The Priestess Is In

Faces of Peace, Wherever You Look

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There are so many places on cliffs and in streams where a profile or a whole or partial face appears. Geologists can explain how they were worn or why the rock broke in that way.

But even the not so fanciful among us are caught by those faces. It’s easy to anthropomorphize… As a species, we’re built for that.

But I always wonder… being me… about the spirit of that rock. Although of course, I wonder about the spirit of that stream or cliff… but the face always catches at my heart.

Speak to me of Love, o Oracle of the Rock. Speak to me of Peace.

Making Peace with the March Lion

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It wasn’t clear yesterday what we would get, who March would be as it started, lion or lamb. Today, it’s very clear. It’s a warm and very blustery, rainy day. We’ve been promised (oh joy!) electricity and wifi outages. And through the day the temperatures will plummet.

Ah, well, you get what you get.

And you make Peace with that. It’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it?

Wishing you an interesting and capricious March and lovely Peace(s) to make.

Compassion and Peace

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In a world that is roiling with and reeling from hate, compassion is desperately needed. Foreigners, Muslims, and Jews have been targeted, although the horror of the death of Srinivas Kuchibhotla is compounded by the reality that he was probably targeted as a Muslim, simply because he was dark.

We must demand Compassion. We must be Compassion. We must demand Justice. We must be Just. If we cannot do this, we cannot be Peace.

February is over. Tomorrow, March pours in.

Peace of Stuff I Do Not Know

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There’s so much in this world that I don’t know. Some things, I will never need to know. But some people do want or need information that’s of no interest or import to me. What’s astonishing is that the stuff I want and the stuff others want is all there.

Stuff someone needs to know. It’s really quite wonderful.

And I don’t need to worry about that stuff in the slightest, yet should I have someone who wants information that’s completely outside my ken, I can help them find it.

There’s great Peace in knowing that there are some things I’ll never need to know. What deer do in the Springtime is one of those things. Yet deer do it without my needing to know. They ask no permission, just go about their lives. And people, like my sister-in-law, can happily know that stuff.

Homes of Comfort and Peace

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I’ve been thinking a lot about what the home of a spiritual community looks like since mine is about to (finally, at long last!) buy their building.

It’s never seemed important until now, but not only are we growing, but it feels as if we’ll need a place that can serve as refuge in the time ahead. Refuge to us; refuge to others. We don’t have a kitchen, our bathrooms aren’t as accessible as they should be. Spiritual Homes should offer all the amenities.

And in these tumultuous times, I’m aware (you’d think I’d think about this more, given I’m the preacher lady) how essential the role of the religious community is, to the community itself, to the wider community, and to the individual.

So, a building, with a good path… free of ice and snow in the winter… seems like a lovely luxury on the Peace journey… because there we can find comfort and Peace ourselves and offer it to our neighbors…

Home Is Where the Peace Gets Made

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This faith community seems very much like my forever shell, and this Valley seems like my forever beach.

Some of it is familiarity, some of it is skill, some of it perseverance and dedication, and some of it is just luck.

I am lucky to have found the tribe who makes Peace in ways that are familiar and complementary to mine.

Peace. Make it at home. It’s where you best know how to go about it. It’s where you’ll most easily recognize it.

Inklings of Peace?

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I’ve been reading some people who make me rearrange my thinking… if by rearrange you mean drag it kicking and screaming toward another viewpoint. Jonathan Haidt. George Lakoff. I’m going to keep reading them and continue dragging it toward another (deeper?) understanding of Peace.

The irony doesn’t escape me that I’m finding people (who have made me think before, it’s true) to confirm my biases toward working another way, when they’re talking about confirming biases… But nonetheless, if what we’re doing to make Peace isn’t working, we have to find a different way. We have to try every way we can.

Letting Extreme Storms Move Us to Peace

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I’m reading Active Hope by Joanna Macey and Chris Johnstone. It’s a wonderful book designed to draw us back from despair and lead us into engagement. I heartily recommend it. It’s worth thinking about. Mother Earth needs us to think about these things if she is to provide us a world we can live in.

We are quickly tipping into unsustainable levels of destruction. It’s our Earth. Our decisions. What are we going to do?

Fretting and sending recovery money are not the answer.

Let us decide on Peace and act accordingly.