A Peace Road

This is a reminder for me that I have a destination from which I do not choose to deviate.

The path is nominally protected. There is life along the path. But it’s where I have to be. Sometimes, like in this picture, the road is straight and true. Other times, it weaves and buckles. But still you travel. Still Peace beckons and longs.

This is the work. This is the Path. Peace.

Today is the shortest day of the year and the longest night for those of us in the North. Time for Dreaming. Time for Story-telling. Time for Gathering. Time for Mending. Time for remembering. Pause tonight with your friends and remember your Peace stories. Then go to sleep and dream of Peace. Blessed Solstice. Blessed Peace.

The Peace of Deep Winter Magic

Anyone who knows me knows can drop into a story between one heartbeat and the next. I’ve always cherished the notion that the animals speak at MidWinter so all can hear. In all the stories I’ve read and written, they speak Peace.

In my story telling mind, everyone speaks Peace except for us. I do what I can, I do what I must, but the humans need a louder chorus.

It’s why I listen to the little creatures in my heart, who want their stories told. I know. There are places I could get locked up and you notice I’m carefully not saying the voices in my head… but if that’s so, they’re usually merry, so why complain?

But seriously, we need Peace. We just found out we’re in a drought. what measures will we take to make the Water safe? And not just safe for us. We kill ourselves, that’s one thing. But all of Nature doesn’t deserve to die because we’re asses.

So tomorrow night, listen for the whispers of the rest of the world. Listen to what the wild has to say. And if you’re not a fan of the Solstice story, it’s also told in the Christian World about Christmas eve…

All they are saying is give Peace a chance. Why won’t we consider this?

Comfort Food and Peace

Every season has its comfort foods, but somehow when you put fresh asparagus on a scale with lasagna, the lasagna usually tips the scales. But that’s because winter foods are heavy to keep us warm during the winter and summer foods are light to keep us cool in summer.

And just as we celebrate the spring green asparagus, we celebrate the warmth tomato sauce and cheese. This is a lovey twist on it. Makes me want to try it. Well, eat it, not make it! But cauliflower is a great and versatile favorite… Why should eggplant have all the fun?

I believe warm, full bellies can help create Peace. It’s hard to think about Peace when you can’t think about anything but hunger. People want to know what to do about Aleppo… Donate. People are finally being evacuated. They’ll need to eat. They’ll need food and clothes and shelter.

Fill your belly and eat it in the safety of your home. LIght your twinkle light and think about how privileged we are. Then think about where we need to make Peace. And then think about how you can Peace most effectively… and then? Peace!

The Peace of Lingering

I like change and endings as little as anyone else. OK, maybe less. But there’s something about lingering on these days at the end of the year, trying to squeeze in the fullness that I love.

I don’t do a lot for the holidays, but I do turn on the lights and light the candles. My little red and white Mid-Winter Trees often turn into Valentine trees and twinkle their way through the Winter. ahhhh. Reading. Twinkling. Tea. Writing. Snuggling inside. What’s not to like?

Winter, if we allow it, can be a lesson in presence, lingering in the moment until it’s done. Then you turn the lights out and go to bed. Peace, my friends, through the short grey days and the long, starry nights. Linger in earthly Peace.

Night, Winter, Peace

I’ve been out every night this week. It’s been cold. It’s been snowy. It’s been starry. It’s been cloudy. It’s been beautiful.

Every night. The cold is dangerous (right, please put your coats on teenagers, this is real cold. And remember, before you start complaining, the Sun is dangerous, too!) But the beauty is worth negotiating the trials. The stars. The snow. Even the bracing cold… that air in your lungs is clarifying. I love the high dark starry skies and the low grey snowy ones.

Button up your overcoat. Get out there and be part of the Beauty. That enjoyment you feel is the same enjoyment everyone does!

Peace in the Winter Dark. Ahhhh… Share it with me.

Persevering for Peace

Ruby is a good mascot for Perseverance… Ain’t nothing gonna keep that tail from wagging or those legs from doing what they can.

The tail wag is how her Dog Mom makes her decisions for her health. Ruby continues the fight with enthusiasm, tail wags and hey there, Mom kisses.

Peace needs us. It needs us to be as determined as Ruby is — and as cheerful. Why drag our way to Peace. If our goal is Joy, then Joy should start now.

It makes the journey so much easier. It reminds us that Life is a gift and part of honoring it being joyful and persevering in the greatest challenge we have ever been given: Peace on Earth. Let’s do this thing. Let’s persevere in Peace.

Peace Rocks

Rocks are so present. So weighty. Their age and strength offer security. I think of them as such givers of Peace. Holding one grounds me. I like having one in my pocket (but not in my shoe!)

It startles and disturbs me that people have used rock as weapons of violence.

And from that developed an entire arsenal of killing machines. Such sadness.

But rocks? They sit there. They are present. They are beautiful, even when they’re plain and common as dirt, because dirt is beautiful as well.

We could all stand to do more sitting and being present. The North and Winter in some traditions are represented by rocks… by presence. They carry our history in their striations. They’ve heard our stories.

Let us be more like the rocks this winter. Present. Tellers of Stories. Givers of Security and Peace.

Bogs and Peace

We talk about being bogged down and that’s seen as a bad thing. Bogs are spongy and slurpy and like to suck our shoes off our feet. And as the (i think) hilarious meme says (or sorta says, sorry, author, for the misquote) “Growing up, I thought that quicksand was going to be a much bigger problem in my life!” In my youth, on tv shows, everyone got caught in quicksand at least once.

But we don’t talk about the fact that bogs are teeming with life: avian, reptilian, icthyoid, mammalian, and amphibian. It’s probably where life started.

Why don’t we talk about that?

We do know that wetlands are important. And not enough of them are protected. When those sponges are unhealthy, we are as well.

If we want to foster life, we need to clean up our water and our wetlands. Peace of a healthy ecosystem to you my friends.

Water is Life and Peace

Water is Life. We must care for it.

There’s no way around that. We come from water, are born from it. It is 60 percent of us. If we can’t process water, we die. If we don’t have clean water, we die.

My troubles dissolve in water. It brings me Peace. Clean water is necessary to me in ways far beyond the physical.

We must care for water. It is not an endless source… We have the water we have and we keep polluting it. It must stop. We must stop. We must demand that greed is not more important than our water. Water is sacred and belongs to the people. Let us bless the water. Let us be a blessing to the water. Even as it brings us Peace, may we bring Peace as well.

Water is Life. Water is Peace. Blessed Be.

Peace of Festal Foods

There’s my brother and his family and my family who remember our family’s festal foods. Most of them keep the holidays a bit differently than Deb and I did… And now with Deb and her family gone, Betty and Sam gone, and my not needing several tins of cookies with only Steve and me to eat them, my holidays look different than they once did.

I miss making cookies with my mom. I miss making them with Deb. I miss the smell of the house as the different cookies bake.

This used to be the saddest puzzle. Now it’s simply a puzzle. What do the holidays look… and smell… and taste like… at my house? To tell the truth, I don’t hunger for the sweet stuff. I hunger for the memory.

I think Festal Foods matter. I believe they bind people together… I don’t know what they are right now! I don’t even know exactly who my family is.

Trust me. There are worse things! Eating my way to Peace! Binding hearts in Peace. Holiday Hurrah!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In