Peace Praying

Some of us had never been invited, because our traditions weren’t understood as part of the fabric that held our community together. It was never malice that excluded, but the reality was there was just no space, not even a consideration of space. Some of us, who were invited, never felt comfortable going, because our sisters were not invited. For most of us, the project of taking on such established institutions was daunting and it’s always better to be known as standing for something rather than against. Many of us shifted from foot to foot as the National Day of Prayer approached.

This year, a group of us had been gathering. A group of women, united not by the same faith, but by the disciplines of faith and the calls to leadership, had been meeting for coffee and conversation. We recognize each other’s work and challenges. We’re coming to know a bit more about how different faith traditions impact those two things. We’re laughing a lot, and our deepening friendships and collegiality, and oh, yes, support, improve and deepen our ministries. And laugh. Where two or three (women) are gathered, there will laughter be also… even if there are tears.

So, here came National Day of Prayer and the chance to add something to our community rather than distract. We decided to undertake a Prayer Vigil. We handed out assignments, I asked my friend Jen Curley to design a logo and we made pins so we could look official Then we invited our communities, gathered and prayed. First Annual. My friend says if 6 people come it’s a success. We had 3 or 4 times that many, and at least that many again of Women’s Interfaith Clergy Group. Prayers, poetry, and prose were read. Songs were sung. Silence was maintained. Gongs were sounded. Cookies were shared. Peace was sought; and indeed made. Next year it will happen again, may the weather always be as lovely. We’ll invite more people.

We also invite you to pray for peace, for 5 minutes every day during the month of May, sometime between the hours of 6 and 7 pm, knowing that people of different faiths and traditions are doing the same. May you pray with some question about what you will bring to the Peace process. And then may you put your prayer to work in the world. Peace. It’s in our hands, hearts, minds, souls… Let’s get it out into the world where it belongs.

Hooray for this group of average wonderwomen going about their callings. Hooray for whatever group supports you in your work. Hooray for more Peace in the world.

Back to Peace Work

Well, today’s poem was indicative of the work-a-day nature of Peacemaking. I send this poem out to three different groups and each version of the poem was different as I would read the poem again before sending and think… oh, no, I have to tweak that.

Which is odd, so often the poems are written and that’s that. But I had to keep weeding this. And that’s the thing with Peace. You make a bunch of progress, but it’s never finished. There’s always work to be doing, tending to happen. The best gardens are well-tended. The best relationships are, as well.

When you’re moving across differences, which are both the delight and the dilemma of Peace, it’s so easy to fall back into old prejudices and then to mispeak. Then there are fences to mend and the fox to be chased from the chicken coop. (my goodness all this quaint farming analogy, you’d think I had the slightest inkling about what you do with dirt, other than use a Tide stick on it!)

We’ve been thinking about Peace for 4 months now. We’ve been making plans letting them work on us even as we work on them. Small, tender Peace shoots are now making themselves visible. Even though we will continue to dream, we’re now cultivating and tending our Peace gardens. April, with her luxurious blossoming is finished. Time to stop standing in awe and start weeding, separating, replanting, (But do take a couple moments to simply bask in the sun! It feels so good after all these months.)

Beltane Peace

Moving to Sweden as an exchange student in 1969-70 (oooh, so long ago) was a game changer for me. At that point, it was a mostly mono-culture with traditions that went back hundreds of years. I was astonished and delighted. It was the start of my love affair with sociology and anthropology. It was (although I didn’t realize it then) an introduction to Earth-based traditions. And it was the beginning of life-long relationships that would transform how I thought of myself and how I had friends. (and how i would spend my summer vacations!)

So, yep, I liked it. Hurrah for Rotary and all the wonderful things they do. Their International Exchange Program is just one of their many world-changing programs.

I’d never lived someplace where the weather was such a force in the social fabric of the country. Christmas and Mid-Winter are dark, for years, people worried that spring would never return… fears left over from the ice ages… and so they would light its way back. Spring comes late, and in a rush. Around April 30, people would defy the usually still frigid temps and burn off the fields to ready them for planting. They took off winter clothes (and in some cases burnt them, i can only imagine that this piece has something to do with bug infestations, it’s much more romantic in theory!) and put on their spring clothes. Calling Spring Weather. Today, towns still have Valborgmassoafton fires. The name is linked to a German Saint, but those fires are far more primal!

When I tied the date together with the gathering and distributing of lilies of the valley during my youth … I began to understand the pattern. To this day, my spirit is lifted by this marking, whether I’m lighting fires and burning off restrictions as I have so often done, or peering into a neighbor’s backyard to see whether the white flowers are yet blooming. For me, now it’s Spring! Up until now the Earth has been cooking things underground, now they’re becoming visible. You and I have been focusing on Peace for 4 months now. It’s time to bring our work out into the open. And indeed, just as we’ve been working it, it’s been working us. Peace is changing our lives, even as we work to change and soften the world. Spring! Peace! Merry May! Let us Dance! (And look at Nanso’s Peace wreath, isn’t it a beauty?)

Allergy Peace

I’ve been having that lovely allergy feeling where you’re about 3 feet behind your brain. If I focus really hard, I can get things done, but… i have to be reeeeeeeeeeeeally focused.

But the fact is that whether I’m focused, whether it’s raining, whether I can’t seem to catch the attention of the angels who are supposed to be aligned and on my side, I am still called to work on Peace. Some days it goes more easily than others, but it is what it is.

But It’s spring, make sure you put some tissues in your bag when you pack!

Faith in Peace

You’ve got to keep building. Even when it looks bleak, build. Because you build in Faith and make space for Peace.

Today, Lewisburg is having its Arts Festival. 10,000 people will come through on a perfect Spring day. Surely some of them are going to want to make a contribution to Love Flows and help some recovery workers get showers, aren’t they? Well, in Faith, I’m going to give them that opportunity.

All we are saying… you know how that song goes. All these years later, we’re still saying/singing it!

Pink Moon Peace

The Pink Moon is named after a small Pink wildflower… wild phlox perhaps. It rises majestically on a beautiful pink and white world. A world where everything is new and hopeful and soft and fluffy. pretty grand, actually.

Everything seems possible in the midst of so much beauty. Even Peace. Perhaps because this weather brings so much joy, it just seems you can’t get away from the beauty, and you find yourself exclaiming in delight to whoever happens to be next to you. So, if Peace is potentially more possible now than in Winter’s cold which makes us burrow or Summer’s heat which makes us slothful. Let’s have at it. Onward. Peacemaking. Spring. (wait, let me take a claritin! ahhhhhhhhhh. that’s the ticket.)

Birthday Peace

One of the really great things about birthdays is that they make you stop and think. Count your blessings. Assess your goals. And mine’s in Spring, so by the time my birthday gets here, Spring has usually established herself fairly clearly.

So I have fluffy pink and white birthdays filled with blossoming trees and scudding clouds. That’s pretty fun all by itself.

But this year I have to say, it may be the best ever. So many things are right. At the moment, my sisty, while not completely healthy, is fairly well, and we’re going to take an amazing trip together to look at whales and eagles. That’s pretty fine. Dinner tonight with the whole PA clan. Steve’s healthy and his (now my!) kids are coming to visit this summer. My Hannah is graduating from College and has a dream internship next year. I’m surrounded by friends and great music. And then, there’s my work. I love my work.

I love the poetry writing. I love the peace making. I love the preaching. I love the pastoral care. (I can’t think of anything else I like at the moment that starts with p) My blessing counter is spinning.

I don’t know if it takes everyone until 61 to be able look at life and say, this is pretty much all i could dream of, but I’m going to keep dreaming. But damn! And I’m going to keep dreaming! There is more Peace somewhere. And let’s just keep trying to find it. And if you love me, have a piece of cake and celebrate. And if you’re anywhere on the scale between loving me and not knowing me from Eve, what the heck, have a piece of cake and celebrate. And then back to your life (or start your life) doing exactly what you want to do!

Peace Baby

Maybe this is the answer. There I was, giggling about the fact that a rather taciturn guy, called us over to his table at our breakfast place to show us his grand baby, and the power of grand cuties struck me. He’s never voluntarily done anything but nod at us before. But this cutie, (and she was! Such eyes! Such a lot of hair!) inspired him to reach beyond his comfort zone so he could show us her pic. “Like grand babies,” he asked? Who doesn’t?

So is that it? could it be that simple? Could we stop focusing on the parents whose role is, after all, to be protective? Could we just ensnare every proud grandparent, dump them in a room with photos of cute babies and start them oohing and ahing? There’s that lovely place in Julia Ward Howe’s Mother’s Day address when she says (essentially!) that mothers must be too tender of other mother’s babies and hearts to send her kids off to kill theirs.

But since it’s often the grandparents who send kids off, let’s pack the pockets of the warmongers with pictures of their younglings and start every negotiation with not only pictures of cute babies but of proud grandparents loving. OK, we know it won’t be the only answer, but maybe it could be part of an answer. In the meantime, practice. Don’t have grandchildren of your own, put forward the kids you love. Ask to see kids that are loved by whomever you’re talking to. Peace Babies. Let’s make every child a Peace Baby! And of course that means that we’ll have to recognize every child as a Love Child. So precious and they’re all worth saving. Everyone should live in Peace.

Less Than Expert Peace

There is so much going on in the world at this moment. It’s really quite overwhelming. Huge natural disasters can barely find newsprint room next to tragedies of negligence and intention. How do we take it all in.

Particularly the intentional tragedy. We want to believe that we can understand why someone would do that. Perhaps if we understand we can assure ourselves that nothing would ever/could have ever lead/led us down a wrong road toward hate-filled activities. Not in us. Nope. Not in anyone we know. But of course it is. But we can’t understand it. We can barely believe that it doesn’t have to be more than two blundering brothers who planned this.

I don’t believe that I can understand all the things that happened here. I don’t think most of us can. I know that I don’t have access to an awful lot of information, and I know that my mind is not the one to sift through it. Those aren’t my gifts. So I’m working reeeeeeeeallly hard not to speculate. I do know how to pray. I have both an advanced degree and a fair amount of experience in this. (Perhaps this is why my alma mater insisted that an MDiv was a vocational degree.) And so I pray. For Boston. For that sad, demented young man and his brother’s soul. For the people of West, Texas. For those in China and those in Iran. And then, oh, my goodness, the places where there’s a world of hurt and violence.

I’m good at praying. And I believe that prayer is a lot more than asking “can Somebody (else) help these folks?” It’s about focusing to see where I can help and sending love. And it’s about doing those things that I know how to do, right here and right now. I can be kind. I can work to effect justice. I can speak for Peace. I can demand justice for the grievously wounded and the wounder. But I can’t be an expert about something I know nothing about. This isn’t a backing away from responsibility, I need to stay informed. I need to keep stretching, I know that. But I also need to find some allies, some people I trust who do know. Some people who trust me to know the things I do when they need to call on or lean on me. So, I’ll keep plodding along for Peace.

Peace at the Center

It was an astonishing moment for the two of us… I don’t know, maybe you won’t find it interesting. But my friend, a huge introvert, and I, with only extrovert bones in my body, discovered that our take on writing was completely different.

I speak my writing, sort of, and then arrange it on the page. I slowly pare away words once they’re out there, occasionally adding something. But for me, writing is fast, editing is laborious.Writing, the work of an extrovert.

For her, who’s boiled everything down, writing is laborious but editing a breeze. Writing, the work of an introvert.

What’s fun is that often we have similar visions of Peace, but we’ve looked at the Peace elephant very differently. So… We’ve looked at Peace from both sides now. But neither she nor I have probably looked at Peace from your vantage point, which will be somewhere exactly the same or completely different from our takes… and you’ll write it differently as well. But Peace? Will still be at the center of our work!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In