Clouds and Ripples and Peace

Drop a dream into water and let it ripple out into Peace.

Every time I look at this picture, I realize how much more wonderful it is than I first thought; how much stronger.

I didn’t see the cloud in the center of the ripple at first. But to let that cloud, that piece of dreams, a piece of Peace, ripple out into the world… Beauty!

What if we allowed the softness of the world to touch our lives? What if we allowed ourselves to be the softness of the world?

Clouds, ripples, Peace… this shows the connection… Let us be the clouds of dreams, let us be the ripples of Peace.

Building Dreams, Building Peace

We have to start somewhere to build our dreams. We have to start where we are.

Some dreams are quiet and personal; others demand public acknowledgement.

Sometimes we just have to state: “I am here. I have dreams. My dreams and I matter.”

We must take the wisps of dreams we begin with and give them a good foundation. Dream in Hope, build foundations of Peace.

That is the way to realized dreams. That is the way to Peace. Let us begin.

Dreams Are Plans That Need A Little More Time

Dreams are not just fantasy and illusion, any more than the waking life is not merely pain and suffering. Dreams are how we prepare ourselves, how we draw up plans for life. They aren’t always going to bear fruit exactly as imagined – rather, they take a long, slow path to opening us to something we could not have imagined, but proves absolutely necessary for our journey.

Peace Together, llvl

Collaboration isn’t always easy, but old tropes to the contrary, it often makes a much better product. (case in point, I interrupted my writing to open Deb Slade’s new pic for the week, wow!)

But I’m working on a workshop. It may become a book. It may become a bigger workshop, but right now, it’s a bunch of ideas. Slowly, with other people’s gentle hands and sometimes firm pushback, it’s emerging and taking shape.

Yesterday I had one of those conversations with my principal collaborator and some pieces got the big yawn and others the explosive wow, what if this or that. One person would move and then the others… pieces then either got knit back in or left in the dust.

It’s going to be a better piece for this. And with hope, we will shed the utopian, wouldn’t it be lovely pieces and move toward some, what if we did this, what kind of outcome might we get… oh, good, right. yes, that. what if. More on the theme… piecing Peace.

We’re poking at ages and stages of women’s development and aging, and looking at how we might work to support one another, and how we might grow and make Peace across the years… It’s still on the drawing room floor, but there are glimmers. And that’s exciting.

And working with friends on projects of Peace? That’s extraordinary. As my friend KJ sings, “you gotta believe.” Peace really needs us to believe that it’s possible!

After a day like yesterday, I believe. More than ever, I believe. We’re dreaming it, so we can do it. Dreaming together. oh, yeah…

Peace/No Peace, llvl

It seems odd… here am I in wonderland, looking out over the sea who hides her changes. The good news here is that the mackerel are coming back… or so we hope. But Fjällbacka, like my lovely little Lewisburg, is a small village and much that is wrong is very well hidden and all that is beautiful lies on the surface.

And at the same time, the world is exploding in roiling ugliness. People are gathering to turn away children. People are gathering to watch a war as if it were television. People are being shot from the sky. 300 lives ended, including some of the great minds working on AIDS. And those are only today’s headlines, there is so much we’re looking away from.

And so I pray. I pray for those who are warred upon, may their bodies be protected and their souls comforted. I pray for those who make war, may their hearts soften and their brains clear. I work to pray with each breath, to notice the beauty, to appreciate the love in this family and my life, to realize how precious life is and to be grateful.

I may not feel guilty for my time off, that would sully it. Cutting it short wouldn’t change what’s happening… I am not so powerful. So I must treasure this time — and all of you — and prepare myself for my return. I must make more good memories to savor and shore me up.

In the meantime, I am also wildly grateful for those who do their work so that the world may be better…saner… safer… I pray that we may make it more Peaceful, more Just.

Peace Dreaming, llvl

Dreaming… It’s so important… Imagining something bigger is the first step to Peace. To envision sitting someplace with people unlike you in appearance but so like you in heart and soul; people who live somewhere so different from where you live… ah… that is a great and luxurious pleasure.

Dreaming is more than day dreaming, dreaming is serious business. It’s fun to simply float along, but it’s good to have a dream that looks to become reality. That sort of dreaming stretches our hearts and our heads…

It’s been fun to go to sleep on this bed with the map on the wall above me. and of course central to the map is Sweden. My whole life changed in Sweden… For a lot of reasons, I relearned friendship. I learned to speak another language and thus listen differently. I lived in another culture. I lived in another family. I was transformed, my heart fundamentally altered. It was such a wonderful experience. I came from such a safe wonderful but supremely little world. And then my life was broadened… even though I moved to another little world…

I love sitting betwixt and between… being here and remembering that life can be restarted… and looking at home where life is also burgeoning. (Deb Slade always knows how to capture our attention, doesn’t she?) Love. Peace. Growth. Possibility. The world really is much bigger than we think. Let us give thanks for the Wonder of it all!

Team Peace, llvl

I read a great (and depressing) article in the Atlantic the other day that said that no one’s giving Venture Capital to people over 35. While I know I may have had good ideas at that point in my life, I would never had been as daring or as far sighted. And, you know, good ideas are not grand dreams!

And I was far more competitive.

And thanks to some great therapy and some great years, I’ve moved to a far more complementary working style, a collegial one, wherein i’m responsible for my work and I look for the ways your work props mine up (and my work props yours up) and then we go calmly (and sometimes excitedly) about changing the world. I’m excited that you’re so smart rather than being worried about your being smart in areas that I’m not. (although I continue to be jealous maybe envious of your talents in those areas in that wow how does he/she do that kinda way.

But when team work works? It’s amazing. And I’m grateful and pleased and proud. And happy to acknowledge the places you make life different and better and wonderful. And I don’t have to stew about the things I can’t do, because you’ve claimed them. You toss them off and it would take me 12 years to get them done. Thank you for being you and for letting me be me..

Not only Peace happens, but progress… and wow, isn’t that what we’re looking for? Let’s keep the water flowing over the dam, shall we?

Companionable Sabbath Peace, llvl

Mmmmmmmm. Here we are, it’s mid-week Sabbath in my whacky world of calculations. Having started the year on a Wednesday, I’ve continued to start the weeks on Wednesday, introducing Deb Slade’s new pic, and thus my new week every Wednesday. It makes Tuesday a special day of anticipation, because Deb’s pic is coming and Wednesday a day of pleasure, because I’m introducing it and having to think differently in response to it… which brings us to Sunday, smack dab in the middle of the week. Yay.

So, I’m not sure whether I’m only mid-week or also mid-life (technically, i know probably past midlife by a good 10-15 years!), or whether it’s just that we’ve been snowbound, but I’m really appreciating the remembrance that we’re not on this journey alone.

It’s been wonderful to start working on Love Flows: The LOVE project, which involves our gathering money to feed hungry kids on the weekend. And it’s been even more wonderful to gather people who are willing not only to think about the project in different ways, but to do something about making a really big dream a possibility.

Being in community makes big dreams achievable and companionable. And on the Sabbath, you get not only to celebrate the dream but also appreciate the community. Well, you do, if you want to. This week, I’m feeling particularly grateful and counting blessings.

and You? are numbered among those blessings.

I’m also enjoying winter, and although I’m not going along… i’m happy that a whole bunch of folks from the church are going off ice skating this afternoon. This is one of the things I remember from my happy little childhood… have a great time guys!

And yikes! because Sabbath to me also means church, I’d better stop sitting around smiling and get ready to go sit around and sing and smile and not be responsible today, because one of my companions on the journey is responsible today!

Blessed Sabbath. Celebrate the Dreams. Imagine the Peace. and do something that’s not work!

Local Peace Possibilities, llvl

I’m beginning to believe that Peace Dreams become more possible as you immerse yourself in your community. Partially, that may be because you begin to attune your dreams to what’s needed in your neighborhood. Partially, it’s because as you deepen friendships, you develop allies and a better instinct for who might be interested in what.

You not only get better instincts about who might clap for Tinkerbelle, but also who might run out and get her a power drink and who might work on the long-term problems that tend to make her fade away.

Comrades not in arms but in Love, in Peace.

Which is a good thing, because the journey to Peace is long, but it’s so much more possible in the company of our friends. And the Possibilities are endless as people add their thoughts and dreams. And so the Dream gets bigger. People step up. The hard work gets shared. and we’re off. Watch out Peace, the village is coming to play. Ah la vida local. What a sweet thing to live!

HNY, LLVL, Peace

Whew! there are a whole buncho assignments! Is it possible to have a happy year, to live la vida local and to keep stretching out toward Peace?

I guess I think that the openness to the new (built on the old), the decision to pay attention leads us down the road toward Peace. Provided, of course that we agree that others in the world are invited to walk those paths with us.

Consciousness. Wonder. Love. Determination. All supremely difficult and challenging; all consummately simple. So, reflect a little. Determine to fill 2014 to the brim with wonderful memories. Commit to laughing a lot, a lot, a lot. And crying once in a while. Dream deeply. Resign yourself to the constant starting over a little smarter a little saner. Keep going down that Peace Road.

It could be a great year. Many more people might have what they need and the space to become who they’re meant to be. We could claim that space because the likelihood is if you’re reading me, you have a great many options. And then we could start expanding that space for others.

Want to resolve something? Resolve that you’ll be as kind as you’re meant to be. As generous. As observant. As happy. And then make it so. You’re already a wonder! Peace in 2014.

(and how about Deb’s opening photo? Pretty great, eh? Here’s to Deb Slade and her challenges to appreciate the beauty where we are.)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: dreams