The Peace Gate, llvl

Are you going out or are you coming in? I have this silly image of some Divine Being standing tapping a foot looking at us like we look at the dogs and cats who either can’t make up their minds or just want us to stand their offering them options. “I don’t have all day, you know…”

Either choice is a good one, but we have to commit. Into the Paradise of Peace. Onto the Peace Path.

Making our lives great, exciting, wonderful, Peaceful. That’s what we’re asked to do — because that’s what we’re given the gift for. One of my more common exhortations to myself (and others) is: Count my blessings and make myself a blessing to be counted.

So whether your prayer is one of homecoming or one of departure: say it, mean it, do it. Life is waiting for your loving hands. Peace needs you.

Peaceful Delights, llvl

When things show up that are wonderful, it’s a good idea to notice them, revel in them, cherish them.

Life isn’t one halcyon day after the other. There are challenges, hills to climb, setbacks. If you, like me, have been having trouble with the recent news, local, national and international, then you’re often weighted by the world… And then you’re pushing yourself to see how you can make a difference. All of that can make life challenging.

And then there are the personal ups and downs in life. They don’t need detailing — you know them.

So when the good times roll, you have to open your arms and embrace them. Because they will sustain you through the other times. They will remind you what you’re struggling for and what helps you through.

So thanks, thanks, thanks, to the Bonnie Tallmans and the Good Time Charlies of this world who have the vision and the folks who help to make music available to all of us. Thanks to the musicians, who put themselves out there, doing what they do to help us feel what’s real. Thanks to the friends, those sweet and constant companions, who help us remember who we are, where we came from and what we’re about. Hooray for those times when your vida local overlaps with mine!

Peace is the work of many, many communities. Revel in it where you find it!

Roots of, Roads to Peace, llvl

If you’re going to live la vida local, part of the joy is celebrating those places where your life was “local” before.

This weekend I went “home” to my college for our 40th reunion. (ok, one more chorus of darling we are growing old, move on. sing a loud raucous chorus of a college chant). It was, it always is, balm for the soul. Part of it is the remembering, that piecing back together of a place inside that pleasured us. Part of it is the people, people who have been part of my life for a long time. People I love. People I respect immensely. People who share a passion for life and for the education of women — because they know what it’s made of us. They may not be the warp on which i’ve woven my life, but they certainly are tangled in the strands or perhaps they reinforce it. (ok, i’ll stop, i don’t weave, and I’m sure the metaphor can be stretched only so far!)

I’ve been doing a lot of that this year and I’m going to do more. I was in California where I lived for 13 years. I saw dear friends. I’m going back to Sweden. My friend Soo is going to Alaska this year, visiting places trying to heal from the loss of her husband, places I saw while trying to let go of my sister. She carries me with her, she carries me in her heart, with apologies to monsieur cummings… I went to Wilson. (and after that, I went to the blues festival and saw a woman I adore sing the hell outta those blues! more about that tomorrow)

On the way down to Wilson, I was eager to get there, thinking about who would be there, reveling in the act of going somewhere, stopping along the way for a meal, indulging myself. And getting there, re-immersing myself in the pool of loving affection that is my small class of women and one man and all their loving spouses, was simply luxurious. We knew each other when we were young and passionate and insecure. Perhaps you can’t say of all of us that we know one another well now, but for certain, we recognize one another. We can understand how each woman became who she was today. I have to say that I have both liking and admiration for each. What a treasure is that.

So it was wonderful to touch my roots at a time when my life is unsteady. And then, driving away, it was wonderful to drive home to the life in which I am (re)becoming indigenous — all the more celebrated because I was coming from another place where my life had been so grounded. As I came home, I drove up river to the place that is at one and the same time, source (for it was here I started my education if not my life) and life (for it is here that I have re-rooted after a life of wandering.).

Because I have always been a wanderer, I treasure the journey as well and the sights you see along the way. Ah, my wide and beautiful river set in a broad valley surrounded by rolling green hills… you both settle and excite my heart.

Indeed, it’s lucky I am to have strong roots, great company and a life that yearns toward Peace. It’s lucky to have the Peace road be one of beauty because it’s often arduous. What an amazing world we live in… The being in the midst of it and the getting to where we are going are both sacred prayers for Peace.

Grateful Sabbath Peace, llvl

It’s early Sunday morning and I’m sitting in the “parlor” of the dorm I lived in my first year in college some 40 years ago.

I’ve just spent the weekend at my college — a small, women’s liberal arts college in south central PA. I loved going there. I might have had a better academic advisor, given that i wound up with a degree in french education, and let’s be clear, I was never going to be a french teacher. But I couldn’t have had a better home for my growing soul.

I graduated in a very small class. Although we may not have all been best of friends while we were here, we knew one another, no escaping that. Through the years, when I’ve been in the right place, I’ve come back to celebrate. In the process, I’ve become better acquainted with everyone’s story. And along the way, we’ve all come to love one another. It’s pretty spectacular, when you think about it.

We’re women who care, about one another, certainly, but also about our lives and about the world. We care a lot about women’s education and are sorrowing that the college seems to have drifted into co-education without a by your leave. In a world where women’s lives are on the line, I believe in the power of women’s education. But that’s probably another day’s musing. Today, I’m under the gun to get home for church and then Bill-Town Blues. What a rich and privileged life I lead.

Love, Peace, and a great slow, summer Sabbath. Sweet music to you, my dears!

Confusion on the Way to Peace, llvl

Not only is the path to Peace incremental it’s prone to fogs of confusion. Actually, I’d say the path to anything that matters is fraught with difficulties.

But confusion’s a particularly annoying one. When I was younger, I would too often plunge forward and then spend precious time recovering from my urgency. And there’s something very seductive about the doing and the crisis management.

But wisdom, or laziness, or the increasing canniness of age has taught me to marshal my forces a bit better. Look, it’s foggy. Think I’ll wait until things have cleared up a bit. Might as well have a cuppa or look, there’s champagne.

And then, while sitting, taking the opportunity to visit a bit, just a bit: How are you? “Lovely baby. Where are you going? Oh, you know my Cousin Harry had exactly the same problem…” Sure, you want to exercise a bit of caution, but most sojourners are fine and happy to reassured of their fellow travelers’ humanity.

Make friends — because really, isn’t that the point? It’s disarming in many ways… figuratively as it relaxes everyone, yourself included and literally, as it’s harder to be combative with the folk with whom you were just being neighborly.

Who knows, the people you’re talking to may even know about the road conditions. After all, it is Peace you’re working toward. You want to wind up friendly at the end of the journey, it’s sort of the point. You’ve got to sit and let things unwind anyway, might as well pass the time. Clarity usually arrives and then it’s time to be off again, but now you’ve created new connections with your fellow travelers. Now you’re a confederate of travelers, a community. Again… the point, right?

But in the meanwhile, make nice and enjoy yourself a bit. Start with the noncomittal and build. You’ve little to lose and perhaps much to gain.

Pleasantries make a mighty good walking stick on the Peace Journey.

Recalculating Peace, llvl

It’s a complicated thing, this Peace thing. And so many places it can derail. So many places it does derail.

So, faithfulness is asked of us. And remembering. Remembering that we live in our own small local life where change is possible. Remembering despite the news of shootings and violence. Remembering despite my rage and sadness at the way we treat one another.

Peace is a one-foot-in-front-of-the-other journey. It’s a journey where you sometimes have to sit down until the fog clears. Sometimes when it finally does, you notice the path is changed.

So you do what the GPS teaches and recalculate the roads we’ll take to get to Peace. We must keep it on our hearts and minds. It’s a challenging enough journey. We must keep the destination clear and the prayer alive. Peace be with you, my friends.

Distraught about Peace, llvl

Sometimes I can stay focused on the Work and the Progress. Peace is an incremental thing. And it’s unfolding is sweet. When you see the ways la vida local changes and softens, and sometimes even larger swathes of life change, you can keep the plate of Hope spinning.

And then there are periods like right now. It seems like there’s so much bad news. Nothing but mayhem, violence, greed and outright stupidity. Makes me feel as if i’m running around smelling the roses growing over the septic tank — that’s covered in quicksand.

What is wrong with us? What’s the hatred about? I have a friend who writes about the rising of the Feminine. I’m not seeing it. It’s a litany of hope i raised for myself 30 years ago… and right now, i’m seeing death and mayhem. I’m confronting rape. Not individual rape, like having to talk a sweet young woman through it last year. No, wholesale, impersonal, widespread violence aimed at eviscerating young women and their hope in the future, in drowning their bright potential in ugly fear.

The rage I feel is enormous. It’s not to say that i don’t continue my work. Yesterday, I sent letters urging folks to write letters to their House Reps and Senators to agitate for PA House and Senate Bill 300, which would end legal discrimination against GLBTQ folk in housing and workplace. Won’t end the hatred, we’ve a long way to go on that, but at least it gives people rights. I spoke to a friend who works in a Representative’s office in Harrisburg. It looks like it should pass. But, you never know. Time to help the elected officials understand it matters to us. As my friend says, “for goodness’ sake, we have an anti-discrimination law in the state government, you’d think we could enshrine this in the law.” You would think.

Sometimes we need to sit with the anguish. We can’t allow ourselves to drown in it, but we should hang out with it. And at the same time, keep making Peace. I leave my head in these contemplations, but turn my heart toward Love. The haters can’t have me.

June Garden Peace, llvl

This year, we’re having the June we remember from our childhoods. Beautiful days, impressive storms and wild riotous gardens. I know, I know, I say this every season, because there’s always something beautiful, but there’s nothing quite like June. It’s awash in Possibility and in Purpose. It’s green, green, green.

I loved the solitary splendor of this iris. Vibrantly purple, less ornate than its cousin the bearded iris, it’s a simple stalk of Beauty. We’re transfixed. But that iris is simply doing it’s job. We see it as singular, but it’s one more beautiful bloom in the garden.

That’s who we’re meant to be, I think: Individuals, Fulfilling our own destiny in an abundant garden. Gorgeous blossoms in a sea of abundance. Bringing Beauty, bringing Peace, is not simply our job. We’re simply there to bring the Peace we can. We need to count on our neighbors to bring the Peace they can. We each have our own work.

In a small village, it’s easier to see both your work and your neighbor’s. We can understand how to help one another grow and flourish. We can see the payoff. But no matter how large or small your village, find a small group and get to work. Then let the movement build.

There are so many reasons the world needs our abilities to bring, Peace to bring Change. Sometimes I’m overwhelmed by the weight of things that are wrong in this world. And then, I remember. I live in a village. I live la vida local. I can make a small but important difference. If I do my part and you do yours and we encourage one another, pretty soon change can start… Remember, you’re a beautiful Iris in a sea of Peace. This is your season to shine. Start there.

More June Peace, llvl

The days continue to extend an invitation to come out into the world. It is flat out gorgeous! This pic has kept me enraptured all week. I was so happy to find the rhododendron festooning the forest with colors other than sun-dappled green this weekend.

Today the eagle was on the river shore across from Turrie and my breakfast place. Everybody was plastered to the window, watching. Share a moment like that and our differences melt away. The next time we meet, we’re friendlier, laughing more freely.

Softened edges make differences less obvious. and that’s a good thing.

go on, git out there! Peace.

Sweet June Peace, llvl

It’s hard to understand how lucky those of us who live here are. Yesterday, my half of my community went to the mountains for worship and hiking and playing. An hour from where I live is a state park filled with trails and waterfalls and forests that have rhododendrons just like this one lurking to surprise you with beauty.

Kids played in the (brrrr) lake, bluebirds (bluebirds!) twittered at us from the pavilion rafters, pretty healthy food was served (we are UUs after all).

Driving down off the mountain the vista over the valley was incredible. Everything was green and a surprising amount of land is undeveloped. Certain places along the road there is nothing to look at but canopy and sky.

I live here. I don’t get out often enough. And I certainly don’t get out and sit with my friends to visit, walk along a trail, or hop in a natural body of water anywhere often enough. And Why not? Why not fill up on Peace so that we can spread it. We live in beauty. Let’s get out and enjoy it. June’s perfect weather is fleeting.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In