Thanksgiving Peace

It’s a pretty miraculous thing. A whole day dedicated to giving thanks. A sacred holiday. A sacred season.

Which means being aware of just how lucky, how blessed we are.

It feels so luxurious, so delicious.

Which, I guess is part of the reason that I don’t get the whole shopping thing. Here’s a day to be dedicated to just being. MMMMMM. Well, being and being aware.

There’s a long and luxurious list of things and people for which I am grateful. For my love. For my family and friends — for each and every one of you. For music. For fun. For my work. Oh, I’m so grateful for my work. All of it.

Today, in particular, I’m grateful to be the family priestess, grateful I’ve honed this craft so that the wedding I’m about do will reflect the Love this couple feels for one another.

I’m a bit grateful that the mourning is far enough back that I can think about how happy i am that those people were part of my life. Grateful for the love of so many.

And so I give thanks. I hope you have a wonderful time doing the same thing. I hope you’re engaged in making many lovely memories! Happy Thanksgiving. Blessed Peace.

A Quiet, Fall, Sabbath Peace

I spent yesterday cosseting a cold. I’ll do a few more things today. But not a lot.

My guess is that nothing I do will be visible — i’ll work on the infrastructure of my life. There are sweaters to be straightened, a cabinet that needs to be emptied and then rearranged.

There may be a walk outside in the newly changed season. It is now late fall, and the temperatures are where they’re supposed to be. The leaves have finally blow off the trees.

Nothing extreme… but little accomplishments that will give me time to think about the upcoming holiday season, the things i’m thankful for, the things that are ended.

Time to make space for that which is to come.

Peace arrives in such small incremental measures. But we must keep open to its possibilities. Enjoy your day. May it be filled with Peace. May it be filled with Love.

The Ties that Bind Us to Peace

I was caught off guard. It’s not that I don’t miss them all individually. And sometimes I miss the family. I know a lot of people who know that I lost them. But I don’t know many people who knew us together.

But when El walked in, and I’ve not seen her since Deb died, it opened floodgates that had obviously been lurking.

I was home. I was safe. And there were memories here to pull out and sort through. I had a long drive to do that very thing. It was very sweet. It was very sad. But I not only got to see my very dear friends, I got little snippets of my family back when I least expected it.

Love is so very sweet, even when it’s sad… even when it’s hard. Our work is to find the Peace in Love.

Jumbled Thoughts, Big Houses, Acts of War, Love, Peace

I wrote the musing about Newport’s big Houses. They’re so ostentatious and huge. And loads of them were for sale. No surprise, who can keep them up? And yet so beautiful. A product of their age and our systems of class. Something I coveted in my childhood and youth and shake my head about now I’ve grown up. But man. Such beauty. Because privilege allows us beauty.

I wondered how much more money and influence did you have to have to live on the cliff side of Bellvue street? And New Yorker that I was I kept thinking of the hospital where people with mental illness were imprisoned in squalor.

But oh, these places are beautiful… and Newport has oysters. yum. I ate a lot. Ridiculously I ran into a man I know from home.

And I came home to news of the Paris attack. I came in at 20 feared dead, awoke this morning to 158. Such horror. Such violence.

And, sobered, I realize how many people live with this every day. I’m horrified because it happened in a city I love… But it’s this fear, this violence, this murder, that puts people on boats to escape their lives. what is the right prayer, we wonder? What is the right action.

War only begets more war.

But how do you love the violence out of movements of hate? How do you Peace?

I reach out my hands, my friends. I wish you Love. I wish you Peace. I wish that we will Peace together.

Goblins, Ghosties, Memories, Peace

For some it’s about the mad or the weird, for me it’s about remembering.

I have a pretty full altar, The past 20 years have been hard on my heart. A lot of beloved friends have gone on before.

In several traditions this is the time of year that the veil between this world and the next is seen to be the thinnest. Souls are thought to be able to slip back and forth, to visit those they loved with a touch.

For me, it’s an opportunity to commemorate those lives. And to just be present.

I’m a zoomy kinda woman, so it’s hard to give myself that space. It’s hard to give my loved ones that attention. So, today, I will just take this one Sacred Day.

The rest of you will be out being wee goblins and ghosties and looking for sweet loot. I hope you have a great time.

Peace , we need to remember, looks different for different folks! Hope you’re living into yours… Happy Halloween! Happy Peace.

Busy Weekend (Sabbath) Peace!

What a rich weekend. Friday night at King Street Coffee House and great friends playing. Doing ceremony — a sad tribute to a lovely woman. An evening all about friends and listening to a dear friend who just gets better and better.

Today is jam-packed. Church (preceded by choir!). A friend in a play (and the reviews have been great.) And then more friends in another short road trip to hear EG Kight sing again.

A couple years ago EG Kight came very close to dying. And did not. But they didn’t know if she would ever sing again, let alone write, let alone tour. She’s back, her voice is better than ever, and although the touring is hard work, she packed a three hour show. Never less than her best.

And she is so encouraging. She’s played with one local musician before, and she brought him up. But she’d heard about a young man called him out of the audience and handed him her guitar. And then coaxed the best out of him and let him coax the best out of her. It was lovely. Such generosity.

So you know me. I’m a bide-at-home kinda girl. But once in a while, you have to make the effort to enjoy the bounty. And doesn’t that seem ridiculous.

I know this area is rich. But every area is. Feast and give thanks.

You can’t help but be at Peace when you’re sitting in a crowd listening to someone belting out the blues. (Most of the time I could even let the young talking kids in the front off my indignant that’s-no-way-to-listen-to-a-concert fuddiduddiness!) Music. Theater. Ceremony. Community. Faith. It’s a weekend worth celebrating and a Sabbath worth indulging, and making sacred. Oh, and there were moments of sublime beauty. It’s Peace if we give it a chance.

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…

New World New Peace

It’s one of those stupid things I’ll never understand. How is it that people decide that the most important thing in their religion is determining when the world will end.

In Christianity, it demands blowing right past the central tenets of the Jesus message to concentrate instead on the end times. I can be as perplexed as I want. I don’t think enlightenment on this topic is coming.

But a reboot? I’ll take that. We’re a tech savvy world, right. What if World 827.3 included the violence fix? The ignorance fix? The hatred fix?

What if we acted as if making this world better were possible?

I just finished reading two books on racism and white privilege with my church. What if we were to do something that began, even began, to make a difference.

If we began today, it would mean we embraced a new world — a world made new — by hope, by love, by justice, by Peace — by us. What do you think? Peace, anyone?

Parties for Peace

We had a wonderful party last night for Steve’s birthday. 75-80 people showed up and everyone had a good time.

Including the Birthday Boy.

I’m so lucky to have found Love in my 50s and to have him be more and more healthy. Every day is a day for giving thanks.

It was a blast.

But the best, best, best? By the end of the evening we’d collected over $1000 for Lover Flows the LOVE project (Let Our Valley Eat). More kids will eat… and that’s a blessing.

I will never again have a party without a donate box for charity. Now it’s true that I have no kids, so this is easy to say, but no one I know needs gifts. And lots of people need what we can give. So, hurrah.

Peace, my sweetheart. Peace, my friends. Peace, my Valley. May we become The Valley with No Hungry Children.d

That Reading, Snuggling Peace

For those of us who miss our grandchildren — we need to cultivate local kids to keep our hand in the game.

Someone wants or needs a story to be read to them. Someone wants or needs to read a story to us.

Side benefits? New Stories. Old favorites revisited. Shared innocence and earnesty. Snuggles. Pretty much all good things.

And oh, new and interesting children in your life and in your arms. We’re made to love these kids. We should practice harder.

If there were more adults snuggling with children, particularly children not their own, if we learned the shape of those bodies in our arms, in our laps, there would be more Peace in this world.

This is not a difficult challenge to undertake. And if you don’t have grands yet, you can begin training.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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