Peace Withheld by Violent Measure

It suited the mine bosses for the different ethnic factions not to get along. No chance of a union’s forming if you can’t stand the cut of another man’s lineage. And so they did everything they could to fan the flames of dissent.

Living was hard scrabble and just plain hard in these mining towns. All the Flower Moon blooming in the world can’t pretty up the effects of mining on a small town. And now it’s hard scrabble because towns built up around a

Now you ride by little pretty little streams and there are warning signs posted about the ruination of those streams and the dangerously high rates of mine acid. The mountains are sheared off. Greenery is only slowly, after 40-50 years, returning to the hills…

People are so slow to learn. We didn’t “know” mining was bad. at the same time we were clear cutting the trees. We didn’t know that water couldn’t deal with the stuff put into… and we didn’t much care when people downstream sickened and died.

We didn’t believe that others deserved a chance at the bounty we had… we didn’t really at that point consider lots of these workers human. And that still goes on. I’ve decided to go to a workshop to see what i can do about my part in all this… It’s time to turn this around. Past time, really, but now is the time we have to make Peace. The Beauty tries to tell us what Peace might look like… time to take it seriously. It’s only making space for those moments of self reflection that will help us understand how we stand in the way of Peace and how we might contribute to it, consciously, consistently… Peace.

Rocky Moments in the Flower Moon

It was one of those days. Nothing majorly wrong, but filled with rocky moments where nothing was particularly right.

We have these. They come around. And our job is to relax into them and deal with things as they come up.

I think the key to days such as these is the exhale. You force out the stale breath you didn’t know you were holding and fresh air streams in.

And in the Flower Moon, that air is often sweetly scented. Sure, it’s filled with allergens… but still… Lilacs!

There are often appropriate actions to take and you take them, because life has responsibilities and is sometimes very hard work. And if you deal with them as they come up, there are fewer treacherous rapids to run. I’m a big fan of letting only the big problems be a big deal, the little problems can be dealt with.

When we let the little things become big things we move our attention away from our Peace Goal. We also forget Possibility. I mastered this art for a while, but, in the long run, it’s not really an art I want to be good at. So, I stopped. I mess it up once in a while, and then i get back to getting on with moving toward Peace. Exhale and breathe in that fresh lilac scented air.

Peace be with you on this lovely morning.

Flower Moon Rainbows of Peace

Is it a bad thing that I love thinking up goofy titles? I figure if I’m writing at 8:30 in the morning, you’ll just have to put up with my giggling.

But really, the changing seasons make differences we don’t expect… and in my case don’t remember from year to year… I know the Flower Moon doesn’t bring the flowers, it’s called that because the changing Sun makes it warm and bountiful and spring rains delight.

It was such a lovely thing to have rainbows appear on my Mother’s paintings. Around Mother’s Day, we might add. It was crazy making, because at first i couldn’t understand whether or not it was something I’d missed and how was that possible? And then, it moved to another painting… and another rainbow. wow. (I can only blame the allergens for my slow understanding.)

But then I realized, right it’s summer. The sun is higher and it’s pouring through my pretty crystal hanging in my window. It happens every year. And every year I am surprised by Joy.

And that? is a good thing. Joy is out there. Peace is out there. I believe that. I try to live that. And I’m thrilled when I’m surprised by it.

Violet Peace in the Flower Moon

I’m not a cook. I assemble things once in a while. But that daily food to table thing? bad at that.

So it’s ridiculous that I should be making violet simple syrup. And of course I don’t follow directions well. so mine won’t be as violety as it should be… nor as purple.

But it was such a delightful notion. And even the failed first batch was sweetly subtly tasty… I know this because i poured it with the melted leftovers of morello cherry jam all over my french toast.

The Flower Moon. Enjoy what’s here. Be present. Nature is so outrageously beautiful. Today our walk was punctuated with strong lovely spikes of iris demanding attention. “Hello! We’re here!” Well, yes you are…

Time to pull together what we’ve learned from the Flower Moon, synthesize it for next year when the spiral changes and we learn something new.

But in the meantime? Sweet, sweet Violet Peace to us all…

Right. Trust the Peace of the Flower Moon.

We’ve had gorgeous nights outside in this Flower Moon. Warm and relaxed and beautiful. Windows are open… or at least occasionally, because of course the trees are also enjoying the Flower Moon which means I’m still doing that hunker down inside thing.

We’re looking for rain today, so maybe it will wash all the pollen away. We can live in hope, right?

But the open window thing? It let’s in noises. So there I was on Saturday night and i started hearing this annoying beeping, sounding like a car unlocking. but it continued. I looked outside, didn’t see anything and went to bed, only to be awakened in the middle of the night crying.

All I could imagine is that my sweet neighborhood had been invaded by Not. In. My. Back. Yarders… devastating. How has it come to this? Seem unlikely? My friend Sarajane just informed me that a Catholic church in SF, in an effort to deter people with no homes from sleeping on the relative safety of their porch have installed an intermittent sprinkler system.

Why welcome people when you can let them know what your church really thinks. And what the heck, why not waste water in a state where people don’t have enough to drink and the people you’re watering have no access to public showers. What a nice thing, eh?

But when I woke up yesterday, I realized: Smoke detectors and batteries gone bad. I changed a couple and now I realize. oh, right, they all go bad at this time of year. And when I say I realize, I mean I stumbled to the basement to pull the battery out in the middle of the night last night. I changed that battery this morning! And I’ve run out of 9 volts. Drug store, here I come. (and thank goodness for the local socialist book store that recycles those batteries.)

It’s the little things, but it would be nice if my first thought wasn’t about people who can’t seem to care about humanity. Mistrust is not particularly Peace-building. Being present to your life is a good thing.

I’d better work on those things AND change the batteries. Peaceful morning, everyone. and check your smoke detectors and your battery supply. And if a church in your neighborhood is not being church, write to them and say “Fie, for shame.”

Mothering, Sabbath, & Flower Moon Peace

My friend Peg Streep writes painfully and movingly about Mean Mothers — Those who couldn’t do, or didn’t do, what was needed for their children. There’s a lot of work to be done to heal those children’s wounds.

A sad truth is that when we recognize what’s missing in a child’s life, too few of us step in to make that difference. And those of us lucky to have had what we needed keep finding mothers everywhere to nurture and guide us and we’re more adept, perhaps, at letting that Love in. And some, but not all of us, gather ourselves and take ourselves off to the psychologists and do the work to realize we’re well worth the efforts of mothering and mother ourselves. And I’m grateful for all of those who break the pattern…

But most Mothers struggle along and get it as right as they can. Most learn how to Mother their own and the neighbor children or their students as they cross their field of vision. They do the best they can…

And so, for all the presents and the halloween costumes and moments learning what they had to teach us, thanks Moms.

I wish that more of us subscribed to Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day Proclamation. Would that more of us would “Arise then women of this day…” and grab back the responsibilities for Peace.

In the meantime I wish you Peace with your memories and your realities and joy when it’s appropriate. Missing my own blood relatives who mothered me, Being grateful for my other Mothers. Beyond grateful for the young women and men who have allowed me a glimpse of what’s expected of me and allowed me to love them. My Husband introduced me to his two beautiful daughters who were so well mothered by Shirley and who are such great mothers in turn. I am incredibly inconsistent and still full of wonder that there’s a place for me in that circle.

I’m a lucky woman, and that’s plenty to keep me going on this beautiful warm and sunny Sabbath as the Flower Moon rides into it’s last week of beauty. (I’m watching those lilies of the valley every day.)

Kids are OK in Flower Moon!

Oh, it was such a sweet morning and the kids were amazing.

I’ve never spent a lot of time with kids. Don’t have my own, lived across the country from too many of the kids in the family when they were growing up. Always had friends around who had kids they’d share and there was always the neighborhood… But direct kid interface, not so much.

And now, boom, i’m the minister at a small town church and we got kids! 100 members: 50 kids. My colleague Sara who does the education piece is fabulous. No other word. Fabulous. The people who teach with her? Fabulous. So I get all the bennies of watching these kids grow and folding them into my arms now and again. And they’re pretty puppy like, so they love being enfolded. How sweet is that?

So they’re off to learn more about who they are and what their tradition is and how they might grow into it. (I reminded them when they left that in our country, our tradition started here, so they come from the source! or maybe they come from the roots and are off to visit the place where the tree grew… also grew! They’ll make a whole bunch of memories. They’ll create family and community for themselves when they’re stuffed into that big ol’ van. Laughing all the way and learning whatever comes. Oh, may they see the possibility. The Flower Moon is compressing, time to make sense of things!

But the kids. The bright, funny, interested, loving kids and the two great parents who are hauling them along. Those kids. They’re more than okay. And I am at Peace with that and more than a little in Love.

Sweet Unwaited Gifts of Peace

I didn’t know what was waiting at Deb’s house when I went to get the photos. (It’s always going to be Deb’s house, just like my car is always going to be Deb’s car.)

I’m a pretty confident person, so I knew I’d at least look relaxed and engaged while i was there.

But obviously not completely relaxed. Deb had one of Mom’s irises copied into the lunch bar. Was it still there? I have no idea.

But the house looked sweet and appreciated and they’re so happy there. so good for them. And I don’t have to visit very often.

But he had these photos. Did I want them. How did I know? I figured they were probably just photos of Deb’s life in Bloomsburg, but it was so kind of him not to throw them away, so, I said, yes, please.

And then avoided picking them up. because… I’d have to go to the house to get them…

But there they were. My Nana and my mom, sisty and niece. in soft, sweet, living color. So potent, this picture of these beloved women.

And he walked me outside and we looked at deb’s redbud which was blooming like crazy and at the holly, which needed some attention, and at the maple which grew from my parents’ maple… and saw how his roots are entwined with ours. And intellectually, I thought how great and in my heart I screamed I want my sister. And meanwhile I talked with his dad about music and Steve and him about the house and the pool.

And what a sweet, sweet gift he gave me. There are a whole bunch of kinds of Peace in his gesture. My job now is to come to terms with both the Peace and the connections, however that gets done. Giving thanks for his kindness.

Peace, Good Deeds, & a Flower Moon

It’s good to do things for one another. It’s good to gather together as a group and do things for one another. It gathers us into community and makes us feel good that we’re doing important things.

It’s also good when what we’re doing isn’t necessary because there is no healthcare. That makes me so sad. I believe so strongly in healthcare for everyone. Yes. I know it’s expensive. And everyone needs health care.

I don’t mind paying taxes so that our children aren’t the most endangered and the hungriest. In fact, I want that. I want our corporations stepping up and paying their fair share. I want rich people to do the same.

And in the meantime, I want people kicking in the money they have to send people to Key West before they die. It makes us feel good about ourselves. And the person that’s dying gets to have a little slice of life and make one last set of memories with her friends.

That means everything, doesn’t it…

There’s Peacemaking in this… And so we gather under the Flower Moon and watch Love and Friendship blossom between strangers helping one another down the road. It’s a good thing. Creating community is good work. Sometimes it’s hard work. Sometimes it just feels good to do what’s right.

Dashing Flower Moon Peace

It’s no wonder people think we’re the center of the Universe. The other night, driving home along the river, it seemed so clear that the Moon was chasing me until she caught me and showed me the good road home.

In moments like that, it seems so easy to think we’re communing (ok, maybe it’s just me) with the Moon.

Because her soft light is reflected, she’s so much more approachable than the sun, at whom you can’t glance directly.

I love the notion of that intimacy, and I’m sure the Moon doesn’t mind the secrets I share. Maybe the Moon Goddess cares, maybe not, but she’s never disabused me of the sweet silliness of it.

And I love how she finds me and spills that golden path across the water. Swimming the Moon path may be one of my favorite things in the whole world… I love how she softens the landscape so that we can see possibility and move slowly toward our work of maintenance and restoration.

It’s such a private and quiet moment of Peace. The utter stillness and sweet contentment reminds me in those moments, that we are on this Earth to notice these moments and to help one another find the space for Peace, with ourselves, with the Earth, with one another. Let us Peace by the light of the Moon.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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