Dreaming of Peace in Advent

Hope is the name of the first Advent Candle. Dreaming is the word I’ve assigned to this third day of Advent.

So many of these verbs, which are normally understood to have a passive voice, also have an active one.

So dreaming isn’t merely floating in some safe, beautiful vision of the future. It is also envisioning something desired and then designing the steps to get there. Dreaming involves, I believe, bringing those hopes to life.

Today, as we face the aftermath of another shooting, this seems particularly apt. I suddenly thought that someone might read this years from now and look back and say, shooting? what was going on in those times. Oh, may it be so… But I write for today.

I write frustrated because, since these shooters were Muslim, we now see them as terrorists. But the guy who killed people last week was Christian, so he was not. And yet,

Are not large numbers of people dead in both events? Did not both intend to overset the safety of civilians? Is that not terrorism?

Mourning doesn’t seem sufficient. And certainly the numbness that spreads through us is not a good sign. “Oh well, more people killed” is not an attitude to be cultivated. We must not allow ourselves to be overtaken by resignation.

So we must begin to purposefully, actively dream of Peace. We must move beyond our resignation and fear. We are the ones to bring Hope to the world. We are the ones to make Peace.

Alternative Advent — Day 3 suggests 3 cents for every pair of jeans your family owns.

Thanksgiving Peace Again

So many things for which to give thanks.

So many things to remember. And yesterday, we made new memories.

It’s a great holiday, isn’t it, Really just created for the opportunity to build more memories. There are new members of the family to braid in. Such sacred work.

As a kid, you’re at the mercy of the family… and hopefully for everyone that’s a lot of mercy. But later, it’s a chance for you to construct love as you want to see it.

Yesterday we laid a great framework for family… I feel so blessed.

I hope you feel that way too.

Peace be with you all, my friends. Peace. I hope you enjoyed the holiday and the full moon as much as I did.

The Peace of Beloved Festival Foods

For most of us, Thanksgiving is one of those holidays filled with food and family.

For those without either, let us be generous in opening our hearts and our wallets and cupboards. If we’re going to be thankful, it’s good to be so actively — and there is so much need. Thanksgiving requires great thanksgiving. Some of us are so lucky. I’m humbled by the life I lead. Blessing counting is an important part of this day.

But let us also enjoy — unabashedly… and make plans to revel in the fun.

And the food. Ah, festival foods are the best. Everyone has a favorite food associated with Thanksgiving. We were all stunned when niece Jan chose stuffing as the one food she never had to eat (her brother chose broccoli, which I like, but stuffing, that great gravy conveyance?). The rest of us we all about passing the bowl around one more time.

But for some it’s the yams, for others the turkey itself.

And for me, right up there alongside the stuffing is any kind of cranberry!

I once hosted a thanksgiving feast with 8 different kinds of cranberry sauce. Oh, i was happy!

Today it’s Monday. In three sleeps, it will be Thanksgiving. Turkey. Cranberry. Stuffing.

And a lovely, lovely wedding to perform. Yep. I’m looking forward. (and i get to miss the football part, which I know is other people’s favorite piece.)

I hope your Thanksgiving is filled with thanksgiving.

Goblins, Ghosties, Memories, Peace

For some it’s about the mad or the weird, for me it’s about remembering.

I have a pretty full altar, The past 20 years have been hard on my heart. A lot of beloved friends have gone on before.

In several traditions this is the time of year that the veil between this world and the next is seen to be the thinnest. Souls are thought to be able to slip back and forth, to visit those they loved with a touch.

For me, it’s an opportunity to commemorate those lives. And to just be present.

I’m a zoomy kinda woman, so it’s hard to give myself that space. It’s hard to give my loved ones that attention. So, today, I will just take this one Sacred Day.

The rest of you will be out being wee goblins and ghosties and looking for sweet loot. I hope you have a great time.

Peace , we need to remember, looks different for different folks! Hope you’re living into yours… Happy Halloween! Happy Peace.

Fraught Family Visits

Dear Bartender and Priestess:

My husband’s sister and brother-in-law stay at our house occasionally for overnights, in order to visit my mother-in-law. How can I best put this? They are annoying house guests. Continue reading →

New Moon, New Year, Sabbath, Peace

Lots happening today. For me, it’s the Sabbath, so a day to hit Pause… It’s always a challenge in my life since the Sabbath is also my most important work day. But I struggle to make space, to allow for time for simple appreciation and being.

Already, already, it’s the middle of September and the Harvest Moon is beginning her reign. The Solstice is only 10 days away. Life keeps changing.

Along with this new moon comes the Jewish New Year. L’Shana Tovah! May the year be sweet and filled with blessings!

May all of us consider taking this time to reconsider what we bring to life and what we fail to… may we, if I may be so bold as to use this word, consider where we sin, where we miss the mark. May we ask forgiveness, for ourselves and others, and begin again… in love.

Peace is out there. I believe that. The question remains whether we’re willing to go looking for it — to do the work that it requires of us. It needs us as desperately as we need it.

Mercy, Compassion, Peace

It’s a lovely story — the Bodhisattva paused while entering heaven, heard the cries of the miserable, and returned to Earth so that she could help all beings find their way…

She helps women get pregnant, she has a place for those women who choose not to have a family. She is Artemis, she is Tara, she is Mary, she is the softness toward which we yearn when our hearts need comfort.

This Sangha in San Diego is gorgeous. There are Buddhas all over, but back in the heart of the grounds is a tall and lovely statue of Quan Yin. It’s right around the corner from my friend’s house. He walks there in the morning and the evening. Reports are it was glorious under the full moon, all those alabaster statues gleaming! And the garden was indeed ripe and flowering there!

This part of San Diego is very mixed. Vietnamese, Hmong, Mexican. And it’s residential… I love the fact that Our Lady of Kazan is right down the street… an orthodox church.

But this is a huge Sangha and people come from all over to visit. They own the houses around it and the nuns and priests live there. (The houses are all craftsman cottage neatly adorned with plants and flags. So SoCal!).

And then, apparently, there’s Tet — Vietnamese New Year. Huge throngs of people come in buses… Because Buddha. Because Quan Yin.

May Mercy and Compassion guide us. May they bring us Peace. May we bring Peace.

Community Pink Moon Peace

For a woman raised in a very calm and quiet household, lord love me, i adore a little chaos. (Particularly if I have a quiet place to retreat to afterwards.)

When I was an exchange student and I went from having two fairly quiet siblings to having four fairly noisy siblings, while I missed home, I thrived.

And found a way to fit in. And continued to treasure the quiet moments.

Maybe because belonging to a group, my family and my church community, were so safe, I don’t mind watching the chaos swirl if it’s benign and building community.

I believe in community. I find it healing and inspiriting. It welcomes you home and kicks you out. It makes it possible to do things you can’t do alone. It’s a good thing.

and when laughter and hilarity ensue from learning about important things. hurrah. That happened for me yesterday. And because it’s the Season of the Pink Moon, there was an entire wonderful collision of holidays to celebrate… Making memories. Making sense. Making Community.

Sabbath Peace Morsels, llvl

Living la vida local. Knowing your community. I think these things really matter. Because if you know where you are in the world, and who’s around you, your movements can be freer.

Yesterday at a wedding, I watched two brides make two young men incredibly happy. They invited them into their family and gave them rings to signify their place in the pack. Both of these guys have challenging lives. Being not just accepted, but celebrated was amazing for them. And yet, it was a pretty easy gesture on the women’s part; the guys are already part of their lives. But that they thought of it, and then did it, was an act of kindness that touched and I would venture changed everyone there.

We can be different. We can do differently. We can transform people’s lives with our Love.

If we can, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we make Peace… maybe a lot of little steps can make the larger ones look less daunting. Maybe we’ll be encouraged to demand them of those who are in a better position to make them. Peace. We can stretch out our hands.

It’s Sunday in the midst of the holiday season… What wonderful thing are you going to do for yourself? Will you do it alone or with others? I’m going to the movies with a friend! yay!

Holiday Peace, llvl

Holidays can be a mixed blessing. As they make their inevitable way into our lives they often carry reminders of what was and what could have been. Sometimes our best defense is to retreat from them. That can be difficult with the Winter Holidays since their commercial side throws them in our faces.

Merry Happy Everything only happens when you buy, buy, buy! Nothing like an advertisement of a loving couple/family/community gathered around a menorah/Christmas Tree/Kwanza candelabra to make us reflect on what we may or may not have.

Some of us are having the times of our lives and to you, I say, Great! Treasure it. Give thanks! Enjoy! Soak it in.

Not everyone is so lucky. Life changes and so does the circle around the table.

One of the reasons I love celebrating the solstice at this time of year, is that it carries with it only memories of planned celebrations. But that’s how I’ve coped with changes in my life. It won’t work for everyone. And for those whose hearts are bruised or broken I send you love and comfort, comfort that someday leads to joy.

Often I’d capitalize those words, but today I left them small and homey, little comforts, little joys and constant soft love.

And I wish that with those little comforts we might salvage those holidays to become what we choose them to be, places for us to make a difference in our world, places to lift up the notion of what these holidays stand for, rather than what they’ve too often become.

If we come together in Peace, we see that there are other faces, not always smiling, who wish for Peace as well. We are not alone. There are many of us. We hope there will be more. May we choose Peace, and in that choosing, perhaps, we’ll find folk with whom we can fashion holiday celebrations that salve our hearts and slowly transform a world.

I come in Peace. I wish you Peace. I wish you Comfort and Joy. I hope that you will join me in wishing our world Peace and Quiet, Comfort and Joy. Perhaps putting the wish out there for everyone will bring the changes home… I hope so…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: holidays