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)

Sweet Reminders of Peace Possible!

The weekend was so incredibly tense so it was just lovely to have a sweet day of community!

No issues to work, no big thoughts to have. The hardest decisions to make were not even whether I should test everything but rather whether I should try something again! Big decisions about whether I should just stand in the splash from the Skloosh, or whether i should get on the silly ride (I did! I did!) Oh, we give thanks for the bounty of food and the abundance of beloved, laughing community!

Four different traditions. All under a yellow and white stripped tent making merry. Life at its summer sweetest. And lots of pictures to remind us we were making sweet memories

And today? I’m going to find some more strawberries on this last day of the Berry Moon. From the way the next moon’s getting off to a start, it sounds as if I should choose Thunder moon. Apparently there were big storms last night, i confess I didn’t hear them. My basement isn’t a swimming pool however, so how bad could they have been?

But today, my dears, I wish you the quiet Peace that comes of great gatherings with good friends — the last sweet remnants of Strawberry Peace and the startling beginnings of Thunder Peace. wow? do we think it’s time to make a stir?

Community Peace in the Berry Moon

Overcast or not it was a lovely June day in the Berry Moon. Perfect for fêting two wonderful people who had done so much for the community.

Doug and Margie Sturm were extraordinary, but they were also very ordinary folk. They were both teachers, she taught countless high school kids to love literature; he taught religion and poli sci… and hurrah for that combo! Depression kids, they knew the value of hard work and had the knack of finding ways to get things done.

They believed strongly in the value of community, starting an organization entitled Community Alliance for Respect and Equality. They were warm and witty and engaging and people participated, sometimes just to hang out with them… and why not?

It was so fitting that the day in their honor was a day for soliciting volunteers fueled by fun music. The community gathered and a good time was had by all…

Peace is Possible… but you have to step up to do the work. Doug and Margie stood up and stepped up to the task. They loved broadly and boldly. And oh, they had great kids and left a trail of disciples behind them. Let us give thanks… and go and do likewise. Peace. Your community needs you!

Lost Words of Love and Peace

I’d write about the Berry Moon, but she’s on vacation. left us with the gloom and headed off somewhere beautiful. so it is with celestial bodies…

And I’m somewhat captivated by the notion of these lost languages… or lost threads…

Where do the words go? Where does the laughter from shared jokes find an outlet? Are we forever a bit expatriated without that language of Love?

I’m sure some PhD has written on this topic. But it’s a layer of missing people i hadn’t thought about before…

And then i started to think… what about tribes whose languages are lost. How are they ever who they were born to be… does that change from generation to generation or is there always a piece of their soul missing?

Civilization and power over… stealing people’s souls for years. Oh, Peace we need you, we must make you… Laughter and personhood is hidden in you. Peace, you are there to be reclaimed…

Going Home Peace

Families. They need tending. And the rewards are phenomenal. And at the end of it I find myself delighted, exhausted and confused.

Delighted because it is good to be together.

Exhausted because it’s all on all the time. “I haven’t seen you, how are you?” “Oh, we have to go here? let’s go!” So rich. and tiring.

And Confused… how can all this love not be connected to all the other love?

Where are our kids? Where’s my sweet village? Where’s beloved Sweden? I find it fascinating that I, who never had kids, gets the most excitement over watching my niece Sarrah’s littles find their place in the greater family. When Naim (that face) walked over to see his Aunt Grancy, lay his head on her belly and wander away… heaven! And yet, hunger at the same time.

Love on the borderlines, it’s a lovely thing. and for far flung family, maybe it’s always this intense.

But I confess, I’m glad to be traveling home today… quiet time writing in an airport, a familiar drive home, and tomorrow, a walk along the (my!) river to ease me back into the day and life!

The Flower Moon rose full and beautiful as we sat around the fire. Wayne reminded me that it used to be the hot tub. shhhhhhhh.

And Peace was right there in all the chaos. And when the chaos is simply Love and Joy and a lot of activities, I give thanks! And Sally laughed!

Pink Moon Gecko of Peace

Oh, I love word silliness. This particular small bit of word silliness amused me more than many small bits.

Yes, it’s sad that this child has so little written language and doesn’t listen well. I’m sure his prof is flummoxed about how to help this college-aged child embrace learning as well as pass his class. I know there’s some serious underlying stuff here. But as a friend once said, “Shallow can be nice.”

And oh, the shallow take on this? Joyful. Delicious. Laughter, the best medicine.

Ask the Gecko… Only the Gecko knows.

I wish I’d known when I was in Florida that those quick lil fellers had the answers to all the important questions of life — or at least the day… I’d have been more inquisitive.

Goodness knows I like knowing things.

But you really need to steer clear of the bad news Geckos. If that’s all you get, you’re just looking on the wrong sunny wall.

Hey, lil Pink Moon Gecko of Peace, what’s the haps?

To Peace under the Full Pink Moon!

It’s not always easy to stay in the present. Easy to be caught by the perfection of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow. Or the horrors of what happened and the fears of what’s to come.

And yet, here, one perfect day, ready to unwind before us. What could be sweeter? It’s to be a blustery spring day with a full moon rising in beauty. There are things to accomplish. Things to enjoy. Certainly there will be things to deal with. And so what?

It’s here. Here for us to treat gently. Here for us to make Peace with, to make Peace within, to make Peace for. And here are we… ready to Peace.

And later? here comes the full Pink Moon. ah… Beauty. For us. Enjoy. Go out and make some memories and Love and Laugh and Dance and Peace by the light of the full Pink Moon! I can’t wait to hear the tales you’ll have to tell.

Sweet Sabbath for Sugar Moon Peace

An Anglo and a Palestinian woman walk into a doughnut shop: time to make the Peace.

Sometimes it’s that simple. Meeting up, in public places, so people get used to seeing women with and without headscarves sharing sweetness. Giggle for Peace. Share a pastry. Spend time with friends to build community.

It’s heartbreaking really, what’s going on in the world, all the places people were being killed. We named them, all the martyrs, all the ravaged lands, including our own.

Kindness, we need more kindness. Give up on your need to have others be wrong. Reflect on what you can do better. I’m not going to solve the problems in Africa or the Middle East. I can keep building community here. I can go out for a sweet slice of life in the name of friendship and wind up having it be Peacemaking.

If that’s not keeping a Sabbath holy, I don’t know what is. And every day is a holy day. This is the season for boiling our inclusive instincts down into kindness and compassion. Sugar Moon, indeed!

Sugar Moon? Lenten Moon? Peace.

Lent is no longer part of my religious tradition. Even as a child, while I recall quiet vesper services and beautiful hymnody, i don’t remember imposition of ashes or the relinquishing of a pleasure for the duration.

But of course I knew people who did… I knew lots of friends from other traditions…

It often confused me however because i could never make the connection between ice cream and the crucifixion or alcohol and hungry children. That became more and more true in my 20s and 30s as i knew people who stopped one or the other either to lose weight or to dry out. I became somewhat cynical.

So it’s lovely to have friends who take the sacrifice and the prayer practice seriously. As a ritualist, I’m always interested in ritual practice and in the ways it changes lives.

My friend Faye is a Prayer Warrior. And by that I mean two things: She lives her life in and at prayer, working at things that matter and having a rich and full life. She also can pray mightily when an occasion demands it. I believe in prayer… and I am always grateful for the focused attention that she gives a subject, if for no other reason than how she is changed by those prayers… and how she leads the way.

So when Faye sacrifices for prayer, I pay attention and I welcome the thoughtful giving over of self to make the world and her life better. I guess I’m not as impressed by people who can go 40 whole days without ice-cream… or who think that that matters… unless they’re doing something important with that time.

Aside from all that, she’s a great friend and we laugh together and puzzle at the world together — which is a great gift!

I’m still struggling with having given up cynicism and fear all that time ago. It’s an ongoing struggle. But the Lunacy of Peace is a great thing… and well worth the struggle.

Lunacy, Laughter, Snow Moon Peace

Oh, it was a fun and silly thing. Missing imprints in the snow and that was all it took to have a moment of family laughter… even though most of the people laughing were (oh, the temptation to say… beyond the veil… in a sepulchral tone of voice is large) dead and the others not present.

But you know your family well enough that pesky little things like death don’t really bother you. Mine loved to laugh. And yesterday on the bridge, I could hear them all, hear their snorts and snickers, hear them adding to the ridiculousness.

So you laugh. And then you cry. And it all happens on a bridge on the way to breakfast when snowy footprints are obliterated. I’m blaming it on Snow Moon Lunacy and the strength of Love.

Hope Peace ambushes you with laughter and Love. Life really is Magic, isn’t it?

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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