Tag Archives: blessing counting

Peace of the Frozen Countryside

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Flying across the country, the ground is a patchwork of beautiful white fields. In summer, you can tell how this country nurtures itself. Right now, all you can see is the bones of the fields the evidence that at one time, this land was worked.

But for now, it rests. it rests even as we rest. Filling up, rejuvenating, getting ready for the next season by remaining completely within this one. If there’s anything this landscape would tell us, it’s this: Don’t rush it. Be present to the moment. More will come. For now, this is enough.

 

Peace on a Sled

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I am not a particularly athletic person. Neither am I particularly competitive — at least in an athletic sense. So there are a lot of sports I don’t do. Perhaps it’s just because I’m lazy… I love to sit and write and have to push myself to the pool… where I am competent.But it struck me as I was getting ready to send out this list that many of the simple pleasures of life get pushed aside for the competitive ones. Mindlessly sliding down a hill close to the ground, “through the frosty air,” is fun. Snowmen and women… fun too. There are not a lot of edges to test yourself against… just a lot of laughing shrieks.

When we’d have the first particularly good snow at my college (Wilson College that is!!!!), the President would walk into the dining room at lunch, commandeer the lunch trays and start handing them out. “I’ll meet you on the hill,” he’d say, and he would. it was a pitiful hill, but it was a wonderful afternoon. You slid next to young woman you hadn’t known at the top of the hill and laughed, holding one another upright as you walked back up. Sweet simple Peace. I know that lots of people don’t have the climate for this, so I’ll say this instead: May you find such an uncomplicated Joy this month — and indulge!

Peaceworking

If you’d have asked me about my greatest fears before running off to peace camp with ThinkPeace Workshop for Girls this summer, after I got past the actual camping part of it, I’d have had to say, I worried about how the girls would get along. I am happy to say that all my fears were ungrounded. (I was ungrounded, I got to sleep inside on a bed! whoopee! Imagine the delight of an Aging Indoor Priestess!)

But I’m here to report that Peace-working causes actual Peace to break out. I’m not saying there weren’t rocky moments and the girls weren’t girls, but they were kind girls. They were involved girls. They were caring girls. Maybe crossing out were, substituting are. They are adorable, strong, funny, smart, wonderful breaths of air and hopes for a new world. They are girls.

These lovely young women watched movies that broke their hearts and challenged their senses of what is fair. They participated in projects that acknowledge that the world is not easy or gentle but are designed to change that. They spent some time writing their ways out of own troubles and then envisioning ways to help World Girls move out of their own. They saw their privilege and looked for ways to leverage that. I’m not sure if they’re clear that’s what they were doing, but that’s what happened. And in their free time, they played, sometimes like the young women they were, sometimes like little girls, running in the back yard, playing in the pool. More friendship bracelets were made than anyone would have thought possible. (As a child of a child of the Depression, I was astounded by the supplies they ran through!) People’s fears were soothed.

And they spent most of the week in a puppy pile on the couch and floor in the Gathering Room. They solved problems together. They traded taking the lead. They included everyone and they worked to their strengths. They stepped up

They didn’t do this on their own. Peace doesn’t break out spontaneously. The week was carefully set up. Boundaries were set. A covenant was drawn, agreed to and pretty much followed. And that week, girls made a difference. In their own lives. In the lives of their companions. In their Leaders’ hearts. And maybe, just maybe, in the way the future grows.

That’s a pretty good outcome from a week of gathered girls. Sing Ho! for the Peace of a Girl.

 

ThinkPeaceWorkshop

The Priestess went to camp this summer. It was extraordinary. I’ve been putting off writing about it as I wanted to get it “just right.” But then I realized, I could write a lot of blogs about camp. ThinkPeaceWorkshop for Girls is the brainchild of Kelly HImsl Arthur and Liz Overheul Curry. Two moms with girls, thinking about Peace. Two moms wanting to raise a new generation of Peace Warriors.

I found TPW on twitter and followed. We followed a traditional cyber-courtship model… follow, like, post, invite, engage! And before you know it Kelly and I and then Liz and I were in FB heaven. And then we emailed. and now? now we’re friends!

They’re doing such wonderful work, offering girls the opportunity to think beyond middle school and senior high activities. These girls are thinking about Peace. They’re thinking about girls and the challenges they face in other countries. They’re thinking about (and doing about) becoming part of the solution rather than one more nonchalant part of the problem.

If you’ve been following my posts, you know that I don’t approach living close to nature with anything other than trepidation… so, I surprised myself when I asked: “Can I come?”

But Kelly said yes, and off I went (and I got my nature in small doses!), and it was extraordinary. Four adults, two young women and 16 girls. Writing, Stretching, Listening, Cooking, Learning, Goofing Off, Getting Serious. Peace begins with a girl. and girls began to envision that they might be that Peace-Beginning Girl, each and every one.

Can’t do it justice in one post. More to follow. Speaking of following… you can find them on FB and become a fan of sweet young girls becoming sweet Peacemakers!

Hats off to Kelly and Liz! Get to know them. And then get busy making Peace as only you can make it.

Widening and Narrowing Circles

This summer I was off to Peace Camp: ThinkPeace Workshops for Girls. It was astonishing. and I still haven’t distilled everything into a drink I can share. So many wonderful ideas. So many wonderful Girls! And Women! And such wonderful Work. yah. more later! Heaven on a stick for a Peace Sister. (Yes, there’s pondering about Peace Camp for Women!)

But what’s caught at my heart today is the notion of how your circles both enlarge and focus when you begin to look in a different direction. It’s been about a year that Sacred Village has been a public entity rather than a closely shared dream. Goodness knows, thanks to my beloved Web Guy, I’ve owned Sacred Village for years. (Dreams deferred can be just that! And sometimes dreams take a while to take substance. Don’t give up!)

As part of my attempt to put myself out there, I did what you’re supposed to do. I got a twitter account. I started friending people. I started posting. An early lucky follow was Kelly at ThinkPeace. Almost immediately “We Belonged to a Mut-u-allll Admiration Society.” Love, love, love, that woman her partner Liz and their work! I watched in amazement the work The girls and they were doing. I wrote a poem to support their work in Million Bones Project. Eventually, I held my breath and sent my plea… “Can I come to camp?” Yes! Delight ensued.

So off I went. Wow! And there as the teacher of the week was (drum roll, please) the fabulous and lovely Jeanne Demers author of The Ruby Books.

She works with Girls to help them find their Voices. We all started stories. (Yo, TP Girls anyone finish yours?) She’s a beautiful wonderful soul! (funny too!). At the end of the week, the girls started working at their World Girls, doing their research and building connections to girls a world away.

Now Jeanne has moved to Austin (cause that’s how hip she is!) and she’s gotten a job with the Girls Empowerment Network in Austin (GENaustin). She’s going to be wandering into school after school starting clubGEN. Girls will be speaking out all over Austin. The Girls of Austin couldn’t have a better gift. Girls! Leadership! Peace! Empowering and putting to words the connections between those things. What a wonderful, wonderful thing!

I can’t wait until the next time our paths cross. Because now that they have, you know they will again. Sing Hey! for a wonderful new friend and a woman doing her Work! My dear friends, meet a dear friend: Jeanne Demers (Cool Aunt, Great Woman).

Lost and Found

In my line of work, I spend a lot of time driving to places I don’t know. For some reason, I’ve never invested in a GPS. And so I wind up, from time to time, lost.

There are times when that is more frightening than others. When I’m going to a wedding, I always leave lots of time for the drive before the lots of time I need to prepare to go on with the wedding. But still, it can get a bit shaky, especially when couples have found the perfect place to marry which is back of beyond and outside of cell coverage. And of course even if one had cell coverage, if you’re in farmland alongside a herd o’ cows, what do you say about where you are?

But other times, I’m just not clear where I am and how to get to where I’m going from where I am.

If I had a GPS, she would tell me to turn around and go back to something that felt like an intersection. I suppose that might have its charm.

But what’s really quite wonderful in those “hmmmmm” moments is to find a place to stop and ask.

People like being helpful. It’s really a mitzvah to give them a chance. If you’re pleasant, and ask specifically for what you need, people will do their best to help you get where you need to go. And if they can’t help you, they will go out of their way to find someone who can help you. At the end of the exchange, everyone feels good about themselves and the other.

In London, when I was one of a gaggle of young American women, uncertain how to get to whatever our next destination was, I stopped a home-bound gentleman (complete with bowler, bumpershoot and newspaper) and asked for directions. He turned around and walked 4 blocks out of his way to get us sorted out. We were all smiling and grateful at the end of that exchange. (And this is the trip where I had a street name but no address for a cousin, and walked into a green grocer and asked if he knew of a red-headed american who lived in the area… “ginger-‘aired?” he asked. “Two doors down.” And that’s how my cousin Nancy and her young family wound up with 5 extra mouths to feed on a Sunday Evening.” Luck? Maybe. Kindess, absolutely!)

It’s almost always worked that way — well, except for once, but that’s another story, and all’s well that ends well with that story, as well. I do get anxious. But if I can calm my anxiety, I tend to have a great time and a wonderful exchange.

Which is not to say that I don’t like it when the directions work and the street and road signs you need are actually visible…

But the kindness of strangers is, thank you Blanche DuBois, a commodity on which one can gratefully rely. Pretty cool, eh?

Don’t Miss It

Summer time, and the living is fabulous!

Lammas! That late summer wonder is here. Bringing with it such garden bounty. Corn! Tomatoes! Eggplant! Cukes! yum!!!

I love the slant of the sun this time of year. And yesterday for the first time the breeze blew cool and I went to bed with the windows open and a fan blowing. The sleeping was heavenly. The heat will rise again, but you could feel Fall leafing through the catalog choosing where she might be off to in a few short weeks.

By now, I know the length of the town pool, so my summer swimming has finally settled into its rhythm. My injured ankle improves in the daily back and forth. Perhaps it’s because I know the month is slipping away so I treasure each dip in the pool. Somehow as the laps build up, the years slip away and I am ageless in the water. Even my fear and sadness cannot stand against its healing properties.

Yesterday I swam next to a woman, all business with her training, shoulders rippling with muscles. Such is my joy in the swimming that I didn’t bother to feel badly that she was so fit and I was, well, not. We giggled about time slipping away, exchanging dates of births but not names while hanging panting on the end of the pool.

Fall will come and then it will be my favorite. But for a little while, as that old saying goes on days like this: God’s in Her Heaven and all’s right with the world.

Even if it’s only for short moments, I hope you can experience August’s generosity. It’s a wonderful gift when she so often rests heavily on our days.

P.S. Don’t forget Perseid’s showers!

Grace

I have all sorts of reasons about why I rarely take the time to be thankful for all the wonderful things in my life. I am. I do try and live my life aware of the wonder that’s all around us. I understand my life’s work to be working for a better world. (oh, so lofty!)

But that’s different than taking the time to just be, to notice and then to allow gratitude to come flooding in. Ever since hearing about it, I have loved the notion of the Jewish Daily Prayers of Thanksgiving, starting with I thank Thee for restoring my soul within me…

I believe that living reverently makes me more aware of the beauty and abundance of the world. Filled, I am kinder, more generous, more creativity. Would I do better if I started a daily prayer cycle? Is that what I spend next year writing? who knows!

What do you do about daily prayer and thanksgiving?

Summer Vacation Guests

Part of summer’s magic is the folk who wander through your life. Maybe you’re the planned destination. Maybe you’re just on the road to somewhere else. But however it happens, there you are with beloved friends at your table, on your back patio or at a favorite nearby restaurant.

Or maybe you’re the traveler.

But the result is the same. Hearts filled with the blessings of loving relationship accompanied by great summer foods. This is the pause that refreshes!

Sweet Joy in the Summer!

Bitter Greens

Is it odd that bitter greens are packed with nutrition. So many will tell you, nah, too bitter for me… and yet they’re what do a body good.

I’m thinking there’s something to this. and you know, once you really start to eat those greens you crave the rush of green energy they deliver.

What else does that for us? What feeds our souls in the same way that greens feed our body? What gives us that jumpstart? Hmmmm…

Gonna have to think about that!