Front Row Seats on Life and Peace

The show of Life changes. Every day. When I wrote this poem I didn’t expect the second picture. But Deb thought to go back and take it. So, first the surprise, then the musing.

Today’s my Sabbath, my sit back, review, and enjoy day. Today’s sky is bright and beautiful. I checked these forsythia yesterday afternoon as I was coming home, and the snow had melted and they were all perky again. Life has her own ways. We either get on board, or we miss the show.

Every day it’s a different Sunrise. Every day life is beautiful. Some days are black and white. Some days are filled with color. It’s on us to find the beauty in both. Pictures: worth a thousand words. So maybe i should stop and just say… Peace, my friends. Peace. Let’s make it. (Surprise!!!)

Making Peace with What’s Below the Surface

Things are not always what they seem. Even the most beautiful things often have their roots in the ugly. What is on the outside is sometimes carefully manicured and monitored so that what roils below isn’t visible.

My valley, and probably your valley too, is having awful heroin problems. 15 deaths in the region this year. We rank high in child abuse and spousal abuse. Some of our schools are model schools and some of them have among the lowest graduation rates in the states. Joblessness is high. Once thriving cities in this beautiful valley are rust-belt shadows.

And bad things happen in beautiful houses as well as in tenements.

And yet the sun sets on beauty. And beautiful things happen as well.

What matters is that we don’t let the beauty be all we see. Peace needs to confront the unpleasant. This needs to happen so that the people may live and the land might thrive.

We need to take a hard look at our beautiful world and roll up our sleeves. Peace gets built from the ugliness, from a longing for the beauty, but it must be built on Truth. May we Peace, today and every day. Truth matters. Peace matters. Every day.

Shocked toward Peace

All the isms in the world seem to be exploding in our faces. It’s as if the last straw was added to the backs of oppressed people and they — hallelujah! — are rising up. Some allies and advocates are suddenly either making, or no longer able to avoid making, the connections. again — hallelujah!

The equal and opposite reaction that we heard about in science class is that those who long for a time when their comfort was insured, that they didn’t need to see beyond their own enclaves are taken aback by people’s demand for recognition.

So hateful, hateful, hateful laws are being enacted that are signs of the worst of their hearts.

It’s been stunning. But we can’t allow our dismay to stop us in our tracks. We cannot allow ourselves to be simply dumbfounded. It has to stir us to action. Hate needs to bring us to our feet. We must protest with our bodies, our very clever minds, and our very loving hearts.

We must somehow remember even as we protest, that we do not want to sound like the people giving voice to their hate. We have to be firm in our love and loving in our firmness. We must love the haters. This is a hard call for me.

The shock of hatred must, I believe with everything in me, move us to our passion for Peace. Let us Peace. In the face of hatred, let us Peace.

Space for Peace

Carving out space in our lives and in our homes in which we can be reflective and creative is so important to our well-being and health.

Plenty of businesses and creative endeavors start at the kitchen table, but it’s better if there’s a corner of the room or the garage where our work can stand idle. The need to set up and clean up in addition to working is sometimes too great a challenge — It may not leave enough time for the creation…

And when work stands so that we can consider it, feel what it’s trying to become, the work gets better. Neither Contemplation nor Creation are particularly neat activities.

Even when the work is standing there, beckoning and some times accusing, it can be hard enough to get to. But it’s far easier to starve our creativity and deny ourselves our time to reflect if that work isn’t there.

Whatever it is, it’s good to have space. It’s good to have the discipline. It’s good to have the self confidence to help your children understand that no, this is yours, just as you help them create a space that is there’s.

Make rules about working. And stick to it. I don’t know where my mythical child came from, but if you have a child, help them make space for their creativity and commit to working on it. People who tinker are people who create. When you have space dedicated to your creativity, you take yourself more seriously. And when you do that, you get better at your art — or your silence — or whatever it is you need your space to do.

Making space for creativity and reflection is making space for you to be the best you. It’s making space for your own Peace and for your contribution to Peace in your wider world. That matters a lot! You have something to give Peace. The world needs your gift and it needs Peace.

Capricious April Peace

If you’re going to love April, and why wouldn’t you, you’re going to have to put up with her wild mood fluctuations. I think of her as a young month. She’s always trying things out.

The seasons are still bickering — and April’s watching the way her skirts float in the breeze.

Everyone seems to be heartily tired of Winter, poor old dear, but she and Spring are still playing. She’ll sleep soon. I know Spring beguiled us in the month of March with warm weather. Everyone went out and and got their seeds started.

April doesn’t seem to care.

For me, April is a wonderful example of the need to be here now. She is what she is. And she is filled with Beauty. It is, it’s true, a Beauty all her own. But, oh! the Flowers! Let us rejoice in her wild mood swings and make Peace with her particular Beauty.

Might as well. She’s not going anywhere. I, however, am off on the hunt for the fields of grape hyacinth.

Voting for Peace, Voting Peace

In this country, scarcely more than a third of us vote. There are all sorts of reasons for it — some are merely excuses — but we don’t use what we have available to us. And of course some people go out of their way to ensure that people don’t get the chance to vote.

Voting must be easy. Voting must be encouraged.

And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had Peace as our goal? That when we entered the voting booth (and even before, as we prepared to enter the voting booth), we pondered on Peace… considering who cared about it, who would work for it. Not just peace and quiet. Peace. Equality. Justice.

What would this world look like if we were to care about Peace. I can tell you it’s going to have to come from the bottom up. Peace isn’t sexy, it’s not a big fund raiser. Yet what a difference it would make in our lives. Some of those differences, we can’t even imagine. We’ve never lived with Peace, Equality, and Justice. To many have lived with inequality and injustice and as Marley told us: “no Justice, no Peace!”

It all swirls around, doesn’t it. What we have before us to do. Some days it feels my hopes for Peace are so ridiculous, so unreachable. Other days, I can see the edges that have to be mended and think oh, here’s a fix for this one little piece.

But what matters, i think, is that I keep my eye on it, that I encourage my heart and maybe yours. And voting really matters. It matters that we vote. It matters that we vote for Peace.

It’s not simply about the Presidency, it’s voting for all the little offices that make our country work. The town councils and school boards, the director of parks and rec, the municipal services board — these all make a difference.

Voting for them makes a difference, it starts building Peace at a fundamental level (when we do it right). Running for those positions also makes a difference. Both the voting and the running require good preparation. What does Peace look like? How can I help in bringing that about?

So, my friends, vote and vote well. Vote for Peace. Get the Peace of having voted for Peace. It matters, don’t waste it. Every vote matters. Every day, Peace for Everyday Peace.

The Spices of Peace

What does Peace taste like do you suppose?

I’m sure it tastes like many things… so many more things than we know… and it’s p to us to learn what Peace tastes like in our mouths.

Peace is an adventure. I’ve always felt it was about sharing food — but then I tend to like adventures in eating. But I hadn’t really considered that it was the different spices.

Thinking about this makes me consider that I need to go down and throw out all the spices in my house and start again with a very few. It might be time to explore what peace could taste like. To learn a dish from where each of my friends live… or their families came from. You learn so much about one another.

And to learn that spices are precious, to be used, not acquired and stored improperly on shelves for years and year…

Oh, I think there are a mountain of metaphors here, if I’m willing to ponder…

But what if Peace were spicy and delicious, not bland and middle of the road? What if it weren’t the lowest common denominator, but the highest art? What if our goals for Peace were grand?

Things to consider! Peace, my friends.

Peace on the Water

Today’s picture really is worth a thousand words. Thanks, Deb Slade!

It’s a cold and blustery day. April reminds us that she can be as capricious as May. But Peace is as beautiful as it gets today and every day. Everyday Peace. Every day, Peace.

The Peace of Finishing A Day

These days, most of us have complex lives. There are too few projects that are completed.

Somehow, I think we need to recapture the sense of finishing our work with the day.

Probably that means learning to set realistic goals for what we’ll accomplish and actually accomplishing that. (remember, I said realistic!) It means putting aside the distractions, (Yes, Ann, I’m talking to you about FaceBook) and doing the things you say you want to. Look at FB then. And then go to bed, knowing you’ve done what you said you were going to do.

You’ve planned well. You’ve done your day of work. You’ve made inroads on your projects. You dealt with the stupid stuff that came up. There’s always stupid stuff. And then, like the Sun in this picture, dig the hole wide enough to drag your flaming, trailing scarf in behind you and settle in for the evening.

As the Swedish say, Tack för idag, slut för idag. Thanks for today, finished for the day. Or maybe it’s the other way around. but still. Done. Thanks for sharing it with me. I’m going to retire.

Finishing Peace. It’s something we ought to let ourselves experience. Will there be more to do tomorrow. Of course. But as Christian scripture says, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself: sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” (Matthew 6:34) What’s that mean? You have enough to contend with today. Deal with that. and then? Go to bed!

Make a task discrete. Finish it. and then. Have a little fun. Enjoy your friends. Go to bed free of your worry for tomorrow. We really need to learn to plan. (We really need to learn to yse social media for fun and profit, rather than avoidance.) Peace!

Slothful Peace

Some people think sloth is a vice, but nonsense. There are times when sloth is the only answer. And then it’s up to you to make an art form of it.

When the stones are sun-warmed and the breezes are blowing? What better thing to do but appreciate the gift?

Days like this are rare. Say thank you. Appreciate it. Live into it.

Settle in for some Sun-warmed, slothful Peace.

Peace of the Sun-warmed stones to you, my dears.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In