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…

Peace of the Little Things

Yesterday was a day of plowing through this and that. And indeed this and that was accomplished. Since the day before had been a pretty big slog, it was a joy to get things done. Even the one thing I had to do again because I had deleted it from my computer.

Sigh. and Ah well. It actually was much better the second time around.

So much of the work i do is work that has no finish point, it often just morphs into the next thing. So when I can tick a lot of things right off the list, I’m in heaven.

So little, but so sweet. And maybe only so sweet in my life because it’s not every day, but I’ll take it.

And those conversations, those little snippets of catching up and loving each other. I’ll take that too! So much of life is not about grand gestures. So much of it is about the sweet little moments.

And for me, yesterday, the sweet little moments held me upright for the hard moments of letting go a friend who died. Her memorial was on Thursday evening and yesterday we interred her ashes. She was only 44. She left a daughter who is only 12. and a heartbroken mom. So hard, so hard. I’m so thankful that I have work I can do, ways I can support that are useful, words I can find even when words can’t get at the deepest of the sorrow. I am grateful that the Earth receives us at the end of our lives after having supported us through it. I am grateful that nature is so beautiful. and I’m very sad.

I’ll take the Peace of the little things in the Beauty of the Berry Moon. They soothe the heart.

Honoring Flower Moon Beauty & Peace

I guess I’ve just spent too much time wandering around the neighborhood recently looking at all the amazing flowers. The Flower Moon is more than doing her job this year, calling beauty into the world. So when I saw the ravaged poppy I was sad.

Sad at first, because who does that. Ok, squirrels, but they’re squirrels and they just tear things apart. But this was ripped off at the stem and discarded. I can even accept, although they’re not yours, plucking a flower to enjoy. But this was not that.

I have a lot of poppy memories. I live with a lot my mother’s poppy paintings. Our wedding ketubah is passionate with them. And I have smiled at fields and gardens of them in a lot of places in the world.

My reaction about this, however, somehow took me right to the “In Flanders Field the poppies grow…” that sad, evocative WWI poem… There it was, a brilliant splash of red lying broken in the street. As we do with flowers, so we do with people.

I don’t want to make peace with that, I want, rather, to call for and make Peace. No more ruined flowers. No more ruined lives. Let there be Peace on Earth. Let us understand that Life is sacred. Let’s start that now.

Violet Peace in the Flower Moon

I’m not a cook. I assemble things once in a while. But that daily food to table thing? bad at that.

So it’s ridiculous that I should be making violet simple syrup. And of course I don’t follow directions well. so mine won’t be as violety as it should be… nor as purple.

But it was such a delightful notion. And even the failed first batch was sweetly subtly tasty… I know this because i poured it with the melted leftovers of morello cherry jam all over my french toast.

The Flower Moon. Enjoy what’s here. Be present. Nature is so outrageously beautiful. Today our walk was punctuated with strong lovely spikes of iris demanding attention. “Hello! We’re here!” Well, yes you are…

Time to pull together what we’ve learned from the Flower Moon, synthesize it for next year when the spiral changes and we learn something new.

But in the meantime? Sweet, sweet Violet Peace to us all…

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!

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.

Daring Pink Moon Peace

Just about the time everyone wonders whether it’s not time to cut the grass, the violets appear. (whew say the grass cutters, can’t cut away that beauty!)

They’re such a fragile flower, except, really, they’re not. We hear them referred to as the “shy” violet, but a hillside or a lawn full of violets is a hillside of electric color.

It’s true, I love them.

I love the color and I love their courage.

It’s a good model for Peacemaking. Surprise people with your passion. Be confident in your mission. Delight the world.

Let the Pink Moon encourage not just the violet, but also you to Peace.

Crowding Pink Moon Peace

It’s just a busy time of Earth, this Pink Moon. Everywhere you look something’s happening.

I love to watch the trees flush with passion getting ready for their budding.

I love to watch the grass green and the earth soften.

I love that when our gardeners pull away the winter leaves there are pushy little sprouts there declaring their plot to dominate the world for a few seconds. And come on, sprouts!

By now, the Daffodils and Narcissus have gained quite a bit of height. They’re promising sun on Saturday and that will be the siren song that’s needed to have them burst into color.

Spring is underway. It’s still chilly. typical April weather actually. And more rain is predicted. And although it’s dreary, please, please, please, ma’am, may we have some more? We do need it. And it brings such Beauty!

I think I need to go walk around a bit and take it all in!

There’s some elusive connection I could probably make about Nature’s managing to not only have Peace with all these different plants and animals but also to produce astounding beauty and the human condition of so many lovely races and our inability to have Peace…

But I’ll leave that thought half formed and just celebrate the way the clouds on the hill turn into crowds of daffodils…

I love that corny song. My mom and I used to sing it together. There was a woman at her facility who was deep in dementia and she was scared and unhappy — and often a little mean. She muttered a lot, but didn’t talk much. But she loved this song. And when I saw her, I would sing it with her. And she would sing along and laugh and kiss her husband’s hand. Peace. Those daffodils bring a lot of Peace.

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.

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!)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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