Hospitable Peace

When I lived in NY, apartments were small and most of us met our friends and lived our lives in the public sphere. There were things about that that I liked, I confess. And it’s certainly what happens in many parts of the world.

But I lived in a friendly building, and we were in and out of one another’s apartments. It’s true we were young, but it was also part of the tradition. You visited. Growing up, I was certainly in and out of friends’ houses, even if I was mostly in the kitchen.

And perhaps some of the sanctity of the castle for me has developed because I have no children to have friends to run in and out… But it seems we entertain less than we used to… our houses are closed because so many of us live in the suburbs and drive into our garages. We don’t sit on porches, we sit on decks.

Do you, I wonder, know the heart of me if you’re never in my house? Do I know the heart of you? Does the feeling of being at home on the internet make us unlikely to dust and fluff and invite someone in for a cuppa with their feet propped on our coffee tables? Do we invite each other into our Peaceful Kingdoms? Do we create Peaceful kingdoms if we never plan to invite anyone in?

And if we don’t, does that change, not only how we interact, but also who we are? I wonder…

Peace Dictionary

June’s going to be a funny month, I have a lot going on. My sister and I are going to Alaska for almost 2 weeks on a cruise (with a short side-trip to Denali). So, I knew I would have to write ahead so that you guys get your dailies and I stay constant with my goal of daily writing (and what good is a year’s worth of musings with a two week hole in it?).

What to do, what to do? Well, awhile back I wrote a sermon on the need for a UU (that’s Unitarian Universalist) language of reverence. I don’t think it’s just a UU need, I think we’re all ‘way too connected with the ugly and not enough focused on the possible… That day I reeled of 30+ words that I thought should be in any Peace Dictionary or in the vocabulary of anyone who takes Peace-ibilities seriously (or even humorously!)

So why not use June to focus on those words I thought? It won’t be an exhaustive list, you may have others to suggest to me. But, they certainly might help us get through the Peacemaze still making Peace!

Here’s what Nancy Cleaver had to say about this month’s beautiful Peace mandala: Seeing the complexity of everyone participating in the constant renewing of the vow towards peace led to this piece. I thought it would be a paisley pattern to repeat on fabric, originally. However, the image had other plans for me, and the ancient Mayan shell pattern insisted on bordering the maze. All roads lead to peace, if we will follow the way.

I definitely will have the poems done. I hope to have at least some blogs done which will post automatically. If you’re used to finding this on FB, you may need to come on over to Sacred Village… and while you’re reading words, I’ll be storing up images of Alaska and a trip with my sweet sister to write about next month… but I’m not going anywhere until the 7th, so don’t run away!

but respect? It’s where we have to begin…

Labor-Intensive Peace

Peace is not easily obtained. All month, I’ve been using the image of the garden as a metaphor for Peacemaking. And it’s a good one, because gardening is very labor intensive, you must prepare the soil, choose what you will plant, figure out how those things work together and that’s when the work starts.

As with gardens, Peace is labor-intensive and much of that labor is just plain hard work. The hope is, that if the wind and weather cooperate, it will not only feed you for the summer but also enliven and strengthen your diet throughout the year. Again, with Peace the hopes and the goals are enormous and long-term and are affected by many variables.

However. with gardening as with Peacemaking, there are those magical moments when you pull up, say, the first spring onion, or you accomplish a small milestone and life it made infinitely better. Savor those moments, because there will be more work to do right afterwards! But at the moment? how sweet!

Beginning-again Peace

When you have huge pinnacles in your work/life/love, there’s an odd sort of moment when you realize that the what you thought of as a destination is really just a way station. The path leads on from there, and after your rest, you need to refill the backpack and get back on the road — which is all right, because you chose your work/life/love for the journey, it’s just a bit disorienting.

Time to take stock, examine your heart, get out the compass and the GPS, and “ease on down the road.” This time, however, you’ve got sweet memories, and not just great hopes, to keep you going as you set off down the Peaceroad.

If you haven’t recently plotted and planned for something at which you could succeed wildly, after a lot of good work accomplished and new relations built, let me recommend you try it. Aid if it’s a project you’ve done for the world? You might just find you like it enough to keep working for Peace.

Saying Yes to Peace

What would it mean if we were to say yes to Peace? If we really wanted to do that, it would mean that we would have to exercise our options to say NO! to war. We have to go to work on many fronts each where we work best and form a Peace wall of people working together.

There’s too much sadness in this world. Too much violence. Why aren’t we searching as diligently for an end to war as we are for a cure for HIV or cancer. Why aren’t we funding great studies? Let’s ponder together.

Picnic Peace

Moments of silence for fallen warriers, short but boisterous parades and sweet picnics at a friends: These are the joys of a good Memorial day. An important part of remembering is making new memories against moments of loss and grief. I hope yours was splendid. (and let us not forget to count the blessing of the three-day weekend! Let’s hear it for Unions!)

Honoring, Seeking Peace

Today is a day of remembrance for all who have served and all who have sacrificed. We remember not only the soldiers, but also those who supported and those who waited for those who never returned.

It should also be a day of commitment. First, that those who are in harms way will return to a warm welcome and not just adequate, but excellent care.

Secondly, with our global reach, we must find new ways to build peace so that such sacrifices can be looked back on one day as inconceivable and unacceptable. That will happen only as we turn our considerable power toward Peace. May it be so.

Rest in Peace, Beloved. Your homes are now in our hearts. Our prayers are with your families.

Resting Sabbath

At some point, we’ll gather and wonder what comes next. But not not yet. Today’s for the telling of stories, the reveling in new connections and the exalting in work well done. The UUCSV and its friends got on a bus, came to Staten Island with some elbow grease and more food than anyone could imagine and made Peace. We were taken on a tour of the affected areas. The need we encountered was staggering. The ongoing problems daunting. We didn’t change the world, but: There’s a little less mold and a lot more shelves. A kitchen remodeling moved along. Data entered. Calls made. Parties set up and carried out! Friends made, Heroes encountered. Labyrinths walked, Maypoles danced, Songs played and sung. And then they got back on the bus exhausted and happy.

Today, we’ll rest and reminisce. Thanks to everyone who participated. Thanks to everyone who gave. (it’s still not to late, go to Love Flows if you’re able to share some resources with people so hard hit by a storm.) Three of us will provide the service for our host church as one more chance for people to sit back and put their feet up. What happened, happened because you participated.

Thank you. I’m sure I’ll be finding new things to give thanks for about this trip for a long time.

But you know what? I’m a tired girl… and other people were doing great things in the world while we were working on this little one. So sit back, put your feet up and relax. Enjoy the Sabbath. Yesterday was all about the hard work. Now, we could all use a little Peace and quiet.

Even Tiny Bits of Realized Peace

Sometimes you just have to stop and take stock and say, “Wow. we did that.”

Today is one of those days. 40 some people are on a bus from where I live to Staten Island (I’m already here, bouncing impatiently up and down.) We haven’t put hammer to sheetrock, or bleach to mold, but we will. But what we have done is run a successful campaign and organized ourselves and our talents and our gifts and gotten them on the bus headed toward good, but hard work and good celebration.

The road to Peace is long and tiring. So it’s important to celebrate the milestones, however tiny. I’ve said before that we’ve only got a teaspoon of water to an empty well, but if we all filled our teaspoons and took them to empty wells, not only would we be caring for one another, we would be filling wells. And when many of us come carrying teaspoons, people with buckets will be inspired to do what they can. And then engineers who can tap into the groundwater will think… “wait, I can solve that problem.”

So my dears, teaspoons up, click, fill, pick your empty well, and start walking. And every once in a while along the way, remember to say, “Wow! we did that!” (and I’m proud of all of us, myself included!)

Ritual Peace

As Beloved Niece graduated, there were two ceremonies. The first, smaller, more intimate (uh, 1,600 graduates, is that intimate?) event I spent mostly focused on her. Although as it always does for me, ritual made itself known.

But the second event was huge and about the notion of commencement and the celebration of honors for those who either commenced earlier and arrived someplace important, or for those who were engaged in helping to shape both these young minds and the process of education and study. It was large and sweeping and moved from the intimate to the grand and bold.

It was a lovely public ritual, secular, inclusive, effective. The graduates felt both tied to their groups and launched into the world. As I quoted only last week, thinking about our church’s bridging ceremony, “letting them grow, but not letting them go.”

Such a ritual helps make order in the lives of those undergoing, provides a benchmark for those who have been observing, supporting, celebrating the graduates, and gives those not yet there something to which to aspire. (and I should have checked, but I’m sure the stock in Kleenex went up around the world on graduation weekend.) Secular ritual can also unite people across traditions and culture… creating a large oasis of Peace, as accomplishments or yearnings are celebrated. On that day, regardless of where you came from, what mattered was that you had completed the requirements of the degree and were being admitted to the ranks of graduates (with all the attendant privileges and responsibilities hereto attached!).

And for me, such a strong reminder of why I do what I do. Ritual, it does a body and a community good. What a privilege to be part of people’s lives in this way. Celebrate! And by the way, Hannah, your auntie is so proud. Way to go, my dearest!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In