The Moon and Me and You and Peace

The Moon is beautiful, but she’s far more powerful than we give her credit for being. She moves the tides, among other things.

I like that her light is softer and allows us to see things differently than we see them in the sun.

But what i really love about it is how it connects us. My dear friend in Sweden who took this pic and I look at the same Moon when she comes up at our houses. People I don’t know, all over the world, look at the same Moon.

The Moon fills me with Peace, and it fills me with Peace that she gently shines on all of us.

Time for Friends; Time for Peace

I’m slowly making plans to be without anything but an electronic reader this summer when I go to Europe. My phone will come along, but only as a camera. Three weeks with no electronic input.

I think my brain needs it. We’ll see how I do.

But I realized, huh, I won’t have a watch. I stopped wearing a watch when I stopped my corporate job at 30. I am now 2x+5… so, I haven’t worn a watch for a long time.

So time goes back to more public displays. I will keep time only insofar as I need to be at a show or on a plane or a train. The rest of time it will be time for rest. Time for friends. Time for Peace. I am really looking forward to seeing how my relationship to Time adjusts. And what will I have to do if I see my relationship to Peace change?

I’m going to have to make more time for Friends and Peace. I think I’ll make better Peace.

Holding Stories, Holding Peace

It’s a horror to understand that our local woods were completely destroyed by logging. Pennsylvania has so many trees, it’s hard to comprehend that these are second and third growth trees.

Ancient witnesses to life were clear cut and used for progress… Who knows how the climate changed then.

But at least this one tree was felled, hewn into planks and set to span a creek so that folks could get from one side to the other. The slabs of wood are about 4 inches thick and have served for almost 200 years. The bridge was covered to keep the weather from rotting the wood. So it’s never been replaced. I’m sure someone knows how old these trees are. All I know is that they’re ancient and beautiful.

They welcomed the stories of friends with 50 years of history this summer, just as they welcomed the stories of those who built the bridge, just as they welcomed the stories of those who sat beneath them when they were much younger trees.

This is an ancient, Life-supporting Valley that grew these ancient trees.

Let us give thanks. And let us make Peace with the woods and the wood that has born witness…

Yakking in Peace

I admit, I looked it up last night, I looked it up again this morning. Does yakking, when talking about talking, have a c… it seems it may or may not. So, I’ll stand with this.

If ever there were a picture of two guys yakking, this is one!

Two gentle guys, always with a point of view, always happy to be together, catching up on the news. They’re probably talking about music… there’s definitely music happening…

We never see enough of our friends, do we? We never can have enough of these conversations. And we can never have enough of these friends. There’s always room for at least one more. Making new friends is a slow but effective way toward Peace.

I’m not completely sure whether yakking is a way to Peace or a sign of it. Or both. But it makes me happy… I wish you the Peace of Good Friends to yak with.

The Peace and Beauty of the Day

Every day you get up the world is in the midst of being beautiful. I’m writing that today when it’s grey and blustery… when it’s November to its very core.

Some places they’re celebrating snow… not here of course. Welcome to Snowhole PA…

I’m simply delighting in the leaves swirling and dancing in the streets. I get to go to wowrk and do things I love. And then I get to come home and be with friends and family, family, family… my birth family who are local are coming to dinner to meet my beloved family who have arrived from California. Last night I held grandchildren in my arms and two amazing women who have allowed me to call them daughters of my heart. Way to go Steve Mitchell… thanks for the great gift of Love!

The times are as turbulent as the wind. But Love is as constant as time — if we let it be so. And Peace is there for the making.

Sunset. Moonrise. Friends. Music. Peace.

Some nights are just sweet. Last night was one of them. It had been so busy all day. Go here. Go there. Finish this. Start that. Do. Do. Do.

And then, my friends back from NY, dinner over, we collected another friend, and there we were, sitting on a patio, listening to another friend’s great music. That boy can write himself a sad song about class, about living with the drive to create and perform. And he can sing!

The Sun went down. The Moon came up.

It was all a pretty beautiful reminder that taking the time gives great payoffs. Once in a while, remembering how sweet life is, gives you what’s needed to get back on the Peace journey. Comfort and company for the road. Peace, my friends.

The Peace of Friends

I had a lovely visit with my friend Faye Wilson this winter. She is many wonderful things, but among them, she is a stellar friend. It’s not just that she’s my stellar friend, although she is, but it’s that she knows how to be a very good friend and enjoys that richness in her life.

Friendship is one of the bedrocks of my life. I learned this, I think from my Mom. She had good friends and kept them throughout her life. She tended those friendships. She taught us that.

I am lucky in my friendships. This week, I’m enjoying a lovely intersection of fabulous friends. It would be a richness in and of itself, but with so much of my family gone, these particular friends, although there are many other ones, know how to take places at the table.

Faye and I thought that perhaps, not that I can imagine every creating another CV, that friendship ought to be listed. It’s time to change what’s important in our lives and to remember how friendships define, inform and transform us.

Such rich Peace, these friends of mine. I hope yours are that for you. Having friends, deepening friendships, building new ones are, I believe, building blocks of Peace in the world. You learn the value of another human being; you learn how your life can expance when you treasure your friendships. You want more. And that’s a lovely thing. Friend Peace; I’ll raise a glass to that!

A Day of Shared Work is a Day of Peace

Working together is important. When you can work together and laugh together at the same time, life is sweet.

Shared purpose brings Peace.

For two months now a dedicated team has been working to put together this huge extravaganza of a yard sale that takes place for five days. (thank heavens for a sabbath in between! whew!)

Friday morning at 6:45 am I rolled in LONG after others had been working to get things set up.

The doors were supposed to open at 8. They opened at 7 and people came pouring in.

Now, if you know me at all, you know I’m an extreme extrovert with an incredibly chaotic mind. This much chaos is over load for me. But people are so excited. Oooooh! look at this! Imagine! All day long, people thrilled over the bargains.

And all day long, community members are helpful and enjoying themselves. You have the chance to get to know people you’ve never known as you check out customers, or dish up hamburger barbecue. (Oh, we laughed: a woman started to tell us about her business helping people make life style changes with resultant weight loss, by cutting out gluten and sugar. Meanwhile we were all stuffing hotdogs in our faces, and following them up with homemade black walnut brittle chasers… she didn’t get any clients today at the yard sale — unless after the sale is over we all feel badly about all the cookies we ate! Just another way friendships are built!)

But it was flat out fun today, because the people are grand. Poor Marie tries to organize us and manages despite our camraderie and general ineptitude at sales. Meanwhile people keep buying stuff and we move toward balancing the budget. And it’s not all about the money, although that’s its purpose, it’s also about people’s buying things they can’t otherwise afford: dishes and pots and pans disappear pretty quickly. Clothes find their way home to people who need them (and, ahem, some of us who don’t!)

Building solvency. Building community. Eating good food! Yum! Fun! Peace.

Peace is where you find it. It’s where you make it. Say, can I get you a bag for your stuff?

Ice cream for Peace (You scream too!)

We’ve all gotten greedy about treats. Google dictionary describes a treat as “an event or item that is out of the ordinary and gives great pleasure.” For those of us here in Central PA, the opening of the summer ice cream stands is a special treat. I like to wait until the fireflies get to mine before I go for my treat, so I’ve a couple more months ahead to wait. Waiting is part of what makes a treat a treat.

We believe we need treats every day. And look at us. It shows. And in fact, it’s gotten so too many of us, too many of our children think treats are every day food. We often feel we “deserve” a treat.

We scream about pesticides in our food and rightly so. But we have no qualms about putting food in our mouths on a regular basis that aren’t good for us. And the jury’s out on whether the amount of sugar we eat isn’t going to injure us.

So, if you scream for ice cream every day, You’ve moved it out of the treat category and into the food category and that’s not great.

But if once in a while, you and a friend wander over to a favorite ice cream stand to share one another’s favorite treat — if you make it a treat, well then enjoy.

Do it to make it special. Peace has many flavors some are sustenance. Some are treats. The first ice cream of the season? Shared with a friend? Sweet Peace indeed. Savor it!

The Peace of a Book

I have been alone in my life, but I have never been lonely. Books. The most amazing companions.They introduce me to new ideas and new places. They teach me ways to cope when I’m unsure. They hold my old friends and a whole bunch of new ones.

So this picture by Heather Adams… of a book, a chair and a shawl… Comfort, security, a goad, and Peace.

Books offer me Peace and challenge me to make it. I’m grateful for many things. One of them is Books.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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