The Peace of Helping Each Other Out

I find I still have high expectations of folk. I expect us all to be courteous and kind. No exceptions.

If your candidate won or didn’t, you are and your neighbor is an American.

We may have very different ideas. We can still expect respect and have it expected of us.

Those whose dreams were not realized will need some time to figure out how we fit ourselves in, what we see our work to be. Those whose hopes came true had best find out how they will be a part of the government they elected.

I am not a strategist. I don’t know what to do next, but I know this: Peace is still the unwavering goal. Kindness and respect still pave the road.

everydaypeacefriday56nov11

 

Peace and Kindness

I’m working hard at my swimming. Part of it is that it’s the only exercise I really enjoy, so i can work at being/staying in shape. Part of it is that it’s such a pleasure for me. It changes my mood and takes me completely away from whatever I’m poking at with my mind. I don’t think about anything but my pull or my kick and my breath. It’s pretty great!

And I get in my little Taurus rut… we do like routine, we Taureans. So, must swim now, becomes part of the track in my head. Which is great. Because aside from swimming, I’d rather read a book!

But once I start swimming I get a bit fixated on the goal.

Yesterday, oh, so early in the morning, I was hustling to get to the early swim and I encountered an old friend who needed to talk. I took a deep breath and let it out and just talked with him. It had been an age since I saw him, and a lot was happening in his life. It was time to catch up.

But swimming, I thought. A friend, I reminded myself. And we had a delightful chat. I only had 20 minutes to swim. That was fine. I also had 20 minutes of being a friend. Fewer meters, more friendship. Our hearts get exercised in so many ways. I love that this beautiful web reminded me of the connections that are important to make. Kindness and caring matters. They bring us Peace. They offer it to others. Peace be with us all.

everydaypeacetuesday43oct25

 

Spice Up That Peace!

I find it interesting that Peace is often categorized as bland and calm. Where is it written that Peace can’t be interesting, multi-leveled and, well, spicy? In fact, how could it be anything else. For Peace to be Peace, everyone has to be involved. That’s going to make it confusing, fragile, and fabulous.

We often talk about it as a blanket of Peace. But I suspect that blanket is more like a wild and wonderful art quilt, full of fabulous colors and movement. Perhaps there are places in the quilt not quite resolved but working toward discordant beauty.

When I think about it, nice gets the same bad rap. I’ll admit, I always thought nice was sort of namby-pamby. Now it’s a thing I most aspire to. Being nice, which doesn’t preclude having opinions or doing justice, makes space for people and allows them to be that which all of us want… to be seen. So now I no longer think of niceness as “nice,” said in that cooing voice.

Niceness is radical kindness and hospitality — or it should be. It sees what is and offers balm and works for solutions.

Peace is wild and challenging as well.

Maybe it’s even spicy. Maybe they both need some onion and garlic started in the pan… Come, sit with me, and enjoy the bounty spiced up with laughter. Peace and Niceness are not bland they include the world and let cultures and customs overlap.

Here’s to Spicy Peace. Here’s to raucous Niceness. Here’s to all of us, imperfect as we are living the perfect, rocky, stretching, trying, failing, succeeding life — together.

EverydayPeaceMonday31Aug1

 

 

Peace and What We Wish the Butterfly Effect Were

Last week my friend Rachel helped me preach.  Every year at the winter holidays, I write a small play for Rachel who is my Glorious Holiday elf. She always helps me find a new symbol to those we already use to celebrate the winter Holidays.

Last week, at the beginning of Spring, it seemed that we needed a bit of encouragement to make a difference. Now, I know, because I keep looking it up (because I always forget) that chaos theory doesn’t say that the fluttering of a butterfly wing WILL have some intended consequence, just that everything can have some UNintended consequence.

We thought that perhaps we could flutter our wings, do kind things and see what happens. Apparently Annie thought so too.

Here’s to kindness in this season of Beauty. Here’s to making the decision and then making a difference

Here’s to Rachel and Annie. and here’s to Peace. Now get out there and flutter those wings.

EverydayPeaceFriday13Mar25

Reunited in Peace

It was such a sweet weekend. Nice conversations with people I knew growing up. Some I knew pretty well. Some not well at all. But all of whom I was glad to meet again.

I’ve lived a lot of places and my work has always put me in contact with loads of people. So I think my brain just makes space for what’s going on right here right now. But finally I’m back where I mostly started, the reunion came up and off I went.

I saw people I learned to know in Kindergarten. 3 of them. Girls I hung out with from Junior HIgh. Boys I almost dated. A bunch of people I didn’t know well at all. But you know what? All of them are now lovely people. And we all had a lot to talk about. High School may not have been the best years of my life (eyeroll) but we were young and foolish — and now we’re kinder. It was nice to make some memories to pull up over some of the discomforts of the past. There was a lot of laughter and there’s a lot to be said for kindness.

Peace is where you find it, where you make it. Even if it’s 45 years later.

And speaking of making, I need to go make salad for my community’s yard sale tomorrow. (I’m writing this Sunday night so tomorrow when i leap out of bed at 6 am, i can post this, grab the salad and go. I fail to find the fascination with yardsaling at 8 am… but i’m gonna be there! I live to serve… cough, cough, cough)

ThunderMoonLunacyJun29

Family Talk Peace, llvl

Someone remarked the other day how tiresome it was that no one seemed to worry about the simple courtesies. He thought it seemed that there were fewer pleases and thank yous.

I’ve noticed that people seem less aware of where they are in space in relation to the rest of the world. But maybe I’m just a grumpy old person.

Simple kindness, being present, being grateful feel like lovely things for us to teach — and lovely things for us to remember. Because it’s probably not just the kid.

And I can’t say the thoughtlessness we overheard last night was new. And we certainly weren’t winning any prizes for minding our own business. And I admit that the three of us are all fairly talented at eavesdropping — but (and actually we can’t remember the man’s opening salvo) it’s probably not a good idea to school another adult in public for their existence. It wasn’t like telling a child to sit down we’re eating, it was more like, “this is how you’ve made a complete mess of your life,” in front of eight family members at the table and a restaurant full of folk.

I’m betting that if we all refrained from leading with our beloved’s weaknesses, particularly in public, we might all have much happier holidays. Whatever we celebrate. Just a little thought about working for Peace on Earth, Joy to the World.

LLVL51Dec20