There are so many different burial practices. All of them make sense within the cultures from which they developed. The ones I have experienced have all given me heart’s ease.
Part of the work of Peace is to find where each of us find Peace, where in joy, where in sorrow.
And then to honor that in one another. Peace be with us all.
I used to sing back up with this woman. It was always fun because she was always ready for a good time. We always laughed.
And then she fell in love and went away, and music isn’t as giggly fun as it used to be in this valley.
Even when you sing the blues, when there’s harmony and friends, the blues aren’t as hard to carry.
The laughter and the music fill and heal your heart… Join together, they fill the hearts of the singers. They fill the hearts of the players. They fill the hearts of the audience.
Everyone’s hearts are in the same place. That’s Peace! Thanks Averie! You’re so Savory! And so is Peace!
A quiet day for me and I hope for you: Tidings of Comfort! Joy! and Peace!
(and pace yourself on the left overs!)
Ruby is a good mascot for Perseverance… Ain’t nothing gonna keep that tail from wagging or those legs from doing what they can.
The tail wag is how her Dog Mom makes her decisions for her health. Ruby continues the fight with enthusiasm, tail wags and hey there, Mom kisses.
Peace needs us. It needs us to be as determined as Ruby is — and as cheerful. Why drag our way to Peace. If our goal is Joy, then Joy should start now.
It makes the journey so much easier. It reminds us that Life is a gift and part of honoring it being joyful and persevering in the greatest challenge we have ever been given: Peace on Earth. Let’s do this thing. Let’s persevere in Peace.
We need to keep paying attention! Mystery abounds — if only we look for it!
Moments like this happen — and they can be a jolt to remind us that Beauty and Awe and Wonder and Joy are alive and well in this world. And where they are, there can Peace be also.
But we have to notice and take the time to experience the Mysterious and the Beautiful. And then we have to use that glory to work for Peace.
The world offers us so many reasons and so much encouragement. Why not use them for good? Let’s Peace, for all the right reasons!
Any day’s a good day when you get up after a meeting on hope.
Yesterday I sat with a group of people who are beginning to work on racism and white fragility in our region. The organizers are young and earnest, but the people who gladly showed up are not all young — although most of us are earnest!
It was so hopeful.
And so we work.
And then we go to bed and get up to a world with just a bit more joy in it. There’s so much going wrong, but joy can bubble. We have to clear out the springs of Joy and Peace so that they can bubble freely and we can drink deeply.
A new day.
I remember the mornings after receiving horrible news, when you start awake, realizing what you’ve lost; that everything awful is true; that you’ll always live life differently than before.
And yet even then, morning brings an insistent reminder that the world continues. Even then, the world tries to say there is beauty, even if you’re not ready to look.
Eventually you awaken and, one day, find the world beautiful, even if only for a second before reality reminds you that life is hard.
Life is hard and filled with loss. But it is also beautiful, and we can fill it with hope.
We remember the fallen with love. We gather the pieces of our hearts. We endure. And eventually, we move forward in love. We move forward into Peace. You just have to keep living long enough to find the Joy again. Wishing you Peace in all your struggles, even those as monumental as this one was.
Dancing’s a wonderful thing. It gives you joy. It expresses sorrow. It helps you hang on sometimes when the hanging isn’t easy.
And yet, we don’t dance enough. Not in public. Not even in the privacy of our own homes. Not with our friends. Not with strangers, Not with all sorts of folk.
One of the things I love about my husband’s Monday night gig, is that all sorts of people come. Lots of people with whom I have lots in common and lots with whom I have nothing in common. And we dance. And we laugh and we hug and we go home and we can’t say we don’t care about the people who care about life differently than we do.
And now, probably always, but now, there is reason to dance, because life is hard. But dancing can give us some hope.
And that’s grand. And that’s dancing. and that can lead to Peace.
Dancing, yeah.
Good Morning. Happy Easter!
Unlike today’s beautiful picture, Our day in the Valley is going to be one of mist and mystery. Which sort of suits this holiday of profound mystery and rampant —and I admit it fun — commercialism of talking bunnies bringing eggs and new clothes. (The new clothes imperative belongs to a Pagan holiday Beltane, when you throw off winter and burn your clothes. It makes more sense when Easter’s a month later. Did you get new clothes growing up? We often got Spring Clothes, but my mom was very clear we did not get a new outfit for Easter. She hated the connecting of the profound and the profane. I appreciate that understanding a lot better now! And in fact, practical child that I am, a pretty little spring dress when it’s very cold wasn’t really that much fun to a child who had no meat on her bones. The egg hiding was originally incentive to our bird friends to fruitful and multiply.)
However you celebrate today, I hope it’s in the presence of those you love.
And oh, Deb Slade, what a picture. Such Beauty. This branch of the Susquehanna is a slow moving one. So many days, and this picture represents this, it looks like a lake rather than a river.
Peace to you. Peace and Beauty, and Joy. The Peace and Beauty of rose-gold mornings and rivers. The Peace and Joy of Easter. The Peace and Beauty and Joy of another day to be a live and make a difference.
I love how delightfully loopy life is. You go along, earnestly working on Peace, content with Life as you know it, at as you lead it.
And VROOOOOOM, a 60s muscle car goes by, 457 engine, four on the floor (5s not yet invented!), candy apple red — and everything you know about the environment goes right out the window. All you can do is think, OOOH, I’d like me one of those!”
But hey, we’re human, right?
And I’m not driving one. (Why buy a car when you can buy clothes, right?)
But thanks to Heather for this fun reminder of a youth that was nowhere near as misspent as I might have liked it to be.
Peace, my friends. Enjoy the day dreams. And the Joy they engender.
