New Moon, Another New Year’s Peace

This is an interesting new Moon… So far, with the exception of worms, every metaphor for this Moon has shown up. And when the weather warms a bit, I’m sure the worms will make their appearance known as well. No robins until there are worms!

And of course, among the names for this Moon, which are drawn from Indian tribal names, the Chinese New Year Moon doesn’t make an appearance, but 6 billion people (one sixth of the population) deserve mention! And it’s a Moon that causes migration — it’s the world’s largest human migration 2.8 billion people will travel home to celebrate the New Year.

It is the year of the peaceful, gentle ruminant… Imagine a year of being reflective! Of being part of a community. Of having fun together. Oh! that’s exactly what we’re being asked to do…

Maybe it’s time to join our Peacemaking efforts together, taking delight in one another’s efforts and seeing if they work for us. Time for testing the strength of the herd. (maybe working once again for herd immunity?)

Ruminants for Peace. Sheep, Goats… who knows who else…

Sugar Moon? Lenten Moon? Peace.

Lent is no longer part of my religious tradition. Even as a child, while I recall quiet vesper services and beautiful hymnody, i don’t remember imposition of ashes or the relinquishing of a pleasure for the duration.

But of course I knew people who did… I knew lots of friends from other traditions…

It often confused me however because i could never make the connection between ice cream and the crucifixion or alcohol and hungry children. That became more and more true in my 20s and 30s as i knew people who stopped one or the other either to lose weight or to dry out. I became somewhat cynical.

So it’s lovely to have friends who take the sacrifice and the prayer practice seriously. As a ritualist, I’m always interested in ritual practice and in the ways it changes lives.

My friend Faye is a Prayer Warrior. And by that I mean two things: She lives her life in and at prayer, working at things that matter and having a rich and full life. She also can pray mightily when an occasion demands it. I believe in prayer… and I am always grateful for the focused attention that she gives a subject, if for no other reason than how she is changed by those prayers… and how she leads the way.

So when Faye sacrifices for prayer, I pay attention and I welcome the thoughtful giving over of self to make the world and her life better. I guess I’m not as impressed by people who can go 40 whole days without ice-cream… or who think that that matters… unless they’re doing something important with that time.

Aside from all that, she’s a great friend and we laugh together and puzzle at the world together — which is a great gift!

I’m still struggling with having given up cynicism and fear all that time ago. It’s an ongoing struggle. But the Lunacy of Peace is a great thing… and well worth the struggle.

Sugar Moon Lunacy and Peace

Welcome to the Sugar Moon. Right now, it’s cold and the Moon is dark. All there, but all potential.

So many names for this Moon, so many metaphors, so much going on. This will be a Moon of bitter cold and surprising warmth. The sap will rise. It’s up to us if we choose to make sugar or not.

Making sugar from sap is a slow and arduous process. It’s dangerous because boiling sugar burns… But oh, the sweetness at the end! That’s well worth the investment of time and energy. People shake their heads and say it’s lunacy to do such a thing when you can just buy the finished product at the store…

But some things that also boil down very slowly to reveal their beauty cannot be bought in the store; they must be hand-crafted. So it is with Peace.

When the sap finally rises in Minnesota, my buddy Doug taps his trees and sits by a fire in his back yard. There he contemplates both the Peace of what is and what can be. Every year at this time, I think of this Peace activist, keeping tender vigil over his slow boiling pot. Doug probably sings, he often does. He probably thinks and pokes the fire with a stick a lot. His family members join him (although in my mind, the lovely Kim only does as much or as little cold weather fire sitting as she wants!). People drop by to pick his brain and enjoy his friendship (and probably beg for some syrup.)

They take away a message of discipline, dedication, and patience — because that’s what it takes to get to the essential sweetness. Pretty much what it takes to get to Peace, too…

Blessed be, my sweet friend Doug. Here’s to syrup and Peace which both make the world sweeter. Here’s to the lunacy of taking potential and boiling it down in to reality. Strength is required… enjoyment is your decision… and why wouldn’t laughter and joy be what you chose? Step up! Sit down! It’s a long, long prayer… participation required…

Cold Peaceful Close to Snow Moon Lunacy

This is it for 2015 Snow Moon. Tomorrow the Sugar Moon starts. Thanks for your beauty — you gave us a lot.

You were brutal, this year. There were “extreme winter weather events” all over the Eastern Seaboard this year. There was biting cold. (and oops, there still is!)

So here we are, on the other side of the Snow Moon and what do we know. The worst winters in history are piling up. It could be a “weather phase,” but it’s much more likely to be global climate change. We need to take this seriously. We’re fiddling while Rome burns.

And meanwhile we’re complaining. And you know, lots of people who were complaining were underdressed. Can’t run around in a teeshirt under your jacket and whine because you’re cold, my dears, it’s negative degrees. and that? is cold…

I sound like my mother. I have to admit. I don’t think she was wrong. She wasn’t wrong about recycling either and she and daddy started early, early, early. There’s a lot we should be doing for this planet.

We can’t just say we want Peace on Earth and Peace for the Earth, we have to do something. We’re the only ones who can make a difference. Peace is on us.

Working with the Snow Moon Peace

Having been watching the weather in Sweden, I know it’s far warmer there than here — at the moment it’s about 35 degrees warmer. (it is a bit brrr-ish here at 0˚. I currently have heaters aimed at the cold water pipe in my sink and am flushing warm water down the toilet… neither of those pipes have insulation… sigh.) So it’s not unreasonable to hear that they’re going out into the woods to gather winter fuel.

Still, oddly, I find it difficult to imagine my loved ones in anything other than my weather, so I find it extraordinarily brave of them!

What they are, in fact, is far better attuned than I to the difference the seasons make in the woods and how best to take advantage of that… or rather, more rightly put, to live with that.

it’s hard, since i’m an indoor girl to be to aware of how the earth moves… and it’s good to have a circle that includes people who know the forest, know when the mushrooms crop up and the berries come, know when the forest offers what’s needed.

I’m both wildly interested and disinterested in the same moment… Sometimes I think it’s just laziness… others, i’m not sure…

So i return as I often do to the circle. To having those in my circle who know what I don’t. Who pay attention differently, who turn their heads in other directions… Those friends keep us more widely engaged.

And now I have the image of birch logs blazing merrily in their fireplace… and I think of their eating one of my favorite pastries through the Lenten season… as they presage the Sugar Moon in so many ways. (who’d expect the Northlands to lead us into the the Spring?) I love them, and I love that I’m invited to see life through their eyes.

We make Peace with the Earth, with the Seasons and with our lives in so many different ways. It’s only as we gather them together that Peace can be seen as the beautiful patchwork it’s meant to be…

Looking Back at Lunacy & Sabbath Peace

Riding in the back seat of the car with siblings is/was a rite of passage for many of us.

For many people, back in the day (whichever day that was), it was a Sabbath occupation. Once services were over, whatever tradition you were, you got in the car and went to grandma’s… or auntie’s… or…

It wasn’t so funny then, especially if you were smushed on the hump because you just happened to be the third (and therefore the shortest) child, but what’s funny is how universal the complaints.

I suggest you throw your offspring (no matter their age) in the back of the car immediately and go off for a drive. Everyone should have such childhood torment and delight… it makes for a lot of fun when you’re grown up..

It’s going to be bitterly cold, so please be careful. Peace be with you all… The Snow Moon is bringing those arctic winds and icy drifts. brrrrrrrrr.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Wrote this for the Grands… sharing it with you. Hope your Day was happy and filled with Love… and that that leads to Peace!

Lunatic Love under the Snow Moon

I guess Valentine’s Day is for lovers… that’s what they tell us. And I’m happy I have my sweet Valentine (and happier still that he’s visiting our family giving great big grampa hugs!) But I still like school Valentine’s Days when we all sent everyone sweet small hearts. (I only now think about the fact that there were kids who probably couldn’t afford this…)

But Valentine’s Day was for everyone. And if there was someone in your class you balked at sending an “I love you” card, you had the long discussion with your mom about loving everyone. There wasn’t a problem next year! Friendship like many other things, needs to be cultivated.

Valentine’s day, not just hearts and flowers for star-crossed lovers… (and un-star-crossed lovers)… Love is for everyone. Love is for Peace. Peace is certainly for everyone. Lunacy. You betcha. The best kind under a consolidating Snow Moon. What could be better?

Community Peace Under the Moon

Community is a practice not an entity. It takes time and effort to slowly develop the skills to be a good community member, to take your place in the crowd.

There are so many jobs to be done. There are jobs for everyone. Often there are people to teach us those jobs. But sometimes, now, because we’ve been moving away from living in community, we’ve had to dig around a bit to see if we couldn’t find the roots. Then we’ve had to relearn… or in some cases make up… our hand books for best community practices.

Who makes the scalloped potatoes? Who makes the sauce? Who makes the Pad Thai? Who are the people with the pieces of our community that we have to assemble and cultivate.

It’s a slow process… but one that can give us so much if we choose to participate. We have people who want to follow in our footsteps and we can hand down the information we’ve cultivated…

This painstaking making of community is also the painstaking making of Peace. It’s what we need. It’s its own sweet lunacy — the lunacy of Peace. As I said earlier — wouldn’t you like to be a lunatic too? (and now, don’t feel you’re ready for lunatic? there are now lunatics in training! This could be you!)

Making Sense of Moons and Peace

It’s not that I think you can’t do any of your work at any point, but sometimes it just makes sense to consider working with the tides and the seasons.

So many of us (and I’m among that crowd) barely know that the Earth changes. We live our lives, do what’s before us and often don’t look out the window to see what’s going on.

We live on this stunning, powerful planet. We talk about working for it, but why not work with it? Why not let its strength work with us?

So, I’ve been working to clean up the little pieces of life, doing this and that, working to put the pieces of dreams in place so that building can happen in the expansion of the Moon.

I don’t think it’s ever a bad idea to put structure in your life. And if there’s a structure hanging around that you don’t have to invent, why not use it?

All hail the Moon. Blessed is the Winter with its Snow and Ice. Sweet is Peace, our daily destination. (and necessary are the long number of things on my to-do list)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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