The Moon! More Beauty! More Peace!

I have such a strong sense of home as I drive along that river, something deep within me responds. It’s gorgeous every day of the year and every time of the day.

But there’s something magical about the night. Add a full moon and that wide, flat river is content and so Peaceful — and so am I. I’m always amused/amazed that for someone as wedded to the indoors as I am, I have a visceral reaction to my river, my valley… and even, my moon!

On this last drive the reflection of the trees built another kingdom in the water — the moon was that bright. Add to the joy of home that childhood belief that there’s another world under the surface of the water that looks just like this one. I always wonder who lives there and what they do and how that’s different from the ways we live here. I know, I’m supposed to be a grown up, but it never stops me wondering. Maybe it’s more Peaceful. Maybe we should pay closer attention.

And, maybe, I should just enjoy it. And consider what I might learn about Peace in the moonlight along the Susquehanna. Enjoy the Moon tonight. It’s the last SuperMoon of 2015. Bask!

Local Theater Peace

We have a great theater professional group here in the Valley. We also have wonderful amateur theater.

Yesterday, I hustled to fit a production of “Dinner with Friends” into my busy Sunday schedule.

I’d heard great things, I don’t know if I’d have made the effort if it weren’t a member of my congo who was one of the four people.

It was excellent. It’s a strong, pointed and provocative play that made me laugh — when it didn’t make me cry. And the actors were wonderful — all the more so because they are friends, people i know doing things that interest them.

What a wonderful investment of time for me — and i hope for them. I hope they aren’t sitting around, lower lips poked out because it’s over… because it was that good, you hate to let go of the headiness of living in that alternate world.

But. the show closes. And they were excellent.

And the locals got a helluva show, and good friends got juicy roles. It was a great way to invest my Sabbath afternoon.

There’s Peace and Joy in that! Here’s to more. (and more about that soon!)

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.

Unexpected Peace

It helps to remain open. You never know what’s going to come along.

And when it comes, you must have left room for the miraculous, or you won’t recognize it.

It’s not all about love affairs, although this particular story was. It can be about jobs, or houses, or friendships, or new paths in our lives.

I think it helps to have a full life — and to appreciate what you have!

The practice of gratitude leaves openings; it allows you to see wonderful things when they happen along.

But being able to see isn’t enough. You have to be able to act, to dare.

Things don’t always work out well. But failure is simply information about better ways to try again. Hearts were meant to be risked (although let’s be clear, there’s nothing wrong with some calculations in those risks.)

But when they do work, the rewards are enormous. Love ensues. Joy does its happy dance. Peace gets its hopes raised. And people work together for both, which increases the odds tremendously, that someday there might be Peace. Both Peace or Magic require hard work and hopeful hearts.

Peace in Moving Beyond

Sometimes I realize what a stick I’ve become.

Do I really want to go to a Burning Man Party I wonder?

Oh, yes, I did. It was just marvelous. Not only the food, Ann’s first way of judging a party! But a whole bunch of new people in a beautiful place. People who did fun things, like the woman who twirled fire. That was really a fun thing. It was beautiful. She’d learned in Hawaii, and hadn’t done it for years.

And then the man. My friend had built this marvelous man. I sweet talked my bud who went with me into staying for the burn. It was lovely and emotional. Yay!

And the night, mugginess and bugginess aside, was a perfect evening. The stars, the stars, the stars.

And today’s another party of another kind. A weekend of relaxation. hurrah. (well, except for the yardsale!) And today, the summer is over and I get to go back to church after the sabbatical. My peeps! (This is sort of an all over post, isn’t it?)

There’s a lot of Peace in exploring things just outside your comfort zone… and even if it doesn’t get all the way to Peace, there’s a lotta fun! It’s the Sabbath. Relax and enjoy. Why not try something new?

Blues Chords and Peace over Sacramento

How odd… the woman who’d written to me a couple weeks ago saying, it sure would be nice to see you, then posted: I’m playing in Sacramento. There I was sitting in San Diego at that time, knowing I would be less than a hundred miles away on that day.

So here I am sitting in my hotel room after the concert laughing at how things work out.

I love EG’s music and I adore her. And it was fun to watch a whole new bunch of folk fall in love with the Georgia Songbird under the rising Full Moon. Such a beautiful, beautiful evening.

There she was with a band she’d never heard of just killing her songs! It was great. A few simple blues chords and some fascinating lyrics and the music poured out of those players. That’s the thing about music. It starts with something simple and becomes something magical.

That’s the thing about Peace. It starts with something simple, and, in the hands of the deep-hearted, becomes something magical. Players, giving Peace a chance.

And tomorrow I get to have breakfast with my college buddy. It’s a small world. And I like it like that! And after that? Grandchildren! (and their fabulous parents!) Peace? of a noisy, laughing kind!

Sweet Festival Flower Moon Peace

The Flower Moon is doing her job. Gardens are just quivering with delight. Trees are loaded. Peepers are peeping. It’s Spring, dadgummit!

It’s cool today, but the sun is shining.

A half a block away from my house two large metal sculptures are for sale. One is an almost full sized elephant head. The other is a saucy dragon. oh yeah.

It’s my party. which the whole town threw just for me, or that’s how I’m looking at it.

In villages all across the Susquehanna Valley, indeed our country, maybe even our world, people are celebrating Spring. They’re strolling in small towns, eating festival foods, greeting their neighbors, hanging out with their friends and having a good old time.

My husband’s playing in the park from 11:30-12:30. Go bang a drum with him.

(I’ll be at the food court, meeting my buds!

And coughing, yes, and coughing. But I just visited my favorite pharmacist, so I can at least mask the symptoms! Because I certainly don’t want to stop the flowers!

Bright wonderful Festival Peace be with you. Happy Birthday to my 3 birthday buddies and blessings to Ro and Arlyne who at long last are getting married! Celebrate! Create Community. and just flat out enjoy!

Leaning on Pink Moon Peace

I know, I’m the one who keeps saying be here today; don’t wish it away.

But yesterday was so beautiful, it was hard not to want more, more, more.

But it was what it was, one sweet, perfect shining jewel of a day.

To want more is human, but ultimately greedy. And doesn’t leave you loving what you have right now — a perfect Pink Moon Jewel of a day. Flowers coming up, trees considering, and sun on our faces.

Oh, we give thanks! Mother Earth, Nature, the Divine, however you call it, got it right.

And if we’re smart, we’ll let the Peace and Beauty of that day dwell in us… and we’ll dwell in it. Because that’s where the Peace is! That’s where the Magic is! Both are pretty grand

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?

Lunacy’s Wild Peace

I started writing about the Moon for a few reasons. The list grew as I was writing about it…

One. I’ve always loved the Moon. I love that she is calm and reflective. I love that she is beautiful. I love that she changes yet remains the same. I love that she calls to me.

Two. She rules our lives in ways we don’t often acknowledge… she particularly plays with the tides of women’s bodies. (I almost remember).

Three. She rules the Night. As a culture, we aren’t out in the night anymore. Bad things happen we’re told. Women get rapped, be afraid. And we do. More often we’re raped at home, so better we should get outside for a breath of fresh Air once in a while. Because the Dark is Beautiful and so is the moon. And we give up half our lives… a very important part if we don’t honor the Night. The everflowing balance of Dark and Light is what makes the world beautiful.

Four. Wild things happen in the light of the Moon. We’re no longer the allies of the Wild. We’re so mixed up about the Wild that we think we can take selfies with bears. And we can. We just die when we do, because, it’s a bear — those cute little things with the big paws and claws… But it’s only when the domestic and the wild, the prey and the preditor walk side by side, honoring the others’ existence that life is full and balanced.

Five. Magic happens by the light of the moon. We fall in love. We find ourselves and one another beautiful.

More? As I find ’em, I’ll list ’em…

But for now, Let’s gather in the moonlight and dance for Peace. Lunacy. Let it happen to us.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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