Everyday Peace in the Ripe Garden Moon

I am extraordinarily lucky to work in a UU church which takes the preparation for the year seriously. I have a moth of study and a month of vacation. So few clergy have this, although we all need it.

We need it because we’re tired from a year of putting out. We need it because if you’re not going to hear the same old sermons next year, we need to put something in. But I get it.

And I’ve been a reading fool. I’ve been absolutely luxuriating in the reading. Stuffing my brain full so I can let it all percolate around for a while.

What’s made my reading time more wonderful is that I’ve been able to do it in the company of people I love. I’ve been in one house and then another. And there we’ve sat being together and quietly doing whatever we do.

I’ve gotten things accomplished. In the company of loved ones. And rather than running around doing things, we’ve hung around and done what needed to be done. talked some. laughed a lot. and been quiet together. The first week was with my Sweet Pea. I had long quiet stretches with him. ahhh. oh, the blessings to be counted.

This is a Peace I don’t often have at home. There are things to do. And some of these friends are very far away. But because of my job, I have this lovely, sacred pleasure.

I’m going to indulge this particular Peace as much as I can… and give thanks as I do it. And stare out the window at the lovely Ripe Garden Moon, whose picture his sister took, and remember the vegetables that just graced our supper table this evening… mmmmm.

A Gift of Life and Peace

A guy who coaches kids’ baseball is going to give one of his players a kidney. Yesterday, woman I know raced to save a child from drowning.

We hear all these stories of humans being downright nasty to one another, and yet, and yet… so often we’re so much better than that. People are good people all the time. Everyday heroines. Everyday heroes.

When these things happen we need to stand up and cheer. We need to lift up the good stories and celebrate them. We’re so quick post negative and whiny stories on social media. And, although I know that a lot of us take joy in cute cat videos, those vids don’t encourage us to do what we can. And as the beloved June Jordan says, “More than that, what can anyone ask?”

This guy is a match and he’s willing to do it for a child he likes. And she will live to play ball another season. This woman was in the right place and saw what happened. Sometimes Peace is just as simple as that. Let’s give thanks. And let’s explore where we’re called to be everyday heroes and heroines. And let’s support each other as we do. Together, we can.

Sweet Reminders of Peace Possible!

The weekend was so incredibly tense so it was just lovely to have a sweet day of community!

No issues to work, no big thoughts to have. The hardest decisions to make were not even whether I should test everything but rather whether I should try something again! Big decisions about whether I should just stand in the splash from the Skloosh, or whether i should get on the silly ride (I did! I did!) Oh, we give thanks for the bounty of food and the abundance of beloved, laughing community!

Four different traditions. All under a yellow and white stripped tent making merry. Life at its summer sweetest. And lots of pictures to remind us we were making sweet memories

And today? I’m going to find some more strawberries on this last day of the Berry Moon. From the way the next moon’s getting off to a start, it sounds as if I should choose Thunder moon. Apparently there were big storms last night, i confess I didn’t hear them. My basement isn’t a swimming pool however, so how bad could they have been?

But today, my dears, I wish you the quiet Peace that comes of great gatherings with good friends — the last sweet remnants of Strawberry Peace and the startling beginnings of Thunder Peace. wow? do we think it’s time to make a stir?

On Bringing the Peace You Can

It’s really about presence and showing up, isn’t it? And doing the best you can.

You seek to say the things you know will bring them comfort. You work to be as grounded as you can be, as open-hearted, open-souled… open minded, because even here, where it’s about the very stuff of life, there’s so much that’s going on around and as part of it… as you can be.

Even when you have spiritual comfort to offer, it’s often your ability to be comfortable where you are, to be with friends and strangers alike, to let people know they are seen and in the deepest sense of the word, loved.

It’s such a privilege to do this sacred work… and you bump along, sometimes doing it better than others. Doing your best… and showing up. Hoping you can help this family in the midst of what is so hard, hoping there can be Peace and dignity… hoping that you’re helping to create a memory they will always grieve but maybe not regret the way it went.

I knew and liked the woman who died yesterday. It was a hard death for her. She labored to let go. Don’t let ’em fool you, death, is rarely easy. I knew her husband a little, enough that he trusted me. and the same with her mother. Her poor daughter, poor sweet Katy, I had seen only as a baby. This woman was never as proud of anything in her life as of her daughter and of being Katy’s mom.

But there you are struggling for your own grounding in the midst of people you know and those you don’t at the doorway of something huge. Life-not-this-Life.

I believe Peace really lies in open hands and open hearts. I believe it also lies in Presence. And so, I’ll keep trying to show up. I’m grateful to be called and give thanks when i can be of service. And it’s hard work.

Blessings, Peace, Love.

Sweet Unwaited Gifts of Peace

I didn’t know what was waiting at Deb’s house when I went to get the photos. (It’s always going to be Deb’s house, just like my car is always going to be Deb’s car.)

I’m a pretty confident person, so I knew I’d at least look relaxed and engaged while i was there.

But obviously not completely relaxed. Deb had one of Mom’s irises copied into the lunch bar. Was it still there? I have no idea.

But the house looked sweet and appreciated and they’re so happy there. so good for them. And I don’t have to visit very often.

But he had these photos. Did I want them. How did I know? I figured they were probably just photos of Deb’s life in Bloomsburg, but it was so kind of him not to throw them away, so, I said, yes, please.

And then avoided picking them up. because… I’d have to go to the house to get them…

But there they were. My Nana and my mom, sisty and niece. in soft, sweet, living color. So potent, this picture of these beloved women.

And he walked me outside and we looked at deb’s redbud which was blooming like crazy and at the holly, which needed some attention, and at the maple which grew from my parents’ maple… and saw how his roots are entwined with ours. And intellectually, I thought how great and in my heart I screamed I want my sister. And meanwhile I talked with his dad about music and Steve and him about the house and the pool.

And what a sweet, sweet gift he gave me. There are a whole bunch of kinds of Peace in his gesture. My job now is to come to terms with both the Peace and the connections, however that gets done. Giving thanks for his kindness.

Reading Hope Into Peace

It’s gone on for years: wonderful women (and a few men) have opened their hearts and arms to class after class of kids who need a bit more.

They teach them structure and discipline and play. They help them get ready to start kindergarten on a level playing field. They teach them to play well and to settle disagreements peacefully. They teach them to fight fair. They teach them not to pick on one another. They teach them that their lives matter.

And isn’t that the most wonderful thing?

Kids whose start may be rocky are rocked against kind and talented women’s hearts.

Steve and I got to read and and teach them a song. I got to write a little children’s ditty. and that was so fun. And steve and I got to work together. and that was fun. And they were so grateful.

They were grateful? Once a year, we come in and act like stars. Every day they are stars. And they light the heavens of a whole generation of our children.

Everyday they love Peace into those children. And Possibility. And Hope. And a Future.

Oh, we give thanks!

Flower Moon Sabbath Peace

Spring Mornings. They’re really quite beautiful. Blue, blue skies that you can still see because the leaves haven’t come out to block the sky. Chilly temps that you know will warm. This is the weather that the Flower Moon brings along with the march of spring flowers.

Spring afternoons when you finally are excited about doing chores that by the end of the summer will annoy and bore you.

Sunday mornings, quiet before the dash to church and meetings. Well, except for the birdsong outside!

Sunday afternoons when a walk requires nothing more than grabbing a sweater before you walk out the door. When a pool of sunlight is just meant for dragging a chair into as you read the Sunday Papers.

It’s a sweet time of year. It’s still a little early to start gardens but just in time to ream about them. A day off means time to enjoy the wonder and beauty and be grateful for Nature’s abundance.

Sweet Sabbath Peace to you, my friends. Enjoy the day.

A River Runs through Peace

Part of the Pink Moon season is snow melt and April showers. Those two things swell my lovely Susquehana and make my favorite drive all the more interesting.

And for some reason, who knows why, I far prefer the ride up the river, although traveling down river is technically just as lovely… since it’s all the same river!

Aren’t humans funny. (Although as I told someone not long ago, one day as I was driving up-river at dusk, the entire river and the valley were filled with sunset rose and it may just have been the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen). I like this, better than that, when both are pure beauty?

Ah, but the river runs and the fish, birds, and animals enjoy it. A friend says she waits to see a brontosauras grazing… and actually, it’s not ridiculous… they used to hang out right there. All those tasty river grasses!

For me, Peace is there. Most of the time, that river is calm, calm, calm. It’s true occasionally it can rage. But so can we all…

I think I need to visit it a bit more often this Spring. See what I can learn from it.

Every day I go there I’m likely to find Peace floating by! I am so grateful!

Peace of Work Well Done

Ha! I just realized that rather than saying, as that ridiculous ruling does, that institutions are people too, that I wrote a musing saying that people are institutions!

But people change lives in the process of going about their daily work. Someone who serves your coffee with a smile changes your day.

So can we talk about why we can’t raise that minimum wage?

I love that this woman brightened mornings for so long, but did she want to — or did she have to because you don’t build up a great retirement on $2 an hour. Tips in central PA are probably not lavish for breakfast.

I know. Can’t I just clap for this woman’s wonderful service? She did such hard work for such a long time.

You know, once you start working on the web, it’s sometimes hard to pull things out.

I love that people do wonderful jobs. I’d just like if they’d be well and truly compensated for it. I’d like if our elders got some options. and if the people who make our lives sweeter got some acknowledgement in both cash and compliments. I’d like it if it weren’t often women in these situations…

And… all of that doesn’t change that she changed the world for many of us, who went in to get our breakfast served with a smile…

Snow Moon Peace Prayers

A couple marries. A young husband dies. A restaurant is shot up in Göteborg. The season changes, the Moon darkens and then, ever so slowly begins to grow again. Blessed to stand by the edge of the ocean, I open my heart…

To be aware. To be grateful. To be of use. To bring Peace. To be aware. To be grateful. To be of use. To bring Peace. To be aware. To be grateful. To be of use. To bring Peace.

Today, back in my life. I have the same prayer. and did I forget to mention, to be delighted.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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