Music-Makin’ Peace

If there’s anything we need, it’s more music. I predict this will be a good time ahead for good songs.

We have a coffee house where we are. John’s been a faithful supporter of that venue (in addition to being a guy who works hard to make his music better for him and us).

In the time to come, we’re going to need Peace songs to encourage us on our way. Pithy, catchy songs to carry us on our way.

We’re going to need to go to coffee houses and be together. We’ll need the blues. But we’ll need our power songs.

Ready? start writing songs of Peace.

Next Stop, Peace!

I’m sure Joe kept himself sane through his lawyer years with hard cases for people whose lives were complicated and insecure by playing music.

He certainly added a lot to our lives through that time… But hooray, here comes retirement!

But now he has all the time he wants to explore his music for himself. I’ve heard a couple things. I really hope we’ll hear more. But I mostly hope that he gets to dig in and just have a good time. And of course I always hope he makes his beloved dance. She does love to dance!

Time for Joe to give his own Peace a chance. Lucky us!

Keep Coming Back to the Well of Peace

You start some place. We all do. This guy started in this little Valley. He may have been young when he started, but he has a always had big voice! He has a big following inside and outside this Valley.

But every year, once a year, he comes back and sings and plays with his teacher. They have a good time. We have a great time! Leaving is great. Homecomings are great. There’s Peace in both — and Peace is for the listening! Enjoy!

The Blues, The Joy, The Peace

I used to sing back up with this woman. It was always fun because she was always ready for a good time. We always laughed.

And then she fell in love and went away, and music isn’t as giggly fun as it used to be in this valley.

Even when you sing the blues, when there’s harmony and friends, the blues aren’t as hard to carry.

The laughter and the music fill and heal your heart… Join together, they fill the hearts of the singers. They fill the hearts of the players. They fill the hearts of the audience.

Everyone’s hearts are in the same place. That’s Peace! Thanks Averie! You’re so Savory! And so is Peace!

Love and Peace in your Young-Old Years

It’s a risk to marry at a point in your life where you are so much yourself. It’s hard to make a place in your life for a lover. I remember my friend Carolyn saying as she was falling in love with Jim, he’s fabulous, but is there any reason he has to have stuff? Why yes, that’s one reason Steve and I live in the same town and not the same house! Drums! Books!

The thing about Steve that tempted me into marriage at this age was not simply that he was someone I loved… although I do. It is that his passion for music is so huge, so much a piece of him, that I knew there would be room for my own passion for social justice and community. And there is.

It’s bumpy, of course it is. Two people used to having themselves and their work at the center of their lives are not the easiest bedfellows. But two people, each reflecting the other’s work… it’s a great thing.

Marriage anytime, but especially as you become more clearly you, takes a lot of ego. It takes a lot of strength… It definitely takes Love to lead to Peace. Peace is a moving target! But the journey goes on from here…

Parental Peace

I was so lucky to be able to come back home in my 50s and be together with my parents in their last years. I came back in 2002. Daddy died in 2008 and Mommie in 2010. I worked as their aide and caretaker for a lot of that time. It was lovely.

My parents were married for 65 years. They were sweethearts still. But they were very different from one another, and In this time I got to know them both better. Daddy was more mobile and we read together and dined out. And in the way of old folks we went to the doctors a lot. Life is what it is, isn’t it…

But earlier, Sam was an involved community citizen. He was on the School Board, the Municipal Board, the Boards that started the Day Care Center and the Women’s Center. Oh, right, he was an Evans. He was on the Swimming Pool Board. He was a Deacon, a Trustee and an Elder at his church (don’t ask me the difference, it’s all so confusing!) and also served regionally. He visited people in the hospital.

I learned from him. I learned it’s not scary to visit in the hospital or to hang with someone who is dying. I learned to step up and step in. I’m not a committee person, but I am an activist. It’s a challenge, because in activism you have to sustain the momentum yourself. But it’s worth it!

So what a lucky girl I am. Two wonderful parents. Nurses at home loved my parents. They loved Betty as we all did because she was talented and charming. But they longed to know Sam. As one woman said… He was a good father, wasn’t he? (The best.) I wish I’d had a good father. (He’s here for the using. It’s never too late to have a good dad.)

He wasn’t that playful, laughing Daddy. But he was a good and thoughtful man who loved us unconditionally. And he taught us by example and explicitly to be good people. And then he was proud as punch of us. I know how lucky that makes me.

I know that there is Peace in my world because of both of them and because I knew I was well loved. I hope there is love in your world, too. I hope you are the love in your world. Peace be with us all. Now more than ever, may we be Peace.

Love and Peace

My father died, officially of old age, 7 weeks after this photo of Betty was taken. He announced his intention to die when Mommie and he were separated. “You’re ending my marriage, I took a vow to care for her.” They never heard him on that.

I asked him then not to go, to give me six months, since I had just lost a dear friend and my brother-in-law. He gave me seven.

He loved Betty, they had a love affair that spanned their 65 years of marriage. And even after. Whether it was Betty’s dementia or whether Sam actually showed up, he “visited” her ever day at lunch time for two and a half years. She giggled and flirted like the 22-year-old she was when she met him.

Love is a many splendored thing. We can’t know how many ways. We cannot count them.

Love is a Peace all its own. Let us Love. Let us Peace.

New Family Peace

Some huge percentage of families are blended families. Sadly, those with small kids often don’t do the work to get everyone relaxed and on board with the new mix.

I was lucky. I came into a family when my husband’s daughters were already grown and launched and incredibly generous in making space for a whatever I am to them. Friends at least. Definitely Family. Goodness I adore them. And they seemed pretty ready to be folded into my messy extended family. And they’ve supported and loved me as my birth family has gone through illness and death.

And then there were kids. Bonus. I’d never dreamed of being a grandmother. I have lots of kids I love… but not having kids, you don’t really think about the next generation. But kids are kids. They’re not parsing out who’s who and what’s what. Grandmother. Grannianni. That’s you. Take me to the movie! oh, ok. Play in the pool. oh, I can do those things. I’m not great or a natural. But they’re great and naturals at being kids.

And so, we make Peace, however infrequent or halting. Life is fragile, so it’s good to gather together, whoever can make it, at whatever table’s available. There are all kinds of Peace out there to be giving a chance. Let’s Peace.

Ring in the New Peace

Listen. When Life changes, listen for the call to Peace. It’s there. And if you can’t hear it, perhaps you have to strike the gong yourself. The gong sounds for many reasons: to ask for quiet, to ask us to listen, to ask us to wake up. (And let’s not forget that some places it rings to call us to dinner! Always go to dinner!)

We’re what Peace has. Let’s be about our business.

Twirling for Peace

The dancing I’ve looked at in the last couple posts has been about the way the music calls you into itself.

Twirling is more deliberate than that. I spent some time investigating, we can’t say researching, twirling and what it does.

Twirling is meditation. And the skirts have not only purpose, but have meaning. Consider this that I found this piece on the Sufi’s spinning garments from Tech Times: “the performance brings the dancer’s skirt into a hypnotic flow while the performer reaches a state of trance. After examining the twirling skirts, scientists have established that it can be correlated with the weather patterns on earth.

The patterns seen by tourists during the dance ritual can be traces its roots 700 years to ancient Persia, are acting because of the same Coriolus features that help create strong hurricanes.”

I don’t know what this means, but it’s fascinating.

So think about that the next time you see a little girl twirling. We might want to be twirling ourselves!

Twirling for Peace, that is, in our hurricane skirts.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In