Morning After Peace, llvl

I’ve been thinking about Jeremiah… I’ve always liked that hoary Hebrew Scripture prophet — at least from a distance. I think he’d not have been a comfortable buddy. There’s more written by him than any other Biblical character. He ran around trying hard to get people to wake up! “Peace! Peace! the people cried. But there is no Peace.”

We talk easily about Peace. But we don’t do Peace. We’ve allowed ourselves to let that settle back… A few old guys on the Post Office Corner on Saturdays, and nothing much else. We want Peace or so we say, but we don’t go out of our way for it…

We don’t understand the work it is. It is as hard as war, harder. It demands compromise. It demands generosity. It demands sacrifice. It demands Love. It demands knowing we are not all that matters.

It looks both exactly the same and very different in different communities. Peace is local. Peace is global.

It’s heartbreaking right now to read the news. To see people of this nation hating… and calling it Peace. Hating people of different religious groups, while claiming oppression. Hating small children seeking the same Rights and Hopes our forebears sought. Carrying guns to shop for underwear rather than taking cookies next door to newcomers. And to see our government be so far from a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

And yet we balance these hard and sad truths with groups working to feed local children, create local liveable communities for seniors, making music across all sorts of lines. I work hard to find the Hope. I wish I had to look farther for the ugliness…

Peace. Let me be Peace. Let us make Peace. Let us keep shoving back the hatred. Isn’t that a worthy goal for this Fourth of July Weekend?

Birthday Peace, llvl

What a wild ride today will be!

I’ve packed some ashes and Deb’s baby spoon for the tree planting. I’ve tucked the brass music stand into the car for this evening’s performance. Hankies to cry with, and scales to warm up. (and oh, yes, the music!!! eek. still a couple rough spots… but the high notes seem to be right there… life, the challenges and the blessings.

but all in all, there is love, love, love and I’m the luckiest woman. Lucky in friends. Lucky in family. Lucky in work. Lucky in community. and oh, lucky in Love.

I’m going to pack all the lovely messages I’ve received into my heart and use them for fuel for the year to come. What if this could become the Valley with No Hungry Children? What if? That’s what I want for my birthday! Wanna Play? Together… Peace.

Love, Chaos, Peace, llvl

Yesterday we celebrated Passover with a Seder at our church. It was wild, chaotic and all these visitors were streaming in the doors. I was the sole worship person that day, no assistant, so i had it all on my plate. No time to talk to strangers, other than hello, hello, come in… and occasionally holler oh! we need a new table. More Seder plates! Is there enough horseradish?

And the kids were doing Haggadah Role Play which has satisfactory amounts of dying even for grade school boys. The Angel of Death wanted to know if she could have her job every year. um… sure? There’s a spiritual path for you…

That’s what celebrations should be like, though… crowded and crazy filled with good food and laughter and lots of love. That’s Peace building If ever I encountered it. Traditions kept and embellished.

“Walk right in, sit right down, baby let your hair hang down.” Cause we’re all family here! Peace, my friends!

Forsythia Sabbath Peace, llvl

I love the promise of forsythia (can violets be far behind?). All that sunny, beautiful yellow. It simply hollers Spring.

Happy Easter (Western and Eastern Easter are on the same day this year!). Glad Pesach. Happy Spring (we’re actually a month after the Equinox, but the weather’s staying chilly, hence the late April forsythia in Central PA.). Much of the world will be celebrating sacred holidays today all of which have Hope in common. May that Hope spill out on the rest of the world.

The turning of the seasons brings back such memories and such opportunities to make more memories. Remember. Re-member. Piece Back together the times that came before.

So much to look forward to, so much to enjoy right here. I’m going to go sit beside this river and eat breakfast with my sweetie — it will be a fine start to a wonderful day!

What ever you celebrate may you be filled with Hope. And may you have a wonderful Peace-filled Sabbath, reveling in the Beauty and the Possibility. And what the heck. I’m up and on time on East Coast time!

Outside, In-between Peace, llvl

At the end of a trip… I give thanks: for my home and my vida local and for the homes and vidas locals I was privileged to visit; for friends and family at home and for friends and family in their lives.

It’s exciting to visit new places and try things that are “foreign” to my life. And, as is the purpose with any vacation holiday, it’s exciting to get far away from your own life, so that when you come back, you’re rested and have fresh perspective. Once again, you’re aware of life’s incredible Abundance and Beauty.

So, counting blessings for what I have and what I am privileged to see, recognizing the rightness of my life, looking to find and keep the balance… and recommitting to my quest for Peace…

Local Valentine Love and Peace, llvl

I’m very lucky, my SweetPea is a pretty smushy kinda guy, so my day started out with a Will You Be My Valentine call. Sigh.

But after years of being single, happily, blessedly single, here’s to my girlfriends who have always been the root of my life.

And now after more than a decade living in this little River Valley, let me lift a glass to the love of a community. As we’re talking at the UUCSV about our becoming The Valley Where No Child Goes Hungry, I’m getting the most wonderful responses from friends and acquaintances… a let’s do this rather than a WTH?????

And then there’s my readership from many other places, who write and say this is how I’m falling in love in my life, with my life. Hurrah!

And finally, because she’s changed a way of thinking about and talking about women’s bodies, here’s to Eve Ensler and more annual performances of the Vagina Monologues than we can imagine. Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah.

Love is in the air, and in the ground, and in the water and in the sky. Let us rejoice and make Peace and Love!

The Peace of Candlemas Light, LLVL

It’s fitting that the new Moon starts building on Candlemas, a season dedicating our Light to its Purpose. Let there be more LIght and may I be one who bears it, one who is it.

It is at Candlemas, historically, or Imbolc, that people took their vows of service.

Here’s an opportunity, my dears, everyday a new chance to say what do I want to BE, what do I want to DO, not when I grow up, but next. Not like do I want to go to the movies, but like do i want to change the world, even my small corner of it. I hope so.

People here in my little town are doing a polar bear plunge (what are they crazy?) for charity… that’ll change their lives. But it’s a dedication. and hopefully no one will slip on the ice going into the river. People may not be thinking about the symbolism, but it’s hard to ignore…

I’m skipping the icy bath, but will spend some time thinking about my light and what it’s dedicated toward…

That focus was deepened last night as I sat in a tavern laughing with friends, stepped in on a little harmony, and just reveled in a little town enjoying itself. It gives me hope that we can make a huge difference by building on that camaraderie, building Peace on Love and Laughter.

This little light of yours… what are you going to do with it? Let it shine? Let it shine for Peace? oh, i hope so. Altogether now…

Happy New Peace

A year filled with ups and downs, marvels and mourning. A full year. A year of my life. I’m not wishing it away — after all, this is the year I discovered I’m a Peacemaker. The last year of my sister’s life, and the year of the sweetest connection. A year with Alaska in it. Visits from the kids and grands. How can I fail to give thanks? And I refuse to wish it away, even the painful bits. They were sacred as well.

A year of trying to be present no matter how painful. At the end of this year I’m tired and I start the year having to hold my hand and heart open once again so that I can say goodbye to an old friend. But once again presence.

So, I’ll thank 2013 for the lessons learned. And welcome 2014 for what’s in store and settle my intention not simply to be present but to be a presence, to act on 2014 so that it might grow in beauty.

Thank you my friends for Love and Peace and the demand that I be the best Ann I can. I hope I’m asking the same of you. I leave you in 2013 and I greet you in 2014 with a prayer for Peace, with prayers that we might be Peace — wild, wonderful burgeoning, laughing Peace.

Stories for Peace

The Dark is the time of Sacred Stories. We are asked to recall and recite the stories that make sense in our lives, the stories that make sense of our lives. Every time we tell them, a layer is added. The meaning deepens in the telling and so do our connections to the stories.

We have choices about the stories we tell. We have choices about how we tell the stories, what is it we want them to teach us. We even have choices about the way our stories evolve, because we can make choices about how we live our lives.

When I started this year, I decided to let a new storyline emerge. I wanted to explore Peace in my life. Writing about Peace every day, no matter how obliquely has turned me into a Peace-Considerer and is moving me toward Peace-maker. Choosing to capitalize Peace and other nouns that lead toward it, while choosing to take power away from unpeaceful nouns by keeping them lowercase has had impact, on me, if not on others. The capital (particularly from someone who is capital challenged) is a small, lingering caress. I pay attention to the Peaceful details of the stories I tell.

And oh they matter, those stories. I’m trying to collect them about a friend of mine, who died a week ago. He was a wacky, wonderful guy with a sly sense of humor and a penchant for collecting things and people and stories. and awful jokes. There are so many Charlie-stories worth telling. Telling them well, next week when we have the memorial will help those stories settle into our collective hearts and become part of our history.

Telling Charlie stories will ease our sorrow and shape our shared future and perhaps our individual ones as well. That’s what stories do, the bring the past into the present and offer a path into the future. And if you make your stories stories of Peace, you will build a future of Peace. The more people in your stories, the more people on your Peace road. So observe so you can collect those stories, practice so you can tell them and listen to what you say so you know what to tweak and what to do next. Which ones exhort you to show up? Which make you reflect? Which count the blessings of sweet memories made from your feats of derring-do and your moments of collective lolling about.

Tell the stories that make you happy, make you laugh. Tell the stories that remind you that your heart bruises. Remind yourself of big work completed and little times enjoyed. Tell the stories that help you remember what you stumble over. Remember what you’re proud of. Tell the stories of how Love grows, and Hope and Joy. Tell them simply or embellish the heck out of them. But most of all? Enjoy each and every one of them. Peace, my friends… Happy Story-telling!

Wishful Thinking on Christmas Peace Past

So, here’s the deal, it’s all a pretty fantasy. Annandagjul sales (2nd day Christmas!) another big sales day. It’s good to have Swedish Sisters who keep track of you to keep you on the straight and narrow.

But I am going to sit in my chair and pretend. (Making it so, thanks Jean Luc!) Nothing but visiting, walking and because I’m Ann, swimming. I love me some fantasy, so I’ll keep spinning the stories… In a land far away… there is comfort and joy, comfort and joy… oh, well, but at least the pastry shops are probably open over there! And at my house, there’s strata waiting to be warmed and salad to be consumed. Brunch. Yes.

Why not make your Christmas Peace last… The Priestess gives you full permission to laze about today. Need a note from your Priestess? Lemme know.

We had a dusting of snow, and I’ve got a dusting of laziness… ahhhhhhh. Enjoy your day. I’m going to enjoy mine. Peace, out!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: holidays