Here it is. Bringing back the light! Candlemas! a beloved day in my calendar. Wishing you light and love.
February brings celebrations! We must remember how to celebrate what’s wonderful as we do what’s challenging.
Peace, my friends. Peace.
Some friends are helping me remember that there’s more generosity out there than we realize, and we need to not give into the fear.
All of us seem to clutch our fear to our chests. It’s what we know. It’s how we roll. And it’s completely counterproductive to Love. Too many times, it tells us untruths.
So, in a very conservative neighborhood, a gay wedding has sparked nothing but wishes to help and joy in the invitation.
We can keep bridging the gaps. And celebrating life. And it will all just get deeper and sweeter.
And maybe we can work together. Maybe we can Peace.
He was at the church to attend his grandpa’s funeral. He’s a boy bursting with curiosity. He never stopped moving.
You could tell, his parents worry — what will he get into?
Answer: Everything he can.
And he’s not the first child in that place to be hyper-inquisitive.
But he’s sparing with his words. He’s not always a child to get the nuances.
So when his first words were to recognize what we do here… it just made my heart swell.
Thanks, little guy… we work hard to make that so. Yes, it’s an old office building. Yes, we do church here.
There’s Peace in the making of religious community and Peace in being recognized for what we do at a very deep level. We loved his grandpa and we celebrate his life and mourn his loss.
There was Peace in our being together doing that and in using our talents to honor our friend. There was Peace in this little boy’s blessing.
Fall has been dancing back and forth between warm sunny beautiful fall and cool, damp appropriate fall.
This recent weather has been time out of time, completely outside the normal scheme of things, and glorious for all that.
Probably if we think closely about it, we realize it’s an indication of change that isn’t good. Why is it so warm in November? Why is there no rain in California? Why are there floods other places? Climate change.
And we don’t think about that when we’re rejoicing in what’s glorious or complaining about what’s usual. Why is it November. Because it is.
This is November. Time of the grey skies and the silver rains. Time to dive for those warm sweaters and just be comfortable with what is. Time for the leaves to litter the ground and lay like the mulch they are to make new soil for the year to come.
So that we have this weather means at the very least we must enjoy it. Rather than clutch it to our chest complaining that it might go away, let us throw open our hands and hearts and dance around, one last time.
And then let us welcome the Peace of the Silver Rains and let’s celebrate that!
and in the middle… It’s where we look for it… or it’s where we look that we must place it. or where we live that we must make it… Peace can be made everywhere.
It’s really up to us.
But it’s urgent, I believe that. Needed by people and by planet.
Peace.
My heart is with our daughter and granddaughter as they let go of a man they loved. Ed Lund, we are grateful for your life and our presence in it. Today, your East Coast Family will sit by a fire and remember both that we loved you and that we love one another.
The Moon was tucked up in bed, but the party went on anyway.
We sat down by the river. we danced in front of the garage. We ate good food and drank cool things.
There’s really not a better way to say good bye to summer. Thanks for what we had! Come back, we’ll miss you! And oh, this one last dance!
What a fun time was had by all. (if only sweet pea had not been sick.) 🙁
I like all the seasons. I try very hard to like every day. But Summer, I do like what you have to offer.
Peace and thanks for stopping by and staying for a while. Let’s dance some more! Let’s celebrate!
After the happy dance for completed work yesterday, the reality set in.
There are miles to go. I’m not going to say before I sleep, because we’re going to need the sleep to keep going.
It’s a journey.
There is so much work that needs to be done. And for each of us, if we choose it, so much that we can do, something that is specifically geared to our talents that is helpful. As Mahatma Gandhi said: “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in service to others.”
Yeah. I’m on a soap box… I keep thinking about the hungry kids. I can’t solve the employment problem which is really at the heart of this… I can just ask for money to feed the kids while someone else does their part. What’s your part in Peace?
It was so fun to be dancing around with my friend/colleague/co-conspirator yesterday after we finished the grant application.
I’m not sure that everyone appreciated it, but oh, well.
It wasn’t just the doing of the application… the plowing through, finishing it up. Although that was wonderful.
It’s not often you get to take a task from awareness to completion in less that 48 hours! Zoom.
It was the recognizing what we’d done and what we’d set up to continue doing that was grand. And then we received a letter that confirmed that what we thought we were doing, people who were using the money we raised ALSO thought we were doing. That was a great joy.
And a great encouragement to keep going. So. would you like to help feed hungry kids? Go to Love Flows and donate. $10 a month feeds two kids. Amazing, eh? You can change two kids lives for $10 a month. Right here in River City. Want to start your own program doing something anything to help? It will make a difference.
It will build Peace. And that’s what we’re here to do. Make a difference. Build Peace. And Celebrate when something works! Yahoo!
Some things don’t require a lot of explanation, they just are. They are in fact just perfect.
A limousine stroller full of laughing kiddles and a long rope with slightly larger kiddles hanging on? This falls into the you can’t stand the cute category.
And then they waved and mugged for the camera. man. sweet.
Sometimes Peace is a simple shared moment in time when everything is just beautiful. Babies can give you those moments (especially when they’re someone else’s, riding by and waving!)… Peace, y’all! Let’s celebrate the sweetness… It lubricates the rest of life!
When I thought about this weekend, I thought about my friends who were getting married and the groom’s daughter, my beloved niece.
Somehow, it escaped my imaginings that there would be other friends i knew there. Their family, the circle of friends from California, whom I knew from my years out there. And I hadn’t really factored in the bride’s huge Canadian Clan. Blessing upon Blessing.
So it was lovely and fun and there were lots of people to talk to and laugh with. The room was gorgeous. I enjoyed the ceremony (and you know how judgmental I can be about that!) So many reasons to celebrate!
And it was all so New York, so that was a lovely revisiting as well. And the Moon made herself a beautiful part of the weekend, that full and lovely Lady!
And today, after a visit with my girlie, I’ll come home to my life. This marks the end of a long and lovely summer. Just a few more days to make sense of all the stuff swirling in my head, after this interruption of wild city life!
Today, I’ll be glad to have a relatively slow day of driving and then sitting around staring emptily into space. I’m not used to weekends on the go. But this was a fabulous one!
And at the end… things were changed and different and wonderful. Peace reigns… even the East River, the view out my window, is quiet this morning as I write. I hope you have a wonderful end of summer day!
