Have you noticed yourself whining? Have you noticed how much time you and your friends spend griping about life? Want to make life different? Stop complaining. Start your blessing counting. Tell good stories.

My husband and I are both rather wickedly funny. And I’m not giving that up. But it can morph pretty easily from laughter to sort of pursed mouth whining about others and what they do do or don’t do and how incredibly wrong this is.

So we’re weaning ourselves off the superiority and the negativity. And you know what? We live in a much better world. And we have more fun together. Our life together and our lives in the world are really, really great. He’s a musician. I’m a writer and a minister. It doesn’t get much better than that. We love going to work every day. So, why whine?

And really? Laughing. More fun than whining. And leaves a lot more time to get things done. And other people want to laugh with you. And then you can engage them in your sneaky little plans to change the world and make it better and they’ll want to because wow! They’re having fun. Ha! Keep making Peace… who was it that sang “and when you’re smiling, and when you’re smiling, the whole world smiles with you?” I don’t know. But they were right. Smile at people, next thing you know you’re caring about their lives

In the local paper I read about a woman who saw a newspaper picture of a little girl in a favela. This child was dressed only in her underwear. The woman discovered there were a lot of little girls not only there, but all over the world, who didn’t have clothes. “You know what?” she thought. “I have cloth and I sew. I can make dresses.” And so she started sewing. She didn’t decide to change the world, just to make dresses and send them to little girls wherever they might be needed. She made contacts and started sewing dresses.

Her friends found out. Why, they sewed too. So they started sewing with her. And now there are a bunch of women, sewing dresses for little girls who would otherwise have nothing to wear.

Then the seamstress of dresses and dreams got sick. Cancer. Now the sewing of clothing provides purpose and inspiration to help her cope with her treatments. The other women carry on when she feels lousy.

She’s just one lovely woman doing what she can and changing the lives of little girls all over the world. Because you know, when you have a dress, you can go to school. And education, particularly for women, is the single largest indicator of a changed life. A newspaper article and a Singer. Stealth sewing. You go, Grrl!

My fabulous mentor is a woman of a certain age. She lives in California in a wonderful retirement community designed Julia Morgan (swoon!). She’s a former seminary president and professor. The people who live in her community have been ministers and professors. It’s a lively bunch — someday I’ll write about the way they’re organized.

But my friend has a group of women who have gathered first casually in friendship, but then formally in the expressed intention “to help each other into the light.”

They’ve done their paperwork and their planning. Now they’re doing something better. They’re building up memories: treasured times when they laugh and eat; good times they can recall when they are easing out of life.

These are good women, earnest and concerned. They do good work and good works. They’re involved in their communities, both in leadership roles and as worker bees. They’re living their lives to the fullest and helping others to do the same. My own dear friend, paints and swims and makes the most laser-like assessments of where the world goes askew. And she usually has a reasoned, yet wildly creative, suggestion about which direction to start working to make life better.

But through it all, she laughs and cries and paints the wonderful and amazing paintings. Her friends do amazing things as well. Really, amazing things. Daring, wonderful, not your father’s grandma kinda things. Wild Women Live Great Lives. They’re the mentors we all need.

One of my favorite stories was of a group outing to a discount shoe store. There they were, distinguished women spanning the decades from 45-80, trying on heels and platforms and thigh high boots and laughing their asses off. If that’s not changing their world, I have no idea what is!

Welcome to my blog at the Sacred Village. This site has been designed to offer tools and resources for engaging in the work of making communities stronger, saner, healthier and a whole lot more fun. I wanted to spend some time with you musing about not only what might be done, but what’s being done all over the world.

It’s pretty clear that governments are not necessarily well-set-up to create Peace. Too much of our media is focused on what’s wrong and how folk harm one another. As long as we focus on the horrible — and I know, we need to know what’s going on — that’s what we’ll find when we look, more horrible things. You know what? Let’s shake it up! We’re just going to have to take Peace into our own hands and go about building stronger communities and a better world. I’ll spend less time on the massive projects and more on the little things that neighbors decide to do for their neighbors, whether they’re here or across the world.

I’ll be telling a lot of stories about my part of the Global Village, here in the beautiful Susquehanna River Valley. I’ll share great quotes and wonderful pictures. Why don’t you write and tell me about what’s changing and making a difference in your part of the Global Village? I’ll put it up for the world to read! Let’s talk about making schools work and hearts dance. Let’s hear who’s planning gardens and who’s feeding their community.

My friends, together, let’s get busy “Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

You want to make a difference where you live? Start smiling. Really. Smile when you see yourself in the mirror in the morning. First thing, don’t bother with the o-my-goodness-do-I-look-like-that?? Nope smile. Then smile at your family or the cat and the dog if you have them. Walking down the street. Smile. Say how are you. Care about the answer. Do it every day.

You’ll feel better, because everyone is happy to meet someone who smiles at them. And other people will start smiling and asking the people they meet how they are. And caring about the answer.

A smile. What a simple way to start a revolution.