Peace Feast, llvl

Go out into the garden and see the bounty remaining even after that first frost. Oh, you’re like me? Try this: Go to the market and notice all those richly colored foods piled up around you. yum. Mother Earth is proudly trotting out her fall bounty. It’s up to us to enjoy.

It’s also a good prompt to share that enjoyment. Eating together is a lovely way to build Peace. Discovering what kind of spices you use on these fall delicacies gives me new ways to enjoy old favorites. (Just found out that my friend Ed likes nutmeg on roasted Brussels sprouts. I have another friend who eats it on broccoli — but she’s Dutch so of course she does! That Dutch East India Trading Company made its mark on its home country.)

And the foods are good for you and beautiful to see. What more could you want? Company, you could want company to enjoy the Feast. Get together, say a prayer of thanksgiving and enjoy the feast. It’s an interesting question to look at who you celebrate with. How many people that you invite into your home look like you? How many look very different from you? Have you considered your hospitality as part of your Peace efforts?

Part of the glory of living a vida local is to enjoy the seasons. Make Peace. Eat good food with a friend. And while you’re enjoying, feast your eyes on Deb Slade’s pic! MMMMM. Now that’s delicious.

ChaCha for Peace, llvl

It’s all about the little steps. But if you know me, you know little steps to Ann mean Chachaaaaaa!

It makes a difference if you decide to view the obstacles in your journey as the time you step back and take a good look at things. The side steps can be waiting until the time is right or a simple dance for joy.

Now it’s true you have to pay attention, you can wind up dancing the chacha in once place, but you can also cover a lot of ground if that’s what you decide what you’re going to do. You just need to watch where you’re going.

But the notion that your work is tiny steps, some of them to the side, and some, heaven forfend to the back, is a good one to carry with you. The thought that all that stepping can be a dance to enjoy… if Peace is just a plod, we’re never going to enjoy it. Self-righteousness is not enjoyment… (i may have tried this so I have some insight… ahem.)

Stories of Peace, llvl

What are the stories you tell at home? Kia, listening to her mom explain Diwalli to us, was excited to tell me that her family told that story at home. She was so proud to have “their” story told.

It made me remember reading together as a family. We read lots of things, all of us together. I don’t recall my sister’s opting out because she was too old or had heard one of the stories too many times. Even when we all read, we loved to be read to. And it was straight up reading… no one ever imposed a voice on Pooh, so Pooh’s voice was still the one you imagined.

But this particular story was a story of liberation, faith, hope and inter-species cooperation. It was a tale of identity and love. Her pride made me think, oh, we need more stories…

Thanks, Kia! Here’s to more stories of Peace and Identity.

Sabbath Peace Coincidences, llvl

Fall driving through Pennyslvania makes a few things pretty clear: 1) they weren’t wrong to name it Penn’s Woods. Even though much of it was clear cut for logging, it has now reclaimed its title and right about now is about as glorious a place you would ever want to visit. 2) I’m very grateful for roads. I would not have wanted to be moving around in a wagon on a small trail the bears and deer wore down. 3) Road trips with good friends are really great.

We drove ‘way too far to hear a great friend sing. But it’s been a while; in the meantime she’s been very sick, a mutual friend of ours died and my sister died. It felt right to push to spend a bit of time and hear her sing. We didn’t know if EG would recover but she did, and her new cd is simply delightful. You really might want to take a listen. EG Kight’s voice is as lush as ever and her pickin’? Yes’m. She invited this friend of hers up to sing, Long, Tall Deb is another fabu blues singer. These women play well with others, the two of them. Such generous sharing of great talent. Hootin’ and hollerin’ ensued.

Then a great night of sleep on a lovely hotel bed. Call me shallow, but I do love mangled hotel sheets. mmm.

Neither Emily nor I had ever seen Falling Water, so we decided to come home the long way. (and oh yes, it was the long way. You really can’t get there from here. But we did.) What a beautiful place. I’ve lived in PA a lot of years but I’d never seen it. It’s worth a visit. (Geezer alert, lots of walking, lots of steps with no balustrade. Oh the things we notice these days we never did before. Steve’s wanted to see this, makes me sad that I can’t take him along…)

But then to come out and seem my nephew’s mother-in-law hanging around in the visitor’s center, that was pretty fun. We did a lot of squealing and hugging. And they were getting ready to meet Elijah and Meghan. I had to get back and get ready for today, so we couldn’t be the surprise guests at their dinner party, but what a fun thing! Altogether now, one loud chorus of “It’s a small world, after all…”

So, here’s me, heartily recommending a weekend off with a bud. Peace is in the details and the coincidences. Go have a lovely Autumn Sabbath afternoon, that color won’t last forever! Go make some memories!

Balance in Peace

I’ve had a couple rather inspiriting if sobering days. So it was great yesterday to get in the car and literally and figuratively drive away from those times, give everything a chance to settle.

And what better way than to drive through the Autumn Foliage. Route 80 where i live is fairly high, and driving west it’s fairly wild. So nothing but trees, trees, trees, in varying states of Fall finery. Red, Orange, Purple and still a fair amount of vivid green. Wow!

Emily and I are good travel companions. We share responsibilities easily and laugh just as easily. GPS takes the “where do i turn next?” right out of the question, so, zoom, zoom, zoom.

And then there was a slow and comfortable afternoon, spent, reading and goofing off, drinking a bottle of champagne with the purpose of this trip. EG Kight. I just don’t see her often enough.

And it’s been good to catch up. She was very sick a couple years ago, they didn’t know if she would live and afterwards if she would ever write/sing/play again. But last night but all those fears to rest. Strong of voice. Sweet, sweet songs, and hot, hot guitar licks.

And today after breakfast, we take off for Falling Waters and a big tour. I’ve never been and am really looking forward to it.

Sometimes you have to step away for a moment so you can step forward. And if you’re going to do that, might as well have it be fun. Even Peace needs a break. Sing ho for a small pause for laughter.

What Peace Requires, llvl

Oh, it was a challenging evening. I went to see the film The Honor Diaries, which takes a relentless look at the notion of “honor” in tribal societies and the ways women (women’s bodies) pay the price for a family’s honor. It looked at honor violence, women being beaten, raped, disfigured; honor killings; and Female Genital Mutilation. I was in a hall filled with young women at a local college (and why weren’t young men required to be there?).

At the end of the film, which was attended by one of the women who was in the film’s roundtable, there was a Q&A. Part of the discussion about the film beforehand had been whether it was Islamaphobic. The speaker, a Muslim, is very clear, as are most of the women in the film, that they are working on civil rights, not (yet) on Reformation of Islam.

What is true is that many of the people there had to struggle with the notion that this was other… other than us. The violence in these countries is extreme and horrific. But it is supported by our lack of connection to people we understand to be completely different from us.

All that day, I’d been struggling with evidence of diminishing rights here in the states. Lack of access to birth control and abortion, rising rapes, death threats to young women taking what some men perceive as ‘their’ power. Comparable violence? No. but on the continuum? yes. And I believe the lack of focus on these problems is rooted in the same dismissal of women’s value. In those countries women are seen as having half the worth of a man. Here, at least financially, we’re pretty clear that we’re 78%. But any diminution of human value allows such atrocities to continue.

Women need to see this connection and be outraged. So do our Brothers, Fathers, Husbands, Friends.

So what does Peace need? The awareness that there is no Peace (and that we’re part of the problem). Justice. And a flat out commitment to bringing Peace through addressing (stopping!) the injustices.

It’s all very complicated. and so what?

Plays for Peace, llvl

Yesterday was exhausting. There were too many articles about women’s being targeted for being good at what they do… and the responses’ ranging from lower pay to death-threats. In one article there was a nonchalant… oh two women had to move out of their house because they were being targeted for — talking about gaming. Seems it matters enough that one woman, who was supposed to speak at an event in Utah, cancelled when the University wouldn’t install metal detectors for her event even though someone had written a letter threatening to kill her and all the other feminists. I’d say “hunted down like dogs” but we don’t talk about our beloved pups that way. Women, meh. And those weren’t the only posts about women’s lives being endangered.

And then there were the articles about the children. One is dead, one has killed. They’re trying a 10-year-old boy as an adult — which is much better than getting him mental health services earlier in his life, eh… and finding out what provokes that kind of action in a child. Certainly, I know there are psychopaths with badly wired brains. But often, there are kids in trouble. Who knows what he is… But he didn’t get what he needed. No, I’m not excusing him. But I’m not excusing us either.

So, you read, you think. You try not to live in the rage. I know its value, but I know its cost as well.

I had meant to have my musing written before I went off to the theater last night. I just got involved doing other things… so that didn’t happen. Looking to balance myself a bit, I reminded myself about the artists I live among. There are so many who just open their hearts and minds to us… It’s quite magical. Songs, poetry, books, and plays. I’ve got to believe, if you look around, people like that are everywhere, people with their hearts leaking out, spilling out. Magic in the air, Change on the ground.

And then last night, one man, on the stage talking about climate change, but also talking about a moral imperative to act and his willingness to trust that we would stand with him; that people would do the right thing.

I’d just been talking to Dr. Jojo about this… a very smart woman had just written a sermon about people’s needing to act from their love and willingness… their needing to feel it… But I have to tell you, if I didn’t feel the imperative, whether I define that as the Goddess with her hand firmly shoving me out the door, or a simple understanding of what is wrong and a willingness to work for that not to be true… I think we have to get up off our collective asses. We have to vote in the voting booth and on the streets.

Peterson Toscano believed last evening and offered that, slyly, pointedly, inspirationally, laugh out loudly. We are so lucky. “Apocaloptimist!” oh, yes, Peacemaker, Hope Giver… let’s get up offa those things! The world waits for our strong hearts and gentle hands.

Peace for Children, llvl

Such a sad story locally, a nine year old has died of a drug overdose. Somewhere else a ten year old has killed his 90 year old grand mother (and oh! is being tried as an adult!). I know these stories are sensational. But they are also profoundly sad.

I’m sure we’re going to find that there are underlying causes for each of these boys. I’m sure we’ll hear more about what set up these awful scenarios.

I’m not sure that we can claim that the sky is falling on the basis of these two kids, but we can use it as an opportunity to find what our children need. In the local case, it sounds more and more that what that child needed was not to be in the home of a predator. The second child, after reading just a bit, sounds like he has needed mental health support, which he didn’t get.

Tragedies do happen. Neither of these feel like accidents, however. In the first, even if the child ingested the drugs, what’s he doing getting childcare in the house of a convicted felon with drugs and guns lying around? I’m sure we’ll here all sorts of justification, but one bottom line reality may well be a lack of childcare. And accessible, affordable mental health care is what the second child needed and perhaps protection, who knows.

We honor these children by working to ensure that any one of a number of supports are in place: food, shelter, medical care — for them and for their family system.

Until every last little is tended and provided for, our children are not safe…

No answers here, lots of questions, very little Peace… and we’re the only Hope, although it’s not clear what next steps are… not the usual upbeat ending to an Ann Post… There’s mourning, but mourning is not enough…

Utopia and Peace, llvl

I don’t suppose it really matters that I’m not a fan of dystopian literature. The world doesn’t come to an end, and neither does the genre. Plenty of people are.

And as someone asked the other day, are optimists simply insane for believing in possibilities despite some very good evidence to the contrary? Has any utopia, ever, worked? No. But for some reason, my heart continues to yearn for Hope rather than acquiescing to discouragement.

Did hundreds run out to say no to the hatred and fear that the other day’s course offered? No. But twenty-five did and more wrote. Do I wish some of those that wrote would have been there to stand with us. Surely. Talk’s cheap. We know that.

“Great Job! Thanks!” doesn’t move the world. Maybe it’s stupid to think that more movement will gather more believers. But when our children are hungry, I have to believe we’re going to want to feed them. Because we can make a difference. I sometimes say I’m clapping for Tinkerbelle, but really, I don’t believe this requires magical solutions. It simply needs people to open their hearts and their wallets. $10 a month feeds a kid for a year.

Believe in all the vampires you want… I’m going to believe in my neighbors’ wanting the world to be safe and sane. And I’m going to keep working to help this Valley become the Valley with no hungry children. This is the Work I believe in.

Disappointments in Peace, llvl

I’d been doing really hard work on my Five-Fold Goddess presentation with Kelly. When the conference was cancelled, it was really disappointing.This is work I’ve wanted to do for such a long time. And it’s not as if it were going easily… bah.

Now I’ll have to find a new venue, which means trying to decide what stays, what goes… To keep tasking the material and ourselves, what if any difference it makes. It’s part of the process of doing your work, I know that… It’s not just the moments of self-reflection that make our work hard, it’s the fact that the outside world bumps along and things don’t always go the way you’d like them to.

So… it also means dealing with the disappointment. They weren’t getting the registration they needed and they pulled the plug. A wise decision, certainly… but it put at least a temporary halt to the deep fun of working on this… and the urgency…

I’ve been away from the Goddess and that work for a long time. It was nice to have a reason to be back. Now I have to readjust. I can do that.

And I have to mourn a bit. And give myself a bit of Peace about my discouragement, before I go back to slogging away, and finding a way to open it to the world.

So here’s to the uncomfortable parts, because Peace is actually not a straightforward process or journey…

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