My friend Terri and her guy George make wonderful food. Then they eat it. They really enjoy both parts of that equation. Now once a week, we get to enjoy not only their beautiful food but also what the food engenders in us.
Today? Laughter. Every time we see something like this it enchants us. Nothing like a face.
So folks, let me introduce you to the potatoes… and where’s Waldo… or whoever the imp is…
Peace. have a great day and remember to smile at your food.
Yep, this weekend has been flurries of fun mixed with serious moments…
It’s been a long time since I did anything that spectacularly, well, anything…
Taking off your clothes, putting aside good sense, and hopping into the cold water.
But Faye had always wanted to… and i had always wanted to see if I could… So we did and I could.
It’s important to have friends who dare you to deeper things.
Yesterday we hopped in the river. Today we’ll hop in the pulpit. That will be equally fun, very safe, but in its own way equally daring. In between we sat on the couch or at the table and laughed and talked seriously…
And then I’m hopping in my bed for a nap. Poor Faye has to hop in her car and drive for five hours.
I’ve got thinking to do about how our women’s college — Wilson — shaped my life. Today i’m just mulling about how that early connection holds fast in so many ways… and how good and rewarding that is.
Peace… through wackiness. We’ll laugh to that!
It must be the change in light that nudges the birds into wakefulness… or maybe it’s the absence of a certain kind of food that alerts them. Pssst. get going. Time to be on the move.
Whatever it is, it causes great swathes of them to rise up and return to their summer homes far up North. I believe that I’ve heard, but could find no corroboration this morning, that these gulls are headed to the Great Lakes. The swans and the snow geese have their own destinations.
But yesterday, they’d reached a cornfield along their journey where they could roost and rest and a stretch of the river where they could calmly, time and again, rise and fall and simply float down the stream.
I promised myself, watching, that this summer when the water and the air warms, that I would do the human version of this. I would gather my friends together and we would put our innertubes in the water and float merrily down the stream. The gulls remind me of the importance of quiet communion on the water. Fun and Friendship.
Thanks, river gulls for this glimpse of Peace. The Pink Moon brings so many wonders… Do you think the gulls whisper of the sweet memories made on Sundays on the Susquehana? Delight ahead! Let us all remember!
I had the most fun yesterday. My friend Sue and I, who are inexplicably competing in the the local Aphasia Center’s Dancing with the Stars fundraiser, were plotting and planning.
(Why yes, we do know what we’ll be wearing, thank you! Bling always matters! especially when you’re unsure of your steps!)
We’re only going to win this if lots of generous friends show up… ahem. It’s a great cause. You can sign up here… No one told me that being a minister would get you the good gigs… I think next year, Sue and I should solicit lots more clergy…
But in the meantime, we’re going to have so much fun. Because… hey! Dancing.
Who plots and plans dancing? Few of us. We don’t get together to dance. We don’t get together to sing.
Why is that? Because you know what? it’s incredibly fun. What else is there in your life that you say that about as an adult. It’s incredibly fun. Rise up on the strength of laughter! And where there’s fun, real fun, there’s Peace. Let’s dance!
I hope that where you live is as extraordinary as where I live. I’m betting that it is. If you’re not exploring that, oh, poor you.
Now, I completely believe that there are great and wonderful things about where I live, and my husband, and not simply because I love him and he’s my husband, is one of those things. He’s not simply a good drummer, which is wonderful, but he’s a generous drummer. He wants to make everyone sound good. And he plays with two musicians who can play anything (and do!). They’re in the hum a few bars school of back-up bands. Both the bassist and the guitarist sing, both do jazz, country, funk, rock and now Irish and who knows what else and Steve’s there with the beat. Hot town in the Summertime and the living is soooo easy.
And I must admit, the guy that owns the tavern’s pretty wonderful as well, recognizing that this could happen. Sure he’s making money on it, but that’s fine… because he’s made a place for a community to come together. It’s not every joint in town that is going to have jazz, Irish music, country, 70s peace rock, blues… you name it, all jumbled up into one big happy evening. Steve’s gotten what he wanted, our local musical heroes stepping outside their musical genres, stepping in and playing or singing back up, roaring to attention when the kidlets try something out. If you’d have heard the band singing along with one young man accompanying himself singing “Eight Days a Week” on the ukelele. It was a moment you’re sorry you missed. oh, and when that 15 year old went head to head with Elvis and didn’t do badly at all? that was another one.
I got to chacha with Sue, always a fave, sing back up with Charlie (we found that back up!), shout at friends over the loud music, and generally have a marvelous time.
If you live here and you don’t wander by at least once, you’re wasting your time… if you live somewhere else, figure out where to go where your village’s lines get all mixed up. This type of event builds relationships across all sorts of lines. It teaches us to be kind.
And score. I signed up two more musicians for the Love Flows concert I’ll do in the fall, (we hope!). Watch this spot for new songs. But in the meantime, find out where Peace is mixing it up. If you can’t find it, start it.
There’s science between what happens in our brains, bodies and psyches when we sing together. It’s why hymn sings work. It’s why Eight Days a Week (The Beatles, who ever thought of them as hymnists?) worked for everyone that night. Great community. Great fun. oh, yahoo…
It’s a river of Peace, it’s a river of Sound, it’s a river of Love… C’mon, Wade in the Water!
So the big question is will we do it? Will we dare to be silly? Will we offer that option to everyone else around us? It’s a little town, we know lots of people, and they know we’re wacky. Are we going to be found at 2 pm on a Saturday, dancing it up?
We’ll have to see… It’d be awfully fun. You show up. You dance. Dance as prayer, dance as being present, dance as a ridiculous wonderful thing!
No one needs to worry what they look like. all you need to think about is will we laugh?
Dance Challenge… making it up and down the street… Some days it’s the little things that build Peace. (and let you have fun, fun, fun)!
I was a bit lost yesterday afternoon when it came time to write the day’s musing… it’s not a common occurrence, but I’ve been doing this for three years, and it happens. I asked a friend, what should I write? Write about our ice skating escapade he wrote, about the web of life and how it causes community. Hmmm.
Now when I say “our ice-skating adventure,” you understand, I don’t mean MY ice-skating adventure. I don’t do that. I’ve never had great ankles, and I’m not all that steady on my pins. Those two pretty much eliminated any childhood winter olympic dreams I might have had! No, this was a church outing. Although I have to find out if they have those ice-walkers for adults that they have to keep kids upright. I might be more willing to try it again… and less likely to experiment with my “triple-klutz.” (although that may be optimistic!)
But the thought for the musing certainly had possibility, and it wouldn’t be the first time I wrote about something I didn’t do. I’ve written a perfectly lovely poem about biking, and my balance doesn’t encourage that, either…
But the notion of tracing the lines, that move from one single line carved in the ice to many overlapping lines was intriguing. that some of the lines in the web are straight and sure and some are wobbly and uncertain makes the comparison to the web of life more realistic.
And then, above the skates, all the emotions going on, fear, joy, laughter (i spared them my terror!), growing friendships and giggles. There had to be a game of crack the whip, right? That was always the funnest — even when you were the little being tossed off the end. So as lines were being traced, friendships were deepening, and memories were being carved into childhoods and communities.
A silly thing, really, just a day of enjoyment on the ice, but so many connections were possible — and many were made. Even if nothing deeper happened, here’s to winter and the fun of winter sports. Breathing in the frosty air is a treat unto itself!
Sometimes it works. When it does, take a moment and celebrate. Fasten that in your memory. Won’t always be this smooth, won’t always be this great. But when it is, it’s a reminder of why we do the work. It’s a call to be present so you don’t miss the moments. It’s all about the Joy. And on your way to Joy … and bien sûr Peace? Dance to the music!
This concert was one of the sweetest moments I can recall, because so much was right. hurrah!
Oh, April Fool… I’m thinking I’m going to be one all month long. I am steadfastly going to believe in the impossible and do the undoable. (I’ll be the Red Queen and think of six impossible things before breakfast! — I just ignore her penchant for separating her servants’ heads from their bodies… even for a cartoon, that’s pretty brutal!).
Let’s get right back to Peace-ibilities. They’re endless you know and our Peace-abilities are enormous. So let’s stretch and see what we can accomplish. I’m never one to underestimate the power of the frivolous, but it’s easier to start off being an April Fool on the first, and then begin as you mean to go on! And keep having fun while you do it!
And don’t you love the spiffy new design by Nancy Cleaver? She says about Peace Squares: “There are many ways to see peace, and sometimes one has to repeatedly look forward and back to gain perspective. Then the pattern emerges which allows the entire vision to shift, and the present moment to take hold.” I like it for those reasons, but I also like it because it reminds me of tulips. And nothing says April to me like a buncha tulips! (unless of course, it’s being a Fool for Peace!)
Welcome to the weekend! Religious festivals overlap in a joyous burst of New Life. In the Spring it’s not just the Christians and the Pagans together at the table, as that sweet song says, there are lots of us digging out family recipes and putting the extra leaves in the tables.
Too many folk think this is a reason to snip and snarl (when we’re not decorating eggs or hunting out our Seder plate),but this is a reason to be joyous. What ties us together is that we are all celebrating. Mother Earth is calling us all back to life. Menus may collide or need some adjustment, but may your feasts be traveling one and may you get to know your neighbors and their religious practices. May Peace break forth with the flowers and may we be the reason why. Enjoy and sweet blessings of the holidays to you. let’s see… gefilte fish, peanut butter eggs, bitter salad greens… priestess or glutton, you decide!
