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Where Hate Lines Become Peace Lines

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It is exactly where hate happens that we have the largest opportunities to turn things around.

Whether hateful activities are to be the place of Peaceful ones or to be the catalyst for Peaceful movement in other places isn’t what matters, what matters is that hate keeps moving us toward Peace.

We don’t understand hate as hate. The kids on the fraternity bus (and their parents, for goodness sakes) can twist themselves to believe that racist slurs aren’t racist. Senators can convince themselves that the law doesn’t pertain to them… that’s where hate is… and it’s exactly there that it needs to stop.

We’re the ones to turn hate lines into Peace lines. We can start it on our own, we can be a point of Peace, but we want to connect those Peace points into line. Because together we are strong. Together we can. Peace. We can do this. The Peace sap is running, let’s boil it down to its full sweetness… in what’s left of this Sugar Moon… Let’s be present to the possibility of Peace, shall we? and erase those lines of hate.

SugarMoonLunacyMar11

 

Lunatic Obsession with Peace Lines

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Today, when so many of US senators crossed a stupid and hateful line, I remain obsessed with the notion of lines that heal rather than lines that create conflict.

Pennsylvania’s senator was among them.

In addition to my sorrow, there’s a fair amount of disbelief. Don’t they have any lawyers and protocol officers?

But those of us who don’t choose to walk those paths need to figure out which lines hold our strength in conviction and community and keep moving forward…

Peace. in this Moon and the Next.

SugarMoonLunacyMar10

The Lunacy of Peace Bridges

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A friend said after watching Selma she thought we needed to strengthen our bravery muscles. As I thought about it, I realized I thought it was our conviction muscles we really needed to strengthen. And our community muscles because in the long run, I think it was those two things that got people across that bridge.

Bravery sometimes makes us run into the fire without planning. But conviction and community help not only give us the courage to walk but also the strategies that make success markers most attainable.

You think “I don’t know what makes you walk into dogs and batons with barbed wire on them”… But the questions are more complex…

How do we experience the world’s taking away our humanity? When are we willing to say enough? How many children have to be killed for people to rise up?

And are today’s communities supporting that response to injustice? And if not why not?

And do people understand why and how communities can help? Because people belong to fewer and fewer communities. And we don’t know the benefits of being part of them. World change being one. Even at high cost. world change.

Do we understand we’re the ones who hold world change? That social action depends on us?

Peace is in our hands, just across that bridge. Do we have the determination and the strategy to get there?

These are the questions for the consolidation time of the Moon… not just what would be wonderful to do, but what do we need to do to get those things done? And thinking about the era of Selma, what songs do we need to be singing together to lend our hearts courage? A lot of questions… a lot of work to be stepped up to… Peace.

SugarMoonLunacyMar9

 

Lines of Peace this Sugar Moon Sabbath

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Today is the 50th Commemoration, I can’t say anniversary, like it’s a happy thing, of Bloody Sunday.

It was a day about lines. Lines to keep people in boxes that they weren’t going to accept any more. Lines that people in power were clear should never be crossed. Lines that at last, at last, the media finally decided to cross to show what was going on. Lines that kept a nation of people comfortably allowing them to keep thinking of themselves as good people.

We should know our lines. What are the lines we believe never should be crossed? What are the lines that keep us from being fully who we are. Lines both protect and prohibit… it’s an odd thing, isn’t it? We ahve to consier if we’re willing to do the hard work to stand on those lines, to step up to those lines and stand in solidarity alongside others who believe and those who are unwilling to see or wake up.

So, looking at my latitude and longitude helps me consider lines. I live at 40.9˚N and 79.8˚W… What other intersection I live in I’ll need to consider. And meanwhile the Sugar Moon shines sweetly down on all of us, doesn’t it?

If you haven’t read the President’s speech from the bridge yesterday, you might want to. You might want to look up your own latitude and longitude. You might want to think about where your Peace Lines are, which ones you’ll never cross and which ones are holding you back… A blessed and lovely Sabbath to you, my friends!

SugarMoonLunacyMar8

Sugar Moon Distilling into Peace

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You see videos with people doing lots of experiments about how well we respond to people in need. Actually we don’t do very well. People do better in some other countries, and then not so well in some others.

And while it’s an interesting experiment, people’s putting money into the cups of homeless people isn’t all that’s needed by a long shot.

We need to be clear that homelessness isn’t acceptable. We need to be clear that we need jobs and homes, we need people’s generosity and we need people’s strategic addressing of the problems. we need good will, good intentions and good work.

And we need Peace… and Peace needs us… it’s not just our generosity that’s needed, it’s our determination to make the world different… all the pieces are there, the configuration has just been wrong… so let’s boil it all down again. See if we can’t find the nectar that will fuel us for the Peace journey.

SugarMoonLunacyMar7

Crow Moon Peace!

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Dick Bonham, friend of mine, friend of my mother’s (and part of a mutual admiration society for one another’s art), and husband to a friend, did this beautiful piece.

Crow Moon is called that because the cawing crows are supposed to signify the end of Winter. (really, they could try a little harder to let Winter know it’s ok to let go!)

Art about the Moon in celebration of a Baby. Peace. Any questions?

SugarMoonLunacyMar6

New Peace under the Sugar Moon?

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A friend of mine, an amateur but dedicated astrologer, says that we’re in the midst of a large breakdown of societal structures. And that things are spiraling.

Don’t believe in astrology?

Okay, let’s read the newspaper.

Same message.

Determined assaults on public food, healthcare and shelter. Facile racial and religious slurs and hate crimes.

What’s to be done? One response has been the purity movements we’re seeing. They’re causing death and mayhem.

If we remain lackadaisical about this, the purity movements will win and hate will become even more entrenched.

Celebrating diversity and building civilization on that is hard work, no way around it. And it’s necessary. We are the ones. Peace is waiting for us. And creation is under assault while we don’t act. Let us be Peace on Earth. Let us distill the sweetness still here under this Sugar Moon.

SugarMoonLunacyMar5

The Same Sugar Moon Peace

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The same Sugar Moon shines on me shines on you.

There are no hot spots under the Moon… there is only softly silvered landscape, sweetly silvered faces.

When we look at the world under the moon dripping with that soft beauty, it is possible for me to believe in Peace.

It’s not that I can’t see the Peaceful beauty in a sunny day… nothing i love like a lovely day in whatever season we happen to be in.

But the Moon’s touch is gentler. And I don’t think anyone could argue that we could stand a gentler touch…

No one could argue that Peace is what is needed here and now.

Not much else to say this morning, but Peace…SugarMoonLunacyMar4