Tag Archives: fun

Peace of the Pieces

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And Pieces of Peace…

I have been thinking a bit about the fact that we’re already looking at the last days of January. Aside from the normal, how the heck did that happen… in terms of looking at the year as a building process, it’s almost time to move on from the dream phase of the year. That means we need to begin to assemble our dreams, lay out the word fragments, the pictures, the blank spots, the allies on a board. Can you yet name your dream for the coming year… are you ready to commit to bringing Peace into your life… and into others’?

I’m not always a vision board kinda girl, but they are helpful for some people. Because part of my goal this year is to see the pattern in what i do (which is not my Peace dream — although it might bring me some!!), I am going to start laying things out.

It doesn’t matter if you have a complete picture… pieces will continue to emerge over the coming year, but it is good to have a name and an (even a fuzzy) outline.

I started to write this this morning and then I got sidetracked by our snow day. And that? is the nature of peace… it is piecemeal… work here, play here… that way lies Peace. So may you assemble the pieces of Peace you are gathering… and my you revel in the pieces of Peace you are granted. (if it’s not raining, go sledding!) Balance the work of Peace with the play of peace!

Peace on a Sled

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I am not a particularly athletic person. Neither am I particularly competitive — at least in an athletic sense. So there are a lot of sports I don’t do. Perhaps it’s just because I’m lazy… I love to sit and write and have to push myself to the pool… where I am competent.But it struck me as I was getting ready to send out this list that many of the simple pleasures of life get pushed aside for the competitive ones. Mindlessly sliding down a hill close to the ground, “through the frosty air,” is fun. Snowmen and women… fun too. There are not a lot of edges to test yourself against… just a lot of laughing shrieks.

When we’d have the first particularly good snow at my college (Wilson College that is!!!!), the President would walk into the dining room at lunch, commandeer the lunch trays and start handing them out. “I’ll meet you on the hill,” he’d say, and he would. it was a pitiful hill, but it was a wonderful afternoon. You slid next to young woman you hadn’t known at the top of the hill and laughed, holding one another upright as you walked back up. Sweet simple Peace. I know that lots of people don’t have the climate for this, so I’ll say this instead: May you find such an uncomplicated Joy this month — and indulge!

Working Together

My church has a huge, no really huge, yard sale. Three wonderful people plot and plan and price to set it up. But what makes it work is the community. We have to donate. We have to tote and carry. And then we have to sell.

We need the yard sale, it makes a lot of money and our budget is dependent upon it. If we did it only for the money, it would be a pretty remarkable thing.

But more and more, I begin to believe that what’s best about this sale is not the money, but the community it builds. Last year 70 percent of us helped in some way. Last Sunday, we stacked chairs (and moved them outside, and eventually into the trailer.) We moved tables into position (carefully marked on the floor). We hauled boxes (inside and stacked them under the tables, carefully matching labels of box and table). We emptied the boxes (arranging the merchandise.)

The organizers had jobs for everyone, even the 7 year old.

That’s what makes great society, when everyone participates and has a role, regardless of abilities and age.

What are you doing that you might allow people to help you with and, thus, engage? You really don’t have to do everything yourself. It’s not good for you. It’s not good for your spouse, your family or your community. Share! It’ll be hard the first time… and then it will be a good time.

The Swing

I’m going to have to think a bit more about the whole Swinging for Peace. In the meantime here’s Stevenson’s sweet old poem. As true now as in 1913.

The Swing

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
River and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside–

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown–
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Robert Louis Stevenson