We are different from one another. Where our edges meet is where we can create Beauty. It’s hard, because there is also opportunity to create mayhem.
We can rub along, slowly changing one another, slowly becoming more beautiful and more familiar to one another.
And actually, choose it or not, we will change one another. So why not embrace the change?
Peace is in the embrace and the changing.
They’re really quite miraculous, but so very easy to miss. There is often a silence before something immense and filled with impact happens. It’s that pregnant with possibilities moment. And then at the end of something momentous, there’s an instant that is the moment after delivery, the no longer pregnant reality of delivery that is equally profound.
Hold that silence. Breathe it in. Just before sunset. Just before dawn. Just before music begins. Just after it ends.
Classical musicians are trained to do it, maybe not in those words, but nonetheless… but so many musicians are not… they never let the note carry into the ether before crashing down into the next… or more likely turning immediately to talk about what they’re going to play next (as if you can’t set up two songs in a row.)
Keeping your eye on the prize might also include savoring and celebrating that prize. Those moments of awareness change life. They are a pause for an inhalation. Before night falls or day breaks. After incredible Beauty or unthinkable tragedy. They stop life and magnify it. It’s a sin to miss the Peace in them. And when have you ever heard me use that word?
When a storm has raged all day, that’s one kind of Beauty.
And when, at the end of the day, the Sun or the Moon break through the clouds in a wholy unexpected way, that’s another kind of Beauty.
Peace is finding the Beauty both in the storm and in the unexpected gift.
It is, it seems perfectly possible to be content to stand on a street corner, holding space for people to pray, all the while dreaming of warm, ocean kissed beaches.
We can’t only focus on the work to be done. We must also celebrate the fun to be had. All work and no play after all, make Jack and Jill fairly dull. Can’t have that!
Dull People don’t make exciting Peace.
What could be more exciting than Peace? Art, Music, Science, Technology, Wisdom swirl about! There’s Beauty. There’s Peace. Let’s stand when it’s necessary. Lounge when we can. Peace always.
For many years, in my life as a religious leader, I have not worn symbols of my office. Although I have other personal reasons, much of the work I have done has been interfaith and a collar would have interfered with that. And there was no real urgency for it.
It has never interfered with my doing my job. Here in my river valley, it’s easy enough to be known. But in today’s climate, there will be times I am called to show up that I believe a collar will be useful — as it speaks to power and as it reassures people in a crowd. It’s another way of saying I am here. I’m sorry it’s necessary.
I know a lot of people who are happy for their collars. I have no quarrel with them at all. It simply isn’t my style.
Having said that, if it moves the movement, there’s value… That said… sigh. And… you use power as you have it.
Stained glass? I love it! It’s so beautiful. I grew up with wonderful stained glass and when traveling still check to see the glass. But as my thealogy has moved, I look more to simple meeting houses that are warmed with love and passion for justice… But as my community begins to build, who knows what they will need. This is, after all, their house of worship. And I have nothing but welcome for Beauty.
In today’s world we look for places to find and ways to give Peace. We’re all going to have to stretch a bit. We’re all going to have to balance the needs, personal against the communal. And this piece of stained glass is beautiful.
It’s something we all have. For some of us it lasts a lifetime. Most of us, however, tamp it down early. But if there’s anything that’s infectious, it’s a beat.
We’re having a party to read the constitution. Maybe we should have a party to just dance. To let the music move us and to recognize we are in the same place, all of us… happy, laughing… stunned by the Beauty.
We’ve all heard the drums of war. What beat do the drums of good neighbors and Peace keep? What beats make us burst into spontaneous laughter and joy.
Shouldn’t we find out?
Peace. Could we consider giving it a chance.
I’ve been out every night this week. It’s been cold. It’s been snowy. It’s been starry. It’s been cloudy. It’s been beautiful.
Every night. The cold is dangerous (right, please put your coats on teenagers, this is real cold. And remember, before you start complaining, the Sun is dangerous, too!) But the beauty is worth negotiating the trials. The stars. The snow. Even the bracing cold… that air in your lungs is clarifying. I love the high dark starry skies and the low grey snowy ones.
Button up your overcoat. Get out there and be part of the Beauty. That enjoyment you feel is the same enjoyment everyone does!
Peace in the Winter Dark. Ahhhh… Share it with me.
The start to Winter Holidays were long cold nights when everyone was crowded together inside and no one went out but to hunt and care for the animals. And in days when the days were not about gifting and more about celebrating and dancing (ok, and probably drinking), the holidays were probably more fun.
However we got to lavish and wildly expensive gift giving, I’m not excited.
This year I’m scaling back. I say this who was always a lousy giver of gifts! I’m giving gifts to the kids and the adults are getting donations to important organizations that will change our world. And suddenly, I feel so much more generous. It makes me happy. It makes me feel useful.
It also lessens the amount of crazy running that I do. And who wouldn’t celebrate that? And truth be told, it shifts my sense of loss of family to a connection with the wider world. I have family, whom I adore and of whom I am fiercely proud and for whom I’m incredibly grateful. And now I have a world that I feel responsible to, as well.
The holidays are wonderful if we fill them up with people we love and fun events. They become less so when we stuff them with assignments. Whatever you ponder during your holy days, why not give yourselves some down time to do that. Mull some cranberry juice, or some wine, light some candles and settle in.
Peace is in the beauty, not the crazed running around. Find yourself a lovely slice of Peace and consider your world — all its beauty — and all the places you’re going to use your powers for good!
We’re needed. And so is the Peace we bring, in Winter’s lovely short days and beautiful long nights and all the rest of the year, too. Let’s Peace.
Every season, I think, well, this one’s the favorite. And I know, I always have trouble letting go of the outdoor swimming — but that’s not because the turning of the leaves doesn’t seduce my heart to gladness.
And you’d think, looking at these grey chilly days that I’d be whiny about the mix… but hey! Baby, it’s cold outside! and it’s Winter. And it’s beautiful.
If we’re complaining, we can’t see Winter’s Beauty. And then we miss Winter’s Peace. Why would we choose this? Why would we not admire? Why would we not Peace? Because Winter? Will be here either way. Let’s work with the Peace we have.
Cold weather, clear skies and stars! Nothing more extraordinary.
And yet it’s become extraordinary. No where near enough walking around outside in the dark. It’s a fun family exercise; it’s a fun neighborhood exercise.
And the dark and the cold are beautiful. They’re an integral part of life.
What if we all just decided not to hate winter this year. What if we decided to embrace it and it’s unbelievable beauty?
Why throw away half of life? Especially when it’s beautiful!
Peace is in the long Winter’s night. Promise.
