Fields and Peace

Fields have a job to do and they’re pretty good at it. They grow things. Left to themselves they’ll grow whatever is right for the climate. Cultivated and coaxed, they’ll grow all sorts of wonderful and outlandish things. They are generous beyond what seems possible or even sensible.

Peace is like that too. When you sow seeds of Peace you have no idea how great the harvest might be. You just keep watering it with Love and tend and harvest what appears. And then you share it with the world.

We’d do well to learn about Peace from fields.

The Peace of Water that Wears

When you think of water in reservoirs or lakes, you so often think of water that is. And the ocean seems to endlessly offer and take away. It’s only when there are storms that we really notice it’s power for destruction.

But in little streams making their way down mountains, they slowly change the world. They’re persistent and tireless. They don’t care that it will take them millennia to carve their way through rock, they just trickle steadily over it and past whatever’s in their way.

Sooner or later, you look and everything is different.

I believe that’s how we need to be with Peace. We just need to drip life-giving force on situations so that life changes. Because let’s not forget, Water (and Peace) are life-giving. They are both life-changing. So let us protect the water and let us be about the work of Peace.

Sacred Food, Sacred Peace

Food is an amazing thing — not simply because it is good but because it is good for you.

Nourishing the body, especially when you live in abundance, should be a pleasure rather than something you get to bye and bye or a hasty act committed on the way out the door.

We say we’re too busy. What is more true is that we don’t make the time. Everything else is more important than our good health. Even people who exercise may eat well but not savor the experience. We have about 10,000 tastebuds so we are meant to be delighted by food. (Your dog wolfs his food because he only has 1700 buds and your poor cat, less than half a thousand!)

And where there is delight, there should also be gratitude. So plan for delight, indulge your taste buds and savor the results.

We’re the lucky ones, you know. One in nine people in this world is hungry, suffers from food insufficiency. I read yesterday that that causes profound health problems all your life. Why is this a surprise?

I’m not a person who gardens. Dirt and I are no good friends. But I understand that the planting and tending and harvesting of food is also sacred.

And many of us who have food, bolt it and don’t linger. We waste it. What if we ate only what was in our house and all of what was in our house? What if we under-ate a bit. Not to starve ourselves, but to let grow accustomed to what if feels like to be satisfied, but not stuffed? Playing with our food could have a different connotation than pushing it around on our plates. We could, as this picture suggests be deliberate and meditative about its preparation. Good ingredients, carefully prepared for maximum health and savoring.

We could let our food be sacred. We could be as mindful about how it nourishes us as we are how good it takes. Both, because both are things of wonder. We’d certainly care more about how food is raised and how it is distributed. Let us make Peace with what we eat and how we eat it. And then we can help to make Peace by helping everyone have food to eat.

Slow Sabbath Mornings for Peace

I used to be a person who could be up and out the door in 15 minutes. And that included a shower.

But life has changed. Or I’ve slowly grown into the person I am. Mornings are for writing and for slow approaches to the day.

Even on Sundays, my busiest out of the house work day (or at least that’s the theory, although whew!) I get up early enough so that there’s some staring into space time involved. Thanks to my weekly plans with my friend Emily, I can always count on Sunday evenings ending slowly and peacefully.

This is the day! I need a slow start to appreciate it. Just like the duck. Fly on, my brothers and sisters. I’ll just sit here and appreciate!

Whatever you do with this brilliant Sabbath morning, I hope there is Peace to be enjoyed and shared now and all day long!

More Sunlight for Peace

It is no longer the time of the comforting dark. These are the days of brilliant sunshine. The gardeners are exalting. The dirt, the dirt, the dirt! It’s finally warm enough, dry enough, sunny enough to plant.

I’ll stop there, so I don’t get myself in trouble, since I’m sketchy on the details of planting and don’t understand the thrill.

But life isn’t only about what I like, It’s about what we all like. That’s how the Peace making comes in. And goodness knows we all love succulent vegetables.

And if you’re a garden peep, you don’t have time to be reading this, so get out there, and enjoy it! The Sun is Back. Spring is definitely winning the day. And you and I are all about figuring out how to make Peace with this beautiful day, and Peace in our world.

Hurrah! Enjoy!

Rolling in the Peace

It’s not just the plants that come dancing back to life in the Spring. Most of us do too. (A special shout out to those who feel about Summer the way the rest of the world feels about Winter).

But for those of us whose faces turn eagerly Sunward, there’s something that pulls sheer, giggling exuberance from us.

For me, it’s always great to see the crocus, but It’s the stalwart daffodils and narcissus that make cheery. I fret about whether it’s time to run to Catawissa hill to see the grape hyacinths that my family always visited. And I wait eagerly for the violets to rampage across lawns. C’mon violets. (And Spring, don’t you go getting too warm on us so that the violets can play a while. pleeeeeeeze?)

There’s something about the freshness of the air that thrills. And the changed angle of the Sun. Whatever it is, enjoy whatever great laughing, Springing Peace you’re called to. This intoxicating moment is brief — that’s part of what makes it wonderful.

Spring! Peace! Life! Enjoy them all. Oh — and pay your taxes.

Making Miracles, Making Peace — At the Kitchen Table

Women don’t gather enough. Our lives are insanely busy so when we’re going to wind up in someone’s kitchen with enough to do other than complain I don’t know, but I do think Kitchen Tables can be magic. And the work done around them is Miraculous.

Not only does food get prepped or tasks accomplished, lives get discussed and bettered over tea or coffee and some smidgen of something sweet. If we set ourselves to the task of peace building, who knows what could be accomplished?

Maybe we just start with with gathering and sharing our lives. But sooner or later, someone’s going to say something and all that collective wisdom will come pouring out. It might be a personal problem that gets resolved if not solved, a plan for tackling a problem with the local playground, or an idea about changing your corner of the world.

And in the meantime, tea. with friends. Your own life miraculously better in some small ways. A million of these miracles, and life starts improving everywhere.

Simplistic? You betcha! Fairly simple, also true. Worth trying. Absolutely. Better if you include people who don’t look like you? Yes. Let’s start making Peace an old fashioned way. Piece together those miracles at the kitchen tables. Peace. We can do this and we must. Let’s try something we’re not doing. Because Peace needs us. I’ve always been in awe of what happens at Kitchen Tables. They’re still they’re. Maybe we just need to visit a bit more. It’s worth a try. Peace is always worth the effort.

Are There Miracles? Is There Peace?

We know that Spring happens, but it still feels miraculous to see those flowers burst forth — and to weather the early spring storms. The brilliant green of June, the blink of fireflies in July, I can name you something in every month of the year that we find miraculous either because they take our breath away or restore our hope.

Should we quibble that they’re not technically miracles? Because they really, really, really feel like miracles.

And what about things like friendship and romance. They develop across the most unlikely barriers and differences. Are there sweeter miracles than these?

All the impediments sometimes don’t seem to make a difference and love blossoms and flourishes, just as the narcissi flourish in the Spring.

So, isn’t it possible that something as ridiculous, as astonishing, and as unlikely as Peace could also bloom and flourish? Imagine the first perfect strawberry you eat in a season. Peace might taste like that. Strawberries are possible. Why not Peace?

And if miracles are possible, what would it take to keep them happening. The Earth does a pretty good job with Spring, although heaven knows, humans are doing their best to screw that up. And people keep falling in love and friendship, despite the barriers. So how do we keep Peace happening? How do we encourage it’s burgeoning?

Let’s Peace. Let’s find out. Let’s be the Miracles we need in this world.

The Peace of Not What You Were Waiting For

Spring is so beautiful and so powerful. The force of life returning, reaching through cold soil for the sun is overwhelming and will not be stopped.

However, bits and pieces can be interrupted. This year, it was.

This magnificent magnolia was on her way. She was filled to the brim with dazzle, ready to delight.

But the freeze was insistent. Nothing personal. The freeze wasn’t thinking about the magnolia at all.

The freeze just won the weather battle that day, and the beautiful magnolia turned brown and withered away… The flowering beauty won’t appear until next year, weather willing.

And we’re left with the reality that life doesn’t always give us what we’re waiting for. The freeze has its own icy beauty. And we must make Peace with that.

Sweet Peaceful Food Memories

Food is important in so many ways. Certainly for the sustenance and nourishment of our bodies. As a nation, we don’t eat well. We don’t nourish ourselves and create comfort foods from things that are healthy for us. We’re still creating comfort foods that were good fuel for people who worked on farms and in factories rather than foods for folk who sit and think and push buttons on machines. There’s work to do on that.

But food doesn’t just nourish, it carries Ceremony and Memory as well. There are special foods for different ceremonies and occasion. So when we gather we make this dish or that. When eat a festal food, we remember all the times we gathered. It’s so powerful.

Case in point? A friend just told the story of a woman’s posting about her mother’s cinnamon rolls on FB and the whole family chimed in. We remember. Granny, the comfort and the taste of warm cinnamon and bread dough in our mouths.

These days, we eat treats all the time. Very little is special. We had snacks growing up, but they were saltines with peanut butter on them. Desserts were carefully limited, at least at my house. Leftover habits from times (like the not so far away war) when sugar was in short supply and not so cheap. But now sugar has become a mainstay and there’s nothing special about it. The really bad thing about this is that sugar is not good for us. We need to eat it sparingly. A treat needs to be just that. Something special, something very closely held. A world of instant gratification is not excited about this.

So how do we have festal foods? Foods that we eat only on special occasions? Maybe each month should have a food celebration. Maybe some of them could be healthy. The First Asparagus of Spring, The First Tomato of Summer. The First Peach.The Cookies of the Winter Celebrations. The First Baked Potato of Fall. By withholding and then elevating those foods become longed-for treats.

And then? We will remember them. I’ve heard arguments both ways as to whether sweets are the things we taste best in old age, but it’s true that they satisfy. Mom was so happy when I would come with something special. Something deeply darkly chocolate or richly creamy. mmmmmm.

And she would smile at me and we would cuddle. We did it more often because there was little she could revel in. It brought such pleasure to both of us. I had a long sad time period of people’s dying. And I was very clear that I would eat with them the foods that nourished not just their bodies but their souls. They were leaving their bodies soon, and their bodies were betraying them. But their souls were still lovely things.

End result for me, a lifetime of memories and and extra 25 pounds. So now my job is to lose that 25#…. And occasionally, to have a celebratory panna cotta and remember her.

Making Peace with both Life and Death — appreciating the comfort that food can offer the dying and the bereaved. It’s a wonderful thing. Peace be with you. Eat wonderful food. Eat festival foods sparingly and good for you foods with abandon. We are so lucky. Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In