Wrote this for the Grands… sharing it with you. Hope your Day was happy and filled with Love… and that that leads to Peace!
Happy Valentine’s Day
Reply
Tag Archives: love
Lunatic Love under the Snow Moon
I guess Valentine’s Day is for lovers… that’s what they tell us. And I’m happy I have my sweet Valentine (and happier still that he’s visiting our family giving great big grampa hugs!) But I still like school Valentine’s Days when we all sent everyone sweet small hearts. (I only now think about the fact that there were kids who probably couldn’t afford this…)
But Valentine’s Day was for everyone. And if there was someone in your class you balked at sending an “I love you” card, you had the long discussion with your mom about loving everyone. There wasn’t a problem next year! Friendship like many other things, needs to be cultivated.
Valentine’s day, not just hearts and flowers for star-crossed lovers… (and un-star-crossed lovers)… Love is for everyone. Love is for Peace. Peace is certainly for everyone. Lunacy. You betcha. The best kind under a consolidating Snow Moon. What could be better?
A Love Holiday!? Of Course!
But Questor celebrates love all the time!
The Other Side of Moon Peace
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I’m amazed about what never crosses my mind.
So, wow… the dark side of the moon waxes and wanes.
NASA has gone to the trouble of putting together a time-lapsed video. It’s pretty cool.
Just as I never thought of the oh-not-so-dark side of the Moon, there are huge pieces of Peace I never considered either. The good news is that this means there are more steps we can take, there are more ways we can begin to make a difference.
There’s more value than I ever dreamed possible in seeing the other side… I’ve never had huge urges to do things (climb mountains for instance) just because they were there. But perhaps Peace cares more about what is needed than what I want… or you want. It simply wants to manifest — and it needs our help. So come on, my fellow bears and chickens… let us go over the mountains and cross the roads… Peace awaits. And NASA just blew the I’m too lazy, I don’t wanna excuse outta the sky… Strength of resolve, strength of character, strength of purpose are needed to be about this hard and delicate work. And Love. I think it needs Love.
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?
Challenging Peace Lunacy
If there’s anything this Pollyanna hates to acknowledge is how challenging and sometimes painful life can be. But looking away doesn’t change that, however often we try avoidance as our coping mechanism.
Life is hard. Bad things happen. Pretending that good things always come from hard things is magical thinking. It’s true we may survive hard things, but it doesn’t always make us stronger or better. Sometimes it just makes us incredibly sad.
In the hard times, we have to search for the balm of Peace. Sometimes we find it in our friends’ or family’s love. Sometimes we find it in quiet moments of Nature. And some folks find it in loud dance music. Wherever we find respite is a good thing.
This year as we go through the year, looking at the Moon and its phases, I’m finding balm in the Moon, in the knowledge that her sweet and serene reflection is always there (even when I can’t see it.)
I like knowing that the balm of Moon shines on you and your problems at the same time. Because life is hard. Challenges do arrive. So I must take a deep breath, drink that light in, and as a favorite prayer says, forgive myself and begin again in love.
Shining Peace at the Moon
What if all of us at some point when the Moon were in the sky made the effort to look up and smile Peace and Love at the Moon?
Naïve, surely.
But it costs nothing and it hurts nothing, which is certainly not what we can say about the trying to war our way to Peace.
And it might change our mindset as we begin to have Peace on our hearts and our faces on a regular basis. It is exactly those times of being open and unguarded that we move forward in Peace, I think. And it might start us making constructive movement toward Peace in a world too frightened to let go of the hatred.
We might check our Moon calendar and see when the moon shines on Iraq or Syria and send our best Love. Or know when the Moon smiles at Nigeria and offer hope for a suffering people.
Peace begins where we are. And the Moon will be all the more radiant for our Hope and Love.
Sabbath Peace Morsels, llvl
Living la vida local. Knowing your community. I think these things really matter. Because if you know where you are in the world, and who’s around you, your movements can be freer.
Yesterday at a wedding, I watched two brides make two young men incredibly happy. They invited them into their family and gave them rings to signify their place in the pack. Both of these guys have challenging lives. Being not just accepted, but celebrated was amazing for them. And yet, it was a pretty easy gesture on the women’s part; the guys are already part of their lives. But that they thought of it, and then did it, was an act of kindness that touched and I would venture changed everyone there.
We can be different. We can do differently. We can transform people’s lives with our Love.
If we can, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we make Peace… maybe a lot of little steps can make the larger ones look less daunting. Maybe we’ll be encouraged to demand them of those who are in a better position to make them. Peace. We can stretch out our hands.
It’s Sunday in the midst of the holiday season… What wonderful thing are you going to do for yourself? Will you do it alone or with others? I’m going to the movies with a friend! yay!
Solstice Sabbath Peace, llvl
So much newness going on. It’s the new Cold Night Moon. It’s the Midwinter Solstice (6:03 pm). Blessed Dark! It’s still Chanukah! More light! It’s the Fourth Week of Advent: Peace on Earth! (And Hope! and Joy! and Love!) It’s also the Sabbath and I’m so taking a nap after services today!
(I’m going to start talking about the moon to get us ready. As we leave a year of living locally, we’re entering a year of Lunacy: by the end of the year, we’ll be looking for that orb in the sky and appreciating how the Moon works on our lives!
Although many people will be celebrating the return of the light, I will be lingering in the Dark… I celebrate its beauty and its calm. I’m not a naturally quiet person, so when the season turns dark, I’m encouraged to tunnel down into the Beauty and Silence.
Soon we’ll have snow and that will lighten the world considerably… but for now, shhh, the world is sleeping.
Peace to you, my friends. Peace on Earth! Wishing you Joy in this season of Sacred Holidays, whatever you celebrate. (and whatever you do, if you can find it in you, celebrate!)
Nostalgic Peace, llvl
Yesterday I went to hear our local Chorale’s Christmas Concert. They’re amazing and there was a wonderful soprano soloist. Bill Payne, the conductor, is such a great gift to this area and these singers are proof that every valley and plain have incredible music if only someone will provide the venue. People here have rallied to do that.
So, there in living color and voice, was my past. I don’t know how many times I’ll choose to visit it again, without really strong impetus — and I’m not sure what that would be. As fond as I am of some of the carols and a couple of the stories, I realize there are so many messages of sinfulness and separation from self that I can’t abide to listen to it. I no longer believe, whatever my path, that there is only one way.
So, I found it, both thrilling musically, a bit sorrowful, and a fair amount indifferent. Next year, I want to sing paeans to the dark, the sacred and the mysterious. I want to hear music lift and soar to the heavens and and sink to touch the unfathomable Deep. This year a man’s written a piece the choir is trying. It’s very challenging… but we’re struggling through it… singing about the moment when the world stops on the solstice.
I need to do more about making space for myself and my friends and for our community… I will always celebrate the birth of that particular small babe… but I cling to the wonder and think/hope/pray we might look to bringing about our own Peace on Earth and Joy to the World, not just for that babe… but for all babies, because they all matter…
