Starry Chalice of Peace

Ah, the Moon. The Planets. Endlessly entertaining.

And the human mind, endlessly inventive.

And that’s a power to use for the good, isn’t it? If we can see a chalice, that makes us think of refuge offered to to people under siege and we’re encouraged to be welcoming, I say take your portents from the sky.

You say, hornswoggle? That’s fine and dandy. What encourages you to be welcoming?

Because isn’t that the question?

What makes us put our hearts and souls on the line? What makes each of us get to work in the world. Something different for each of us… But goodness the world needs us.

And really. the stupid silly brouhaha about whether or not Starbucks cups are killing Christmas. And I know no one I know is saying that, but lots are posting articles about ridiculous people’s saying that. Really? People get their religion from Starbucks? Oh, wait, they’re the people who published the story about the child soldier weren’t they… when no one else would.

But go to your religious communities for your holidays. Do your work in the world. And support the mega-conglomerate of your choice for coffee. Or get it at your local coffee house where your business makes a difference.

And don’t talk to me about the color of your coffee cups until there are no more hungry children in this world. You wanna bitch about folks’ missing the celebration of the tiny Bethlehem Babe? Look at how many children are still hungry. Right here. Right next door to you. Fix that. Wanna help fix that in the Susquehanna Valley? Go right here and help.

Peace of the Starry Chalice to you, my dears. And may there be no hungry children because we decide it is unacceptable. Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with feeding hungry children. and us. Let it begin with us. No need to wait for whatever winter holidays you celebrate to start this observance.

Starry, Family, Sabbath Peace

Every once in a while you should have loaner kid sitting on your couch. Not that I have my own kids, but loaner kids bring another take. If they’re nieces and nephews, there’s trust and laughing and fun things to do, so you’ve already cut through any awkwardness.

You learn a lot about each other. They get another look at adulthood. You get a dose of what’s up right now.

And then, if it’s this fabulous young woman, she reshapes your hair, goes uncomplainingly to party’s with 70 yos and to smokey bars to see a new band. She then demands you stop and take a gander the stars (she IS an evans child… my parents would be so proud! and so will her bennett/hermanson parents be!)

And the next morning, she uncomplainingly goes to church with you. That’s a niece! And a darling. Lucky Auntie.

She’s my cousin’s kid. Back when we were losing family at a fearful and awful rate, the cousins one generation down from mine were saying, our family is too small, we’re claiming one another and my generation was saying, we didn’t know one another growing up, we’re going to know one another now. We live into that every chance we get.

So, a visit from a niece. It’s a wonderful way to spend a weekend. and a great way to spend a beautiful, brisk fall Sabbath.

Enjoy the day. Today I’m celebrating the Peace of developing family. Whatever you’re celebrating I hope it’s lovely.

Sweet Little Gift of Peace

He was at the church to attend his grandpa’s funeral. He’s a boy bursting with curiosity. He never stopped moving.

You could tell, his parents worry — what will he get into?

Answer: Everything he can.

And he’s not the first child in that place to be hyper-inquisitive.

But he’s sparing with his words. He’s not always a child to get the nuances.

So when his first words were to recognize what we do here… it just made my heart swell.

Thanks, little guy… we work hard to make that so. Yes, it’s an old office building. Yes, we do church here.

There’s Peace in the making of religious community and Peace in being recognized for what we do at a very deep level. We loved his grandpa and we celebrate his life and mourn his loss.

There was Peace in our being together doing that and in using our talents to honor our friend. There was Peace in this little boy’s blessing.

Peace on the Threshold

Fall has been dancing back and forth between warm sunny beautiful fall and cool, damp appropriate fall.

This recent weather has been time out of time, completely outside the normal scheme of things, and glorious for all that.

Probably if we think closely about it, we realize it’s an indication of change that isn’t good. Why is it so warm in November? Why is there no rain in California? Why are there floods other places? Climate change.

And we don’t think about that when we’re rejoicing in what’s glorious or complaining about what’s usual. Why is it November. Because it is.

This is November. Time of the grey skies and the silver rains. Time to dive for those warm sweaters and just be comfortable with what is. Time for the leaves to litter the ground and lay like the mulch they are to make new soil for the year to come.

So that we have this weather means at the very least we must enjoy it. Rather than clutch it to our chest complaining that it might go away, let us throw open our hands and hearts and dance around, one last time.

And then let us welcome the Peace of the Silver Rains and let’s celebrate that!

Remembering, Peace

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. Wildly, out-of-season-ly beautiful. And oh, it looks like it might be the same sort of day today. hurrah.

So, yesterday and today, in terms of their beauty, are days to remember — and to be enjoyed.

Yesterday was also a day to remember a friend whom we buried. I’m mostly called on to do memorials and interment of ashes. I rarely do a casket funeral. But this is what my friend wanted. (and before we get too far off topic, they’re now saying that perhaps it’s better to bury than to cremate due to the immense amount of fuel and the release of particulate matter.)

People always say to me, you must hate doing funerals. In fact, I don’t. I am so honored to do them. Weddings are fun and baby blessings are a joy. But funerals, to work to get the memories right, to help people remember their loved one… oh, that is such a privilege.

I have people I work with at church, musicians, poets, kitchen magicians who deepen the experience. Will you do this, I ask, and they say yes. And then it all gets better. It was even richer because his friend, who doesn’t speak in public, opened his heart and spoke for his friend. We use who we are and what we know and make space for family and friends to be comforted in their loss and maybe even inspired to live more fully by this person they knew so well.

It’s silly, but wonderful to be so glad that my wedding table cloths and those little salt and pepper shakers are useful in lifting a family’s heart in the gathering afterwards.

Funerals, just like every other experience in life, should engage as many senses as possible. This one did. The service helped us remember. The day was so beautiful, so that standing at the graveside for this man whose struggles had ended, everything seemed joyous and right. Poetry and song wove ties around us.

And then back to the church for another opportunity for building memories.

Thank you my friends. For that day, in that group, Peace was in that place.

And then there’s the totally absurd fact that having done two funerals in one week in what must be county cemeteries, I’m on a winking and grinning basis with the gravediggers. It’s a weird world.

There’s birth and death and a whole lot of life in between. But at the end to be laid to rest with gentle words and reinforcing bonds, this is good.

So Few Who Tend the Peace

I’m still haunted by that very quick conversation with the emigré… You don’t know what hard is…. You don’t know.

I’ve seen a lot and, yet, I believe him. Because I’ve heard stories filled with pain about things we cannot comprehend. And we live in a country where a lot is wrong, and still, we don’t know.

And I work hard at helping us see those things that are wrong, I look hard at myself and my great, great privilege. And I’m sure I miss plenty.

But I think we who search for the wrong, get so earnest that we forget to celebrate the right… and lavishly… We forget to let people know that life is grand and everyone should have access to the grand things…

We forget our rights (privileges) and we forget our responsibilities. They expected less than 30 percent of registered voters to turn out. Less than 30 percent. And this was the only sentence I could find about how many citizens are registered to vote. “Among eligible voters, some 30 percent of African Americans, 40 percent of Hispanics, 45 percent of Asian Americans, and 41 percent of young adults (age 18-24), were not registered to vote in the historic 2008 election.”

So I found this conversation enraging. Wanna be an american and be all up in my face. Vote, dammit. Peace doesn’t make it self. We do. So let’s do it.

Peace in the Pool

Normally when I write about the Peace I find in the pool, it’s all about me — the water, the rhythm, the quiet.

But yesterday’s Peace was brought to us by a 92-year-old Hungarian emigré.

It’s one of those decisions I juggle. Do I speak to people I don’t know when I’m wearing a few ounces of nylon. It’s a vulnerability thing. I once had a woman introduced to me, who decided based on the introduction what my politics were and why she abhorred them, and i thought, what? I’m in my happy place and you’re going off? blah.

But, my natural curiosity makes me susceptible. And in this case, it was a lovely contact.

We who whine often don’t stop to think about why this place is valuable. We often spend more time whining than making things even better. Because truth to tell, if you travel at all or live abroad, you realize how many things are good here…

So why not work to make them better. Wringing our hands never did much to make things work…

and then, after Monsieur L’Emigré climbs out, my other favorite nonagenarian dropped into the pool. Another political conversation ensued.

What a delightful world we live in.

Peace is waiting to be picked up and celebrated. It’s in our hands.

And, along those lines did you vote? Because Peace is in our hands, and it’s lucky we are that’s so.

Breezy, Leafy Peace

So many of the leaves are down, but plenty are still clinging to the trees. Enough that we’ll be raking for days to come.

Driving yesterday, the sun picked out color on the burnished hills. Here and there there were still a few golden spots although the color was darkening toward copper.

It’s November. Time for beautiful, empty, black branches upthrust against a cold, grey, rainy sky.

Although we don’t seem to have much rain, just beautiful, beautiful blue, blue skies and unseasonably warm temperatures. It’s the time of the Moon when you have to get up pretty late at night (or pretty early in the morning) to catch the moon resting in the embrace of those empty branches. But if you do… it’s worth it, and the skies have been clear and starry.

I’ll take the Beauty and say thank you. I’ll take the Beauty and say Peace on Earth.

Misty Autumn Sabbath Peace

It’s a day for raking leaves and sweeping sidewalks. It’s a day for mysterious walks in the foggy woods, It’s a day for lighting candles and enjoying a book.

A Sabbath in Autumn. I’ll take it. And enjoy it.

It seems, given last night’s remembrances, that it will be a reflective day for me.

How lovely.

Hope yours is lovely too and filled with Peace — and not too much of the Halloween candy.

Goblins, Ghosties, Memories, Peace

For some it’s about the mad or the weird, for me it’s about remembering.

I have a pretty full altar, The past 20 years have been hard on my heart. A lot of beloved friends have gone on before.

In several traditions this is the time of year that the veil between this world and the next is seen to be the thinnest. Souls are thought to be able to slip back and forth, to visit those they loved with a touch.

For me, it’s an opportunity to commemorate those lives. And to just be present.

I’m a zoomy kinda woman, so it’s hard to give myself that space. It’s hard to give my loved ones that attention. So, today, I will just take this one Sacred Day.

The rest of you will be out being wee goblins and ghosties and looking for sweet loot. I hope you have a great time.

Peace , we need to remember, looks different for different folks! Hope you’re living into yours… Happy Halloween! Happy Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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