Saintly Sabbath Peace, llvl

Ooh, lots of ssssss. I couldn’t help myself!

In a little coincidence yesterday I spent a couple hours watching a vid on UU history and the background music was “For All the Saints” (which for a memorial hymn is pretty march, march, march, but lovely). Amazing to hear about the men and women who shaped this church. (Sad to hear how much burning at stakes everyone did in those days.) I took a long time to get to this church, but it’s certainly home. Sometimes the journey felt arduous. Yesterday certainly put THAT in perspective. But I’m grateful for the work they’ve done.

Grateful too for the saints among us now… or the recently departed. Not just the Pete Seegers and Nelson Mandelas. But those folks we know and love putting their lives on the line for the things they believe in. People we know…

I giggle a bit when I remember on my tour through the hospital in chaplain training. I’m a very low church kinda priestess as I’ve said before, so the notion of intermediaries between me and the Divine are just not part of my understanding of death. But it certainly is for some churches. A guy on the hall, who’d been quite an unpleasant patient, died. The priest came and prayed, and said at the end, Well, now when you pray, you can pray to Harry. I swear the nurse and the wife rolled their eyes at each other. So hopefully, he’d be a better saint in death than it seemed he’d been in life… But that’s the thing about the communion of saints, particularly if you’re a Unitarian Universalist — everyone gets on teh go-to-heaven bus.

I do believe that if we allow them, people will linger with us as they can and as we will let them. When my beloved die, I work hard to carry on their best work. I look to find their point of view in situations where I used to look for their counsel — or their giggle. I hadn’t really planned the service to take advantage of this, but All Saint’s Day happens to be the day of Deb’s memorial. Deb wasn’t a saintly kinda woman, but she was divine! And I relied on her guidance, support and counsel my whole life. While her loss is devastating for me, she whispers her Deb-view in my heart quite frequently. Here’s to the saints!

And while we had a long sleep last night, (I certainly took advantage of the extra hour) it’s going to feel like a short day because the change in times will bring that sun crashing to the horizon at 5 pm. So, many of us have leaves to rake, but enjoy that indoor stuff because it’s a grey and cloudy sabbath. Might as well read the Sunday papers cover to cover! Peace be with you and the saints of your heart.

Peace of All Souls, llvl

Today we learned that a fourth child is dead of gunshot wounds in the last we know of high school shooting. The only way to make Peace with that is to change laws about guns and our ho-hum relationship to violence. Are you voting on Tuesday for someone who will listen to your wishes around safety? Are you learning what you need to know about this issue? Are you engaging people in discussions? You might want to.

And I don’t know what we do for children like Jaylen, who somehow find themselves so alienated that this looks like an option. Because that poor broken child is lost as well. His family is as devastated as the families of the other children.

And today, we remember our beloved Dead. I learned so much about Day of the Dead about commemorating the dead when I lived in the Bay Area. All over the world, people have celebrated this time as a time to remember. And yet so much of American culture is around forgetting the pain. Any of us who have ever tried that know it doesn’t work…

And why would I forget? Why would I forget people who brought joy and beauty into my life? Why would you? Re-membering, calling them back into your heart once a year is a reminder that your life has been enriched. It is a way to proudly acknowledge that your life has been blessed by these wonderful people. It is a prayer of thanksgiving. It is another way of making family and creating community. So today, on this day of all souls, I will spend time with your memories and I will give rejoice and give thanks and sigh for those things we will never do again. And it will be a worthy use of my time. It will be a splendid exercise in Peace because you are among those who taught me the beauty of relationship.

Boo! Spooky Peace, llvl

For me Halloween is a holiday, but a holiday of Mother Earth, not the party store. It’s half-way between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice. Otherwise known as the beginning of Winter. Winter deepens as it nears the solstice and then it starts lessening its grip — never mind that the cold is still fierce. As the hymn says: “Light is returning, even tho’ this is the darkest hour, No one can hold back the sun.”

This is the time for looking within, for remembering our ancestors and our heritage and our lineage. This is a time of releasing the grudges — anything that hold us back from a good night’s sleep and the Sacred Dreaming that is to come. The only goblins I believe in are the hobgoblins of our thoughts that haunt us and hold us back. Let go!

I get a little whiny about commercialized, over sexed halloween… I dislike that it’s another opportunity for greed and materialism. I guess I’m a humbug. So today you get not one, but two (count ’em, two) poems about being a Witch on Halloween. (the first one’s in paragraph form, because Word press is not a fan of poems, keeps leaving a space between the lines… Funny all this time i’ve been writing on Word Press, I’ve never known this…) I’ll spend some time in this six week season thinking about the possibilities of letting go… But in the meantime, here I am, in all my glory, Grumpy Witch!

It’s not easy to be a witch on Halloween — Where’s your hat, everyone asks me? And then they laugh. Like they’re the first person that ever thought to say that. Ha!

I’m a witch. This is what a witch looks like. I look like this every day.

Of course I wear black, I’m an edgy, New York kinda witch.

But my spiritual practice is not about wearing a pointy hat and riding a broom. My spiritual practice is about honoring creation and all who dwell within.

I don’t even like cats and as for snakes, no thanks! I must confess, the whole thing makes me grumpy.

Yes, there are witches, real witches, who wear their silly hats and carry a broom around. But then at Christmastime, you can find Christians in some pretty scary outfits, with flashing pins that have very little to do with any baby born in a manger, destined to claim the world for peace. And Easter Bonnets do not make much more sense.

While people run around this Halloween, dressed like goblins and harlots, the world is slowly dying. On this sacred day, when it is believed by some that the veil between this world and the next is the thinnest, that our ancestors can whisper their wisdom in our ears, the din of battle over-rides the still small voice.

Divine Spirit can shape and change us and all we want to know is, “What do you have for candy?” and “What are you wearing on Halloween.”

So yes, I am a witch. And no, I don’t wear a hat. and if the Gods had wanted me to ride a broom, vacuum cleaners would never have been invented!

So, color me a little bit grumpy and a whole lot grateful. No hat, it ruins my hair. Yesterday I had a ride through Autumn’s dying colors and I rejoiced. Boo! There, witchy obligations handled, I wish you Peace and a spooktacular, sugar laden evening if that’s what turns you on! Consume responsibly.

Today’s Peace, llvl

Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, Peace is right there… or it’s not. We have to carve our Peace out of today here in this vida local. It’s here in the little days as well as those big swooping fabulous days.

It’s easy to see Peace as outside ourselves, outside our lives. But we need to build structures at home as well as in our communities.

It may look as if I’m talking to you here. yeah, not so much, or well, oh, you two. I’m not good at attending to what’s going on in my life; at keeping the plates spinning… But life is easier when your car’s cleaned and the oil’s been changed, when your underwear drawer is filled with clean undies, when you can see the counter in your kitchen, when you do something little and silly so that you can just relax. It’s better when you spend time on your relationship.

Peace is built on structures. It’s a huge idea that needs great support and attention to the nitty gritty. So, put something away, why don’t you? I think I will… Peace, for all of us. in little steps!

Gingko Peace, llvl

I am a fan of the gingko tree. I don’t know that I ever knew them before I went to college, But over by the library and the humanities building there were a bunch of them. Come fall, they were carefully watched. Everyone wanted to be around as the “gingked!” It was amazing to watch as the trees poured their golden bounty down onto the earth. (It was less amazing to smell it… whew. Decided I should look that up. Here it is from eHow:

“Ginkgo trees are large, deciduous trees found in temperate climates. Hardy trees well-adapted to withstanding harsh urban conditions, they are able to thrive despite poor soil, pollution and packed soil. Female ginkgo trees produce large amounts of seeds covered in a seed coat. Ginkgo tree berries stink because the seed coat contains butyric acid, a chemical found in vomit, which is released if the fruit is allowed to rot.” ok. eww.)
They release in such a short time. It’s amazing. Somehow something gets in that tiny, little tree brain and boom, leaves fall in a glorious golden profusion.

More recently, I love the gingko because they have been planted down at my old town pool in honor of my parents and my sister. There they wave and rustle and will for long after I’m gone… That certainly makes me proud, if not happy.

They herald the end of Fall, they’re late to turn. But they hold on, hold on, and then they don’t and then they presage Winter. This year, they’ve done a great job, Hallowmas is the 31st… and the trees are just now releasing their hold on this beauty. Peace in living with the earth, sweet Peace indeed. Makes you think that Mother Earth and Nature know exactly what they’re doing!

Finding Peace, llvl

There are amazing people who live right around the corner from you — people who can call all things amazing right out of you!

It’s so easy to dismiss where we live as not enough. It’s true, it may not be perfect for you… but it has its good sides, you just have to look around a bit.

I left this region at a dead run when I was a kid. Needed to get to the city and explore that version of exploding life. And I loved it. But I quit my job and went to seminary because I was looking for life that was, i remember saying, more circular, more full. I wanted to know people who polished more of themselves than their work life. I wanted people very like the people I grew up with.

Of course people saw that as my saying they weren’t something enough, but they just weren’t what i needed…I lived in NY. I met people who this was the 80s. People in New York were driven. (and that bothers you, you say, you’re pretty darned driven yourself.) yes, but about totally different things. I lived on the left coast for a while, and that was great, but I do best in small towns.

I know that’s not for everyone, but this is where i get to be me. I get to do good work and I get to have good fun. I know people in all places in their lives, the good ones and the hard ones. And I know people, surprising amounts of people who are really, really excellent at something in their lives. It may be their work, it may be a hobby. Some of those things really interest me. Some fascinate me… who knew people did that????

But wherever you are. there are amazing people. You probably want to know more of them. Harvest Peace. Wherever you can find it. And speaking of harvest… farewell to this gorgeous pic…

Fall, Sabbath, Peace, Beauty, llvl

We can’t know how many more of these days we’ll have, so I want to take advantage of this one. Welcome to my vida local… it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

One of the great joys of writing my musings and this blog is being seduced into discovering the beauty of the moment. It’s so beautiful here, so there are lots of those moments. Mountains, trees, fields and streams… pretty good building blocks for Beauty.

And Time and the lingering over it are pretty good building blocks for a Peaceful Fall Sabbath.

Next week it could be gray and cloudy. But it’s not today. Indulge yourself. Savor the day and the weather and whatever else comes your way. Yesterday it was folks standing around outside carving pumpkins (not me, no don’t be silly). To get there, we had to drive past fields where local Amish farmers were using teams of horses to pull the feed corn being harvested. Then you drove down into a valley filled with color and that small beautiful creek where only months ago I found myself sitting watching the world drift by. Today it was so still it looked like a lake, holding nothing but an occasional leaf and the reflections of the trees and the sky. Picture perfect…

Somewhere, someone said something like: “Delight is the only response the Creator desires from the created.” Today’s a good day to practice!

Your Piece of Peace, llvl

You do the work everywhere you can make a contribution, but, there are a lot of advantages to being involved in Peacemaking in your little vida local.

One big one is that you can get very clear what is needed if you’re partnered with the right people. Where do you get the intel you need? When you can get it from the source, that’s great. Our congo is supporting the school district back pack programs — but we’re really supporting the school district as they try and support their kids.

A short flurry of emails with the program director yesterday and we have our marching orders. The school nurse needs clothes and shoes for the kids. So, we can start working on this. We can buy them 6 bins and fill them up with pants, shirts and shoes for boys and girls in the requisite sizes. Because the children have no shoes. Somehow that’s the most painful statement I’ve ever had to make. The children have no shoes. And no clothes.

Pam thinks I’m enthusiastic. Well, yes. But I’m also realistic. These babies need this. And we can do it. So why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t I ask you? No reason whatsoever. What is your piece of Peace? If you’re not absolutely clear, the best way is to try something little and see if it makes your heart race. If so, do a little more. If not, try something else… You’ll get there. and in the meantime, you’ll do little bits of good wherever you are. And your community will be better for it. So will you. Peace, an addiction to cultivate. Step up into Possibility.

Peace and Welcome, llvl

I was busy having a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day yesterday. (goodness I love Judith Viorst!) Mostly because I slipped. I know better. We all know better.

You see a conversation that looks rational but isn’t. And so you respond. What were you thinking? So then you get to be whiny about the conversation and really disgusted with yourself. Because you’re not going to make a difference. And particularly me, I’m not a rational builder of arguments. Too bad they weren’t teaching debate when i was in high school, i could have used the critical process encouragement!

Nonetheless.

There’s no parsing away people’s right to be themselves. You want to decry acts of violence, I’m with you. Let’s say no, and start saying yes to Peace. But really, it’s time to understand that the minute you start bleating about anyone’s right to be who they are, from whatever, culture, race, gender orientation, religion, you are immaterial to the discussion. That privilege is gone. Welcome to the cruise to nowhere, and it’s beyond me to care that you’re still pontificating.

Love. It’s what we have to work with. It’s what we have to work on. (and Justice, let’s not forget Justice. Divine Justice.) I’m tired of cleaning up after all y’all as you take away time and energy from the important questions. Do the children have enough to eat? Do they have clothes and shoes? Do they play well with others? Certainly those are the most important things, arent they? Cause if you think society works and gay marriage is going to upset that, you don’t know anything about gay marriage and less about kids at risk.

Peace Creation Process, llvl

Yesterday, I was invited to watch a play being born. Lots of research had been done beforehand. The playwright had requirements for good plays. He had some answers to how this man and these incidents might be shaped into a play…

And then he invited in the actors, the costumer, the set builder and said… what about this, what about that. And they had answers and concerns… concerns about the action, concerns for their troop, concerns about the history and who could play what roles. Two of us were outsiders and we could ask different questions.

It was an amazing process. I didn’t feel as if I had a lot to bring to the party, as I’m a lousy historian and certainly pretty ignorant of the process and demands of plays… I was only invited because I’m the UU minister and this is a play about our valley’s important UU, Joseph Priestley…

But it was astounding to watch something beginning to take shape. I’m reminded of a friend’s explaining to me that the accurate biblical translation (i’m also a lousy biblical scholar and no biblical linguist) was “in their image, created they them,” indicating that the divine had many images.

So creation was a collaborative act in that particular understanding of the act. It was certainly mimicked here. Even though at the end, one person was going back with assignments, his task was now informed by critical input. It was fascinating.

And it helps me clarify how we best build Peace. If we each work on the pieces we know best, but we invite in the insight that other pilgrims offer us, Peace will be more stable, more lasting — and more fun…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In