Peace Here and Now, llvl

I’m away visiting family, so I guess my wind up is slow. Certainly is this morning as I write this a long while after waking up!

It took me until the end of the week to notice how the angel was a little black and white slice in that pile o pansies and daffs. I liked that life was vibrant.

When people ask me what I think about the afterlife, I often reply that I don’t. Well, of course I do, I have many dead loved ones. I like to think that they are up there having a great time and will be happy to welcome me home. But that’s wishful thinking… imagining, kinda… But I don’t have a “sound theological understanding” of heaven, because — I don’t think it matters.

I reserve most of my thinking for the here and now, because that’s all I can affect. Things aren’t working well. Are they working worse than they have? I don’t know, I don’t find that helpful either. There is work to be done. There is Peace to be made. There is appreciation to be given.

All we read is war and hate. It’s our turn to start making headlines for Peace and Love. We need to do what matters. We need to turn from the negativity. It’s not about the nos… it’s the yeses that matter. Let us be the ones who give Peace a (fighting) chance! Let’s be those who work for connection and community.

Blending Peace, llvl

Steve and I both lived in the Bay area for important periods of our life. But since we didn’t know each other then, we have whole periods of our lives to explore. Yesterday we sat at a table with friends from our pasts.

It wasn’t so much a get to know you fest as it was a delighted parallel conversation with a little overlap… but oh it was grand. Marriages late in life come with a lot of unshared territory. Since we’re now living across the country from our pasts, it takes very deliberate work to weave them into our present.

I confess, I’m more interested in this than Steve is, although he’s always happy to come along for the ride. What’s true? We’ve had some very interesting blends. I’m so grateful.

And I’m just reveling in the people I have loved a long time. Visiting is grand. And reveling too in the fact that my present is where it is. Home sweet home AND home away from home. Life is sweet. Peace is elusive but so worth the work! And Friendship, I believe, is the gateway to Peace. And then? there’s family!

Peace from the Past, llvl

Ahhhhhhhh…

When the past was good, it’s good to visit. I spent last night at the house I lived in for 4 years. When I moved back East, my friend’s beloved moved in, so I get to go back to my neighborhood to visit… It is such a sweet thing. Of all the places I’ve lived, this place had about the best la vida local. It was a neighborhood… yeah, even kind of a ‘hood, but delightful for all that.

And as Jen and I were arriving from different places, another neighbor who doesn’t live here any more, walked out of her mom’s house. Hugs all around! Not two hours before that, I had run into a former wedding client in my friend’s fabulous store. Connections! Community! Life! Love!

I’m short on time, trying to fit everyone into my two minutes here, which is ridiculous and i can’t. But I’m getting a good armful of people I care about and miss a lot. The past has it’s own special Peace. Sometimes it’s because you’ve made Peace with the hard parts. Sometimes it’s because making new memories with the folks you made old memories with is the sweetest thing in the world. Living la vida local… past and present. It’s a good thing… good too to remember it’s not a new thing in my life. Rollin’ in the Peace. May you do the same!

Warm, Expanding Peace, llvl

Warm air. It’s quite a remarkable thing. Warm, flower-scented air, even more delightful. The opening continues to catch me off guard in a delightful way.

And I’ve stepped, momentarily, into warm scented air that I used to know. I’m visiting a friend, walking paths of earlier days, letting the memories roll out. And so many of these memories have no overlay of the grief I have recently encountered. They have their own remembered challenges, but also many, many, many sweet triumphs… and giggles. There were lots of giggles. And this is a place where I moved from the person I had been to the person I would become/was being.

It’s wonderful to be making new memories in a place of old community and connection.

This place is much farther into Spring than the place I left. And I’ll miss that brave unfolding with daring daffodils defying the chill and the breeze to bloom, damn it! But here things are bravely lush, defying the drought. There is here a determination to bloom as fierce as any. (Sweet Deb, for bringing back the angel, surrounded in truth and possibility!)

This is sere landscape. But not right now. Right now it is as rich and lush as my memories and sweet on the heart. Peace Pieces, back from the past. Blessed be… Blessed am.

Techy Sabbath Peace, llvl

Ah, Grandma May… you taught me a lot about watching over the neighborhood and being a fierce warrior, protecting it. You lived there and nothing was going to harm it on your Neighborhood Watch! True of you, true of all the Queens of Aileen Street. You taught us to take care, to stand up straight and to acknowledge every single person on the street.

Even the most sullen teenage boys were sure to say hi and smile at you as if they meant it. It was sweet — and it was a good model. They learned; we all learned.

Today I watch your “kids” from the Facebook Street. They post their pictures, they open their hearts. I get to applaud their successes, commiserate on their losses, and be stunned by their beauty and sweetness. We visit a little back and forth. Because of Facebook, Aileen Street still lives in me. And oh those girls are gorgeous! And better yet? kind. And the community continues.

And there are other streets as well, and that’s so wonderful. A couple of those streets are across an ocean, some across a continent, some spread across a region, and some right here. Come Sunday, it’s time to sit out on my stoop (both real and virtual) and pass the time of day. Good day. How’re you doing?

Sitting on the virtual stoop means when I visit in real time that we can just pick up chatting and visiting where we left off. Sitting on the local one means getting to know and love the neighbors. (only once in a while can I hear May’s voice saying, “Who told her she could wear that?” and “If her grandma could see the way she keeps that lawn!” But always there was the love.

Tech Peace. Local Peace. Sabbath Peace. How wonderful when they work. Finding the balance is the key!

New Beginnings Peace, llvl

It seems to me that Spring is a season of delight and expectation, balanced by (equinox remember) deep disappointment. It’s still cold and it’s still grey. Never mind that a look at the almanac is pretty clear that cool, grey, rainy weather’s the norm for April. We want it to be warm, and somehow damp and 55 isn’t cutting it for us. And that many of those flowers we’re long for aren’t really due until may. And when they show up early, as fun as it is… it probably means the weather’s a bit out of whack.

And I’m longing as much as the next person. But part of writing this blog is being honest with myself about what is true. And that’s that the way we live, particularly those of us in the first world, particularly those of us in THIS part of the first world, want what we want with no thoughts about impact.

So, can we enter Spring differently? hmmm. I probably need to think about this, write about this. Living la vida local isn’t all sweetness and light. It’s paying attention to what’s real and true. And doing what’s best for the community. Ah those challenging places in between… Here it’s not so much about finding Peace, perhaps, as making Peace… How will we do that?

Circle Singing Peace Sabbath, llvl

Yesterday I sat with 15 people and we sang together. No one knew what we were going to sing until a leader started the song. Every song started slowly and tentatively until we’d really learned it and then it would soar and weave until it died away.

This morning, I can’t actually remember anything we can sing, but I can clearly call to mind (heart, body and soul) how it felt to sing.

We started the process with listening. Wonder as the singing started, and then with attention as we learned the song line by line. And then, the great unfolding. Oh, to sit still and sing, sing, sing. It was lovely…

When I lived in California and A Communion of Women met weekly, we sang. Chant after chant. Chants and songs I’d written, chants and songs others had. It was healing! And back here, I haven’t done that much. These songs were songs most of us didn’t know and we went and went and went. Those songs were songs we didn’t… sometimes that meant that the singing was extended, sometimes it meant it was curtailed, and still we sang.

Often my focus is on the world’s Peace, or my community’s. Yesterday, the work was inward facing… and I loved it. Thanks Wendy Luella Perkins for your visit from Ontario. Thanks friends for the singing Joy/singing Peace. What a way to bring in the Sabbath.

Community Peace, llvl

We hear, we say, it takes a village. And it seems this is true. But what’s also true is that, with hard work and clear statement of the problem, there is a village. Community forms around causes. Communities are generous and like doing good.

Yesterday, sitting in the studio at WKOK, talking about the need for weekend backpack programs and my faith community’s decision to raise money for them. I was doing the ask. I asked for people to donate. And they did. I asked for people to provide a matching grant. And someone did. At the end of the day yesterday, $1,695 was in the bank. Since November 2013, with our push just starting, we’ve raised $15,000 (until yesterday, most of that came from within the congregation) If you figure it will take at least $250,000 to feed the elementary schools we’re 6 percent there. We may need to get to 20 percent before we get to writing a grant… and of course, and sadly, this isn’t a one time deal… this is an ongoing need.

What was clear at the end of the one-hour program was that people were willing to step up and support their village. You just have to ask. And when you do people respond. Do we need more people? Why, yes, we do. Do we believe that more people will participate? Why, yes, we do…

Am I overwhelmed, grateful, excited, bouncing off the moon? Why, yes, I am. Stepping up and working together is how we will make Peace in this place and make this a Valley Where No Child is Hungry. And that is a confirmation of what I’ve always believed. People want to help. You just have to show them how. And when you do, they break your heart open in joy. Oh, Hallelujah! If you want to donate, go to Love Flows: The LOVE Project (Let Our Valley Eat) and make a donation… or if you’d like to be a matching angel… write to me (find me at contact us). And in the meantime, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Let’s go! Kids need your help. You are the best!

Speaking Sabbath Peace, llvl

I continue to be astonished by the journey. Having declared that this year’s journey was all about living locally… my world continues to unfold. People drag me off to do local things because I’ve said they’re important. So I get to see a snowy owl. I’d have been happy before to know they were there, but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way… but someone made that happen.

All of a sudden I’m taking a course about geography (and geology), things about which I have a somewhat, shall we say, intellectual interest. Mother Earth & Nature are not so much about their actual dirt for me… (ok, i’m shallow, what can I say?)

In my word scramble that says what my important key words are, the word Sabbath keeps getting larger. As I click it every Sunday, after I’ve written about trying to be aware of it, I work to honor and enjoy the day — to infuse it with a joy that is slower and more aware than my usual dash-through-the-day enjoyment of life.

And living here, truly here, I begin to be aware not only what’s right and wonderful, but what’s broken and in need of our loving hands. This was a clear and painful conversation we had at class… painful because we were all poking at the rough spots in our love for where we live.

So, as you go through your day today, take some time, think about what makes your world wonderful… and where your duty lies… Duty, not a very 2014ish word, is it? But our duty is what moves us toward Peace. oh, this being conscious is hard.

Edges of Spring Peace, LLVL

I’ve realized recently that I’ve been on edge. Well, duh. We’re on the cusp of so many things. The weather refuses to turn, but Mother Nature responds to sun this time of year. So we keep slowly moving toward next season’s promise…

At the church, we’re slowly figuring out what we’re doing to fight child hunger in the Susquehanna Valley. Every time we move toward a solution, we find a billion steps we have to do first. OK, yes, I’m exaggerating, but it feels like that. I’m the regular ready, fire, aim queen, but a project this large demands a large amount of aiming.

And I’m realizing that I’m being shaped by things… having lost so much of my family, it’s really about reshaping myself. I’ve chosen to locate myself in my life… that’s what writing la vida local is about. We’re doing a hunger project for kids right here… choosing to lead where we live. Time for community… time to make it what we want, to form it in the style of Peace, of Love.

And it’s time to pay attention to the changes and make new places to celebrate what happens…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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