Choosing Love & Peace in the Flower Moon

As always when I’m in one place with a bunch of people I love, I get confused because all the other bunches of people I love aren’t there.

Love is a wonderful and mixed up thing… and creating family is so important. The Flower Moon is also known as the Mother Moon, it’s about figuring this stuff out. Who do we love? Who do we Mother? Who do we Family?

Love is a deliberate choice. It’s fraught with knowledge and boundaries and it’s hard work. It seems so easy at first, but it requires attention and awareness.

Peace is like that too. It’s not just the honeymoon, it’s the careful and deliberate intention to be at Peace, in Peace, in love with Peace demands.

We need more Love. We need to create more Family. We need more Peace. And oh, right, it’s on us. It’s important work.

Going Home Peace

Families. They need tending. And the rewards are phenomenal. And at the end of it I find myself delighted, exhausted and confused.

Delighted because it is good to be together.

Exhausted because it’s all on all the time. “I haven’t seen you, how are you?” “Oh, we have to go here? let’s go!” So rich. and tiring.

And Confused… how can all this love not be connected to all the other love?

Where are our kids? Where’s my sweet village? Where’s beloved Sweden? I find it fascinating that I, who never had kids, gets the most excitement over watching my niece Sarrah’s littles find their place in the greater family. When Naim (that face) walked over to see his Aunt Grancy, lay his head on her belly and wander away… heaven! And yet, hunger at the same time.

Love on the borderlines, it’s a lovely thing. and for far flung family, maybe it’s always this intense.

But I confess, I’m glad to be traveling home today… quiet time writing in an airport, a familiar drive home, and tomorrow, a walk along the (my!) river to ease me back into the day and life!

The Flower Moon rose full and beautiful as we sat around the fire. Wayne reminded me that it used to be the hot tub. shhhhhhhh.

And Peace was right there in all the chaos. And when the chaos is simply Love and Joy and a lot of activities, I give thanks! And Sally laughed!

Peace, Community, Sabbath, and a Full Moon

Gathered community. Gathered community knitted together — or more correctly, gathered community knitting itself together around relationship and commitment and family.

What is intimacy? What is family? what is celebration?

These are not daily conversational tidbits in our life… and yet what prepares us?

This wedding was presided over by two judges and a priestess. (sounds like a movie, no?)

Lots of stuff was swirling around the gathering… and we rode the waves. As I told you, I found myself in the catching position… and another new nephew, and another new nephew and another new niece… and zoom…

and on the Sabbath, we all rested. family tradition mimosas for brekkie. (over hotel waffes and birthday cake, goodness gracious, pleeze, may there be protein soon.) civilized coffee in a foo foo hotel. a little writing. a nap coming up.

And more family. wonderful kids who have wonderful kids.

Peace as a jigsaw with lots of little pieces… being slowly fitted together. leisure. no need to hurry. we’ve got most of this day.

Peace be with you. and catch tonight’s Full Flower Moon. I’ve got a date with my pillow.

Families, Flowers and Peace

I’m a very lucky woman. I have a very interesting family and I like them.

Yesterday, at one event after another, I walked into the arms of family members. Children scoring soccer goals, children reading all 41 books on the Maine reads, children loving bubbles. Cousins delighted to see one another.

My nieces and nephews.

My cousins and my brother.

We didn’t know one another well, growing up. Now we’re sharing stories and lives and food and laughter. And swimming. well of course swimming. Even though the pool is outside and even the Maine kids are whiny because it’s so cold.

And then all the others at the wedding. Interesting people with interesting stories.

And the Flower Moon on the river? and the hopping town? just lovely.

It’s important to weave yourself into your tapestry every once in a while, make sure the threads are still attached. It’s a whole different kind of Peace than I work on most of the time. But I’ll take it.

So Peace to you, my friends. and go fall in Love with Love. and Joy. and Family.

And if we’re going to talk about Peace, remember, if you will that the local synagogue was defaced this week. Hold them in your hearts and let’s figure out how to step up and step in in these moments. Because it’s so not ok. More on that later this week.

Family Peace in the Flower Moon

It’s been a long haul of sad commemorations in my family.

So, it was with great joy I hauled out my marrying dress and headed out to my nephew’s wedding. I’m not really doing the marrying, just a little part, so this marrying dress is red rather than my oh-so-stylish-and-clerical black.

I’d packed it down in my suitcase and was driving down the road when my cousin Kate called to say that Wayne’s, now her, daughter had eloped. Boom. another nephew, complete with a boychild. (Oh great, another child to be a mediocre auntie too. Ah well, luckily I’m the crazy auntie when they see me! After all, who’s bringing the pez and the bubbles to the wedding? Okay, okay, dear friends gave them to me for Easter, but still, I know how to use them. After all, being Evanses/Bennetts/and all the other things that come after, we’ll be logging a lot of pool time! Gotta have fun options!)

Twenty six of us will gather. There will be a lot of holes, and as I write this I’m missing Deb like crazy. Tomorrow by the pool and Saturday, I’ll miss the elders. But I’m grateful for what I’ve got — because what I’ve got is Love and some very sweet Peace.

and whoohoo… a celebratory cocktail will be enjoyed in the Clinton Library. That’s worth the price of admission (which is grown up shoes) right there.

Peace, Love and Happiness, World. Here’s to wild, riotous and passionate Happiness.

Flower Moon Peace and Joy!

Ah, Spring. The Flower Moon — doing her job.

Out in the woods to revel in the beauty. These hardies don’t belong here, they were brought from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor and have been cultivated for a very long time.

The ones in this little valley were planted by a homestead, i’m sure. The homestead is gone. The flowers persevere.

And the Evanses. hardships notwithstanding, have persevered mightily.

So we’re lucky. We’ve found our Peace.

A friend reminded me of what’s going on in Europe where huge batches of people from entirely different cultures are arriving in their countries, escaping their own, but wanting to establish their own culture where they are, rather than moving to where they’ve moved.

That’s a different issue. I’ll get back to it. But today’s Peace and beauty is what i had for the moment. Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about family Peace.

Migrating Peace in the Flower Moon

In Swedish the word for immigrants is invandrare… those who wander in.

That certainly describes the people who first came to this country… We wandered in from other places. Certainly our first people were hunter gatherers. Who knows how long it took before we started bringing our plants with us whether by mistake or on purpose.

And if we came in the time of the Flower Moon, when things will grow willy-nilly, then we started bringing in invasive species.

Throughout history we have wandered. Throughout history we have invaded new territory so that we might live better.

Sadly, as soon as we arrive, we often start thinking that no one else should come after us into what is now “our” place…

So much to ponder here. What does wandering Peace look like?

Crying Out for Peace in the Flower Moon

Peace does not start in perfection. It starts where we are and tells the truth. Even the ugly truth. It acknowledges what is.

Then and only then can we settle into Peace.

It seems that most of the people, many of the plants, and much of the wildlife wandered onto this land.

There is no sovereign right. There is no one who is more deserving than another. All are deserving.

You can’t pursue language and action about plants and fish without making that a de facto acceptable argument. The next thing you know, we’re talking about people and sealing them off from the public in privately funded prisons.

There is only rising up. There is only speaking out. There is only examining the words and the reasoning with which we pursue plant life which invades the way we think about one another. What is the noxious weed here? I think, perhaps, our thinking…

We’re in the Flower Moon, the season when the world carpets herself in beauty. She doesn’t care much where the flower came from. There’s a whole lot of thinking to be done between here and Peace. There’s a whole lot of Loving to be done as well.

As I write, I carry prayers in my heart for Nepal and for Baltimore, in addition for this awful situation.

May Peace Invade Our Hearts

Invasive Species. The first response I make to things like rabbits in Australia is what were they thinking?

And then I start to think. here we all are — invasive species, each and every one of us. Doing damage because everything seems so open and possible, so why consider the consequences…

And so, how do we respond? What is the way of Peace? And are we walking it, or at least stumbling along in the right direction in good company? Sometimes I think so, other times, i’m less certain. Let us Love. Let us Peace.

Lazy Flower Moon Sabbath Peace

It’s chilly, but it’s a beautiful day out there! Blue, blue skies and all those budding bushes and trees.

And I’ve sort of written my way into an open day, so this afternoon’s going to entail some sitting around with a book. maybe a little walk. Some time to ponder the very sweet gift of love I received from so many yesterday! I could use a little peace and quiet after all that glorious frivolity…

No sense giving in to the allergies, they don’t seem to be going away! Might as well just ignore and appreciate what’s in front of me.

Spring’s beauty is fleeting. No sense missing it. And the Flower Moon and her Bounty comes but once a year!

Wishing you Peace on this lovely Sunday. Spread it around! Be at least as generous as Mother Nature!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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