Realities and Possibilities of Peace

This skeleton is so realistically placed, that it’s impossible not to know what it did during its life.

I find it a bit unnerving, but the more I look at it, the more I appreciate it.

We have to know what we’re made of, we have to know what the world is made of, if we’re going to make Peace effectively.

The more the social condition worsens in this world, the more I (and you) need to understand what is happening. I am beginning to appreciate that I need to look at life differently. I need to understand the bones of Peace and what enlivens it and us. I need to understand the bones of much of life. And if not understand, at least acknowledge.

Peace is worth the effort of change.

Summer Foods; Summer Peace

I get to go to a picnic today. It doesn’t matter what food is served; it’s always better for being outside food! Back yard food.

Food packed in your backpack and enjoyed on a bench. yum. Foods carried the short distance from your kitchen to your porch. It’s all good!

And Summer foods: foods that come from the garden, are scrubbed and plopped on your plate!

Barbecued bits of your choice.

Often served to chatting, laughing friends.

Making the Peace of Summer while enjoying its fruits!

Sheets in the Wind! Ah, Summer Peace

There are things that belong to each season. I actually love the sharp scent of Winter, captured in a coat that’s been outdoors. I almost feel I can smell the starlight. And i love the scent of starlight.

In the same way I love sun-dried Summer sheets… or anything… all of outside captured in the threads and making your bed ready for summer dreams.

And looking at what is going on in my world, i need playful Summer dreams to give me hope and encouragement. Peace needs us to be as well and as happy as we can be.

If drying your sheets on the line helps you to Peace, then go for it! I often come down on the side of convenience… but… not always.

Ann’s Summer Swimming Peace

Hello again: Summer, outdoor Pools, and this year, Ann!

It’s been cool since I’ve been cleared to be in the water, or it’s been stormy

I’m not yet allowed to swim… but I am walking and exercising in the pool. Hurrah.

I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s transforming in my life. It’s my happy place. I am both cradled and powerful in a pool… and it’s augmented in an outdoor pool with the sun and the sparkles.

What place gives you this strength and comfort? Seek it more often.

Because if there are places that give us Peace, we need to get to them and often. Because the world needs us to turn around and go out into it and offer Peace to those around us.

 

Reflecting (on) What is True, Reflecting Peace

The news has broken about the health care bill. It’s awful. So many people will be wounded by this.

Will becoming angry help? And right now, after this illness, I don’t have the energy for anger.

We must reflect what is true, what we have known. They don’t care.

And we must find a way to Peace. The world needs us.

But you know what? I think I’m also going to cry.

 

Lingering Peace

It must be all the antibiotics. Normally, this time of year, I’m jumping up and down hollering for sunshine. I don’t have much jumping up and down energy right now. And the sun. sheesh… It’s not just the antibiotics, I didn’t have any sun so far this year.

But I think it’s also my energy levels, and maybe that I’m seeing the magic of Sweden summer nights in Lorraine’s photos, but I’m thinking a lot about the summer dusk. Sitting in the long, drawn out, lingering beauty. The Swedes always appreciate it because they know there will be a lot of dark.

There’s something so quiet and fine about those evenings. It’s like time in between real time. And perhaps that’s where Peace lingers until we can slowly bring it into the sunlight. Wishing you lovely dusks to go with your sun-filled days. Wishing you Peace.

Sweet Flowers, Sweet Memories, Sweet Peace

Peonies are beautiful. They grew along the fence in the house I grew up in. Deep magenta beauties… and a couple whites. Mom would bring them inside, and we would spend time ushering the ants who helped them open back outside. They almost always sat on the table across from the screen door. They smelled so sweet in the yard and in the house.

And I have a great picture from Sweden at my friends’ family home… it was old and so were the peonies. They were so prolific, and so was that scent. We all wore them in our hair.

The first memory is one was built through years. The second is seared in golden sunlight. They both bring pleasure almost as sweet as the scent of the flower that reminds me of childhood Peace.

Peace can be so many different things. We just have to open. What are the scents that lead you to Peace?

Fog and Peace

Fog is an interesting and sneaky things. It has so many ways of arriving.

Here it arrived by stealth, sneaking in to wrap its arms around Picasso as its referred to.

It’s beautiful, it’s gentle. It can be dangerous — hiding things from view. But as my friend Alexandria used to say: When it’s so foggy on the path you can’t see what’s going on, sit down; cover up; wait for the fog to pass.

Its gentleness can invoke Peace. But the fact that it obscures means that sometimes, we all need to sit down; cover up; and wait for the fog to pass. And maybe, while we’re waiting, to share the snacks in our packs. Cup of tea, anyone?

A Peace Far Larger Than Human Peace

It’s true that my work is with people… but in that work, I too often forget that Peace is to be made for the entire world, all creatures great and small, all our resources…

I give thanks for those who work for Peace for Earth and all its inhabitants. I give thanks to those who see the beauty of the other. Mold if you will. August on this blog will be dedicated to bugs…

Peace. There is such a longing in my heart for Peace… Will you join me?