Family Peace in the Flower Moon

It’s been a long haul of sad commemorations in my family.

So, it was with great joy I hauled out my marrying dress and headed out to my nephew’s wedding. I’m not really doing the marrying, just a little part, so this marrying dress is red rather than my oh-so-stylish-and-clerical black.

I’d packed it down in my suitcase and was driving down the road when my cousin Kate called to say that Wayne’s, now her, daughter had eloped. Boom. another nephew, complete with a boychild. (Oh great, another child to be a mediocre auntie too. Ah well, luckily I’m the crazy auntie when they see me! After all, who’s bringing the pez and the bubbles to the wedding? Okay, okay, dear friends gave them to me for Easter, but still, I know how to use them. After all, being Evanses/Bennetts/and all the other things that come after, we’ll be logging a lot of pool time! Gotta have fun options!)

Twenty six of us will gather. There will be a lot of holes, and as I write this I’m missing Deb like crazy. Tomorrow by the pool and Saturday, I’ll miss the elders. But I’m grateful for what I’ve got — because what I’ve got is Love and some very sweet Peace.

and whoohoo… a celebratory cocktail will be enjoyed in the Clinton Library. That’s worth the price of admission (which is grown up shoes) right there.

Peace, Love and Happiness, World. Here’s to wild, riotous and passionate Happiness.

Flower Moon Peace and Joy!

Ah, Spring. The Flower Moon — doing her job.

Out in the woods to revel in the beauty. These hardies don’t belong here, they were brought from the Mediterranean and Asia Minor and have been cultivated for a very long time.

The ones in this little valley were planted by a homestead, i’m sure. The homestead is gone. The flowers persevere.

And the Evanses. hardships notwithstanding, have persevered mightily.

So we’re lucky. We’ve found our Peace.

A friend reminded me of what’s going on in Europe where huge batches of people from entirely different cultures are arriving in their countries, escaping their own, but wanting to establish their own culture where they are, rather than moving to where they’ve moved.

That’s a different issue. I’ll get back to it. But today’s Peace and beauty is what i had for the moment. Tomorrow, I’ll be writing about family Peace.

Migrating Peace in the Flower Moon

In Swedish the word for immigrants is invandrare… those who wander in.

That certainly describes the people who first came to this country… We wandered in from other places. Certainly our first people were hunter gatherers. Who knows how long it took before we started bringing our plants with us whether by mistake or on purpose.

And if we came in the time of the Flower Moon, when things will grow willy-nilly, then we started bringing in invasive species.

Throughout history we have wandered. Throughout history we have invaded new territory so that we might live better.

Sadly, as soon as we arrive, we often start thinking that no one else should come after us into what is now “our” place…

So much to ponder here. What does wandering Peace look like?

Crying Out for Peace in the Flower Moon

Peace does not start in perfection. It starts where we are and tells the truth. Even the ugly truth. It acknowledges what is.

Then and only then can we settle into Peace.

It seems that most of the people, many of the plants, and much of the wildlife wandered onto this land.

There is no sovereign right. There is no one who is more deserving than another. All are deserving.

You can’t pursue language and action about plants and fish without making that a de facto acceptable argument. The next thing you know, we’re talking about people and sealing them off from the public in privately funded prisons.

There is only rising up. There is only speaking out. There is only examining the words and the reasoning with which we pursue plant life which invades the way we think about one another. What is the noxious weed here? I think, perhaps, our thinking…

We’re in the Flower Moon, the season when the world carpets herself in beauty. She doesn’t care much where the flower came from. There’s a whole lot of thinking to be done between here and Peace. There’s a whole lot of Loving to be done as well.

As I write, I carry prayers in my heart for Nepal and for Baltimore, in addition for this awful situation.

May Peace Invade Our Hearts

Invasive Species. The first response I make to things like rabbits in Australia is what were they thinking?

And then I start to think. here we all are — invasive species, each and every one of us. Doing damage because everything seems so open and possible, so why consider the consequences…

And so, how do we respond? What is the way of Peace? And are we walking it, or at least stumbling along in the right direction in good company? Sometimes I think so, other times, i’m less certain. Let us Love. Let us Peace.

Lazy Flower Moon Sabbath Peace

It’s chilly, but it’s a beautiful day out there! Blue, blue skies and all those budding bushes and trees.

And I’ve sort of written my way into an open day, so this afternoon’s going to entail some sitting around with a book. maybe a little walk. Some time to ponder the very sweet gift of love I received from so many yesterday! I could use a little peace and quiet after all that glorious frivolity…

No sense giving in to the allergies, they don’t seem to be going away! Might as well just ignore and appreciate what’s in front of me.

Spring’s beauty is fleeting. No sense missing it. And the Flower Moon and her Bounty comes but once a year!

Wishing you Peace on this lovely Sunday. Spread it around! Be at least as generous as Mother Nature!

Sweet Festival Flower Moon Peace

The Flower Moon is doing her job. Gardens are just quivering with delight. Trees are loaded. Peepers are peeping. It’s Spring, dadgummit!

It’s cool today, but the sun is shining.

A half a block away from my house two large metal sculptures are for sale. One is an almost full sized elephant head. The other is a saucy dragon. oh yeah.

It’s my party. which the whole town threw just for me, or that’s how I’m looking at it.

In villages all across the Susquehanna Valley, indeed our country, maybe even our world, people are celebrating Spring. They’re strolling in small towns, eating festival foods, greeting their neighbors, hanging out with their friends and having a good old time.

My husband’s playing in the park from 11:30-12:30. Go bang a drum with him.

(I’ll be at the food court, meeting my buds!

And coughing, yes, and coughing. But I just visited my favorite pharmacist, so I can at least mask the symptoms! Because I certainly don’t want to stop the flowers!

Bright wonderful Festival Peace be with you. Happy Birthday to my 3 birthday buddies and blessings to Ro and Arlyne who at long last are getting married! Celebrate! Create Community. and just flat out enjoy!

Reading Hope Into Peace

It’s gone on for years: wonderful women (and a few men) have opened their hearts and arms to class after class of kids who need a bit more.

They teach them structure and discipline and play. They help them get ready to start kindergarten on a level playing field. They teach them to play well and to settle disagreements peacefully. They teach them to fight fair. They teach them not to pick on one another. They teach them that their lives matter.

And isn’t that the most wonderful thing?

Kids whose start may be rocky are rocked against kind and talented women’s hearts.

Steve and I got to read and and teach them a song. I got to write a little children’s ditty. and that was so fun. And steve and I got to work together. and that was fun. And they were so grateful.

They were grateful? Once a year, we come in and act like stars. Every day they are stars. And they light the heavens of a whole generation of our children.

Everyday they love Peace into those children. And Possibility. And Hope. And a Future.

Oh, we give thanks!

Flower Moon Peace Walks

I recently, finally, thankfully started walking again, after a winter of inertia. I swear, I could have sat all night, I could have sat all night, and never left the chair… Oh, right, I did. all winter! And the book? Went in a circle.

I was gearing up to boot my butt out the door when my friend asked me if i wanted to walk. I sniveled, I bargained, but at least 5 days a week, there i am at 7 am out in the neighborhood.

What’s great (exercise aside) is that SJ is a student of the Earth. So I feel as if I’ve got a tourguide to my town. I’m likely to see houses, skies rivers, she sees the Earth in so many ways.

It’s such an interesting and alternative view as we walk along and look and talk. There we were last week standing under a group of trees outside Deb the photographer’s house that were filled with Cedar Wax Wings. A whole charm of them.

And then looking at a little bog filled with something or other that someone was going to be so glad to hear about because she’d been wanting it in her garden and nature wasn’t going to begrudge her a few plants.

And then hearing about the knot weed, the good, the bad and the ugly.

There’s a lot of bounty out there in the Flower Moon. Including the pollen —which make the lovely maple trees. There are a lot of ways to make Peace with this Earth. I hope I keep the walking up. There’s so much to see and learn and do! Peace! You’re so fascinating!

Earth Day Peace!

Happy Earth Day!

I am so grateful for all the people who have started the movements, often from sweet and simple activities that monitor, care for and lobby for our beautiful planet.

I am so grateful for the beauty that keeps me moving out into the world, the incredible connections of the web of all life, and the simple pleasures of living on this planet.

I am so grateful for the visionaries who keep me dreaming of possibilities, the strategists who figure how we might work smarter and all those people who begin again, every morning, in love.

And that’s the challenge, isn’t it? To begin again in love, the slow, arduous, complicated trek toward Peace. Our Earth demands nothing less.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In