While for many the Sabbath is celebrated as the first day, a day of looking forward, I still cherish the notion of its ending the week. When you’ve worked hard, then comes rest and relaxation. In our world, it seems we have to play as hard as we work, but there is much to be said from what can grow from the idle contemplation of a fire… particularly when the fire’s boiling down the sap into syrup. mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sweet Life. Sweet Peace.
I saw this great quote yesterday and used it in my musing for today: Manning Marable, a professor of African American Studies, said: “Grace is the ability to redefine the boundaries of possibility.” You know me, if I’d have said that, I’d have had exclamation points abounding. His was a simple emphatic statement.
We forget that when we wake up to a new day that more is possible today than we dreamed was possible yesterday. Now we could say that we failed to imagine yesterday’s possibilities and thus sold it short. And that might be true. But what he reminds us is that there’s no reason to be constrained by outmoded notions of what we can do.
To think less, to act on less is to give up. It’s the thinking that keeps the world small and divided. It’s thinking, quite frankly, that keeps making the world smaller. We need to take as mentors, people who dared. Big people, certainly. But look around you. There are people daring everywhere you look. Hitch your star to theirs! Spend time with those who imagine. You’ll become someone who imagines as well. And see that? Possibility expanded, the world just got larger.
I recently read an article that said you can’t love the whole world, that that’s just too big a concept for our hearts to comprehend. I rarely argue with science, because science, like gravity usually wins. But if Peace depends on Love, because really, I don’t think tolerance is strong enough for Peace, then how do we get around our own very real constraints.
Certainly getting around our constraints to loving is the hard work of Peace. I think perhaps all I can do is love the people I encounter. And if you love the people you encounter and we love each other then love begins to spread across the world. It’s not easy, that’s for sure. Because loving the people I encounter requires going to my highest self. It means loving people despite, perhaps even because of their messy humanness. It means loving myself when I’m less than lovely. It means loving you when you step on one of my corns. It also means loving people who do really unpleasant things. It means, oh, darn it, releasing not judgment but judgmentalism. If I’m going to love, I have to find a way to accept people who stand for things that I abhor, even as I work to change those things, despite my awareness of them. It means being kind, when I am so gifted at snarky.
It doesn’t mean nice, which is such a namby-pamby kinda word. It means passionate about the world and its possibilities. Love is a demanding dance partner. But, oh! how our feet will fly!
Author’s note: as I was adding tags to this post, I noticed that love was not one of my tags. Slow, slow, slow to love the world. Still, we try. Enjoy this day of loving and being loved.
Reading the newspaper is a huge part of my prayer life. At my best, when I read, I try to focus on the places in the world in need of peace and send them prayers of peace. There are some that I can then act on, and some I must simply keep praying on.
I work to stay centered on lifting up (or as we say in FB parlance) sharing only those things about which our prayers can move us forward. I am easily moved to outrage by stupid stuff, so I try to save my outrage for the stuff that matters. Violence against Women, for instance. You’ll see me be fairly outraged about the ongoing use of women and our bodies and our safety as a tool in war and our complete disregard of that reality. Yep. Outrage. But I try not to rile (too much) when a member of the larger clergy community (using that term oh-so-loosely) is a jerk. There are as many jerk ministers as there are jerk anythings; we’re just more dangerous because we have pulpits.
Well, now that I have that off my chest, perhaps I can get to where I was going when I wrote the title. Peace Slivers. Little pieces of Peace. Sometimes they’re a broken off bit of a larger dream, but sometimes they are tiny little dreams that can actually be carried out. Maybe by you, because it’s a tiny little change you could make in your life that would make you more peaceful, or even your corner of the world. Like smiling at strangers on the street. That can make everyone’s day sweeter. But maybe by someone else. And when I say someone else, I’m not thinking about those, “oh, hey, here’s this thing that I don’t want to do, but if I ruled the world, I would make everyone do it: kinda thing. No, I’m thinking about looking at a tiny little something and being struck by how much that thing is tailor made for someone you know. It may in fact be so tailor made that they already do it.
Nothing spreads peace faster than noticing someone for doing something wonderful and complimenting them on it. And sometimes you can help someone notice the impact they have… or the impact they could have. “Oh, you do this so wonderfully, have you ever considered adding this little thing to what you’re already doing?” or “Wow, have you ever thought about this being your work, you’re so good at it and it gives you such joy.”
But whatever we do with the scraps, it’s worth saving them up into a container. Then on a rainy day when we need a little Peace success, we can pull one out and work on it. Or perhaps we can go through our Peace scraps with a friend and see how this little idea of ours fits with that little idea of theirs and pretty soon we can start a Peace joint venture. We’re not here to save the world on our own. We’re just here to do our work. Our work is Peace. Peace is a communal effort… and communal efforts can be, should be fun. Peace slivers — they’re good for what ail you!
Perhaps it’s because I sit and look at a beautiful brass gong from my writing chair, But I am beginning to envision the path toward Peace as a large circle converging on one beautiful center. (This gong is a series of concentric circles in dark or shiny brass.) The outside is the not knowing, the bright inside is walking (and by far the largest part of the gong) and the dark and beautiful center is where all our notions for peace converge.
That’s the story I’m telling, at any rate. And there were are, walking, walking, walking. Sometimes stumbling, sometimes skipping, sometimes needing to sit down on the side of the road, and sometimes, truth to tell, sitting down to enjoy the view and maybe some company.
But here in my part of the world, it’s snowing. So any Peace steps are going to have to be careful ones. Unless, of course, you think what the heck and try a slow and careful and joyful slide. As we get old and creaky, it’s a scary thought, but how exhilarating. Life isn’t all plodding. Sometimes it’s good to let the cold air invigorate rather than just irritate! Woosh.
I lead a fairly privileged life, and I am incredibly grateful. I’m also fairly well protected, much of that protection comes from being well-loved. Here in the center of PA, I am an opinionated vocal laughing outloud woman leading a church that’s a happy amalgamation of so many points of view. For me, it’s heaven right here on earth. I’m proud of the work we’re doing and I’m pretty darned happy.
It took a while to find my place here; But I had old contacts to lean on and met and fell in love with one of the Valley’s most well-loved men. So being a Goddess-worshiping religious radical seemed to just get folded into their notion of Ann and I feel welcomed and accepted most of the time. I get to be me, right here in River City. That’s priceless, and believe me I’m aware of how lucky I am.
There are a lot of women ministers in this valley. I am neither the most radical nor the one accomplishing the most. Good women doing good work. I’m in great company. There are also good men doing good work, but this column isn’t about that. Life has changed in these local churches as more women ministers show up ready to serve in rural PA. All in all, there are more women in ministry now than there have ever been. That’s as true here as anywhere else.
So I am surprised when I garner hostility or outrage for who I am and what I believe. I mean, geezum, folks, if rural Central PA folk of many faiths and traditions can happily check with in with me on a question about their elderly parents or join the UUCSV in a fund drive for Staten Island Residents affected by Hurricane Sandy, you don’t get much more accepted than that. When the staunchly conservative republican woman stops by my breakfast table to remind me to remember to vote, life is good.
Then this winter, out I went to Palm Springs — California, that is, to find people horribly overset that a woman was performing a wedding ceremony, wondering about what kind of new-fangled tradition UUism was (um, about 1530ish?) and whether I was pushy enough to call myself Father Ann. (uh, really?) It was sort of funny, no one’s questioned me about my bona-fides for years, especially since i took on weight and grey hair. (And of course, in the meantime, lots of women were still getting ordained and flooding the market with a new kind of capable, caring ministers.) Not so funny, of course, were all the underlying hostility toward a lot of traditional targets, which I was kept busy addressing. And then, back home, the other day I ran into someone who just, to use a Swedish verb, nonchalanted me — just pretended I wasn’t there. (did i mention the weight gain? I’m there.) And this wasn’t at all belief related, because he made sure not to ask anything about who I was even though we were doing something together. He had something he had to do, and I didn’t want to make him nervous, so I let it run.
These days, I’m actually pretty secure in myself. It’s been a long journey to this point. But now? I love my work, I love my life with its web of friends and family, I love this beautiful, needy Valley filled with incredible resources — not the least of which is music. I’ve fallen jelly-side-up and I’m aware of that, I’ll tell you. So I don’t really have a personal response other than… oh, well, that was surprising!
But it does make me sad as I think about the distance that I forget needs to be covered for some of the world so we can move into greater Peace. I forget that I can’t just be looking ahead, and have to be looking behind for work that that needs to be done to pull people into the present. Some of that I won’t be able to do, this is why we all need help on the road, because you can do work I am incapable of doing and vice versa.
It’s easy to be outraged, but it’s not really useful. In this case, I am not wounded, although one of my sister clergy might not have the support I have. But there are so many who are not safe. So, may my experiences serve as a February wake-up call. And if we feel outrage, let it only be used for fuel and not for endless venting. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and dig a little deeper. Our world needs Peace. And we’re just the people to handle the job. There’s work to do in the world and work to do right here at home, wherever home is. And if you’re asked who told you that, tell ’em Father Ann, a witchy woman of Peace. Shalom, Salaam, Peace everyone!
Synchronicity is an odd thing. You actually have to be focused on something for it to start working. It’s a two-way tool. You can start thinking that humanity is worthless and there’s nothing but pain and suffering. and you will see not only pain and suffering but begin to think that humans can only work to create pain and suffering. Or you can notice pain and suffering and begin to do something about it. It is always good to notice pain and suffering. But the human task, I believe is to begin to alleviate it. Each step we take gives those who had been formerly hopeless footsteps in which to follow.
And if we decide to take those steps, it is astounding how often we are met. Once you start the journey, you begin to notice other folks going along in the same (or even same-ish!) direction. Steps toward Hope. Steps toward Love. Steps toward Peace.
And then you start chatting, and you figure out how your goals intersect. And if they don’t you just gratefully accept the surge of energy that comes with knowing that someone else is doing their work. A recent poem, circulating on line by Shiloh Sophia ends like this: “There is only one thing I know that is the remedy for this over-culturation that keeps us captured from our soul’s deepest song. It is this: To declare your sacred work.” And I would add to this wisdom, to declare your work sacred. Because if we treat what we do as sacred, any parts of it that are not will fall away. We will become happier and healthier as we honor our life and its path. And sacred work does sing to other sacred work.
And when we’re singing in harmony, the music moves us along. (Am I working too many metaphors here? It’s happened before, certainly!) I guess it comes to this. We’ll start walking. We’ll keep our eyes and ears and hearts open. We’ll assume that those we meet are good-souled travelers who might want to walk with us a while in the general direction of Peace.
I’m a dreamer. I can envision vast and wonderful changes in the world. I’ve always longed to emulate the Red Queen (not for her off-with-their-heading) for her ability to think of six impossible things before breakfast.
But (and is it age that makes me tired or some have I actually accumulated a modicum of reason) I’m getting better at understanding that you can only build castles in the air, if you’re willing to build the infrastructure under them. And so, I do a better job at being deliberate about steps, making better goals and meeting them. And probably most importantly, I’ve found allies whose gifts are complementary. Sometimes they’ll work with me on projects, sometimes, they’re just part of my informal personal board of directors.
Ah, learning to take advice, learning to be collaborative. It’s so important. And yes, I get the irony of struggling with collaboration when we’re talking about Peace. Because what is Peace other than collaboration? But what are so many dreamers other than people who spend a lot of time on their own, dreaming. But Peace requires collaboration. You have to smile at someone. And when you find someone who smiles back, then the two of you can make a concerted effort to smile and say hello to more people.
Peace may be a dream, but it is also a journey. And when you start out on a journey, it’s always a good idea to put a sandwich, some water, some sunscreen and who knows what else in your knapsack. It just makes sense to be prepared. And then invite some friends along for the journey. Pick up others on the way. Move your Dream to a journey, your journey to a movement.
Peace may well be magical, but even magic is simple small steps that lead up to an incredible whole. Let’s get moving!
Here it is. Sunday again. Church. Lunch with friends. A play about our river. For some of you, football or winter sports. Quiet. Laughter. Just a lovely day in our lives. May it be one of great peace and joy.
Well, Mr. Phil says Spring is right around the corner. My long-range forecaster doesn’t seem to reflect that… and I’m not sure exactly how I feel about Winter’s ending. Truth to tell, I like the cold, and I’m lucky to have the clothes to take care of that. So whether Phil’s right or the Farmer’s Almanac, with their slightly more snowy forecast is, we’ll see. One way or the other, the equinox is barreling toward us in the third week of March (March 20).
Mr. Phil and his mustachioed friend
But while prognostication is a fun past-time, there’s real work to be done in February. This is the time we haul our dreams out from wherever it is dreams are formulated forward into real life. Let us tether those fragments of Peace in our daily lives. The clear picture we had while dreaming can now be reassembled in our waking hours and we can start working on it.
Actually, I’m hoping that Phil isn’t right, that we’re not jumping directly into spring. We need each season so that we can accomplish the work for that season. It’s not time for birds and flowers. It’s time for the painstaking building of a platform for Peace.
Dreams made real. Let’s go!
