Community Pink Moon Peace

For a woman raised in a very calm and quiet household, lord love me, i adore a little chaos. (Particularly if I have a quiet place to retreat to afterwards.)

When I was an exchange student and I went from having two fairly quiet siblings to having four fairly noisy siblings, while I missed home, I thrived.

And found a way to fit in. And continued to treasure the quiet moments.

Maybe because belonging to a group, my family and my church community, were so safe, I don’t mind watching the chaos swirl if it’s benign and building community.

I believe in community. I find it healing and inspiriting. It welcomes you home and kicks you out. It makes it possible to do things you can’t do alone. It’s a good thing.

and when laughter and hilarity ensue from learning about important things. hurrah. That happened for me yesterday. And because it’s the Season of the Pink Moon, there was an entire wonderful collision of holidays to celebrate… Making memories. Making sense. Making Community.

Sabbath Harmony and Peace for the Pink Moon

Today is Easter. Today is Passover. Today is still the Full Pink Moon. They’re promising us a beautiful Spring Day in my little River Valley. And if you’re lucky, the Bunny (THE Bunny) showed up at your house last night and left wild encouragement to be alive (that would be the egg part). And chocolate. he often leaves chocolate. It’s a Sabbath to remember.

So many celebrations colliding. So many different voices raised. My Hope, maybe even our hope, is that those raised voices, those songs of freedom and joy can find a harmony in these celebrations.

Because the world needs harmony. Harmony calls us to join in, to tune in. And there are so many places so many jagged horrible lines that have been drawn in hate and violence that we need that sweet harmony to defy those lines… and eventually erase them.

I experienced it the other day, a cold day, standing in a columbarium, singing a man’s favorite hymn with four other people. We’d never sung together. It was chilly and hard to catch the right note. yet we did. and five of us sang lustily away. A song of rebirth in a place of remembrance. And before the first verse had ended, we had found our harmony.

It was an amazing thing. We need to do more of that.

So let us sing! of all those wonderful things. Even as we remember the pain and those who struggle. Let us find some harmony. Let us offer a bit of Peace. Blessed be, my friends, blessed be.

To Peace under the Full Pink Moon!

It’s not always easy to stay in the present. Easy to be caught by the perfection of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow. Or the horrors of what happened and the fears of what’s to come.

And yet, here, one perfect day, ready to unwind before us. What could be sweeter? It’s to be a blustery spring day with a full moon rising in beauty. There are things to accomplish. Things to enjoy. Certainly there will be things to deal with. And so what?

It’s here. Here for us to treat gently. Here for us to make Peace with, to make Peace within, to make Peace for. And here are we… ready to Peace.

And later? here comes the full Pink Moon. ah… Beauty. For us. Enjoy. Go out and make some memories and Love and Laugh and Dance and Peace by the light of the full Pink Moon! I can’t wait to hear the tales you’ll have to tell.

Gently, Firmly, Saying “Yes!” to Peace

There’s so much evil being done in the name of someone’s God. People are killing. People are hating and dehumanizing. And they’re saying that their religion doesn’t merely give them permission, it demands this of them. They’re believing that.

It’s horrifying. It’s heartbreaking.

And it’s perplexing. Where do people of good faith and philosophy enter into this? How do we do it in a way that is helpful?

How do we bring Love to the world? Each of us?

And how do we make that matter?

We’ve got to keep asking ourselves. We have to keep helping one another down the road to Peace. We must be active, because they are active. No time to wring our hands.

What do I do? What do you do? How do we Love? And how is Peace not a verb? How do we make that so? May the full flower Pink Moon shine love and Peace on this Earth.

Hate Does Not Equal Love

You know what the world really needs? It needs what you need. And more of it!

All

you need

is love.

And Laughing Cake!

What’s on your Song List for Peace?

We all have those favorite songs from the magical times in our lives.

They helped us stand up and do what was in front of us and sit down and enjoy what was right here, right now.

Joni Mitchell is on my list. She was background for the development one of the most important friendships in my life. She was background for my college years. I became more fully myself singing along with her songs.

And now she’s aging and oh, btw, she’s not quite 10 years older than i am.

But I love that high voice and pointed lyric.

Thanks for the Peace and all the wonderful memories I made while you were singing! May I be a Peacegiver too…

April Fools and Lunatics

Well, we woke up and the ugly laws are still there. Laws that say that what I believe means that I may forbid you services: health, food, housing. The Fools say: oh, we didn’t meant tha-at. The Lunatics say: this is not acceptable. Peace is inclusion.

This country was founded, with flaws, it must be admitted, on civility and citizenship.

Every amendment we’ve made to its founding has been for greater inclusivity.

But there’s something about homosexuality and this moment in history that makes us think it’s ok to say you’re less than human. And it seems that has given us permission to step up our racism and our misogyny.

Lots of people sitting back and smugly shaking heads that this just proves how crazy people are. It’s not the right reaction. We have to stand up and change the laws. We have to stand up and shop other places. We have to vacation other places. Wake up. Stand up. Speak up. Step up.

As I write, I realize beloved nephew is getting married in Arkansas. So Miss Wake up. Stand up. Speak up. Step Up, Priestess had better figure out how she’s going to respond when there.

Everyone has worth and dignity. Everyone is precious. People of faith and philosophy had better figure that out. We’re here to celebrate creation and create community.

Watch out April Fools whose jokes have turned mean. We are Pink Moon Lunatics for Peace. and we vote, in the voting box and with our dollars.

Relax for Pink Moon Peace

Doesn’t it seem there are lots of things to DO this time of year? I’m particularly stuck on my taxes at the moment… but there’s lots of culling to get to. Paper, because, of course, taxes release you from paper. shred and recycle! It’s not just wild phlox that the Pink Moon brings!

Clothing, what do you never need to wear again? Laundry, gotta wash the things you’re going to get rid of AND the things you’re going to put away. (and since you don’t want to iron, you should probably wash the things you put away last summer, or at least throw them in the dryer with a wet wash cloth.) Books, because you probably just spent the winter reading. time for them to go!

The list gets pretty overwhelming and that’s just at home.

And everything has a deadline. oh, my goodness.

And relax. because you know what? you can only do what you can do.

And you’re driving yourself crazy. (and probably your friends.)

I get nuts about this stuff. I make doing my taxes SOOOOOOO hard. It takes two days. I go through stacks of paper and add things up. oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh! I whine.

And why?

Because at the end of it, it’s done. I have all the papers, not precisely neatly filed, but available. and i can use a calculator.

But I missed the mark this year. And then I spent a lot of time beating myself up about it. What a useful employment of time, eh? And a great way not to get the job done. And partially, i planned wrong. I should never do things on a Monday. I’m too worn out from the weekend. I’m good a small chores on Mondays. Not monumental projects. And quite frankly the end of the week is usually a dash toward Sundays. so Ann, make a note.

So today, hysteria’s over, my taxes will be done shortly, and I will reschedule my meeting.

And Peace will reign at my house. What was good this year was that I (eventually) made the space to do it differently. Let’s see if I can continue to apply this wisdom to the daily living of life and completing of chores. (i wouldn’t hold my breath, i’m an old dog!)

And as a prize, today, i get to take out the recycling! Hurrah! Peace takes many forms in our lives.

Breathing Pink Moon Peace

Breath. We’re not conscious enough about it. Particularly the exhale, because the inhale is automatic.

Far too many times when we’re doing something important, we forget to breathe.

Inhale, pause and then exhale and begin the work.

Inhale the fresh Promise of Spring and Possibility. That’s what this Pink Moon is all about. Pause to savor. and then exhale your dedication to Peace.

Every time you remember stop and do it again. Soon it will become part of your day. Inspiration. Savoring. Manifestation.

It was fascinating to watch the Fitzwilliam String Quartet get prepared to begin, to watch the stillness and then the breath… And then of course lovely to hear and watch them play.

Seeing people working together is such a wonderful reminder that we can work together. If people can make beautiful music together, can’t we make Peace?

Can’t we?

Can we breathe in and out and make Peace?

United for Sabbath Peace

The other day I posted an article on FB which was somewhat more pointed than those I usually post. So, yes, mea culpa. And I believed it. It was a harsh review of a man who had tweeted smack about a well known little girl. He played base ball for a local university and got lost his spot on the team as a result. The lovely little girl, wrote forgiving the player and asked that he be reinstated, saying she was sure he didn’t mean it. The University president, bless his heart, stood firm. Some people felt the president was mean. Many of us did not. This article spoke about why the guy deserved his penalty. He’s a grown up whose tweet unintended or not savaged this little girl. He’s not the point in this — she is. He created the problem. He’s not a victim.

What followed was a storm of incivility. It started out well. Someone posted and explained why they were happy to see the post. A person who must follow them, because he’s unknown to me, wrote to complain that this was an isolated incident of stupidity and hatred. And that it was time for people to get over complaining about racism and sexism. I disagreed. He called me names. (He didn’t particularly hurt my feelings, since it was a very childish reaction. He didn’t quite call me a poopoohead, but the response was at that level.)

The original responder took exception not only to his response but to his style of response and very civilly but pointedly addressed what he had to say. And so it escalated. Eventually, more civil responses pushed him to remove his posts.

This exemplar showed everything good and bad about social media. Too many people are not paying attention to what’s happening in the world and are willfully ignorant of the problems people face. Too many people think that one responds to things they disagree with by dismissing another’s opinion or name calling. But, some people are willing to look in the mirror at themselves and at society’s unwillingness to face its problems. And they speak up in sane and respectful language.

This is wonderfully reassuring. So on this Pink Moon Sabbath, let us call for a cessation of the petty interactions and a deepening of understanding of the divides that limit our movement forward as a society. Let us be present to what’s going on. Let us be Peace-makers and Community-builders. Peace needs us. And we could stand a sabbath break to reflect and relax. Hope your day is lovely…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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