Forgive, Hope, Peace

Forgiveness keeps coming back. Probably because we never get done with it. It’s a messy, uncomfortable business. It’s hard to admit we were lacking or we missed the mark. (yeah, we were wrong.) It’s hard to acknowledge another’s human foibles. Sometimes it’s hard to forgive people for being better than we are at something we want to be good at.

And all of those things create a large barrier between us and Peace.

You know me, I’m not a new age forgiver. I believe that much of forgiveness is that verb we used yesterday… accept… as in accept the fact that we cannot change what has happened to us. I don’t know that you forgive your rapist, or if you do what that looks like. I do know if you do, a large portion of that forgiveness will have to be meted out toward yourself for having been vulnerable. I know I’m not at the place where I can let the rapists of my friends off the hook… but maybe forgiveness doesn’t do that. but it does acknowledge their humanity, however broken, whether or not they had a reason.

But if we can take down those bricks in the way of Peace, we won’t have to climb over them, or squeeze through the cracks between them every time we want to move forward in Love. That would help our hearts enormously.

Accept, Hope, Make Peace

Part of my Advent Meditation was to make a calendar with a verb a day that pertained to the candle of the week. The candle is Hope. Yesterday’s verb was notice (your assignment should you choose to accept it). Today’s verb is accept (should you choose to notice it!)

What made me think about it was the amount of time I (or perhaps also you?) spend lamenting what is. And it’s so easy to stop there. What’s harder for me is to just accept it. As my friend Lenore keeps trying to teach me: It is what it is.

Now what are we going to do about it?

And that’s what acceptance frees us for: Seeing the possibilities. Wondering what we do next.

May your acceptance of the world as it is lead you to a notion of how it could be better. And then may you jump into action… jump into Peace. Because everything goes better with Peace!

Advent, Sabbath, Hope, Peace

This is the first Sunday of Advent. I love this Season of Expectation. While I’ve traveled fairly far from my roots, the process of discerning what in fact I am expecting is a delightful, contemplative process, best undertaken in a lot of candlelight. It’s been interesting in that journey to discover Advent’s roots outside Christianity… Life is rich that way!

What in fact I am expecting in my life, in the world? Considering this will be fascinating this year as I’m in a very different place in my life than i was 6 months ago. In the midst of this great loss there is also a great deal of freedom of choice and a fair amount of indecision…

And along comes Advent. The first Sunday you light the candle of Hope. I wonder, what are the dreams you harbor for your life, for your family and for the world? What do I? This week’s prayer might be something like this:

May I be a person who believes that the world is a good place, that things can be made better and that I might be an instrument of Hope in the world. Blessed Be.

Light a candle, sit down where you can see it and think about that while relaxing into your Sabbath Peace. Notice what happens when you do that!

Sated Peace

Now, when we’re filled up with Thanksgiving, giving thanks, blessing counting, turkey and oh, yes, stuffing, let us capture this emotion and use it to start our movement forward into Peace.

And if you’re shopping, consider asking yourself, what you need to be a Peacemaker…

In the meantime? Continue giving thanks. It’s good for us. And hey, make another date with the friends and family for whom you’re grateful. Nothing sweeter to give for the holidays than the gift of presence.

Thanksgiving Peace

It’s an odd day today. My heart is both very full and very empty. I miss my sister Deb, I cannot lie. My heart aches for my nieces who lost their father 2 weeks later. And my friend who lost her husband just a month after that.

I mourn the loss of tradition and I celebrate the reforming, re-imagining, the cut-from-new-cloth-entirely of traditions. I cherish knowing that you are somewhere you like with someone you love — or that you’re taking care of yourself by not being there.

And in the face of so much hunger, I celebrate that we’re the ones who will do something to make a difference. Because we will be. Because we can’t look away. Because we care. And that is Thanksgiving Peace enough for all of us. So I’m trying to stay present. I’m counting my blessings. I’m going to eat turkey and stuffing with no guilt about the fact that others hunger or that I’m overweight. I will be with my Beloved… and I can think of nothing sweeter.

All’s not yet right in the world. but it will be. And today, let us be at Peace and give thanks. Blessed, blessed, blessed be, my friends. I am grateful for you.

Acting Thanksgiving, Acting Peace

I’m an applied theologian. I care less about what you believe than what you do with what you believe. I think often in active verbs, noticing, becoming aware, deciding, giving… sometimes rejecting. Always celebrating, always seeking.

Don’t get me wrong, applied theology isn’t all there is, not by a long shot. But it’s what I’m good at. You’d better be reading, You’d better be reflecting.

But when it comes to thanksgiving, you’ll do well to consider how to make your thankfulness dance. If you’re totting up your treasures, do it because you want to put that love to work in the world.

It’s time. There is so much need in this world and you are the answer. And you need to put your skills and your love to work in the world.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday filled with so much that’s good. Eat the wonderful food. Enjoy being with your family. Reflect on the wealth of your life. Give thanks. And then move into your generosity. It is the best part of who you are.

The more generous we can be, each and every one of us and all of us together, the closer we are to tearing down the walls between us, the closer we are to Peace.

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.

’tis the season

Dear Shoppers of America,

Black Friday has come and gone, and with it we have witnessed more than our fair share of the worst of humanity. The most attention-grabbing headline was the one about the woman who shot pepper spray into a crowd to defend her deeply discounted X-Box. But of course, there was a shooting in a parking lot as a family resisted a gunman trying to steal purchases, a tazing, and another trampling, though this one didn’t result in death. I could go on, but I’m sure you get the picture. ‘Tis the season, I suppose.

People, we’re better than this. This is supposed to be the season for expressing peace on Earth and good will to all men and all that stuff. Peace on Earth? Is not achieved by shooting people in a parking lot and strafing a crowd with scorching pepper extracts in the name of X-Box ownership. I could blame the stores—they don’t HAVE TO pound us relentlessly with ads promising everything at an unbelievable price, though that is their job. I could blame the advertising agencies who send out a beat beat beat to buy buy buy and have gotten pretty darn skillful in equating shopping with happiness. I could blame the news, who spend all of Black Friday following projected sales estimates and alternatively telling us we’re reviving the economy and fulfilling our patriotic duty by hitting the malls. I could, but I won’t. That lets us off the hook and people, it’s time for a moment of reckoning.

Of course we want to make our loved ones happy and of course we want to get them what they want, but are you sure this is the path to happy? Loved ones want time + an expression of interest. Do we think, “I’d love to have a conversation with the brother I don’t really talk to” or, “I have a brother I don’t talk to; I wish he’d give me a gift certificate to Macy’s so I know he loves me.” As adults, do we look back on our lives and think, “Man, if Mom and Dad had gotten me that Barbie doll in the fourth grade, I’d be so much better off right now…they should have shot someone in a parking lot to get it.”

Question: Has anyone died from not receiving something on Christmas? Of course not, and I’m ridiculous, right? Then when did the stakes become so high in the shopping?

In light of all this, I’m going to ask you all to remember these simple holiday tips:

Going to jail to defend your holiday shopping (or, to get your hands on someone else’s holiday shopping) doesn’t make you a better parent.
Stores and manufacturers don’t love you. They just want your money.
Whatever the item, your loved one will survive if they don’t own it on December 25^th.
Celebrate the season by projecting good intentions, not pepper spray.
Manners count. All the time.
The best memories are made with you, not with the latest piece of technology that will be obsolete before you get it out of the store.

We’re all in this together, people, so let’s alter the direction this holiday season has started going down, and make it one filled with joy and peace. Let’s make this the year to start a new tradition, one of happy, healthy memories that have nothing to do with unfettered wants and neglected emotional needs. Bake the cookies, take the walks, plan the winter picnics and please, please, let the people you love know how much you love them in word and interested action. Participate in the spirit of the season because I guarantee you, that message isn’t printed on the outside of an X-Box.

Peaceful holidays!

Terri

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: holidays