The Fiercest Peace

I saw a picture of plants with their roots yesterday. The tag on the pic said that plants can converse by clicking their roots. Isn’t that an amazing concept? But as I was looking at the picture and pondering, I started thinking about how hard those soft, tender shoots had to work to break their way through frosty soil. They are driven to come out and open to the sun.

If only you and I were sensitive enough that we could hear Peace’s commanding cry. Or that we could sense a neighbor’s response and begin to listen for promising news. Peace is possible. Don’t we want to be the evangelists for Peace, rising up like the flowers out of hostile ground? Don’t we want to come out in our full beauty in a chorus of Peace? I believe it’s possible. It does mean we need to plant ourselves fairly carefully in the company of others who also believe. and then slowly we must push with all we’re worth, knowing we are both being encouraged and encouraging others. There we are frail flowers for Peace, beautiful in our own right, but astonishing in our combined glory. Imagine the fierce beauty of the Peace of Early Spring. And then push. The World depends upon your willingness to emerge in the name of Peace and Beauty. (Oh, and look, it’s a new month, so we’re now celebrating Nancy Cleaver’s Woven Peace!)

Peace of Cooperation

Cooperation. It’s an important word. We think so much about achieving goals, that we rarely stop to think that the best things we may get from a joint project derive from working together. The shared sense of accomplishment is important. As exhilarating as it is to pull something off on your own, there’s nothing quite like looking at one another at the end of a haul and saying… we did this. Having someone to kick around possibilities can leverage both the scope and the outcomes of the project. And being able to reflect jointly on the failures and figure out how to recapture lost effort and lost ground is a good indicator that you not only might be able to figure out where you went afield, you also have an increased possibility of finding ways to turn those failures to your advantage. And what’s better? there are long-term health advantages to belonging to a group.

It’s nice to have people invested in a project you care about. While most of us want enough personal risk-taking and satisfaction in a job, it’s good to know that what you think is important is important to someone else. We’re all looking for meaning… and shared meaning deepens the experience.

And then there’s the encouragement piece of cooperation. Sometimes it’s passive — someone else’s success will buoy yours. Sometimes our load is eased by more active encouragement whether it’s a hearty “Well Done!” or a well-timed, “You can do this,” or even an enthusiastic “Look what we’ve accomplished!”

Cooperating means leveraging everyone’s skills (viva les differences!), celebrating the successes (see earlier “Look what we’ve accomplished!” or the comfort of numbers (“we’re all in this together!”). I haven’t checked the studies, but my guess is that a high cooperation rate is a fairly good indicator of success. It’s certainly a pretty good indicator of a good time being had by all — and an assurance that someone will be around to break open that bottle of bubbly something!

On the Peace road, where there are so many obstacles, cooperation makes the journey more comfortable and more enjoyable, and adds a lot to our probabilities of progress. Let’s hear it for the Muppets who start us out early on a great road! And let’s consider how we might cooperate on our journeys toward Peace.

Sweet and Peaceful Sabbath

While for many the Sabbath is celebrated as the first day, a day of looking forward, I still cherish the notion of its ending the week. When you’ve worked hard, then comes rest and relaxation. In our world, it seems we have to play as hard as we work, but there is much to be said from what can grow from the idle contemplation of a fire… particularly when the fire’s boiling down the sap into syrup. mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sweet Life. Sweet Peace.

January Peace Obstacles

Have you noticed that we still tend to be surprised by obstacles? Why is that? I’m not pointing any fingers here, mind you…

Whatever your dream is about, it’s going to change the way the world works if you pursue it. That will happen, if for no other reason, because people will sometimes resent your pursuing your dreams. If you can, they can, and all this time they’ve been pointing to the obstacles as reasons for not moving forward.

But our dreams are not for or about other people, even if in the long term they benefit others. We dream about what’s important to us, what raises our passion. We say no to the obstacles because our passions are vital to our well-being. We say no because realizing our dreams is being faithful, even grateful, for the gifts we’re given.

Obstacles are real. Many times we’ll find out that the cause of those obstacles was our own failure to plan. But other times, we’re just going to have to figure out how to go around and keep going. If Peace were easy and straightforward, we’d be living in the midst of it. It’s hard. But we’re gifted. And the world is waiting.

So gather your advisers about and figure out how to move forward. You don’t have advisers? ah, now that’s a problem. We all need a Board of Directors. We need someone to see what we can’t see. No reason to go flat on our faces if there’s a friend around to point out a rock in the road!

Our obstacles will probably be our faithful instructors and our worthy opponents. Let’s learn the lessons and keep working on Graduating the Dream!

The Peace of a January Fool

Are we willing to count the world well lost for Peace? Are we willing to embrace the absurd notion that society can be based in love and tolerance? People say it’s a foolish and simplistic notion that we can live in Peace. OK. It’s not that I’m unwilling to address the complex issues, but I am unwilling to allow the complexity to overwhelm the possibilities of Peace. Because Peace is what we are called to, or so I believe.

Far more is possible than we know. Let’s risk it. Joy is more present than we allow. Let’s live it. Let us be fools for Peace, risking being thought absurd to bring about change on earth, for the earth and all its peoples. As a notion, it’s perhaps a little grandiose… but it’s Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday, and the beginning of a President and Vice President’s next four years. Whether you voted for them or not, I would hope you would join me in wishing them well, and in wishing that they dedicate themselves to their country’s well-being and a Peaceful, prosperous world. May that be so for all the world’s leaders.

My friend Blair Monie used this in his sermon yesterday morning. Here we are: more fools for Peace: “I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to live for and with those who find themselves seeing life as a long and desolate corridor with no exit signs. This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way. If it means sacrificing, I’m going that way. If it means dying for them, I’m going that way. Because I heard the voice saying: do something for others.” –Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Being Nice

Day after day we hear horrible stories of what goes on in high schools and how students cope with bullying. The cyber world, which I celebrate as it keeps me in touch with almost-lost high school friends and newly-minted grandchildren, is not always put to work for the good.

I read, aghast, about the way twitter and FB are used to isolate and terrify kids. I wonder whether Twitterverse isn’t the island that William Golding talked about in Lord of the Flies. When I read that book in college in the 70s I rolled my eyes, secure in my knowledge of humanity’s basic goodness. There’s nothing quite like privilege, is there? After all, I’d been growing up during the 60s in the years of the most heinous race riots and somehow still believed that clapping for Tinkerbelle was what it took.

Years later, I still cling to my Pollyanna worldview. I believe, when encouraged, we move toward the best in us. (it was only slightly discouraging when referencing pollyanna to have one group of information about Eleanor Porter’s 1915 novel and the other bit about “disambiguation” which is a synonym for my preternatural cheery optimism.) Once more with feeling “Let’s all look on the bright side of life…”

But looking away doesn’t help anything, especially our bullied and frightened kids. So it was a lovely thing to read about a 17 yo kid in Osseo MN taking to Twitter to shut down the mean girls and boys in his school who were using social media to terrorize and traumatize. Kudos for Kevin Curwick (and his parents who raised a great kid!). A cute, popular kid, leading the kindness brigade. Or as he says, OsseoNiceThings — goodness gracious are we going to rehabilitate the word nice, make it more than icky-sweet? He just set about noticing kids and posting what was great about them. Day after day, tweet after tweet. A young man doing his kindness reps. And Hurrah! for the kids at other schools are doing the same thing to combat bullying. If we’re going to trend and hashtag, let’s do it for the good. Hop on that bus, my dears.

And while we’re cheering, let’s hear it for the kids who are participating in Lady Gaga’s Kindness Campaign and for Office Depot and their president Patrick Schwartzenegger’s support and Cyndi Lauper’s “Give a Damn” campaign. It’s good to see people with klout taking a lead on this issue.

Makes me wonder what you’re doing for the good about bullying. Wander over to our FB page, like us, and tell me what you’re up to.

In the meantime give it up for Kevin. Thanks to him, at least in Osseo, MN, we’re no longer listening to the sound of one hand clapping, we’re listening to a rousing round of applause from every student in his school. (Although someone might want to know if was using his cell in school, but that’s the principal’s problem! I’m just happy someone’s doing what’s right. ) So, while I’ll keep working for change, I’m going to keep clapping for Tinkerbelle. Sometimes the light just shines brighter. I do believe the more you focus on what is right, the more we move toward that. But we should stop once in a while to see who’s not in the parade with us and invite them to come along. Go Kevin!

Tilt

It’s easy, when your heart isn’t on the line, to wax loftily poetic.

And then it is:

My sister has just been diagnosed with a late stage lung cancer. Possibilities are not exhausted, but they’re not limitless either. The journey to possibility is horrifying and ugly. Deb’s accepting and frightened. I’m so frightened too. And I can’t make it better or share the pain. I can only bear witness.

My sister! My sister!

I always say the miracle is that it works at all. It isn’t unusual for things to go awry. Life is messy. And not forever promised.

“I always” doesn’t mean jack when it’s your sister. It doesn’t mean much either when well-meaning friends tell me I’ll have to man up for Deb because she’ll need me. Well, of course. My forte. Evanses are strong, competent and brave. But excuse me? My heart? Breaking here. So much loss. And now… uncertainty… that edges toward some unwelcome certainties.

I make the only promises I can. I will be present. I will be her advocate. I will revel in her company, however heartbreaking and messy. I will keep my hands and heart open. And I will love her fiercely.

And you? I will love you too, working hard not to let this pain blind me to you and your struggles and your triumphs.

But I tell you the truth. I will need a kind word and a steadying hand on my back.

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.

Summer Solstice

The sun pauses for just a moment, too lazy to move. Don’t you just know the feeling? Summer is such an odd season. It’s built for lolling about and yet it is time for hard work as well. Gotta get the fruits and vegetables in, gotta realize those dreams.

But this isn’t the season of balance. This is the work hard, play hard season. Up early to get the work done before the earth heats up. Making plans for picnics and swims once it gets too hot to think.

But both the food and the dreams need weeding and encouragement if they are to feed us for the rest of the year. Better bustle off before the bustle slows to a saunter!

It is a wonderful day, isn’t it? Make something grand of it.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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