Tag Archives: joy

Dangers of Snow Globe Peace, llvl

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I had a wonderful day yesterday. Everyone else was complaining about the weather and I was happy, happy, happy. Big fat fluffy flakes, all day long. It never got icy, I only shoveled once… but it was enough for exercise. ahhhh. And I had a warm bowl of pasta in the middle of it. Yep. a great day.

But still the roiling in our world tore at me. Steve and I have a daughter in the Bay Area, we both have many friends and storms were raging. Hundreds of thousands of people are without power. There are flash floods. Our kids are ok… but not everyone is. And this huge storm will likely run away to quickly to make a huge dent in the drought although it will change the snowpack.

At the same time, in our world, there is so much ugliness being uncovered. Ugliness that many of us were content to ignore since it wasn’t always poking at us in our daily lives. Poverty. Racism. Misogyny. Violence. Torture. Guns. Sheer mean avarice and stupidity.

There wasn’t enough pretty snow to put a covering on that. We’re just going to have to go to work, shoveling ignorance, indifference and complicity out of our souls as we shovel the snow into banks alongside the sidewalks. People need us to wake up. People need us to do the work. Peace needs us as well.

Here in the season of Joy to the world and Peace on Earth… let us take them seriously… Let us stay faithful to our goals of Peace on Earth.

LLVL50Dec12

 

Slow Morning Peace, llvl

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Morning breaks more slowly in the winter… as if it too tugs itself from the warm nest of blankets. But that gives the colors a chance to settle in…

We live in a beautiful world. And as much as I talk about it, I sometimes don’t pay as much attention as I should. This time of year, we’re meant to burrow in, and I do. I find it difficult to tear myself from my cozy cocoon. I’m up late reading and in late sleeping — Finding the rhythm of the season.

But this morning, thanks to an early car appointment, I’m going to be driving into the morning’s light. (and probably driving back into it since it looks like the car may need a days worth of fluffing.)

So, here I am, slower than usual, but happily embracing the moment. In the midst of the turmoil over race and torture and rape… let us envision the possibility of Peace on Earth and Joy to the World. And then let us come together and work for justice. It’s a beautiful morning for it.

LLVL50Dec10

 

Peace with What Is, llvl

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They’d promised me the big storm. Again. We’re getting icy rain. Again.

And that’s what it is. Again. It’s always what it is.

Expectations. They offer a fine bit of sword dancing. On the one hand, we have to work and make space for the unthinkable. (not those things we dread, but the things we hope for.) On the other, we can’t invest in them.

I’d wanted to get my work out shoveling piles of fluffy white stuff. Instead, I’m going to have to go to the gym and be very careful driving my round of appointed errands. (If the weather’s ok, I’m having play practice with Rachel for this year’s Holiday Program.) don’t want to miss that!

I could be wildly disappointed that I didn’t get what I wanted, or I could just live into today and keep building possibilities for Peace. Or even just get the work I have to do done. Pay the bills. Write that assignment. Clean out that closet. Do what’s in front of me. Not every day is a day for the big things. But if we clear the little ones out of the way, we make room for great things. And shoveling will come… It is Winter after all… And there’s lots that needs my attention. Why yes, of course Peace is one. Trying to live into the Joy to the World and Peace on Earth.

LLVL49Dec9

 

Reflecting Sabbath Peace, llvl

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What do we see when we look in a mirror. if we only look deliberately, we see the face we believe we show the world all the time. But is that the face? I think there’s value to having a lot of mirrors in our homes, because it’s the face we catch a glimpse of on the fly that’s the one we offer the world. There are times that’s not reassuring!

Recently, after Deb’s death, I noticed how much grief I really carried. “oh, I’m fine,” I’d think and then I’d see my face… And why did I have to be fine? Why couldn’t I be grieving… and how could I continue to grieve in such a way that didn’t cause people to want to fix that the moment they saw my face? Because, there’s no fixing grief, there’s just living through it. I had to be ok with grieving, and I had to give myself the space to do it, space from others… it required a face I was in control of…

If I want to offer the world kindness and Peace. If I want to be generous and open, I have to become those things to look them. Mirrors are pretty good gauges of where I am, of who I am.

Often, who I am is tired. When my mirror tells me that, I should pay attention. I finally began to listen to my mirror as I realize how out of shape I am. I have a long journey ahead. I need to be stronger, fitter. And so I’m swimming and going to the gym regularly. There are other secrets the mirror whispers about that I’m beginning to take seriously. Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who am I… You don’t need a mirror spirit to answer that question, but you do need to look…

And because I’m tired… because we’re living in the season of tired, which makes it difficult to notice that it’s a sacred season, I’m going to embrace the notion of Sabbath, of a deliberate pause in the rush of madness… If I want to wish everyone Joy to the World and Peace on Earth, I must strive to be those things, I must look those things, not merely mouth them. Looks like there might be some mirror sessions ahead… I may not get it right, but I might get a start! a peep into the wonder of creation might be a good place to begin… May I truly be a reflection of the Peace I long to see…

LLVL49Dec7