Heirloom Peace

So often you say the word heirloom and you think big meaningful things (unless of course it’s summer and you think tomatoes or peppers!).

But the things i treasure the most are the little things. The tiny spatula, the two tined fork. Who cares if i never cook bacon, i’m ready should some fit come over me.

Tools and utensils, kitchen and householdm that were tools and utensils at my grandparents’ houses, at my parents’ house, at my sisters’ house, at my niece’s house, at a couple friends’ houses, that are now mine.

I put pepper on my eggs and I remember them. Sometimes it’s one by one, as with the pepper shaker. But sometimes that shakes loose a whole host of memories. And there they are sprinkled like the pepper on the surfaces of my life.

I have had a lot of loss, but I also have a lot of love to remember. And that’s a lucky, lovely thing. And I have silly things like grinders and bacon forks to spark the memories. Love. Peace. And oh, it’s a beautiful autumn morning…

The Peace of this Moment

We need to pay attention. Oh, we will, we assure ourselves when something happens…

And then life gets back to normal and we slowly become oblivious to the individual little moments that make life astonishing.

But life is fickle, fleeting. I was about to write momentous and then thought about what that meant… moment-ous… each moment.

And if we don’t pay very close attention we miss the moments that make life magic. We don’t make time to capture life with all those we love. We don’t notice the wonder of Mother Earth. or whatever.

We have to treasure what we have… because this moment is all that we know we have. Next year’s musings have been taking shape in my mind as Everyday Peace, watchword noticing…

It feels all the more pointed now when Ed Lund is gone from Selena and Grace’s life. He was an incredible gift. Always so present. He’ll be sorely missed. Ed, we loved you.

Peace be with those who loved him. Peace be with us all.

The Peace of an Eclipse with Friends

I beg forbearance. I may be burbling about this for a long time. The eclipse was gorgeous.

Hanging out by the fire with friends, lovely. Hanging out by the fire with my beloved? oh we don’t do that often enough!

And the sky was unbelievable.

Everywhere else people were complaining about the sky’s being overcast, but in this little circle of field surrounded by trees, the clouds — whispy ones at that — would dance in and dance back out. Leaving nothing but a heavy, heavy Milky Way and that beautiful orb that looked nothing like the Moon (nothing!) hanging in the sky like some foreign celestial body.

I could burble for a long time about this. I probably will. Forewarned is forearmed… have topics ready to talk about if you run into me and don’t want to hear about the Moon, the Moon, the Moon!

Why I wonder, when I do something like last night, plopped in a field around a fire, don’t i do that more often. Steve and I both love it so much — although I’m sure he missed a drum in his hands. It was lovely and filled with Peace. it was a perfect moment in my life.

Perfect and filled with Peace. I wish us all many such moments. They give us fuel to walk the Peace Path.

Life Is Precious. Sabbath. Peace.

Oh, the weather is beautiful. Noisy in the neighborhood, however. Last night it was cackling with loads of college students; this morning the geese are running practice flights for their trip south.

It’s a wonderful time of year. At the beginning of every season, it seems, there’s a washing clean of the old… There’s a burst before the settling in. We’re having that right now. I always feel more alive during those passages. (I’ve always been a fan of the places in between!)

Today, I really want to hold on to that sense of being alive, to hold it up.

My friend, by no means a close friend, just a man I like, is alive. So easily things might have gone the other way. It’s always the little things that cause the accidents… says the woman who tripped over an acorn yesterday and went flying.

Life is precious. All life. My friend’s life. It’s too short, really to complain. But not too short to celebrate. Not too short to give thanks. Not too short to pack every single minute with joy and awareness of its abundance. We’re busy we think — we think until something makes us remember… right, show up, be present: now is the time.

My friends, about those Syrian refugees. They could use some support. Their lives are precious as well…

My last two decades have been shaped by deaths. This year, two years away from the last huge, significant death, I’m feeling a little steadier on my feet. I understand, all too well, that death happens. But it’s better when it doesn’t.

So look around your circle and celebrate. Life is here. That’s really what observing the Sabbath, keeping it holy, is all about — Life is right here. There is a wild and outrageous Peace in that. Celebrate fiercely. And let’s use that to fuel the work we have to do with others whose lives are not so lucky at the moment. Because we can.

Huh! Watermelon Monday Peace!

It was a great church potluck — it always is. Yup! there’s cooks in that community.

But once I got back in my car I realized oh, i hadn’t been a contributor. Because there sat the bowl of watermelon that I’d carefully prepared the night before. the big bowl. One that would hold the entire watermelon. You know, that one.

I don’t cook much, but I occasionally pull it together enough to help fill the table. And who doesn’t like watermelon? And how much longer will they be around? It’s a long time without watermelon.

Sigh.

Although let’s be clear. I’ve eaten my way through a watermelon before! It’s not an onerous chore!

Far from it.

And I guess I’d better go start to be the woman who gets a job done.

There are worse assignments in the world than making Peace with a bowlful of watermelon and the end of summer.

Peace in Moving Beyond

Sometimes I realize what a stick I’ve become.

Do I really want to go to a Burning Man Party I wonder?

Oh, yes, I did. It was just marvelous. Not only the food, Ann’s first way of judging a party! But a whole bunch of new people in a beautiful place. People who did fun things, like the woman who twirled fire. That was really a fun thing. It was beautiful. She’d learned in Hawaii, and hadn’t done it for years.

And then the man. My friend had built this marvelous man. I sweet talked my bud who went with me into staying for the burn. It was lovely and emotional. Yay!

And the night, mugginess and bugginess aside, was a perfect evening. The stars, the stars, the stars.

And today’s another party of another kind. A weekend of relaxation. hurrah. (well, except for the yardsale!) And today, the summer is over and I get to go back to church after the sabbatical. My peeps! (This is sort of an all over post, isn’t it?)

There’s a lot of Peace in exploring things just outside your comfort zone… and even if it doesn’t get all the way to Peace, there’s a lotta fun! It’s the Sabbath. Relax and enjoy. Why not try something new?

Ripe Peach Peace

I totally missed one of my favorite holidays this year because I was traveling. Lammas, the first of August, is always my eat a ripe, juicy peach holiday.

I think there’s nothing more delicious. Nothing more sensual. Nothing more joyful and celebratory of life.

And here we are, with a whole month devoted to such deliciousness! Viva the Fruit Moon!

I think when the fruit is ripe and full, it’s almost a rite of holy obligation to enjoy it if we have the means. And thinking about it, the other part of that obligation is to find a way for others to enjoy as well. Fruit. We should eat it!

Being in our bodies, completely absorbed in appreciating the beauty and abundance of our Mother Earth is a prayer of Peace. Peacing! Praying! Giving thanks!

Traveling Peace

This is the place in the summer where I celebrate how lucky I am — and not only because it’s swimming season!

I’m visiting friends and family all over CA. Friends from Sweden, friends from when I lived here, family from when I got married, friends from living back East. Sweet, satisfying visits (with lots of fresh vegetables and talk npr on the way from one house to the next!)

It’s sort of like heaven. All these people are people I love. Many are people I think with. and some, like EG are just bonuses. what a delight. and what a blessing! Thinking. Reading. Loving. yes! Lucky, lucky me.

But oooh, the traffic. Gotta love rural central PA.

But meanwhile. I’m having fun. How about you?

Love brings a lot of Peace, in so many ways!

I hope it brings you some. Start Loving! Start Peacing! Yahoo!

Reading Peace

All through the summer, when I was a girl, from about junior high on, I would walk to the library at least once a week and check out about 10 books. Two summers I undertook to just read through the fiction and so I was reading epic Russian sagas at the same time I was reading British spy mysteries. It was fun. Although I have to admit that at the speed I was gulping books I may have missed some of the finer points! But nothing gave me more joy. Swim. Read. Swim. Read. All Summer long.

During the work year, while I may get one or two substantive books read, I pretty much stick to fluffier reading. I read mostly to stop thinking rather than to think. ahhhhh. a chance to unwind.

But now during the summer, one of the requirements/privileges of my job is to prepare for the coming year.

This is made so much sweeter by the fact that this year, no one is sick, no one is dying and I’m not recovering from a death in the family. I am so grateful.

So this year, I get to stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff.

And it’s grand. I have no idea how things will all come together or even if they should, but I’m grateful for the opportunity.

Books have always offered me Peace, even as they’ve stirred and excited me.

Hurrah!

Peace Challenges on a Quiet Sabbath Morning

Life has curve balls. Always. Sometimes, I guess we could have seen them coming, other times, we’re totally caught off guard.

But nonetheless, there are challenges. It’s not what we want to know. it’s not what we want to be facing. Sometimes we can share what’s going on and get support and other times we’re pretty much on our own.

In the midst of those things, we need to be tender with ourselves.

We might also want to consider that others are living confusing, challenging lives. Which means that the people getting on our last nerve may also be having problems, and that might cause us, if we’re to be generous and kind, to be a bit more tender with them. (And if not it confuses them!)

So, on this hot and sunny sabbath, I wish you wonder, contemplation and joy. And Peace. I wish us all Peace. Peace that is graced to us, Peace that we make. And, where I am, the Moon has been beautiful these last few nights and the pictures of garden bounty filling FaceBook are incredible. So as the Moon burgeons and swells, I hope you get great big gulping views of it! Summer Moons…. mmmmm. nothing more romantic.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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