there’s a lot going on out here in the world, and much of what’s touching my life right now is sad. People are having a hard time, and my job, or at least part of my job, is showing up when life is hard for others.

And this kind of job is challenging because it seems that things come in waves. You boogie along and everything’s great and then all of sudden people need you to talk to them about hard things. Life and death things. Because that’s a big part of what ministers do. I’ve always done that with people, but now it’s official.

It’s an incredible privilege to be with people in the midst of their challenges. And it’s hard work. Presence is something to practice. And when they’re people you know, that you’re with on a regular basis, it can be very challenging.

And the day after a young woman died, my friend’s kids had a baby. The circle, the cycle, of Life is sweet. Life giveth and Life taketh away…

And we find a way to make Peace, not only with the journey but also with the beginnings and endings.

To Live in Peace

Is it fleeing? Is it invasion?

Whatever it is, as hordes of people flee war torn countries, how is there a peaceful coming together of different cultures? (Sadly this is not one of those columns with an answer.)

I can imagine, if not understand, the desperation that causes you to flee your homeland. I can imagine that what you’re looking for is a safe landing place to be again the person you were.

That becomes so difficult, however, when you and an entire colony of people like, you, thank heavens there are people like you, arrive in a place that is so foreign with an established culture that is inimical to yours.

And then when you are the host country with a long established and beloved country what do you do when people show up and want to establish their country in the midst of yours?

And when chauvinism is a piece of where you come from and how can it not be, how do you mediate that to make space? Is the history of conquering nations illustrative here? Because that has pretty much been a disaster in terms of culture and acculturation?

When things are one way, and then they’re not, and everyone is uncomfortable and the way forward doesn’t seem clear, what does Peace look like? Is there a way for us all to fold into one another? Does Pollyanna’s “can’t we all just get along” cry have any use, or is she (I) just hopelessly optimistic and naive?

But whatever the answer is, it’s not letting would be immigrants drown or starve off shore or on the other side of a border wall. It’s not in killing those who think differently than you in the country in which you’re seeking safe haven. But shouldn’t there, in the vast gulf between those two places, be some way — or a lot of ways — forward?

It is so very hard to think about, isn’t it? But in the hard work, shouldn’t there be possibility?

Peace be with us all…

On Bringing the Peace You Can

It’s really about presence and showing up, isn’t it? And doing the best you can.

You seek to say the things you know will bring them comfort. You work to be as grounded as you can be, as open-hearted, open-souled… open minded, because even here, where it’s about the very stuff of life, there’s so much that’s going on around and as part of it… as you can be.

Even when you have spiritual comfort to offer, it’s often your ability to be comfortable where you are, to be with friends and strangers alike, to let people know they are seen and in the deepest sense of the word, loved.

It’s such a privilege to do this sacred work… and you bump along, sometimes doing it better than others. Doing your best… and showing up. Hoping you can help this family in the midst of what is so hard, hoping there can be Peace and dignity… hoping that you’re helping to create a memory they will always grieve but maybe not regret the way it went.

I knew and liked the woman who died yesterday. It was a hard death for her. She labored to let go. Don’t let ’em fool you, death, is rarely easy. I knew her husband a little, enough that he trusted me. and the same with her mother. Her poor daughter, poor sweet Katy, I had seen only as a baby. This woman was never as proud of anything in her life as of her daughter and of being Katy’s mom.

But there you are struggling for your own grounding in the midst of people you know and those you don’t at the doorway of something huge. Life-not-this-Life.

I believe Peace really lies in open hands and open hearts. I believe it also lies in Presence. And so, I’ll keep trying to show up. I’m grateful to be called and give thanks when i can be of service. And it’s hard work.

Blessings, Peace, Love.

Making Sabbath Peace Where You Are

Well, here we are, with the day we have. At least one tradition commands us to be glad in that. To be grateful, right here, right now, for what we have.

It’s so easy to judge the day not worthy. To tot up all the little parts and judge them as less than great means that you’re not paying attention to the things that are working.

Peg Streep has written about the fact that humans actually do better when they subtract the blessings, and imagine how life would be without that… and that as we add things back in we realize that life is better than we had suspected.

I get stuck on the wonder of things — look at this. Look at that. Be amazed, not just content. Fill up today. Start the hard work tomorrow.

As for those invasive plants… consider, at least consider Peace… and what that might look like.

Today, take the day off and be glad and grateful for what’s in your life. Come at it any way that works for you… But take a Peace Pause that refreshes. Tomorrow we can get back to tinkering with the better-making! Sabbath Peace with you, my friend. What will you do with it? It’s the very last day of the Flower Moon, better revel!

Honoring Flower Moon Beauty & Peace

I guess I’ve just spent too much time wandering around the neighborhood recently looking at all the amazing flowers. The Flower Moon is more than doing her job this year, calling beauty into the world. So when I saw the ravaged poppy I was sad.

Sad at first, because who does that. Ok, squirrels, but they’re squirrels and they just tear things apart. But this was ripped off at the stem and discarded. I can even accept, although they’re not yours, plucking a flower to enjoy. But this was not that.

I have a lot of poppy memories. I live with a lot my mother’s poppy paintings. Our wedding ketubah is passionate with them. And I have smiled at fields and gardens of them in a lot of places in the world.

My reaction about this, however, somehow took me right to the “In Flanders Field the poppies grow…” that sad, evocative WWI poem… There it was, a brilliant splash of red lying broken in the street. As we do with flowers, so we do with people.

I don’t want to make peace with that, I want, rather, to call for and make Peace. No more ruined flowers. No more ruined lives. Let there be Peace on Earth. Let us understand that Life is sacred. Let’s start that now.

Introducing: The Bartender and the Priestess

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So there we were, two wise and slightly odd women, who spend our lives talking to folks, taking a break from all that by just sitting around talking about our work. We realized that we wind up discussing the same issues with people of all walks of life because, regardless of differences of background and influence, people have shared concerns. Fears. Worries. Hopes for a future. And, despite our coming from very different perspectives and often using very different processes, we often wind up with similar opinions about life.

So, who better to offer an advice column than the two of us? We’re going to be thinking about this stuff anyway — so we decided to think in such a way that you could follow us… and think with us… and start thinking about how you make good decisions.

And besides, we’re funny, and we have really great suggestions. And mostly, we’re kind. So follow us! Enjoy us! And ask us some questions you’ve long wanted answers for…

The Bartender and the Priestess

Smart Women: Here to help!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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