Traveling Peace, llvl

My Sister- and Brother-in-law are getting on a train and setting out to see the Country. Oh, my goodness, it will be so fun!

I’ve driven back and forth a couple times. It’s so vast. The landscapes are so different. Oh, the taste of hunger on my tongue to see this Beauty. But plenty fun enough to live vicariously.

They’ve plotted and planned for this trip for years. I went to see them yesterday, they were so excited.

Plotting and planning for what you want. Now that’s a good thing. See the Beauty the world has to offer. Also good. Meeting people long the way. Pretty fun, too.

They’re people collectors these two, so they’ll have a whole bunch of stories to tell along the way and when they get home. They have a knack for being present.

Where do you Hunger to go? What do you Hunger for? And how are your plans coming along. Plotting and planning for Adventure. Plotting and Planning for Peace. Let’s do what we need to enjoy this life!

Family Peace Sabbath, llvl

I watched a joyful reunion yesterday, and the message was: you only have the time you have and you’d better make it good time.

Obviously, it’s a message that resonates for me. We did great family weekend stuff growing up. But I watch myself not spending enough time with the people I love. (This working weekend thing does interfere. But at least Steve and I both work weekends.)

It’s so easy to be busy, to shoot off in our own directions, but time spent getting to know each other and enjoy one another’s company is crucial, i believe, to our development and sense of self-worth. So grab those folks and hang out. Creating family: sweet, sweet, sweet (and occasionally crazy!).

Peace is a great thing to have at home.

Eagle Peace, llvl

It has been a long journey for the eagles to come back to life in my little Valley. Careful breeding programs and reinstitution into this area. The rivers had to be cleaned up so that the fish they ate were life giving. And now fracking is threatening those rivers again.

But yesterday, Lady Eagle wasn’t concerned about that. She sat regally in the sunshine, casually accepting the startled cries of passersby that acknowledged her beauty.

Sometimes Nature just grabs your attention. Yesterday was one of those days. This beautiful shallow river ran clear over stones, the beginnings of fall’s colors occasionally drifting by. The air was clear and there wasn’t a cloud. Thank you!

And Sunday is the largest Climate March ever. Because all the hard-fought gains are at risk… and so much more. Time for us to step up and speak out for our beloved Mother Earth. Peace must be one with the ground we live on. And we’re needed to respond.

Focusing on Peace, llvl

There are so many distractions, and they’re noisy and brightly colored and many of them awful. And so we run from pillar to post, poking at this, poking at that… and it pulls us away — maybe it’s only me, but i doubt it — it pulls us away from what we can do.

We have to witness, yes. People need to know we hear and see them and their plight. And we have to keep making a difference where we can. We have to speak up, gently, firmly, insistently. And we have to keep making a difference where we can.

If Peace really is piecework, then I have to keep working my little bit of it, building up piles to be put into the pattern so that you can do your little piece of it and so that together it starts to be a blanket that covers us in Possibility, Hope and Comfort. And every once in a while we should feast and dance and rejoice because that does a heart and body good. (and a mind and a soul!)

Seeing the madness. Hearing the hatred. Insisting on Peace.

Ice Cream, Peace, No Peace, llvl

It could take a lot of ice cream with friends to fix what’s going on in our little world. I did have a magical moment out by the pumpkin patch with dear friends yesterday. No problems got solved but we breathed in beautiful air together and ate fresh peaches on top of our ice cream. Not a bad afternoon at all.

And when you look at the relentless ugliness going on in the world. My brother-in-law holds that it’s just that we’re looking at these things, and we have to hold that as a good thing. I’m not convinced.

Mostly I’m overwhelmed. My perky (shouldn’t that be spelled with an i with a heart over it) Pollyanna can do personality is having a whoa, sh•t moment. When you wake up, it’s hard to figure where the best place is to step up. Do gooders like me are feeling like we’re taking a class in some gym on life up down up down up down. switch feet. And while you’re doing that, speak out. Oh, no, step aerobics as prayer. (what is seen cannot be unseen.)

But, nonetheless, there is work to be done. Some fool on FB took Toni Morrison (Toni Morrison????) to task for worrying about racism and interrupting this woman’s feel good moment. She was confident that there was no racism and most people wanted to gently suggest… no, no gentle suggestions. respond. Now. The list is long, so we all have a lot of opportunities to say no to hatred and stupidity.

Eat some ice cream. You’ll need it. Because the journey is long and arduous. But we are exactly the right people to work for Peace, one little piece at a time. Together…

Peace in the Storms, llvl

Anyone who lives in a River Valley knows you have to take storms seriously. You have to be prepared. Although not all storms have flood potential, you want to be watching. I have a sister- and brother-in-law who have the furniture movers on speed-dial, in case they need them to come and load their downstairs into a truck. They’ve done what they could to make their house fare better in the storms and be easier to clean up. (it’s totally ingenious and lovely.)

When storms happen, people start calling around letting others who have traditionally had water problems (why say flood when a euphemism will do?) and remind them that their second (third, fourth) bedroom is open. Others dash to the store in case they’re going to be cut off for a while.

But we live in open space. There are wide swaths of fields in these valleys and the storms often roll down alleys of least resistance. So we get to watch the beauty and power build before they let loose. And let loose they do. This is a part of the country where thunderclouds build and then explode into light and sound. Nature throws a beautiful tantrum.

And then the storm passes and all is still and clean and Beauty. The creeks are full and then the river. The land is plump and satisfied. The trees drip on unwary passersby as the birds start to sing once again. Peace visits the Valley. If it’s been a really big storm, the neighbors come out and start helping others dig out. But mostly, there’s Peace and Quiet, and it’s a lovely, lovely thing. (in Deb’s lovely photo, the storm is building.)

Peace Together, llvl

Collaboration isn’t always easy, but old tropes to the contrary, it often makes a much better product. (case in point, I interrupted my writing to open Deb Slade’s new pic for the week, wow!)

But I’m working on a workshop. It may become a book. It may become a bigger workshop, but right now, it’s a bunch of ideas. Slowly, with other people’s gentle hands and sometimes firm pushback, it’s emerging and taking shape.

Yesterday I had one of those conversations with my principal collaborator and some pieces got the big yawn and others the explosive wow, what if this or that. One person would move and then the others… pieces then either got knit back in or left in the dust.

It’s going to be a better piece for this. And with hope, we will shed the utopian, wouldn’t it be lovely pieces and move toward some, what if we did this, what kind of outcome might we get… oh, good, right. yes, that. what if. More on the theme… piecing Peace.

We’re poking at ages and stages of women’s development and aging, and looking at how we might work to support one another, and how we might grow and make Peace across the years… It’s still on the drawing room floor, but there are glimmers. And that’s exciting.

And working with friends on projects of Peace? That’s extraordinary. As my friend KJ sings, “you gotta believe.” Peace really needs us to believe that it’s possible!

After a day like yesterday, I believe. More than ever, I believe. We’re dreaming it, so we can do it. Dreaming together. oh, yeah…

Commitments and Peace, llvl

This summer, I’ve been able to remember what a difference ceremony can make in your life. For many years, while living in CA, I made my living celebrating people’s lives. I did baby blessings, coming of age ceremonies, graduation, weddings, first job, career change, divorces, house blessings, retirement, memorials and you name it. I even blessed the fleet.

Through it all, my clients and I looked at their intentions for the next steps of their lives and gathering their communities around them in support. Since I worked with people who were outside or in-between religious traditions, the community was an important component.

I moved back East because my parents were aging, and I spent 10 years focusing on them and on my sister as they all passed away. It was wonderful work. I’m so thankful I could. It was life-changing. It made a better woman of me.

But I missed the challenge of building services to fit. And then, thank goodness, the law changed. I was one of only a couple ministers in this area who could perform same-sex services, not just with my church’s blessing, but with their cheering and egging me on. Three of the couples were ours and the community turned out and was brought closer together for their joy.

And this year there have been other weddings, inside and outside my community, same sex and heterosexual. There have been challenges. But there has been joy and communities have stepped up to do the work to support and encourage commitment.

And that? adds up to one happy wedding priestess. At each wedding, no matter what, people come to terms with lives that are different from theirs and they sign on. And that, in it’s own little persistent way is Peacemaking. And I get to do it. lucky, lucky, lucky me!

Reworking Sabbath Peace, llvl

Sundays are work days for me, but at the heart of this work day is reflection. Why yes, in fact it is hard to plan a day of reflection that is also fairly active… But it starts with singing, and aside from the sound there’s breathing, breathing, breathing involved. And then there’s a period of joint reflection. sometimes others share what they’re thinking… sometimes not so much… but still, there’s a stop. Maybe even a moment of waking up.

Stops. Such a lovely concept. We don’t use them often enough.

And we need them. Because too often the work we do needs to be rethought. We make great plans and then realize we hadn’t thought at all about this consequence or that unrecognized player. And then we have to revisit everything… often on the fly.

And because of my work, Sundays are reflection day… sometimes solitary, sometimes joint… but the work gets better.

And then there’s always putting my feet up! And that’s Peace enough for anyone. Enjoy the day. Hopefully there will be a moment to reflect and reorganize… Sabbath Peace.

Food and Peace, llvl

It takes food to make Peace. Empty bellies make for empty futures and Peace is a future we must labor toward.

Feeding one another is a shared ministry. It doesn’t matter why the children are hungry, it only matters that they are. It matters that we have money to put toward the future of Peace, the Future and Peace.

$1.25 for a child to eat for a weekend in one district. $3.50 and going down in another. Peace. It’s for us to do. if you will, go to Love Flows and donate to the LOVE Project (Let Our Valley Eat.) You can donate on a monthly basis. $10 a month feeds a kid for a year. Or donate to a similar project near you. Gotta feed the kids if you’re serious about giving Peace a chance.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In