Ear Inclined toward Peace, LLVL

So, what do I think about angels, you ask me? I don’t know. I don’t actually think about them. I know when I heard a Catholic Priest tell a woman who’s husband had just died, a husband I’d heard screaming at her just the night before in their hospital room, that now her husband was one and she could pray through him, I pretty much rejected him.

I can tell you I write about them occasionally, stories of beings of great power, but I never spend a lot of time on them.

But here’s this little stone putti-guy who (I’ve decided) is listening, and I allow him to remind me: listen. And then I find myself in a place where listening is required. Did he just go from angel to Angel?

Just another Angel, agitating for Peace, for Love, for space in the world for aching hearts to begin to heal. Hark the Herald Angel is singing, even now, even in January. Will I listen better now than I did before? I hope so. And isn’t that more likely, if there are angels, are they watching us, or are they herding us toward Peace? In that case, they probably have bigger things in store for us than we’re likely to be comfortable with. Oh, now there’s a surprise.

I knew that little guy had to be distracted with something important if he didn’t notice the snow…

Listen! Peace. LLVL

What would we hear I wondered? What was the angel listening to?

For me this morning, she was listening to the sound of my friend Jean, whose life was ending. She heard her distress. And I was asked to listen as well.

To her family. To her friends. I got there too late to listen to Jean.

And I was able to share everything she’d told me about her wishes for a service, giving her family some comfort and structure.

And I could tell her stories. And take in the ones being told. I could savor them and consider how to use them.

Sweet to have an angel to remind me to incline an ear. Peace has many faces. Sometimes the face is covered with tears. Oh, Jean. Your community will miss you. So will I. I loved you. We all loved you. But there you are with everyone we know. who knows what living la vida local is like in heaven… I’ll bet it’s fun. I’ll bet it’s beautiful. and I know it’s filled with Peace. Say hi to my family, will you?

Falling in Love, Peace, LLVL

I wonder if it’s that simple. Just to fall in Love. To allow myself to become curious and infatuated with everything outside my door. What is this and why is it like that?

When I was in seminary, I spoke about finding the new Eden… but it’s really more like co-creating a new Eden, isn’t it. If we want to live in Eden, we have to make it. Not by walling ourselves off or excluding people, but rather by making a place where everyone is welcome, where we work for Justice and Life is revered.

Some of that starts with not hating my life, with being welcoming of the Beauty I live in and celebrating the Beauty I contribute to. It means focusing on what is important — not in ignoring what is ugly and unPeaceful, but on working to change that.

There are so many ways to make a difference. We all “see” from a different perspective. But if we begin to celebrate what we see that’s beautiful and to make better the stuff that’s not… it’s got to get better.

Part of what I’m beginning to see as important — or should I say, what I’m beginning to say that I can do — is to help see and describe one place where people can make a difference — a lot of one places… maybe this, maybe that. There’s not just one place, but there might be one place for you.

What do you (allow yourself to) fall in Love with outside your door? It’s a fair question, isn’t it. If nothing does, open your heart… there’s something wonderful waiting for you.

Being Present to Hope and Peace LLVL

Snow brings me joy. Even hunkered down against the cold. I’m happy for the brightness and the mysterious piles of white. Days like this when it’s cold and the sun shines, the entire world sparkles… It’s too cold for even the cars to make the snow gunky.

While I know it’s dangerously cold, and you have to be well-clad against its dangers, when you’re on the inside, it’s a soft and comforting blanket, keeping me safely indoors. (easy to wax eloquent when you don’t have kids clamoring to be out!)

Sitting last night by candle light, writing Charlie’s memorial, flanked by Marlin’s picture of Deb and Mary’s portrait of Charlie, there was a lovely feeling of gratitude as I remembered the love. That certainly brought in Hope in the midst of the melancholy. Love really lasts. And we can call on it when we need it. We’ve got to make room but it’s willing to rush in.

Gratitude for the Past. Love in the Present. Hope in the Future. That’s what Peace is built on when you’re living la vida local. Right here. Right now.

HNY, LLVL, Peace

Whew! there are a whole buncho assignments! Is it possible to have a happy year, to live la vida local and to keep stretching out toward Peace?

I guess I think that the openness to the new (built on the old), the decision to pay attention leads us down the road toward Peace. Provided, of course that we agree that others in the world are invited to walk those paths with us.

Consciousness. Wonder. Love. Determination. All supremely difficult and challenging; all consummately simple. So, reflect a little. Determine to fill 2014 to the brim with wonderful memories. Commit to laughing a lot, a lot, a lot. And crying once in a while. Dream deeply. Resign yourself to the constant starting over a little smarter a little saner. Keep going down that Peace Road.

It could be a great year. Many more people might have what they need and the space to become who they’re meant to be. We could claim that space because the likelihood is if you’re reading me, you have a great many options. And then we could start expanding that space for others.

Want to resolve something? Resolve that you’ll be as kind as you’re meant to be. As generous. As observant. As happy. And then make it so. You’re already a wonder! Peace in 2014.

(and how about Deb’s opening photo? Pretty great, eh? Here’s to Deb Slade and her challenges to appreciate the beauty where we are.)

Happy New Peace

A year filled with ups and downs, marvels and mourning. A full year. A year of my life. I’m not wishing it away — after all, this is the year I discovered I’m a Peacemaker. The last year of my sister’s life, and the year of the sweetest connection. A year with Alaska in it. Visits from the kids and grands. How can I fail to give thanks? And I refuse to wish it away, even the painful bits. They were sacred as well.

A year of trying to be present no matter how painful. At the end of this year I’m tired and I start the year having to hold my hand and heart open once again so that I can say goodbye to an old friend. But once again presence.

So, I’ll thank 2013 for the lessons learned. And welcome 2014 for what’s in store and settle my intention not simply to be present but to be a presence, to act on 2014 so that it might grow in beauty.

Thank you my friends for Love and Peace and the demand that I be the best Ann I can. I hope I’m asking the same of you. I leave you in 2013 and I greet you in 2014 with a prayer for Peace, with prayers that we might be Peace — wild, wonderful burgeoning, laughing Peace.

Love-Peace

This may be the world’s most important connection.

It’s so painful sometimes to touch the Love we live in. What comes up first, usually, is the spots where Love isn’t. And so we guard those spots and they get bigger and bigger. And take up more of the space we want to use for Loving the world — or Loving ourselves.

It’s where we have to start isn’t it? in the Loving ourselves part of our hearts… It’s hard work, but it’s the first step to Peace. When we see ourselves as valuable, we see our neighbor as valuable too…

Let’s patch up our hearts and get them back up to snuff… We’ll feel better. And the world will have a much better shot at Peace…

Stories for Peace

The Dark is the time of Sacred Stories. We are asked to recall and recite the stories that make sense in our lives, the stories that make sense of our lives. Every time we tell them, a layer is added. The meaning deepens in the telling and so do our connections to the stories.

We have choices about the stories we tell. We have choices about how we tell the stories, what is it we want them to teach us. We even have choices about the way our stories evolve, because we can make choices about how we live our lives.

When I started this year, I decided to let a new storyline emerge. I wanted to explore Peace in my life. Writing about Peace every day, no matter how obliquely has turned me into a Peace-Considerer and is moving me toward Peace-maker. Choosing to capitalize Peace and other nouns that lead toward it, while choosing to take power away from unpeaceful nouns by keeping them lowercase has had impact, on me, if not on others. The capital (particularly from someone who is capital challenged) is a small, lingering caress. I pay attention to the Peaceful details of the stories I tell.

And oh they matter, those stories. I’m trying to collect them about a friend of mine, who died a week ago. He was a wacky, wonderful guy with a sly sense of humor and a penchant for collecting things and people and stories. and awful jokes. There are so many Charlie-stories worth telling. Telling them well, next week when we have the memorial will help those stories settle into our collective hearts and become part of our history.

Telling Charlie stories will ease our sorrow and shape our shared future and perhaps our individual ones as well. That’s what stories do, the bring the past into the present and offer a path into the future. And if you make your stories stories of Peace, you will build a future of Peace. The more people in your stories, the more people on your Peace road. So observe so you can collect those stories, practice so you can tell them and listen to what you say so you know what to tweak and what to do next. Which ones exhort you to show up? Which make you reflect? Which count the blessings of sweet memories made from your feats of derring-do and your moments of collective lolling about.

Tell the stories that make you happy, make you laugh. Tell the stories that remind you that your heart bruises. Remind yourself of big work completed and little times enjoyed. Tell the stories that help you remember what you stumble over. Remember what you’re proud of. Tell the stories of how Love grows, and Hope and Joy. Tell them simply or embellish the heck out of them. But most of all? Enjoy each and every one of them. Peace, my friends… Happy Story-telling!

The Peace of Christmas Come and Gone

This is a hard day for me. First Christmas without Deb. The reality of so many wonderful family Christmases, the remembrance of family gathered last night, and the beauty of family close by and far away, my dearly Beloved and my dearly beloved… and the sweet sadness of a woman missing, calls not made, hugs and kisses not given, conversations stilled.

I miss her. Terribly. I think about my friend without her husband. My nieces without their father. Our church without our Charlie. And my friends who have lost and lost. The loss is always true, always there, a small payment for the joy of having loved, but still… On a day when there is Hope, it is Hope despite the breaking hearts… and the Love which you all share with me.

There is so much that has been beautiful about this year. I am grateful for my Peace Path, for Love Flows, for my writing… and for all of you. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve, the people who trust me and the ones I trust. Broken-heartedness doesn’t render me unable to serve and it doesn’t touch the Laughter. Thanks be for that.

And the Christmas question… can we allow (can I?) — despite aching hearts and broken promises and tattered dreams — Christmas to come? Come with a renewal of hope and faith in Possibility. Come with the enjoyment of family and friends. Come with its own urgency to Peace. Come with healing on its wings?

I hope so. And till it does, as it does, Deb, I miss you so much. And I fantasize, because we know nothing, that they keep Christmas in heaven (may there be a heaven) and you, at last, at last, at last, have your kids and your husband around the Tree and parents checking in… all hearts mended, all problems solved. And you’ll know we’re coming along some day…

And so, I will pick up the living room and put up the tree. And Steve and I will call the kids and celebrate… For I believe in Christmas and I’ll keep Christmas Day. And it will keep me until my heart is healed because I have kept it with you… and the many people I have loved… living and dead. Peace be with us all.

Expect Advent Peace

What if we just did that? What if we just expected it to be Peaceful and then acted as if it had happened? How would the world change?

This isn’t like wishing for a pony for Christmas, this is expecting that you will care for all ponies because ponies are needful.

This is an expectation of yourself that you will be Peace. In Advent, in the sacred season of coming into being… This is an unwillingness to expect any less, not only of yourself but of others and then loving yourself and your neighbors when we fail and encouraging us all to try again.

Expect Peace. The world needs you to ask the very best from it, to not settle from less. Part of expectation is going back again and again and again, and asking for more. Advent: Hope. Love. Joy. Peace. The hard work of Advent is expecting all of that. C’mon, I have great expectations of us.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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