April Fools and Lunatics

Well, we woke up and the ugly laws are still there. Laws that say that what I believe means that I may forbid you services: health, food, housing. The Fools say: oh, we didn’t meant tha-at. The Lunatics say: this is not acceptable. Peace is inclusion.

This country was founded, with flaws, it must be admitted, on civility and citizenship.

Every amendment we’ve made to its founding has been for greater inclusivity.

But there’s something about homosexuality and this moment in history that makes us think it’s ok to say you’re less than human. And it seems that has given us permission to step up our racism and our misogyny.

Lots of people sitting back and smugly shaking heads that this just proves how crazy people are. It’s not the right reaction. We have to stand up and change the laws. We have to stand up and shop other places. We have to vacation other places. Wake up. Stand up. Speak up. Step up.

As I write, I realize beloved nephew is getting married in Arkansas. So Miss Wake up. Stand up. Speak up. Step Up, Priestess had better figure out how she’s going to respond when there.

Everyone has worth and dignity. Everyone is precious. People of faith and philosophy had better figure that out. We’re here to celebrate creation and create community.

Watch out April Fools whose jokes have turned mean. We are Pink Moon Lunatics for Peace. and we vote, in the voting box and with our dollars.

Relax for Pink Moon Peace

Doesn’t it seem there are lots of things to DO this time of year? I’m particularly stuck on my taxes at the moment… but there’s lots of culling to get to. Paper, because, of course, taxes release you from paper. shred and recycle! It’s not just wild phlox that the Pink Moon brings!

Clothing, what do you never need to wear again? Laundry, gotta wash the things you’re going to get rid of AND the things you’re going to put away. (and since you don’t want to iron, you should probably wash the things you put away last summer, or at least throw them in the dryer with a wet wash cloth.) Books, because you probably just spent the winter reading. time for them to go!

The list gets pretty overwhelming and that’s just at home.

And everything has a deadline. oh, my goodness.

And relax. because you know what? you can only do what you can do.

And you’re driving yourself crazy. (and probably your friends.)

I get nuts about this stuff. I make doing my taxes SOOOOOOO hard. It takes two days. I go through stacks of paper and add things up. oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh! I whine.

And why?

Because at the end of it, it’s done. I have all the papers, not precisely neatly filed, but available. and i can use a calculator.

But I missed the mark this year. And then I spent a lot of time beating myself up about it. What a useful employment of time, eh? And a great way not to get the job done. And partially, i planned wrong. I should never do things on a Monday. I’m too worn out from the weekend. I’m good a small chores on Mondays. Not monumental projects. And quite frankly the end of the week is usually a dash toward Sundays. so Ann, make a note.

So today, hysteria’s over, my taxes will be done shortly, and I will reschedule my meeting.

And Peace will reign at my house. What was good this year was that I (eventually) made the space to do it differently. Let’s see if I can continue to apply this wisdom to the daily living of life and completing of chores. (i wouldn’t hold my breath, i’m an old dog!)

And as a prize, today, i get to take out the recycling! Hurrah! Peace takes many forms in our lives.

Breathing Pink Moon Peace

Breath. We’re not conscious enough about it. Particularly the exhale, because the inhale is automatic.

Far too many times when we’re doing something important, we forget to breathe.

Inhale, pause and then exhale and begin the work.

Inhale the fresh Promise of Spring and Possibility. That’s what this Pink Moon is all about. Pause to savor. and then exhale your dedication to Peace.

Every time you remember stop and do it again. Soon it will become part of your day. Inspiration. Savoring. Manifestation.

It was fascinating to watch the Fitzwilliam String Quartet get prepared to begin, to watch the stillness and then the breath… And then of course lovely to hear and watch them play.

Seeing people working together is such a wonderful reminder that we can work together. If people can make beautiful music together, can’t we make Peace?

Can’t we?

Can we breathe in and out and make Peace?

United for Sabbath Peace

The other day I posted an article on FB which was somewhat more pointed than those I usually post. So, yes, mea culpa. And I believed it. It was a harsh review of a man who had tweeted smack about a well known little girl. He played base ball for a local university and got lost his spot on the team as a result. The lovely little girl, wrote forgiving the player and asked that he be reinstated, saying she was sure he didn’t mean it. The University president, bless his heart, stood firm. Some people felt the president was mean. Many of us did not. This article spoke about why the guy deserved his penalty. He’s a grown up whose tweet unintended or not savaged this little girl. He’s not the point in this — she is. He created the problem. He’s not a victim.

What followed was a storm of incivility. It started out well. Someone posted and explained why they were happy to see the post. A person who must follow them, because he’s unknown to me, wrote to complain that this was an isolated incident of stupidity and hatred. And that it was time for people to get over complaining about racism and sexism. I disagreed. He called me names. (He didn’t particularly hurt my feelings, since it was a very childish reaction. He didn’t quite call me a poopoohead, but the response was at that level.)

The original responder took exception not only to his response but to his style of response and very civilly but pointedly addressed what he had to say. And so it escalated. Eventually, more civil responses pushed him to remove his posts.

This exemplar showed everything good and bad about social media. Too many people are not paying attention to what’s happening in the world and are willfully ignorant of the problems people face. Too many people think that one responds to things they disagree with by dismissing another’s opinion or name calling. But, some people are willing to look in the mirror at themselves and at society’s unwillingness to face its problems. And they speak up in sane and respectful language.

This is wonderfully reassuring. So on this Pink Moon Sabbath, let us call for a cessation of the petty interactions and a deepening of understanding of the divides that limit our movement forward as a society. Let us be present to what’s going on. Let us be Peace-makers and Community-builders. Peace needs us. And we could stand a sabbath break to reflect and relax. Hope your day is lovely…

Sweet Sexy Spring Peace

Yes it snowed. It’s March. It’ll snow in April too. it’s cold and chilly. But remember: Spring’s about the light!

All the the things the Pink Moon promises are happening. The earth is thawing, trees are changing colors if not bursting into leaf, the birds are singing, singing, singing.

And the flowers don’t care about this silly snow. they’re still heeding the siren song of the Sun.

Weather is what it is. I believe it’s time to work on the environment. There are awful, human caused changes happening. But somethings are what they are. The average temperature in March where I live is 39˚. having a skiff of snow on the ground — pretty darned normal.

And come April, says the woman who keeps asking us to live in the present, I’m going to hope for cool weather, because when it stays cool the violets continue to rampage! But even then the average temp is only 50˚… for the month…

But while we’re complaining and shivering, the birds and bees are going right along with what they need to do.

And that’s a wonderful thing. Let’s make Peace with what is, shall we? Spring is a slow unfolding. And it’s absolutely beautiful.

Hush for Pink Moon Peace!

Can you hear the birds? Oh, that’s the sound of a changed season.

And if you sit really quietly, I think you can hear the earth creak into Spring.

It’s exactly that being present to signs of Hope and the willingness to be part of the Possibilities that makes Peace something that can happen.

It takes us all. It’s not enough if i listen or you do. It’s not enough if you sing or I do. We have to do this together. Let’s sing Peace into existence along with the natural world!

Fanciful? yes. Possible? who knows?

Peace. Spring. Ideas whose time has come.

Pink Moon Peace Harmony

We’re in the budding of the year and the budding of the Moon.

It’s a wonderful time to consider how you’ll make your voice heard in Peace.

What do you have to contribute and how does that blend with what others are contributing? Peace is after all a joint effort of finding our strengths and finding the balance.

it’s tentative and beginnings are, i’m sure, cacophonous. But as we tune our voices, find where they’re most true, a fuller Peace begins to emerge — a Peace that uses the best of us.

Peace requires the best of us. So we should practice.

The Light of Pink Moon Peace

The flowers are what have named the Pink Moon. But it’s the changing light that calls those flowers into their resurgence.

That magical changing, day by day, of the Earth. Here comes the Sun!

I find I grow indignant on the Earth’s behalf that people are disdainful of the sweet miracle. It’s not warm enough, they complain.

Why yes, it is exactly warm enough. March in Pennsylvania is still quite chilly. But that doesn’t stop the flowers’ creeping out of the ground or the buds’ considering whether they’re ready to begin the cycle again.

Pay attention! This beauty is so fleeting. This is the Moon named for the flowers. And these delicate beauties flourish and linger in the cool… Don’t wish them away.

Come to think of it, there is no day in this life that we can afford to wish away. These are the days we have. Let’s enjoy them to the fullest. Peace is right where we are. Peace is when we are as well. Let us be present to each and every moment of Peace.

Peace of Work Well Done

Ha! I just realized that rather than saying, as that ridiculous ruling does, that institutions are people too, that I wrote a musing saying that people are institutions!

But people change lives in the process of going about their daily work. Someone who serves your coffee with a smile changes your day.

So can we talk about why we can’t raise that minimum wage?

I love that this woman brightened mornings for so long, but did she want to — or did she have to because you don’t build up a great retirement on $2 an hour. Tips in central PA are probably not lavish for breakfast.

I know. Can’t I just clap for this woman’s wonderful service? She did such hard work for such a long time.

You know, once you start working on the web, it’s sometimes hard to pull things out.

I love that people do wonderful jobs. I’d just like if they’d be well and truly compensated for it. I’d like if our elders got some options. and if the people who make our lives sweeter got some acknowledgement in both cash and compliments. I’d like it if it weren’t often women in these situations…

And… all of that doesn’t change that she changed the world for many of us, who went in to get our breakfast served with a smile…

Floating Harbingers of Pink Moon Peace

It must be the change in light that nudges the birds into wakefulness… or maybe it’s the absence of a certain kind of food that alerts them. Pssst. get going. Time to be on the move.

Whatever it is, it causes great swathes of them to rise up and return to their summer homes far up North. I believe that I’ve heard, but could find no corroboration this morning, that these gulls are headed to the Great Lakes. The swans and the snow geese have their own destinations.

But yesterday, they’d reached a cornfield along their journey where they could roost and rest and a stretch of the river where they could calmly, time and again, rise and fall and simply float down the stream.

I promised myself, watching, that this summer when the water and the air warms, that I would do the human version of this. I would gather my friends together and we would put our innertubes in the water and float merrily down the stream. The gulls remind me of the importance of quiet communion on the water. Fun and Friendship.

Thanks, river gulls for this glimpse of Peace. The Pink Moon brings so many wonders… Do you think the gulls whisper of the sweet memories made on Sundays on the Susquehana? Delight ahead! Let us all remember!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

The Priestess Is In