The Priestess Is In

Following a Leader to Peace

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I’ve recently been part of the line up for dinner crowd… There I was where I’d never expected to be, in rehab, trying to get over a huge encounter with pneumonia.

But we all need to be finding our leaders for Peace… and following them… and being them.

I like to think that I am one; I work hard at it.

But it’s wonderful to know that when I am struggling to be even a capable follower in the lunch line, that someone is still leading. Peace is still being explored.

Six years ago the Jews, the Muslims, and the UUs met for a hummus cook-off. This year 42 women from 5 different traditions met to read the book of Ruth… (and yes, there was food!) I wasn’t present. I didn’t need to be, although I’m sorry to have missed it. Peace is growing.

It’s what we do; we practice leading and we practice following.

I’m so glad you’re part of my Peace Line… I’m glad when you follow. I’m glad when you lead. You need to lead now, ok? Because I’m barely able to follow. But someday, I’ll lead again. Until then. Peace.

 

Where does your Music find its Peace?

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Who do you play for? Do you play for an audience? Do you play for yourself?

Is your music an offering? Is it a spiritual practice? Do you offer it the discipline it requires to get better? It deserves it, you know.

Does it soothe you or wake you up? Does it celebrate life or do you keep it only as an accompaniment?

So much to consider. So much to decide.

Peace of the music be with you. May you transform the music; may it transform you.

Dawn Beauty; Dawn Peace

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You have to get up pretty early in the morning: in fact in this region, you would have had to get up at 5:47 this morning, to have a chance to see the sun guild the bridge — if it were sunny then.

I’m never excited about dawn, unless i’m up… then I’m transformed as the light blesses the day.

Whether we see the dawn, we would do well to get up blessing the day and its Beauty. It makes it so much easier to go about the business of Peace.

Peace Pilgrimage

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We need places to go. We need places to take ourselves off to that give us respite.

Too many of us are sitting around with rocks in our guts as our government freewheels around us.

We need to figure out how to draw back, draw in. Where to find ourselves a place that soothes and comforts us in the midst of the work to be done. Inspire means to breathe in… it’s the opposite of expire… Breathe in Life. Find new ways of being creative and dogged and persistent.

There’s a lot of work to be done. Peace is not easy. It’s not that it’s not worth our work, it’s just not easy. Take a break. Celebrate life. And then come back and care for it. Come back and get to (Peace) work.

 

Temporary Peace of a Boat to Nowhere

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As temperatures climb, it looks so inviting to be out in the middle of a very chilly body of water. The Sun is so hot. The water so cold.

This photo has escape written all over it.

It gets this hot, escape looks attractive.

But the world needs us. The Earth needs us. Our country needs us. So sailing away doesn’t quite respond to that need, unless, as I said as a temporary escape, a chance to clear our heads and hearts — As Eller-Isaacs says “to forgive ourselves and each other and to begin again in love.” And Peace. Always in Peace.

Let us breathe deeply of respite, and turn again to creating Peace.

 

Porches for Peace

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Front Porches. When did they drop off the face of the Earth? The sociologists tell us that we’ve replaced them with back yard decks. When they went, there went the neighborhood. Now we drive into our garages (whose doors are raised and lowered without our leaving the car) and never see our neighbors. People can live next door to people for years and never meet them.

Until the advent of the garage door clicker — and maybe central air, however, we all sat outside on warm evenings and visited. We did kitchen prep as we discussed the day. We ate our dessert and saw what the neighbors were eating.  You knew your neighbors then. And that was a wonderful thing. I think Porches did a lot to hold the neighborhood together.

The flowers were just the bonus… they gilded the lily… but they did it so well.

Let us recall the Peace of the Porch. Let us relive the Peace of the Front Stoop.

Koi, Spring, Peace

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My friends, who are nature people, keep me connected to what’s happening this season.

This is the day we plant the beans, plant the beans, plant the beans.

And in one person’s life, this is the day we bring the Koi up from winter hibernation. Actually it happened a bit ago, because they’re now happily swimming in their beautiful pond.

If the Koi are in the pond, can dinner on the patio be far behind? No, it cannot.

My friend Emily’s house is an oasis. She loves to dig in the dirt. She loves to feed her birds. And she loves to grill. Oh, and she has a creek for sitting in. Luckily I have some talents she can appreciate, lest you think it’s all one-sided!

The rhythm of the Seasons offer Peace. We have to build toward Peace any way we can.

Peaceful Country Drives

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We didn’t do a lot, when I was growing up, but it was definitely a thing. On Saturday or a Sunday, you’d get in the car and drive and see things. You’d get out, walk around, take a good look, (if there were a stream dip some part of your body in), and get back in the car.

Some people had families they paid a visit to; our family lived far apart. We had falls and lakes and creeks. This barn would have pleased us… our family was a large admirer of barns. We were big on clouds as well. “will you look at that… ” I’m sure I’ve written this before, but one of my parents’ nurse companions said she’d never noticed the clouds before working for Betty and Sam!

Barns were another thing. My brother-in-law, after a joint trip with my parents, wondered if for the rest of his lives he was going to have to admire (expletive) barns in fields? Because he couldn’t quite see the romance. Philistine!

I think family drives were one of the ways I learned to see and be connected to Nature. I am not an outside girl by choice. waaaah, can’t i bring a book? but I am a used to looking at, admiring, and remarking upon Nature, her composition and her Beauty. I know that I’m back in the Susquehanna Valley because I missed the beautiful grey limestone, the forests, and the streams. Stream swimming is not a thing in the dry West.

Peace in my case is found (not exclusively, but still) in familiar Beauty. Other Beauty calls for admiration, but a beautiful barn in Central PA on a sunny day can make my heart sing.

Peace of the Beautiful Barn, y’all! And at last of a sunny day!

 

Waterfalls: Spring’s Wild, Dancing Peace

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The rainy abundance of Spring has been filling up our mountain streams, sending waters merrily through the shallow channels. Then they come to the end of the plateau and plunge lacily to the next level. Ricketts Glen is filled with such falls and this time of year, it’s filled with a wild and particular Beauty.

The Falls are Rain’s gift to us. Spring and Fall the rains come and the streams swell. We need to be careful around it, but, oh, the delight.

Water is powerful, we forget that in its Beauty. as it plunges from heights into pools, the landscape is rearranged. Beauty can be powerful. We need to remember that.

It’s worth a visit to the places in your life where the water runs wild. The ions the water throws off will change your mood if nothing else. But to watch the power of water doing what it’s called to do is a wonderful thing.

Embrace the Wild Peace that Nature offers the Earth… drink it in, and then translate it into forward momentum for the Peace we all need.