Oh, it’s so lovely and silly. And I know, I know, not everything’s a metaphor for Peacemaking… but still… what is Peace if not treasure…
And how delightful that we have our own Guy Noir living around the corner from us.
There is so much that goes on right in our little lives that we don’t take the time to notice.
Detective Agencies and Treasure Hunters? Pure fun!
And yes… Let’s keep exploring where we can help Peace surface in our lives, in the world.
How bizarre that the only people in my life today who knew me when I was working in New York are my Swedish and American family. I have friends from my seminary days. And loads of friends from my California days. And then some very old friends but mostly new from my life back in Pennsylvania.
I’ve had a wonderful life, but it has, I think more segments than many people’s… Not everyone changes careers in midstream (taking a long time with a slide through another course of study to get where I belonged) and I’ve always known lots of folks. My friend the epidemiologist uses me as an example of people who know a lot of people with terminal diseases simply because I know so many people — and have been supportive. Great, another thing to put on my resume, I’m a statistical anomaly!
But I’m happy to know and love all these people. Happy to have known and loved these landscapes. Who doesn’t love NY? Who doesn’t love the Bay Area? And as many of us remark, the central Susquehanna Valley is paradise, except for those for whom it is not…
I seem to have dug in here. My husband’s happy playing here. I love my work, my friends, and my life. My family has changed a lot in the last 13 years, a couple gains, a lot of losses. But still this seems like home. And so I stay and try to figure out what great fun can i get up to in the time ahead? 13 more years and I’ll be, gasp, 76… And hopefully still doing what I love to do!
We’ll see… In the meantime… I’ll keep looking through the lens of Peace and see what I need to get up to next.
Peace and Blessings, my friends, and may you love and be loved where you live.
This is the place in the summer where I celebrate how lucky I am — and not only because it’s swimming season!
I’m visiting friends and family all over CA. Friends from Sweden, friends from when I lived here, family from when I got married, friends from living back East. Sweet, satisfying visits (with lots of fresh vegetables and talk npr on the way from one house to the next!)
It’s sort of like heaven. All these people are people I love. Many are people I think with. and some, like EG are just bonuses. what a delight. and what a blessing! Thinking. Reading. Loving. yes! Lucky, lucky me.
But oooh, the traffic. Gotta love rural central PA.
But meanwhile. I’m having fun. How about you?
Love brings a lot of Peace, in so many ways!
I hope it brings you some. Start Loving! Start Peacing! Yahoo!
I am not a real fan of yard sales. There are two reasons for this. One: too many people intently focused. Two: too much stuff to catch the eye. It’s an extrovert’s nightmare. (No, not only introverts have problems dealing with the world.)
But the gestalt of the thing delights me. Eight little rooms, one huge room, one fair sized room and a parking lot full of stuff. Community members hither, thither, and yon, adding up purchases, fetching bags, carrying things to cars, serving up food, asking, what do I do next, or what do i do with this? People answering with confidence, whether the answer is right — or made up.
And things, moving slowly and surely, out the door, although the tables seem to stay magically full. The tables sometimes seem like those baby bottles, they just keep filling up as soon as they’re emptied.
And people are always milling around. Often the same people (back for the third time today!) And every once in a while, sitting for coffee in the cafe. There was the sweetest old couple who just needed some cosseting. No problem, someone was on that.
Life is crazy and bountiful and confusing and wonderful. Let’s keep it moving in the direction of Peace. Let’s keep working hard and making memories! This is a great way to build community!
Meanwhile, in other news, it’s the first of July… jes’ sayin’!
Dear Bartender and Priestess,
My husband and I recently went to our granddaughter’s softball tournament, and got to witness some appalling behavior on the behalf of the opposing teams’ coaches. Both coaches, from both teams.
One coach got up into the umpire’s face because of a call. Continue reading
The weekend was so incredibly tense so it was just lovely to have a sweet day of community!
No issues to work, no big thoughts to have. The hardest decisions to make were not even whether I should test everything but rather whether I should try something again! Big decisions about whether I should just stand in the splash from the Skloosh, or whether i should get on the silly ride (I did! I did!) Oh, we give thanks for the bounty of food and the abundance of beloved, laughing community!
Four different traditions. All under a yellow and white stripped tent making merry. Life at its summer sweetest. And lots of pictures to remind us we were making sweet memories
And today? I’m going to find some more strawberries on this last day of the Berry Moon. From the way the next moon’s getting off to a start, it sounds as if I should choose Thunder moon. Apparently there were big storms last night, i confess I didn’t hear them. My basement isn’t a swimming pool however, so how bad could they have been?
But today, my dears, I wish you the quiet Peace that comes of great gatherings with good friends — the last sweet remnants of Strawberry Peace and the startling beginnings of Thunder Peace. wow? do we think it’s time to make a stir?
Overcast or not it was a lovely June day in the Berry Moon. Perfect for fêting two wonderful people who had done so much for the community.
Doug and Margie Sturm were extraordinary, but they were also very ordinary folk. They were both teachers, she taught countless high school kids to love literature; he taught religion and poli sci… and hurrah for that combo! Depression kids, they knew the value of hard work and had the knack of finding ways to get things done.
They believed strongly in the value of community, starting an organization entitled Community Alliance for Respect and Equality. They were warm and witty and engaging and people participated, sometimes just to hang out with them… and why not?
It was so fitting that the day in their honor was a day for soliciting volunteers fueled by fun music. The community gathered and a good time was had by all…
Peace is Possible… but you have to step up to do the work. Doug and Margie stood up and stepped up to the task. They loved broadly and boldly. And oh, they had great kids and left a trail of disciples behind them. Let us give thanks… and go and do likewise. Peace. Your community needs you!
It’s a positively beautiful day.
It’s a day for breathing in the Beauty and all the promise and possibility in the beginning of this Berry Moon Season. Strawberries, soon! Swimming, soon! Memories abounding. New possibilities ahead.
It’s the Sabbath and a day for reflection. Today among other things, I’ll be remembering an old family friend. Part of my parents’ crowd… fewer and fewer beloved elders. (as I become one despite my shock and surprise!). Jack. loved steam engines. Did the best corn on the cob. Funny, corny jokes. could fix anything. His wife and my mom shared a birthday on December 24, so we always lunched together that day. Making family every way we could.
Hope your day is grand. Hope you find some sweet Summer Peace to indulge in and some memories to make. Sweet blessings of the Berry Moon be with you…
Oh, it was such a sweet morning and the kids were amazing.
I’ve never spent a lot of time with kids. Don’t have my own, lived across the country from too many of the kids in the family when they were growing up. Always had friends around who had kids they’d share and there was always the neighborhood… But direct kid interface, not so much.
And now, boom, i’m the minister at a small town church and we got kids! 100 members: 50 kids. My colleague Sara who does the education piece is fabulous. No other word. Fabulous. The people who teach with her? Fabulous. So I get all the bennies of watching these kids grow and folding them into my arms now and again. And they’re pretty puppy like, so they love being enfolded. How sweet is that?
So they’re off to learn more about who they are and what their tradition is and how they might grow into it. (I reminded them when they left that in our country, our tradition started here, so they come from the source! or maybe they come from the roots and are off to visit the place where the tree grew… also grew! They’ll make a whole bunch of memories. They’ll create family and community for themselves when they’re stuffed into that big ol’ van. Laughing all the way and learning whatever comes. Oh, may they see the possibility. The Flower Moon is compressing, time to make sense of things!
But the kids. The bright, funny, interested, loving kids and the two great parents who are hauling them along. Those kids. They’re more than okay. And I am at Peace with that and more than a little in Love.
It’s good to do things for one another. It’s good to gather together as a group and do things for one another. It gathers us into community and makes us feel good that we’re doing important things.
It’s also good when what we’re doing isn’t necessary because there is no healthcare. That makes me so sad. I believe so strongly in healthcare for everyone. Yes. I know it’s expensive. And everyone needs health care.
I don’t mind paying taxes so that our children aren’t the most endangered and the hungriest. In fact, I want that. I want our corporations stepping up and paying their fair share. I want rich people to do the same.
And in the meantime, I want people kicking in the money they have to send people to Key West before they die. It makes us feel good about ourselves. And the person that’s dying gets to have a little slice of life and make one last set of memories with her friends.
That means everything, doesn’t it…
There’s Peacemaking in this… And so we gather under the Flower Moon and watch Love and Friendship blossom between strangers helping one another down the road. It’s a good thing. Creating community is good work. Sometimes it’s hard work. Sometimes it just feels good to do what’s right.
