Collaborating in the Direction of Peace

I am not a real fan of yard sales. There are two reasons for this. One: too many people intently focused. Two: too much stuff to catch the eye. It’s an extrovert’s nightmare. (No, not only introverts have problems dealing with the world.)

But the gestalt of the thing delights me. Eight little rooms, one huge room, one fair sized room and a parking lot full of stuff. Community members hither, thither, and yon, adding up purchases, fetching bags, carrying things to cars, serving up food, asking, what do I do next, or what do i do with this? People answering with confidence, whether the answer is right — or made up.

And things, moving slowly and surely, out the door, although the tables seem to stay magically full. The tables sometimes seem like those baby bottles, they just keep filling up as soon as they’re emptied.

And people are always milling around. Often the same people (back for the third time today!) And every once in a while, sitting for coffee in the cafe. There was the sweetest old couple who just needed some cosseting. No problem, someone was on that.

Life is crazy and bountiful and confusing and wonderful. Let’s keep it moving in the direction of Peace. Let’s keep working hard and making memories! This is a great way to build community!

Meanwhile, in other news, it’s the first of July… jes’ sayin’!

Peace of Another Thunder Moon Sabbath

It’s crazy how excited I get about things that aren’t really that big. But it’s fun.

Today I get to preach at the Joseph Priestley Chapel. It’s fun to preach in because it’s got great acoustics. It’s fun to preach in because, there, I really feel the connection to our lineage. Our little congregation is heir to Gunpowder Joe. It’s quite a reputation to live up to! It’s a once a year deal, and I enjoy it.

And then, we’re off to the building to do the final bit of organization at the behest of the Yard Sale Major General. This is a huge event and it’s been very carefully orchestrated. It’s something that makes me with my great extroversion crazy, because I have to see everything at once. And then you add people. Ay Caramba! However, I’m also fascinated. What was once just piles of stuff is now carefully and attractively displayed. And tomorrow great gobs of it will disappear! wow! And so it will go for an entire week. At the end of the week, anything that doesn’t go, gets sent off somewhere, somehow to do good. Everything gets used.

Today it’s not going to rain, although it’s going to be cloudy. So we’ll get stuff done. And then, there’s a Sunday afternoon in my future. Lazin’ around, getting things done, reading something… reflecting back on the last two nights of the reunion, spending time with a friend. All in all it’s going to be a lovely day.

But first gathering with my community, and then watching the hive of worker bees follow directions!

And oh, right. The yard sale is another opportunity to shed stuff. To realize how much we have and how little we need. Count those blessings, and then share them. Enjoy your abundance, and then set it free. And then at the sale, you’re sometimes gifted to see people get things for a quarter that they need. a pan, an interview outfit, a set of plates. Some people just drop in for lunch. Every day. For six days.

It’s a gift of camaraderie. It’s a gift of community building. It’s a gift to the wider community. We’re so lucky that some of our brave souls are willing to do this, and in doing it, invite us to participate.

Somewhere there’s Peace in this, if only in the organization. Sadly the Thunder Moon looks like living up to her reputation so there will be the challenge of keeping the rain off the goods. But before it all, there’s the wonder that chaos can turn into a gift of love.

Solstice Sweetness in the Thunder Moon

The clouds hung around all day. And just as I threw up my hands and said that’s all the preparation I’m going to do for the vigil tonight and I’m going to at least slip into the pool, it started to rain.

I listened carefully, it wasn’t rumbling, just raining. So off I trundled to the pool, and slipped in. It really is magical this swimming in the rain thing… It was still hot and the pool was still cool. The guard watched from under the overhang and i mostly floated. ahhhhhhhh.

Then back for the vigil with the two hundred. You’ve heard me on that.

And then out to the local ice-creamery to watch the end of the glorious sunset, a moon hanging in the sky with some planets to chat with and the rising of the fireflies.

I don’t know how much we accomplished on real Peace last night (although I have my suspicions…) but it was lovely to finish the evening in the company of a like-hearted friend rejoicing in the beauty of the earth and the blessings of the Solstice… claiming the sabbath for rejoicing in and being present to Mother Earth and her abundance.

Maybe we’ll do better on big P Peace today…

A Berry Moon Sabbath & a Need for Peace

It’s been a very intense weekend. And it’s not over yet. Pant, Pant…

But all of it has been wonderful, even the hard bits. No reason to think that it won’t continue to be the same. Although goodness me… what a journey.

Lucky that this afternoon, I’ll be gathering with a whole bunch of people from a whole bunch of tradition at the local amusement park. The sweetest little park in the world. There we’ll be: Jews, Muslims, UUs, and Christians sharing a potluck and going on silly rides.

There will be work for us to do some other time. But at the moment we’ll be celebrating being neighborly. What could be sweeter? And I’m sure my friend Sonia’s bringing something amazing to eat! 🙂 She always does! And there will be 50+ other people contributing, so look out world! here’s hoping there are some Berries for the Berry Moon! I can’t think of a better Sabbath (well, unless I got to just go back to bed and not move for a couple days!) But what a fun and silly blessing this will be.

And as I’m recounting the abundance of my life today, I’m still seeing two young homeless families on an early morning train… they had each other, and mamas looking out for babies, but not a lot else. We’re a nation that says we care about our children. And yet we don’t. We have homeless babies and homeless mamas. That’s no way to get to Peace. And Peace is where we need to go.

Peace, Sabbath, Berry Moon

Is a Peace volcano a metaphor completely in conflict with itself? But if all those languages, all those Peace words have gone underground, don’t they need to find a way to surface?

What would that mean?

All of which is a lot of thought for a sweet early summer Sabbath morning in the Berry Moon. Mother Earth is at her beautiful, abundant best this morning.

This is a day packed full of community and beauty. It’s already started with my morning walk. Both Sarajane and I were moving slowly, so we wound up sitting on some neighbor’s chairs down by the river. There were ducks and eagles and herons and fish… and a beautiful deer at the water’s edge across the river. And silence. there was a lot of silence. Ah….

And today there is a Good Neighbor gathering in a local park in celebration of two wonderful community leaders. This is the first ever celebration as Doug and Margie Sturm died last year. There will be food and music and lots of laughter.

What could be sweeter?

and as for the volcano… i don’t think the world will go on as it has… and maybe reclaiming language and difference can oddly be a thing which draws us together. We’ll keep thinking about Peace, shall we? and the notion however silly or mystical that there’s a huge bunch of molten Peace at the center of the Earth? Peace be with you on this sweet Sabbath morning. Enjoy your day…

More Peace in the Full Berry Moon?

Oh, it’s an amazing time of year. Or rather it’s the start to an amazing time of year.

So much fresh food at the peak of freshness and nutrition.

It’s a wonderful balance of good for you and just plain good.

And it’s the kind of bounty you can over indulge with few side effects!

I remember sitting at dinner at my Swedish Mama’s house with my parents. Mama came out with a big, big bowl of strawberries and an equally gigantic one of whipped cream.

Indulgence in Summer! Indulgence in Bounty! and sharing it out among the friends. There is no greater delight. Sweet Peace in the Berry Moon to you, my dears!

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.

Flower Moon Sabbath Peace

Spring Mornings. They’re really quite beautiful. Blue, blue skies that you can still see because the leaves haven’t come out to block the sky. Chilly temps that you know will warm. This is the weather that the Flower Moon brings along with the march of spring flowers.

Spring afternoons when you finally are excited about doing chores that by the end of the summer will annoy and bore you.

Sunday mornings, quiet before the dash to church and meetings. Well, except for the birdsong outside!

Sunday afternoons when a walk requires nothing more than grabbing a sweater before you walk out the door. When a pool of sunlight is just meant for dragging a chair into as you read the Sunday Papers.

It’s a sweet time of year. It’s still a little early to start gardens but just in time to ream about them. A day off means time to enjoy the wonder and beauty and be grateful for Nature’s abundance.

Sweet Sabbath Peace to you, my friends. Enjoy the day.

Snow Geese, Swans & Sugar Moon Peace

Migration is such an amazing thing. Birds travel thousands of miles from their summer to winter homes and then back again. (well, they’re traveling to keep the same seasons going).

Because I live two blocks from a North/South waterway, there’s no escaping this beautiful reality.

I drove over to “the” field yesterday about dusk and 2000 birds were taking off. They flew in formation back and forth, catching the sun and then the shadow. They looked like an Escher print. Now brilliantly white, then golden in the sun, then black in shadow. The Vees formed and reformed. They called back and forth.

Every year, the same astonishing display. As I said, for me, it’s wrapped up in my Dad… but the beauty is overwhelming on its own. There it is, for free. Today, maybe tomorrow, but certainly next year! Making memories and all we have to do is show up and be present.

Every day there’s a reminder of life’s Abundance and Beauty. Swans and Geese are today’s gift of Peace from the Snow Moon. (oh, and the gulls, let’s not forget the gulls!)

Peace in the Midst of Snow Moon?

Bah. Since I wrote yesterday about my thought that humans are now often the deep impediment to other people’s eating, I’ve been trying out the truth of that statement in my mouth.

Sadly, it tastes like truth. It sounds like truth.

I don’t know what it is about metaphor that allows me to see differently, but it does.

I’ve known underemployment and low wages are a major cause of food insecurity in this valley, but I’ve never understood it quite this clearly.

People need living wages. They need to be able to care for their children. Children need to eat if they’re going to be happy kids and productive adults. It all feels pretty straightforward to me…

If people in capitals are not going to change, we’re going to have to use our Peace shovels and make a difference. There’s a lot of snow. The more of us digging, the more who will join us, the more power and strength we add to the task. What if we were the avalanche rather than the greed and stupidity? What if we made Peace what people wanted to do? It can only happen if we step up and do the hard work. Let the politicians see what matters to us. In the meantime, let us feed the hungry. Let us sit shoulder to shoulder around the fire because we have invited people into our abundance. We can make it so.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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