Island Paradise Peace, llvl

I don’t think there’s any way around this. I think the Swedes are better at being still and in the moment than we are. It could be just me, but many of us, even on vacation are good at just sitting, delighting in the moment. The countryside is beautiful, but there’s beauty everywhere. I’d match my Central Susquehanna’s beauty against beauty anywhere.

One of the things I’ve recognized since I’ve been here is that I occasionally grab Paradise when I meet it. I sat and the stream with Emily and watched the world go by. I floated on the river on my Brother- and Sister-in-law’s boat when my friends came.

And maybe it was just because I’m here that people have taken more time to sit and admire the harbor or the forests, but I don’t think so. They’re on vacation. They’re out in Nature enjoying it. Not necessarily doing something, just being there. Passing around the slightly flavored water and sipping it slowly.

One afternoon, while visiting a sister and her beau, whose daughter and granddaughter were visiting as well, we all piled in the boat and boated around the island. Margita and the 6 year old pulled mackerel lines behind, once we got out on the ocean side of the island. Sophie, the daughter cut their heads off. Björn grilled the fish and we ate them for dinner 3 hours later. Paradise. The sight and taste of the sea. Sweet companionship. A quick stop for a dessert cheese which provided late-afternoon ice creams to tide us over to dinner.

And then the next morning, getting up and packing and then making the time to go down and slip into the sea, there just to bob around like so much flotsam, or is it jetsam, I always forget.

Paradise is here. It’s meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to be shared. Peace, sweet Peace is in the still, sweet moments in between… (and it’s also, if you get the chance, to be found on islands off the coast of wherever you are. Or in the forests, or the mountains, or the deserts. Just sit and look at Mother Earth. Nature is there to be appreciated. Families are there to be made. Blessings are to be counted. Connections are waiting to slip into place!

Slightly Connected Peace, llvl

It’s so sweet having good friends scattered over this country. There is much to be grateful to the Rotary Exchange Program for!

It’s always seemed weird that these separate little worlds don’t know one another. Well, my friend Lorraine knows everyone, because either we lived in the same town for a while, or people have come through Kristinehamn (K-hamn) and stopped to see me at Lorraine’s house. Altogether, it’s a pretty fine thing.

But this week, there was a little breakdown. Margita, in whose house I lived in K-hamn when I was here, came to Fjällbacka to pick me up at Margareta’s summer home. They’d never met before. Marg had lived at my family’s when my brother was an exchange student in Mönsterås in 1967-68. So there were Marg and her daughter Katarina and her boyfriend Mikke. (We were all sort of collapsed in heat after the cake party for Marg’s name day. Yep, gotta celebrate not just your birthday, but your name day as well. More cake. And this was right in the middle of — don’t you love this — housewife week, when one often has cake parties. But hey, it’s cake. I can slide right over the political correctness!)

But Margita came and we went and got pizzas and clambered aboard Marg’s boat and whisked ourselves out to an island in the middle of this rocky bay. Oh, the water was amazing, cool and refreshing. Nothing like the time i was there with my parents and the water was well… frrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeezing comes to mind! But Betty went in, so we all did, squealing all the way!

Ah, it was nice to have those edges meet. so sweet, so sweet. sisters of my heart. Marg’s very clear about being my “big” sister, because she has me by a year. And since I’m, shall we say, down one big sister, i’ll take it! Sweet, wonderful crazy time.

Worlds colliding and enjoying one another. Isn’t that what we have to learn to do? To sit at one another’s house and eat cake and on one another’s boat and eat pizza and to laugh, to laugh, to laugh. If the Rotary know this… shouldn’t everyone! This isn’t a secret to keep, this is a sacred truth to shout aloud!

Joy, Joy, Peace, Peace, llvl

I believe it’s important to live into Beauty and Love when given the opportunity. And I believe it’s important to make the opportunities. What a delight to be living that out. Almost moment by moment. It’s so rare for me to be here, that I’m working very hard to experience every moment. I’m working — or not working — to know Peace from the inside.

I’m not silly enough to think that I must know personal Peace to work for global Peace. But I am smart enough to revel in what’s here. To notice. To rejoice. Those are important, don’t you think? I’m so privileged to be living back into these friendships and this beautiful country.

To be in the sea is such a delight for me… It’s full of memories and pleasure and so much joy. It buoys my heart as well as my body. And to share that with friends, friends who belong in different lives… the joy deepens!

There we were, dashing about cleaning up the house and making and assembling cakes. Four people; four cakes. New marketing idea for USA: cake bottoms! I was charged with the meringue whipped cream fruit cake. stacking, I can do it! Lovely, lovely, lovely!

And now, it’s time to pack away these beautiful thoughts and move on to the next, oh, my goodness, wonderful island. My soul continues to expand.

And at the same time, I think of the places and the people whose lives are not filled with expansion. I hold my friend Sonia in my heart, whose family still lives in Palestine and who is building a house there. Whatever the problems, bombs are not the answer, not, not, not. We must do better…

And those of us who live in Peace must pay attention and be grateful. We’ve got to help Love to conquer Fear. We are the ones the world has been waiting for… Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me. and you. Peaceful Prayers be with you, my friends.

Sabbath Seal Peace, llvl

Well, it doesn’t get much more local than yesterday. It was hard not to be present to every seemingly perfect moment. The day before was the day of seeing the seals. They were hilarious. Look, the neighbors dropped by! And there they were in a big-eyed smiling circle, just hanging out…

Marg, my first Swedish sister, who lived at my house when my brother was an exchange student, took me out for our daily constitutional, hup, hup. We ended that with a plop into the sea. It’s gorgeous on the coast, but there’s not a lot of shade because it gets scoured by winter storms. So the water felt wonderfully refreshing. Silly Swedes were saying, oh, how warm (70˚!)… i was gasping a bit, but really… it was so clean and clear AND it was warm enough to discourage man o war jellyfish from the day before. yikes.

I need to fasten this ability to stop daily life and be present to the moment in my brain. it’s good to do this now and again. look at this. look at that. look at this. oh, taste this. summer, summer, summer. sea, wind, water, sun. and love! 45 whole years of it.

Tomorrow I move on, and I’m both sad and excited. This time is so worth the work and the wait and the resources required. I tried to think yesterday… didn’t work to well. Love will keep growing if you just pay attention. Connections will be woven.

Today is Sunday and there’s a cake party underway. two cakes being baked. I’ve been assigned to assemble the meringue torte… under strict instructions. but what the heck. meringue, raspberries, blueberries, whipped cream. for that, I’ll follow anyone’s direction, do it just the way they want.

Yesterday was a tired day. couldn’t remember how to walk or speak swedish or do anything, so i stuck to doing the dishes and folding up the wash.

We finished the evening sitting on the patio until it finally got dark at about 11:30 (sun went down at about 10:10!). Two of Marg’s friends dropped by and there was a lot of laughter and tales of days gone by. Life is for the Living. the Sabbath is for the noticing. (I’ll be noticing the four cakes!) and for the reflecting as I pack down my suitcase for the next time… Heaven has been spotted many times. The bad news is that there are 4 inch slugs in Paradise. and i stepped on one… urgh. Peace. Gratitude. Beauty. Wonder. Love. ahhhhhhhhhh. Keeping the sacred in the sabbatical.

Variations on Peace, llvl

It’s all well and good for me to appreciate the glories of my local life, whether at home or at my friends’ homes. It is good to appreciate. But at the same time, I think, you hold the tension of life where things are not going well… There are always horrifying things, but today there seem to be so many.

With a dear friend, living with AIDS for 23 years now, I’m aware of the huge scientific loss of the Malaysia flight in addition to the humanitarian loss. What, you wonder, would make people think this violent act was a good idea? And then list all the other places in the world where people suffer horrendously for other people’s greed…

I’m grateful to know that a sister UU church is standing up and saying No to the hatred in Texas — And I’m sure there are plenty of other churches along side them… but horrified there are churches standing together on the other side of the street, that the welcome being extended is a counter protest.

So, when life is breathtaking in a little village in Sweden (or a little village in Pennsylvania), I think we must store that up against the horror — store it up so we have fuel to get back to work when the time is right… It was a beautiful day touring around the bay yesterday. The beauty is outrageous. The skies were clear and the temperature was perfect. The whole day was a prayer of gratitude and beauty.

And somehow the intermingled stories of the oysterwoman and her priest brother were just so simple and lovely. So I breathe in the love, the wonder, and the simplicity and let it soothe my soul. And I try to be present to each of the fabulous moments. There are so many right now. I am so lucky. I am so grateful. I am at Peace.

Peace/No Peace, llvl

It seems odd… here am I in wonderland, looking out over the sea who hides her changes. The good news here is that the mackerel are coming back… or so we hope. But Fjällbacka, like my lovely little Lewisburg, is a small village and much that is wrong is very well hidden and all that is beautiful lies on the surface.

And at the same time, the world is exploding in roiling ugliness. People are gathering to turn away children. People are gathering to watch a war as if it were television. People are being shot from the sky. 300 lives ended, including some of the great minds working on AIDS. And those are only today’s headlines, there is so much we’re looking away from.

And so I pray. I pray for those who are warred upon, may their bodies be protected and their souls comforted. I pray for those who make war, may their hearts soften and their brains clear. I work to pray with each breath, to notice the beauty, to appreciate the love in this family and my life, to realize how precious life is and to be grateful.

I may not feel guilty for my time off, that would sully it. Cutting it short wouldn’t change what’s happening… I am not so powerful. So I must treasure this time — and all of you — and prepare myself for my return. I must make more good memories to savor and shore me up.

In the meantime, I am also wildly grateful for those who do their work so that the world may be better…saner… safer… I pray that we may make it more Peaceful, more Just.

Picnic Peace, llvl

Sitting on the rocks in the middle of the sea, I am certain that I could do this at home.

But, I don’t.

Why is that? Why don’t I take stillness in the midst of the great beauty that is my home ground… indeed my life.

It’s not as if it’s not there to enjoy. Just over a week ago, I was out on a boat in the middle of the Susquehanna with my brother- and sister-in-spirit. and it was quiet and sweet. Not long before that, I was sat in the middle of Penn’s creek. But this absolute do-nothingness, absolute immersion in the elements, day after day, that is not something I give myself. It’s a shame. I know, all of life is not a vacation, but it’s not all work, either.

And this is wonderful. Because here I am, in the company of old friends, marooned on an island and sucking the marrow out of the day. yum. drinks on hotel patio overlooking the harbor. shelling shrimp at 9 at night (or what they’re calling night but is really full sunshine) on the home patio overlooking the harbor. Go to bed. get up. more of the same.

Just a few responsibilities: Be present. Enjoy. Count blessings. Give thanks. I hope I’m succeeding in my assignments. I’m sure at some point I’ll write, but… not for a while… and in the meantime, I’ll savor the Peace. Life is sacred. It is often filled with joy. To live this way is a prayer. I am the among the luckiest women in the world.

So, you heard it here first. Picnics in beautiful spots when i come home. ‘k?

Peace Dreaming, llvl

Dreaming… It’s so important… Imagining something bigger is the first step to Peace. To envision sitting someplace with people unlike you in appearance but so like you in heart and soul; people who live somewhere so different from where you live… ah… that is a great and luxurious pleasure.

Dreaming is more than day dreaming, dreaming is serious business. It’s fun to simply float along, but it’s good to have a dream that looks to become reality. That sort of dreaming stretches our hearts and our heads…

It’s been fun to go to sleep on this bed with the map on the wall above me. and of course central to the map is Sweden. My whole life changed in Sweden… For a lot of reasons, I relearned friendship. I learned to speak another language and thus listen differently. I lived in another culture. I lived in another family. I was transformed, my heart fundamentally altered. It was such a wonderful experience. I came from such a safe wonderful but supremely little world. And then my life was broadened… even though I moved to another little world…

I love sitting betwixt and between… being here and remembering that life can be restarted… and looking at home where life is also burgeoning. (Deb Slade always knows how to capture our attention, doesn’t she?) Love. Peace. Growth. Possibility. The world really is much bigger than we think. Let us give thanks for the Wonder of it all!

Chocolate Cake Batter Peace, another llvl

Wherever you are life goes on. (it went on so quickly, I didn’t have time to write yesterday, first time in a long time!) I may be looking out over one of the prettiest harbors in the world, one that is far from my beloved coves on the Susquehanna, but put a two year in the kitchen with adults and an emptied bowl of chocolate cake batter, and it’s the same. Spoons out and dig in! So la vida local is always la vida even when the locale changes from place to place. It’s all about making memories, creating family and laughter and love!

So interesting to drop back into life after 6 years. My friend’s mother is gone now, I had hoped to see her once again — She said when I left the last time, “I will probably not see you again, but it was nice to have known you…” I’d hoped she was wrong, but… no. And my friend’s children, one with a child of his own, are fully functioning adults… and yet, it is life, it is the same, rich and sweet.

Fish and fish and fish. and sweet times. The wind’s blowing and it’s chilly, but still so beautiful. I’m a little cloudy still from too much sleep after too little, but I’ve been promised a brisk walk around the village to clear my head.

I’m always amazed that you can move so easily between lives… i guess i think the secret (for me, at least) is to remember that while their life is foreign to me, it’s local to them, so it’s about fitting myself in and not comparing, just enjoying. And the cake was as good cooked as battered… because cooked it had strawberries and cream… yep, the wonderful thing about this local life is that strawberries are just now coming into season! yay!

Peace be with us, Peace be with us all! Summer’s Peace. Peace of the laughter of small boys. Peace of dear, long-time friendships… Peace.

(I’ve promised to blog on another site here on sacredvillage, but not today, and maybe not tomorrow. getting my Sweden legs… and more importantly Sweden head… Jet lag takes me somewhere cloudy, indeed)

The Peace of Love Sabbath, llvl

Saying I love you, right out loud. It’s what the world needs. More love, extravagantly stated, more love, outrageously lived. More love. “There is more Love somewhere!”

Yesterday, after viewing pictures of one of my grooms being fêted at his job in this little central PA town, I said that what I felt was the right song to sing right then was Bob Marley’s “Redemption.” Staying the course makes the difference. It’s so important that the laws change. It’s great that the church turns out for the weddings we’ve just had. But we’re UUs, you’d expect that. We’ve worked on ourselves, signed petitions, and not always without effort or halting, opened our hearts and our doors. But the proof of change is in every day people’s getting it.

And they do. So, let me say to the other whole bunches of lot of States: Be not afraid. for all the brouhaha… the people are leading on this. And haters aside, they’re leading to Love. And the haters are loud and ugly. but they’re not the majority any longer. Marrying for Peace: an idea whose time has come.

Love, Love, Love, Love, crazy Love. or as Mr. Seeger might have sung: God’s countin’ on me; God’s countin’ on you! And sometimes, we just see God through. And if that’s not enough work to take the Sabbath off, i don’t know what is. Life is sacred; our job is to cherish it! Happy summer.

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