Vindaloo Peace!

I’m a huge fan of other kinds of food. I’m a bit squeamish… so I’m not all wow! baby eels or lookee, bugs, but I like a lot of things. I’m also not a huge fan of hot peppers (although give me horseradish any day!)

One of the reasons I wanted Terri to do food is that aside for her eye for what’s beautiful with food, she’s so adventurous. Foods wander from one culture to the next.

I like it when I can do that — wander from one culture to another. And you know i like a gastronomical wander now and again!

Getting to know another culture’s food, beginning to understand how their traditional foods came to be, getting to know people who eat that food enriches your life. And can, won’t necessarily, but can bring you Peace. If you do the work.

As Terri pointed out when she sent this pic, this dish was easy for her to make because our neighbors run Spices Inc, an on line spice emporium. It’s quite amazing! You never know who’s going to show up in a small town, do you?

The advice for the day? Eat good food. Eat good food from other cultures. Share it! Build Peace through fun food and fun friends!

Spring Equinox! Sabbath Peace!

It was a dark and stormy day… never you mind, it’s still the Vernal Equinox! It’s still Spring.It is, as is every day, a sacred gift to be unwrapped and celebrated. Stand still and be amazed!

It’s my Sabbath, day to gather with my community, day of rest and reflection.

While it may not be the day that I do the most for Peace, it is the day I focus the most on it.

I love this sunrise pic because it’s such an everyday picture. It’s a reminder that every day matters. A new day dawns. What will we do with it? Every day arrives to be filled up with Peace or Sweetness, according to our whims.

We have such freedom here to do that. We’re not waking up in a war zone. We’re not waking up under someone else’s thumb. And yet we’re allowing our world to be filled up with such ugliness. Ugly rhetoric. Ugly actions. So let us make whatever small stands we can.

Every day. Everyday matters. Every day matters. Everyday Peace. Every day, Peace.

Peace in Sepia

Every day when I lived in the house on Colton, I would get stopped by the Sunset. For some reason, the way the weather works in the Bay Area, sunset is often clear. Socked in with fog all day, and then it all blows away. I’m sure a meteorologist could explain it, but for me, I’ll take the magic.

Sometimes some of the fog would stay to be layered in rose and gold. Such beauty.

But one thing that always took my breath away was when the bay would turn black and white at some magical hour and then be infused with gold.

Life. Beauty. Peace. All of them in sepia. That you and I could share this wonder. This is both Peace and the reason for it. There is Beauty, let us acknowledge it! There is Peace, let us spread it.

The Goats of Peace

They’re so goofy those goats. Happy. Most of the time. Although on all occasions decline to step between Mr. Goat and the ladies. Also, stand up-wind of Mr. Goat when he’s interested in the ladies. He has rather odd courting behavior.

But they’re beautiful and funny and curious. And when when goat is curious, the whole trip of goats wants to know. That could also have been a tribe, a flock, a drove, a herd, but trip, that’s sorta what they do if you’re in their way while they’re trying to look at something. Or feed them.

Well, now we’ve all learned something fun to start the day off, Beware the trip of goats!

But enjoy them as well, because they really are funny and friendly. When my friend EG is home, she often has a goat in her arms. “Love me!” they demand, and she does. And who wouldn’t?

Here’s to a wonderful day and the Peace of a drove of Goats. And a lot of happy hopping. Everyone’s got to feel better when they’re hopping, eh? And we’d all look ridiculous, it might be the great leveler. And when we realize that we laugh at the same thing, there is Peace in that, is there not?

Strategies for Peace

How do we work together for Peace?

How do you and I work well together? What do we have that we share.

The more we hear about hate, the more need there is for our voices to be lifted and our hands to be joined.

What we want and how we get from where we are to where we need to be — those are questions to be asked… and answered.

This is a strategy game worth playing. Collaboration is the tool. Peace.

Cemeteries, Memories, Making Peace

Pete’s picture of a “field of memories” brings up so many emotions.

Some of them are sad, but none of them are bad.

I have such a curious relationship with cemeteries. They are such rich mines of history. Yet no one will know the life and times of my family, because there are no markers. We have disappeared into the streams and the mountains of the land we claim(ed) as home.

And it’s true that except for two children, this branch of the Evans family ends with the next generation. So, the history component of cemeteries will never be too important…

But I find cemeteries fascinating. In pre-vaccination days, you could see when a plague swept through a village, by looking at tombstones. You can feel the connections that people have with their beloved dead. Even in the most complex situations, death brings a certain kind of Peace, if only for those who have died.

And cemeteries are often on such beautiful land, spots high above a town or a river are often chosen as burial grounds. One man I know is buried in just about the exact spot that he took his most iconic picture. He visited those grounds all throughout his lifetime because there were things to see there. It’s nice to think of him there. We tend our dead carefully, so they are usually beautiful.

When I look at this pic, I feel the cemetery’s history and its Peace. The dead are such Peaceful neighbors, quiet and calm. There’s so much that could be said about them, but today, all i have to talk about is the Peace. Inhale. Exhale. Peace.

Protecting the Trusses of Peace

It’s an interesting thing to encounter the reasons behind something in your life that has always been there and that you now take for granted.

I’ve loved covered bridges a long time. I never really wondered why they built them (that’s ann-brain — oh look at that, isn’t it wonderful. Nope, i’d have made a lousy engineer!) If I had thought, I might have thought it protected people from the wind that often rushes down a creek- or river-bed. And it could act as blinders on the eyes of horses who might find walking over water a bit freaky. And certainly it had those advantages.

But no, it was put in place to protect the bridge. Do we do enough of that do you think? Put the protection in place for the solution, even as we figure out what the solution is to a particular project? I don’t think i think enough about that… Ann brain, not engineer brain.

I’m busy marveling at the wonder of it. but huh, isn’t the wonder greater when it’s cared for! Something to think on.

And of course I loved stealing a kiss with a sweetheart (from whom did we steal it do you think since we were both so eager?). Sweet, youthful memories that it takes a covered bridge to evoke.

Thanks. So I wish you the good sense to shore up the fragile things you make as well as the the good sense to steal a kiss with a sweetheart. Nothing could be finer. Both bring sweet Peace. And of course I wish you that too.

Ice cream for Peace (You scream too!)

We’ve all gotten greedy about treats. Google dictionary describes a treat as “an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.” For those of us here in Central PA, the opening of the summer ice cream stands is a special treat. I like to wait until the fireflies get to mine before I go for my treat, so I’ve a couple more months ahead to wait. Waiting is part of what makes a treat a treat.

We believe we need treats every day. And look at us. It shows. And in fact, it’s gotten so too many of us, too many of our children think treats are every day food. We often feel we “deserve” a treat.

We scream about pesticides in our food and rightly so. But we have no qualms about putting food in our mouths on a regular basis that aren’t good for us. And the jury’s out on whether the amount of sugar we eat isn’t going to injure us.

So, if you scream for ice cream every day, You’ve moved it out of the treat category and into the food category and that’s not great.

But if once in a while, you and a friend wander over to a favorite ice cream stand to share one another’s favorite treat — if you make it a treat, well then enjoy.

Do it to make it special. Peace has many flavors some are sustenance. Some are treats. The first ice cream of the season? Shared with a friend? Sweet Peace indeed. Savor it!

Sabbath Peace and Mischief

Angel dust. Seeds of Peace. Go right ahead and sprinkle the world liberally! It’s almost Spring and the soil is softening… They might just take root! And goodness knows we need sweet mischief; there’s plenty of the malicious kind going around.

You’ve seen this angel before in these pages. In every season, every background, she has a different look… Same angel… hmmm… maybe we’re seeing things differently!

But here we are, with this warmly out of season weather, nothing to do but get outside and get up to some Peace. Or avoid the rain that’s supposed to fall around, and stay inside and wonder what Peace you can get up to.

It’s so needed. There’s so much turmoil and discomfort. Let’s be the ones bringing Peace.

What if sprinkling Peace were a delightful and mischievous thing rather than a heavy obligation? What if we just went joyously into the world and made Peace.

Peace to Keep Working On

Many projects don’t get started and then finished, 1,2,3. We like to think they do, but life interrupts. We may not have the information we need to continue. We may lose focus or even interest.

Peace is one of those projects. There are just so many facets.Things get put to the side. If you’re like me, they get buried in a pile of paper. Occasionally you take a day and start to work toward the bottom of the pile. Often the things that are buried have knotty little problems to address.

There are days that you poke around at those problems and don’t accomplish much more than moving things from one side to the next. And that day is just as precious and sacred as any other.

Some days you look at the sun and notice that it is poking its way along to sunset. Ah, you feel reassured, it is not just you. Even the stars and planets have their off days. Sometimes the Sun drops behind the horizon like a stone. Other days Sundown is a rather aimless occurrence.

Bless those days. Bless that pokey ol’ Peace. And keep going. Tomorrow is a whole new day to push for Peace. And the day after that. And the one that follows. Everyday Peace. Every day, Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In