Just a Peaceful Summer Evening

This week there have been wonderful sunsets. I’ve met a couple of them either sitting on a deck or driving home through the long slow sunset into dusk. The evening temperatures have been comfortable after hot, hot, hot days. It was great to sit out on my porch late into the evening.

What a gift.

When you’re offered sweet Peace and lovely evenings, there’s nothing to do but enjoy them. There’s no postponing the joy. It’s here and now and won’t be around later. Life is fleeting. Don’t let it slip buy without your enjoying it!

Me? I’m off to do that very thing. Garden Party, you know! Summer Peace of the day and the evening to you! Every day Peace, Everyday Peace.

The Peace We Have to Offer

In a world awash in violence and carelessness, what do we do? How are we Peacemakers?

I don’t know what to do about Daish or Boko Haram. I don’t know what to do about Oil spills. I am aghast at the ugliness of our political process. I watch what happens in the world in sad horror.

Yesterday was one of those days where I felt helpless. I couldn’t focus on the stuff I do do and can do, I could only see the spots where loving hands and peaceful hearts are not, as yet, having an impact. I don’t have money to give and I don’t know how effective petitions are, although i sign them, religiously — in every sense of that word!

Someone asked the other day, when talking about unemployment, the need for retraining (which means the need for a community college that is accessible and affordable), and the need for new organizations, when do we teach people to fish. It’s hard not to hear that as a reproach. But I have to remember, that our small community can’t change these things. that’s not our mission. We can agitate for it, and maybe some of our members can engage in that, but our community can do what we do best: gather money for backpacks and hygiene products, support local charities and help our migrant workers.

Aside from that, I can stay informed. I can mourn the horror. And I can work hard at kindness. Every day. Because it matters. Every day Peace. Every day.

The Peace of What Is

Not every day is a big day. Some days are just another day. But every day matters, even those days we concern ourselves with everyday matters and everyday Peace.

And those are most days, right? But still we make the most of them. Because every day is what we have. And I don’t know about you, but I know there are not any days to waste. This is not to say there aren’t days to luxuriously do nothing. That’s celebrating not wasting.

Peace is about being present. Every day. It’s what we have. It’s who we are. And most of us know, it goes too quickly. If we’ve been present, with life changes, we’ll have nothing to regret and the best memories. That’s what we give life and that’s what it can give us. Every day, Peace. Everyday Peace.

Sunsets aren’t less beautiful for being ordinary and completing tasks even when fewer than we thought it not to be sneezed at.

Enjoy the day. Do the work. Notice the loveliness. Make some Peace.

Voting for Peace, Voting Peace

In this country, scarcely more than a third of us vote. There are all sorts of reasons for it — some are merely excuses — but we don’t use what we have available to us. And of course some people go out of their way to ensure that people don’t get the chance to vote.

Voting must be easy. Voting must be encouraged.

And wouldn’t it be wonderful if we all had Peace as our goal? That when we entered the voting booth (and even before, as we prepared to enter the voting booth), we pondered on Peace… considering who cared about it, who would work for it. Not just peace and quiet. Peace. Equality. Justice.

What would this world look like if we were to care about Peace. I can tell you it’s going to have to come from the bottom up. Peace isn’t sexy, it’s not a big fund raiser. Yet what a difference it would make in our lives. Some of those differences, we can’t even imagine. We’ve never lived with Peace, Equality, and Justice. To many have lived with inequality and injustice and as Marley told us: “no Justice, no Peace!”

It all swirls around, doesn’t it. What we have before us to do. Some days it feels my hopes for Peace are so ridiculous, so unreachable. Other days, I can see the edges that have to be mended and think oh, here’s a fix for this one little piece.

But what matters, i think, is that I keep my eye on it, that I encourage my heart and maybe yours. And voting really matters. It matters that we vote. It matters that we vote for Peace.

It’s not simply about the Presidency, it’s voting for all the little offices that make our country work. The town councils and school boards, the director of parks and rec, the municipal services board — these all make a difference.

Voting for them makes a difference, it starts building Peace at a fundamental level (when we do it right). Running for those positions also makes a difference. Both the voting and the running require good preparation. What does Peace look like? How can I help in bringing that about?

So, my friends, vote and vote well. Vote for Peace. Get the Peace of having voted for Peace. It matters, don’t waste it. Every vote matters. Every day, Peace for Everyday Peace.

A Breakfast of Peace Champions

What is your champion breakfast? What is it that gets you going, ready to face the day?

I loved Terri’s pic of this plate and this cup. Here, eat your breakfast and get ready to face the day, filled with things good for you and things a bit indulgent. Look at your cup and remember how courageous you are.

I must say when I see this cup, I don’t think about doing “bad” things, I think about doing things that are no good for the status quo. I think about doing things that are good for Peace — that sort of no good.

We work for Peace in so many different ways. It’s always good to begin your day with a moment of calm and reflection. Breakfast is a very important meal.

And then? Go out there and make Peace. Go be its Champion. You’re prepared. You’re ready! Every day Peace. Everyday Peace.

Every Day for Everyday Peace

Already, and it’s only March, we’ve seen some fabulous Sunsets, here on this blog and out in the world. But most days the Sun sinks quietly. Many days we only notice it growing darker because it’s been a gray and cloudy day and promises to be a gray and cloudy night.

For me, that’s the point of this year’s picture taking. Every day is a beautiful day. Every day is the perfect day to make Peace. We make it ways both big and little. We make Peace in our own environment and lives — tidying up what needs to be tidied, fixing what needs to be fixed, replenishing what needs to be replenished and appreciating it all. After all, in too much of the world, people are starved for safety and regular days.

And other days are for making Peace out in the world. For most of us, that’s finding small ways to better our community. For others it’s doing huge international projects. Whatever you do, Peace.

Today, is just another day for Peace. For me, it’s a day of everyday matters and making today matter. Because Peace.

Repairing the Foundations of Peace

It feels as if the world in which I live is increasingly hostile. Not so much to me, I’m well insulated in my, I admit, very lovely world.

But to so many others. That the conversation is always about others. That time after time I hear the Not Like Us invoked.

Those of us who live comfortably must stand for, stand up for, stand with the not like us folk of the world.

We must work at the foundations… on our own, and in an organized fashion. Peace is at stake here. Do we want it? In this world, we need to want it badly if we are to persevere.

All we are saying, is give Peace a chance… Everyday Peace. Every day, Peace.

Every Day, Beauty; Every day, Peace

Every day, there is something about that day’s unfolding that is beautiful. Actually, there are many things, if we just look.

But we need let go our assumptions that there is only one kind of beauty or we miss what the world has to offer.

Every day the world unfolds. To miss that is to miss life. We don’t have life to waste, wishing it away. Life is so precious; and it’s so damned fleeting. So many people I’d like back for a bit longer… So many people I’d have missed if I hadn’t had that grey fall or that long winter. Beauty is there on offer and it’s there to discover and it’s there to make. Same with Peace. It’s up to us. See it or waste it. Make it, or shorten our engagement with Peace and Beauty.

Beauty every day. Peace every day. Because every day matters.

Bacon Peace

When I thought about the challenges of writing this year, it was more about the challenge of finding the right words — i hadn’t really thought about the challenge of the pics themselves.

I am a meat eater and a fan of bacon. I find it a lovely, lovely thing. And I know that a lot of people who follow me are not meat eaters and so they look at this pic and say “really?” And I understand that. If we’re going to eat meat at all, we eat too much of it and many of us eat it without regard to its raising. That’s a problem.

And a pic like this doesn’t allow wiggle room. I’m a pretty good wiggler.

And yet, here we are — Bacon. a whole grill full of it! A chef is getting ready for a day at work.

And so we make our Peace with the joy and the discomfort. Thanks for the challenge, Heather! Every day, Peace.

Inviting Sabbath Peace

Some mornings dawn breaks gently. Other days it flashes into our lives. I love that this picture issues a quiet invitation. I love that dawn came softly today as well.

I was up late reading last night. Silly me. on the night before Sunday morning. Go to bed Ann… but the book was so good. And I’d been at a great party before and I needed to calm down… nothing like reading!

But I slept well and deeply and this morning i came slowly awake right before the alarm. ah…

And today is going to be a lovely day. I don’t preach; one of my young wildfire students does. And this afternoon, I have one email to answer and that’s about it for work! The house is clean, the laundry done, and I still have two books I’m poking around in: one mind stretching and one just for fun.

Gentle Sabbath Peace. I wish you the same. Everyday Peace. Every day, Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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