Get on the Peace Train to Somewhere Fabulous!

I like traveling. I like meeting new people. I like trying new foods. I like the sea (lake, river, pool, hot tub) anywhere I find it (them).

So in my 20s traveling through Europe on trains was extraordinary and so exciting. Venice wasn’t my first big adventure, but it was a fabulous one.

I liked traveling alone. I liked doing it with friends. I often had destinations, so I didn’t have to get off the train and not know where to go, although plenty of folk do well with that. But I saw things and I met people and I ate local cuisine and I swam in the waters. Life is filled with loveliness and interesting people. Interesting people from foreign lands have new perspectives on Peace. It’s always good to encounter those…

Yes, every place has its own share of challenges, but we have to encourage the lovely things. We have to talk with people not like us and find new ways to work together for the good. We have to put ourselves in the way of the hateful in every way we feel able. Let us be the ones who make a difference. Let us be those who make Peace.

And oh, visit sunny Venice before it sinks into the sea. It’s gorgeous, filled with history, water and beauty. And wild, wonderful people and great food. It has plenty of problems to contend with, but it also has its own Peace.

Beautiful Sabbath Dawn to Ease our Souls

A new day.

I remember the mornings after receiving horrible news, when you start awake, realizing what you’ve lost; that everything awful is true; that you’ll always live life differently than before.

And yet even then, morning brings an insistent reminder that the world continues. Even then, the world tries to say there is beauty, even if you’re not ready to look.

Eventually you awaken and, one day, find the world beautiful, even if only for a second before reality reminds you that life is hard.

Life is hard and filled with loss. But it is also beautiful, and we can fill it with hope.

We remember the fallen with love. We gather the pieces of our hearts. We endure. And eventually, we move forward in love. We move forward into Peace. You just have to keep living long enough to find the Joy again. Wishing you Peace in all your struggles, even those as monumental as this one was.

May the Sun Go Down on our Commitment to Peace

We’re the ones who hold Peace in our hands.

So, are we the ones to hold Peace in our hearts?

What are we going to do about Peace?

If we continue to shake our heads and ignore it… life will not change…

I’m asking myself a lot of questions. I’m reading a lot. We can’t keep living like this. It’s not good for the planet, it’s not good for the humans.

Isn’t it time we gave Peace a chance. I keep thinking, man to the moon, explorer to Mars… Peace ought to be within our grasp… It definitely ought to be within our sights.

So, let’s try an experiment… every time we notice that something is beautiful, think of Peace. Every time we notice that something is not beautiful, make it more so. Start with the little things. Care about your environment. Join a group that does good work. Do something. Make Peace. Every day. Everyday Peace.

The Soft Scent of Peace

The only flowers I’ve ever planted are roses. I had a Jacob’s Coat and a Lincoln rose when I lived in California. Mr. Lincoln was a glorious dark red rose whose blossoms were deeply fragrant. Ummmmm. My roommate still has the bushes, so when I go to visit, i get a nose full…

Now, all Peace doesn’t smell like roses, I’m sure… some of it has the sharp tang of a pine tree, or the green of freshly mown grass. Peace may have the elusive taste of coriander or cumin or the sweet taste of a shared watermelon. It may freeze your nose like freshly falling snow or delight like a warm summer rain. Life is filled with abundance and beauty and we need to remember to share our delight in those things.

Peace engages the senses. Sharing those sensations is one more thing that binds hearts and lives together. Peace is organic, it is a thing of many parts. That’s a piece of what makes it so challenging. But if we remember that there are things that we share that helps us move forward… then we make way for Peace… on the scent of roses.

Hurrah.

The Peace of Doing the Job We Have and Doing It Well

Dairy cattle have one job. There are many parts to it as there are to most jobs, but they produce milk. Around here, they do it in serene beauty. They graze. They chew. They wander home to be milked. They do these things in large companionable groups.

We’ve recently found out that cheese is addictive. It’s also darned good.

Sweet to share with our buddies. Just as they shared the making of the milk.

They share the making of the milk just as we share the fruits of their labor.

There are tiny little lessons for us all to learn here and there is companionable Peace as well. You eat your grass, I’ll eat mine. There’s stuff to learn here! (And I don’t know about you, but I’m still being astounded that we’re in week 24 of a 52 week year! Almost half over? It seems impossible!) Everyday matters and Everyday Peace.

Building Houses of Peace

Fallingwater is beautiful. Crafted by a major architect in a gorgeous setting, it is a feat of amazement. I’m awed by it… To build where the water, land and sky meet… what vision. Walking around, you notice not just the architecture, but also the Peace of the forest and rock and the waters that tumble over them.

But it is a wonder, not a house for the likes of most of us. And that’s a good thing, because the forest needs to exist without our building roads into it.

But houses of Peace need to be every house. We need to create Peace in our own houses. And we need to make sure that everyone has a house. I’ve lived in a place where there are very few homeless. And I’ve lived in a place where there are too many.

It’s an expensive proposition to house the world. But people’s dignity and sanity change. We need more affordable housing. and we need job training so that people can work at the jobs that are available, so that people can afford to support their own housing.

Yes. That’s a lot of need. But a world of people with employment, with health, with education, leads to more Peace.

There are so many ways for us to give Peace a chance. But to begin where we began, outrageous beauty in the midst of outrageous beauty is one of them.

Waterfall Beauty, Waterfall Peace

I suppose there are people who don’t like waterfalls. I can’t quite imagine it, but i suppose there must be… I’ve stopped to gaze at waterfalls everywhere I’ve been… When possible, I’ve swum in them. yayayayayay.

Aside from the beauty, apparently the falling water does the same thing that oceans do: produce negative ions that raise our serotonin levels which make us feel better. Here’s a collection of articles that talks about it. Interestingly, lightning is the largest producer of negatively charged ions… which may explain our excitement about them.

And then of course, large waterfalls can produce hydroelectric power and change the world or ok, maybe just the community for the better. Clean Energy! We like it!

Native Peoples have often found waterfalls sacred, they celebrate the source of life that is found in their beauty. Maybe it’s the ions, maybe it’s the mesmerizing nature of the falling water, maybe it’s the power — whatever it is, for me, it adds up to Peace giving time spent watching water fall.

Scott’s picture is wonderful. The falls are beautiful and the sunlight and shadow are also beautiful. Wake up, my dears, here’s some beauty for the day! Peace of the Waterfall be with you.

Sabbath and Refueling for the Peace Journey

If we did nothing else for our Sabbath but refuel — whatever that means to us — that would be a good thing.

My hope today is to restore some hope. It’s been a tough time for Pollyannas recently. Life is a challenge, and some of it is downright ugly. What is with people we wonder and can we reach them?

Well, not every day. Sometimes you just need to deal with whatever’s in front of you and breathe in some much needed Peace?

Can’t see it? Stop and look around. Beauty everywhere. Landscape. Friendship. Quiet. Gatherings. Find what you need. Breathe it in. Experience it.

Prepare for Peace. For you and for the world around you.

Making Peace with the Coming of Weather

I come, as I’m sure I’ve told you, from a family of cloud watchers. Time was I could tell you each and every name. Now I just pause in admiration.

But I always thought it was magical to see a storm contained in a cloud moving across the landscape. Apparently I’m not the only one. Here’s what my friend Barbara had to say. (If we’re lucky, we’ll see her photos next year.) Beautiful words… can’t you see it coming in?

“Reminded me of when we lived in the country. Our house was up on the mountain above the UPS on route 11. We were part way up the ridge, with the back of the house in the middle of a field, facing the woods and the woods continued up the rest of the ridge. We could see the weather come over the mountain. Usually storms came from the northwest edge of the natural bowl we lived in. The woods were loaded with silver leaf maples. We could stand at the back of our driveway and watch the storms come over the mountain. First the sky would get dark as the clouds came over the ridge, then as the wind began to blow, the trees offered the silver under bellies of the leaves. It was like watching ocean waves as the wind caused waves of silver washing from the northwest, across the trees…across the mountain.

First we could hear the thunder, see the lightening.

Next we could see the wind as the branches blew revealing the leaves’ silver. Waves of silver moving west to east. Thunder, lightening, dark clouds, leaves blowing. We could hear the rustling of the leaves as the wind and rain moved over the mountain and across the tree line always west to east.

Excitement would increase as the rustling, the silver waves got closer. We could watch the rain line moving towards us as more silver revealed itself. The rustling got louder, the darkness filled the sky…wave upon wave of silver leaves spread from the western edge of the tree line to the trees directly behind us. we could feel the wind, feel the energy of the storm but we didn’t want to go in, to leave the intensifying excitement of the approaching storm. Finally as the wave of silver passed us, sheets of rain fell and we would retreat to the safety of our home.

Summer afternoons and evenings brought thunderstorms. In our corner of Northumberland county they brought waves of silver, waves of beauty and waves of excitement.”

Peace my friends, Peace of the silver storms to you.

Look Up for Peace

The skies are filled with Beauty.

Recently, people have been filled with complaints about the grey skies — and haven’t bothered to look and be astounded.

Sometimes the grey blows in and just hangs there. But often the clouds shift, part, close, open. Amazing things are happening right above you. Free of charge. Enjoy!

And sometimes they part and light spills down in a water fall.

The other night around sunset, this happened and the spill of light was completely rainbow colored. It was gorgeous!

Peace, falling out of the clouds in so many colors. People look up!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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