Holding out for Peace, llvl

I’m not sure whether things are actually worse than they were or whether I’ve just gotten an eyeful. But I’ve been astonished by the hate recently. Our government will not ratify a UN agreement on the rights of the disabled, even though it is built upon our own American Disabilities Act, because they will not pass anything. And they believe they are governing. In state governments, women’s rights are being narrowed, hatred toward our GLBT brothers and sisters is being codified, and someone has just introduced an act in a state legislature that allows parents and schools to “spank” (oh why use beat???) a child until a bruise is raised without any fear of reprisal. And around Christmas some fool governor posited that if only the child welfare/work laws were relaxed we could compete with other countries’ manufacturing prices, because you know, you don’t have to pay children the already unliving wage we’re paying/not paying adults.

I know, I have learned, that for me, the only useful response to what I find wrong in the world is to take action on what I can.

We all make Peace from where we stand. We contribute our gifts to pave the path.

But action is required. It worries me that we begin to believe that being outraged on Face Book changes life. Some of us go a bit farther and click through to petitions, and then we go back to posting charming distractions. And the dissonance continues to build.

I read recently that the distance separating the haves and have nots creates different mental distress. The have nots become depressed, which works to keep them from asking for what they want and need. The haves become narcissistic which encourages them to feel exploited (i know, difficult to quite get there, eh?) and protective, believing that, i don’t know, children should be beaten, women controlled and one fears to consider what they believe should happen to GLBT folk. Hidden under all this is racism.

There’s a delicate dance to be done of noticing the evil and not being beaten down by it. Of looking at the problems and rather than being overwhelmed, choosing the one small piece with which you can use your gifts and getting to work making a difference… Peace needs us… and we need Peace, but we’re only going to get there together… and by working very hard.

Icy Peace Assists, llvl

This was the first Winter in a very long time that we’ve had snow storm after snow storm causing dangerous conditions. Facebook has been littered with stories of massive pile ups on major high ways and cars sliding off roads into ditches.

Yesterday was the worst of conditions, a sudden ice storm left everything coated in about a quarter inch of ice. and the icicles were enormous.

For some folks, this was just one more day we had to be out and about. For others, it was another storm and we couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t postpone things any longer… although this was highly dangerous for a couple hours.

The only hope one had was that neighbors would drag you out of any icy puddles. At the end of this long snow spell, neighbors are pretty well primed to be helpful. So, be careful out there, there are snow piles, thin crusted puddles, and slush. And be neighborly… it’s the only Peace you can see… but when someone picks you up off your butt… it’s pretty real.

A new acquaintance from the Quartet I’ve been raving about slipped yesterday and his viola was shattered. He says it’s repairable… I can’t imagine the shock… but a neighbor who repairs string instruments has two for him to try and borrow… helping him out of that snow pile… and dusting him off as best as possible…

So mind your footing and keep your hands out to pull a neighbor out of a jam. Peace.

The Peace of Boundaries, llvl

We all talk blithely about healthy boundaries. Most of us are pretty lousy at them.

We’re a very informal society these days. In many ways that’s a good thing. But in other ways it makes the notion of formality a bad thing. As with so many reactions, perhaps the push back has been too hard and there’s sacred middle ground to be negotiated. Here’s one friend who’s got me thinking about this:

I had a long catch-up conversation with a friend who’s going through a divorce. Her not-so-young-but-still-tender-aged children are reeling in the midst of a family break-up. She’s a lawyer and a case she’s been working on for years is at a crucial point. She needs to be sane for this case and she can’t merely chuck the case because working gives her life some semblance of order and her need to earn a living is now more important than ever.

She lives in a small city, but she and her ex are well-known. However “amicable” her divorce, she’s profoundly sad and off her center. She’s struggling.

What she needs from her friends right now is sometimes to be able to say how sad she is and other times to be completely distracted. She needs to lead the conversations. If she wants to know about your divorce, she’ll ask you, but her divorce is special to her… some day she may be able to hear that this break-up is just like everyone else’s break-up, but this one, in all its raw ugliness is hers. She’s never felt so alone in her life. At this moment that is true for her.

So friends need to traipse carefully. And strangers or acquaintances need to talk about the weather or a great book they just read that has nothing to do with divorce. Outside the tight circle that’s holding her heart together, it’s helpful for her if life isn’t focused on her and her problems. It’s important to her that people are discrete, unless she asks for support.

That’s the deal — to let her lead. It’s a delicate dance, but it’s life. And I realize I’ve got a delicate dance to understand this, and then to find words… Perhaps always the questions are what what is yours, what is mine and what is ours in this life dance. Having our own isn’t a wrong thing, it’s a true thing. Negotiating this stuff is the Dance of Peace… I’ll keep thinking… you think too, ok?

Chamber Quartet Peace, llvl

I always thought I was a city girl, and I thrived… But maybe what I am is a town girl. I like sidewalks (even on days like today, when shoveling is a repeat opportunity!).

What’s great about the village is that things that happen here are more accessible. People might complain that we don’t have the wide variety of activities, but mostly, those people aren’t reading the local paper. With so many colleges in the area and their subsidized offerings, a fabulous ensemble theatre, a great chorale, a local orchestra (or two or three!), musicians of every stripe, poets, dancers, you name it, there are many options for entertainment.

And when outside groups are here, especially for longer periods, like the Quartet’s two-week residency, you get to hanging out and talk and laugh with them. It’s grand. So make sure you’re exploring your village and plumbing its depths.

And then the quartet. What an interesting entity. This quartet in particular, is fabulous. Find them on YouTube and exalt. Lucy Russell, first violinist, says in one of her bios: “She is committed to enlivened music-making, fueled by knowledge, skill and passion but with the intentions of the composer always at the fore.” This quartet offers this in spade.

But the notion of a quartet. Of four highly trained people making music together, music that is precise in nature, as both the timing and notes must be exact or god-awful. The musicians must be both on top of their playing and the music as well as aware and present to their fellow players. Each person brings their gifts and adds it to the whole along with caring for the way each individual piece comes out and how music as a whole is understood.

We would all do well to find the people we work with in such a fashion so that life could be richer, deeper, and give so much more pleasure. So, if you’re local to my local, go see this quartet on Thursday at 7:30 at Rook Recital Hall. If you’re local somewhere else, find out what’s going on. But one way or the other, even if it’s not your “thing,” go listen to and watch a quartet play. And go take advantage of what your vida local has to offer.

I think the way quartets work have a lot to teach the Peacemakers…

Traces of Peace, LLVL

I was a bit lost yesterday afternoon when it came time to write the day’s musing… it’s not a common occurrence, but I’ve been doing this for three years, and it happens. I asked a friend, what should I write? Write about our ice skating escapade he wrote, about the web of life and how it causes community. Hmmm.

Now when I say “our ice-skating adventure,” you understand, I don’t mean MY ice-skating adventure. I don’t do that. I’ve never had great ankles, and I’m not all that steady on my pins. Those two pretty much eliminated any childhood winter olympic dreams I might have had! No, this was a church outing. Although I have to find out if they have those ice-walkers for adults that they have to keep kids upright. I might be more willing to try it again… and less likely to experiment with my “triple-klutz.” (although that may be optimistic!)

But the thought for the musing certainly had possibility, and it wouldn’t be the first time I wrote about something I didn’t do. I’ve written a perfectly lovely poem about biking, and my balance doesn’t encourage that, either…

But the notion of tracing the lines, that move from one single line carved in the ice to many overlapping lines was intriguing. that some of the lines in the web are straight and sure and some are wobbly and uncertain makes the comparison to the web of life more realistic.

And then, above the skates, all the emotions going on, fear, joy, laughter (i spared them my terror!), growing friendships and giggles. There had to be a game of crack the whip, right? That was always the funnest — even when you were the little being tossed off the end. So as lines were being traced, friendships were deepening, and memories were being carved into childhoods and communities.

A silly thing, really, just a day of enjoyment on the ice, but so many connections were possible — and many were made. Even if nothing deeper happened, here’s to winter and the fun of winter sports. Breathing in the frosty air is a treat unto itself!

Companionable Sabbath Peace, llvl

Mmmmmmmm. Here we are, it’s mid-week Sabbath in my whacky world of calculations. Having started the year on a Wednesday, I’ve continued to start the weeks on Wednesday, introducing Deb Slade’s new pic, and thus my new week every Wednesday. It makes Tuesday a special day of anticipation, because Deb’s pic is coming and Wednesday a day of pleasure, because I’m introducing it and having to think differently in response to it… which brings us to Sunday, smack dab in the middle of the week. Yay.

So, I’m not sure whether I’m only mid-week or also mid-life (technically, i know probably past midlife by a good 10-15 years!), or whether it’s just that we’ve been snowbound, but I’m really appreciating the remembrance that we’re not on this journey alone.

It’s been wonderful to start working on Love Flows: The LOVE project, which involves our gathering money to feed hungry kids on the weekend. And it’s been even more wonderful to gather people who are willing not only to think about the project in different ways, but to do something about making a really big dream a possibility.

Being in community makes big dreams achievable and companionable. And on the Sabbath, you get not only to celebrate the dream but also appreciate the community. Well, you do, if you want to. This week, I’m feeling particularly grateful and counting blessings.

and You? are numbered among those blessings.

I’m also enjoying winter, and although I’m not going along… i’m happy that a whole bunch of folks from the church are going off ice skating this afternoon. This is one of the things I remember from my happy little childhood… have a great time guys!

And yikes! because Sabbath to me also means church, I’d better stop sitting around smiling and get ready to go sit around and sing and smile and not be responsible today, because one of my companions on the journey is responsible today!

Blessed Sabbath. Celebrate the Dreams. Imagine the Peace. and do something that’s not work!

Local Peace Possibilities, llvl

I’m beginning to believe that Peace Dreams become more possible as you immerse yourself in your community. Partially, that may be because you begin to attune your dreams to what’s needed in your neighborhood. Partially, it’s because as you deepen friendships, you develop allies and a better instinct for who might be interested in what.

You not only get better instincts about who might clap for Tinkerbelle, but also who might run out and get her a power drink and who might work on the long-term problems that tend to make her fade away.

Comrades not in arms but in Love, in Peace.

Which is a good thing, because the journey to Peace is long, but it’s so much more possible in the company of our friends. And the Possibilities are endless as people add their thoughts and dreams. And so the Dream gets bigger. People step up. The hard work gets shared. and we’re off. Watch out Peace, the village is coming to play. Ah la vida local. What a sweet thing to live!

Local Valentine Love and Peace, llvl

I’m very lucky, my SweetPea is a pretty smushy kinda guy, so my day started out with a Will You Be My Valentine call. Sigh.

But after years of being single, happily, blessedly single, here’s to my girlfriends who have always been the root of my life.

And now after more than a decade living in this little River Valley, let me lift a glass to the love of a community. As we’re talking at the UUCSV about our becoming The Valley Where No Child Goes Hungry, I’m getting the most wonderful responses from friends and acquaintances… a let’s do this rather than a WTH?????

And then there’s my readership from many other places, who write and say this is how I’m falling in love in my life, with my life. Hurrah!

And finally, because she’s changed a way of thinking about and talking about women’s bodies, here’s to Eve Ensler and more annual performances of the Vagina Monologues than we can imagine. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah.

Love is in the air, and in the ground, and in the water and in the sky. Let us rejoice and make Peace and Love!

Neighborly Winter Peace, llvl

It’s a lovely thing, living in a town that’s small enough, at a pace that’s slow enough, that you can come to know your neighbors and what they’re really up to.

Suzanne is collecting coats to send to a reservation out West. The winter has been so cold and the poverty there is so extreme. And as she says, who doesn’t have a coat in their closet that they don’t wear all that often. She’s sent five boxes so far. She’s thinking about books next, because they don’t have enough books in their school libraries. And we have books by the truckload. Oh, said someone, they’ll be expensive to ship. Could they be more expensive than hungry minds? Probably not.

It was wonderful to talk to her and to hear not only what she’s doing, but why. To begin to understand what moved her heart and then moved her to action. It is good to sit with someone who is moved to action, even when they’re actions very different from ours, you understand the movement and it encourages your own. Hearts on the move toward Peace. However small the movement, however small the Peace. It’s what we need.

But living la vida local is also about the dailiness of life. And so, in Suzanne’s beautiful room, on a bluff high above the river, we sat as the day lengthened into evening talking about Big Hopes and little ones, her painting and my writing, people we knew and loved… just two women, living la vida local, doing the best we can, loving the community, and enjoying our lives to the fullest.

There we were: finding the moments, enjoying the Peace and the connections that’s already here, and then going back to work.

Winter Beauty and Peace, llvl

It’s difficult not to talk about the weather. It’s very cold and there’s snow coming. Snow!

And yet, it’s so beautiful. The icy clarity of a day like today — well, there’s really nothing to compare it to. The focus is so sharp, there’s such precision to the world this morning. No sense wasting breath whining about the cold, might as well just admire!

Gotta drive across the river today, it’s as close as it’s going to come to iced over. Have to leave the pipes dripping because they are indeed iced over. It’s a good day to have lunch with some friends and listen to music tonight in a warm tavern and sweet community.

The weather is what it is, might as well enjoy it. Being dissatisfied with you life doesn’t help anyone — and mostly it doesn’t help you.

Now while the sky is bright and blue, give thanks — and allow yourself to be astounded by the beauty (what’s outside your door and the magic Deb Slade caught in this picture!)! And then consider how making Peace with what is helps us to make Peace in the direction of what should be.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In