Miracles and Peace, llvl

There are so many miracles, large and small that are celebrated today and tonight. I love that the last night of Chanukah coincides with the first day of Christmas. That the Winter Solstice and the blessed Dark with animals whispering gleefully to one another occurs when the reindeer have to start their round the world trip.

(Joke of the day… you know the difference between caribou and reindeer? reindeer fly!)

And then in the midst of winter, a babe. I love that as we celebrate the holiness of Christmas and the birth of one particular babe, we will also sing: Each night a child is born is a holy night.”

Could we remember that all babies need cherishing and nurturing? Could we remember that every child needs to be fed?

My congo runs a program that supports weekend backpacks for kids, offering two breakfasts, two lunches, two snacks. You can donate over at Love Flows

Make the difference in a child’s having enough to eat… It may be the sweetest gift you ever give.

I wish you all the blessings and happiness of whatever you’re celebrating. and oh, how I wish us all Joy to the World and Peace on Earth. And sunrises as beautiful as this one.

Slow, Running Peace, llvl

Yesterday I gave in to the season. I moved at the speed the day was moving. Slow. It was very interesting. Lots got done, but all of them little things, one after the next. By the end of the day, it was beginning to look a little like Solstice in here.

Slowing it down is a good thing. I’d been jamming to get everything finished last week, which is when most of my big deadlines were. Now there’s just the endless amount of paperwork, but I even got through most of that.

Am I actually going to listen to myself and take it slowly? The season demands a little attention. No sense babbling on about loving the dark if I don’t in fact embrace it! Missing all the family members demands a little space for the heart to be tender.

How about you? Are you able to give yourself some time; able let the days go by at their own speed?

I know there’s still too much. I’m still distracted. I lost my driver’s license, I’m off to get it renewed. I’m hoping I won’t have to get a new picture because I slammed my face into a wall yesterday and have a major bump, instead of a curl, right in the middle of my forehead. another sign I’m moving too quickly… But the days are slow… so maybe they’ll coax me to follow. There’s so much magic here… time to enjoy…

How about you? are you willing to give yourself some Peace of the season? I hope so. Make it nice for yourself and those you love. You deserve it. Contemplate Peace by the doing of it.

Plays for Peace, llvl

Yesterday was exhausting. There were too many articles about women’s being targeted for being good at what they do… and the responses’ ranging from lower pay to death-threats. In one article there was a nonchalant… oh two women had to move out of their house because they were being targeted for — talking about gaming. Seems it matters enough that one woman, who was supposed to speak at an event in Utah, cancelled when the University wouldn’t install metal detectors for her event even though someone had written a letter threatening to kill her and all the other feminists. I’d say “hunted down like dogs” but we don’t talk about our beloved pups that way. Women, meh. And those weren’t the only posts about women’s lives being endangered.

And then there were the articles about the children. One is dead, one has killed. They’re trying a 10-year-old boy as an adult — which is much better than getting him mental health services earlier in his life, eh… and finding out what provokes that kind of action in a child. Certainly, I know there are psychopaths with badly wired brains. But often, there are kids in trouble. Who knows what he is… But he didn’t get what he needed. No, I’m not excusing him. But I’m not excusing us either.

So, you read, you think. You try not to live in the rage. I know its value, but I know its cost as well.

I had meant to have my musing written before I went off to the theater last night. I just got involved doing other things… so that didn’t happen. Looking to balance myself a bit, I reminded myself about the artists I live among. There are so many who just open their hearts and minds to us… It’s quite magical. Songs, poetry, books, and plays. I’ve got to believe, if you look around, people like that are everywhere, people with their hearts leaking out, spilling out. Magic in the air, Change on the ground.

And then last night, one man, on the stage talking about climate change, but also talking about a moral imperative to act and his willingness to trust that we would stand with him; that people would do the right thing.

I’d just been talking to Dr. Jojo about this… a very smart woman had just written a sermon about people’s needing to act from their love and willingness… their needing to feel it… But I have to tell you, if I didn’t feel the imperative, whether I define that as the Goddess with her hand firmly shoving me out the door, or a simple understanding of what is wrong and a willingness to work for that not to be true… I think we have to get up off our collective asses. We have to vote in the voting booth and on the streets.

Peterson Toscano believed last evening and offered that, slyly, pointedly, inspirationally, laugh out loudly. We are so lucky. “Apocaloptimist!” oh, yes, Peacemaker, Hope Giver… let’s get up offa those things! The world waits for our strong hearts and gentle hands.

Prosaic, Poetic Peace, llvl

Peace is in the little things, the little moments. We had one of those moments last night. A quiet time with friends, gathered around a table feasting on late summer bounty and later gathered around a living room feasting on our companions’ words.

Oh, I was grateful to be included in this group of wordsmiths, grateful that my words claimed their own space, different, but clear. And grateful that I live somewhere where spontaneously people will gather to say what they believe in stately measures while others will listen and gasp and nod. Is there more that we can ask than the sweet magic of every extraordinary day.

Today I spoke to two artists at the coffee shop, women who immerse themselves in textiles, opening up both pattern and sensuality to those of us who find it in words… or somewhere else.

This is everywhere… but it’s so apparent here, because there’s more space between the people. You can see more easily what someone else is up to. It’s not always a beautiful sight, but it so, so, so often is. Peace in words. Peace in silk. Peace in sweet companionship.

Collaborative Peace, llvl

Oh, man, working together. What a joy! What a gift! What a better product.

There is nothing sweeter than pushing around ideas and figuring out where they go on a (sometimes figurative, sometimes literal, sheet of paper.) Wow, this works with this. Gee, I never thought of that. Boy Howdy, this is fun!

I’m working on a presentation for a workshop. I’ve got notes about this dating back almost 10 years, and finally the right time came around. And now, suddenly, there are the right people to work on it with. Yesterday, I thought and took notes with one woman. Today, I have to write that up so I can think and write again. (and sometimes write and think, because as someone wise once said, how can I know what I think until I write it down?)

I really like what I’m working on and I love working on it with someone else(s). And working together is so much easier these days, because if you can’t be in the same room, you just sit down and skype. Technology does make my life better and sweeter.

I know some people are really solitary thinkers. I am not always that. Not on the big things. I like knowing how you think differently than I do so that the stew gets far more interesting. I started to take that analogy farther, but thought it might not further the argument. (I’ve never used further successfully in a sentence before. laughing.) It’s hard work. It demands both self-reflection and getting out of the way of the process.

So here’s to my collaborators, my co-workers and co-creationists. Here’s to a community of thought and progress, to doing good two by two or three by three, rather than one by one. Thanks, it’s swell. it feels like magic. And oh, btw, The work is so much stronger. I’ll take it. and rejoice. I have longed for this my whole life. It seems the little bit of Peace I can imagine gets larger every time we sit down to talk. Thank you, thank you, thank you. and oh, yes. Wahoo!

Celebrating Community Peace, llvl

My bro- and sis-in-law have the world’s blowout on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. It’s huge. They spend weeks preparing and friends come by and help garden and generally spiff. Did I mention I have the world’s best bro- and sis-in-law? This marriage business has all sorts of benefits you don’t expect. Not just a great husband, but kids and a great family. Sold to the Priestess!

The all-important porta-potty arrives. Tents go up. Lights get strung. The fire gets laid.

Then people arrive in droves, carting in sound boards and mics. The world’s biggest beer ice chest gets filled. Missy Margaret’s fabulous redone antique cooler gets stocked with soda.

And we’re off. hundreds of people show up toting food and beverage, chairs, and instruments. savory food on these tables. dessert on that one. hotdogs outside on the grill. It’s a madhouse where no one gets mad. You rarely have a good long visit with anyone, unless you do.

Last year, i could barely show up because Deb was newly dead. This year, I was thrilled to be there and delighted that the woman who took Deb’s blood was hanging out. Three years ago we fretted that Than wouldn’t make it to the next party. This year… the party was bigger than ever and he was king of the hill… and that makes his world happy and grateful.

Not only was there no hurricane yesterday, the rain held off.

Living la vida local. Outside with good food and neighbors and music that was sometimes great, sometimes not… sometimes Peace is elusive. But sometimes Magic happens and Peace shows up right along the river with loads of laughing people… Peace… and today, i’m off for my last outdoor swim at the town pool… magic enough for me.

More Creek Peace, llvl

It was one of those perfect moments. (so perfect it needed more than one musing.)

“When I sit here, I want Heaven to look just like this.”

“Heaven is right here.”

Heaven was right there in so many ways. It was one prolonged moment of bliss. The water temperature was exactly right. The sun was slowly being hidden behind the trees. The air temperature was warm enough to keep us comfortable in the cool water but not too hot to bear. Old friends talking about big things and little. A front porch experience in the middle of the creek as the neighbors drifted by… neighbors as they always are. some noisy with exuberant kids, some quiet and precise.

And in the heart of it, a moment of Perfect Peace. Magic in Nature. No place to go. Nothing to do. Who knew that making memories could be so completely effortless? Just Being on a summer afternoon into evening. Telling tales of families that held everything of fondness and at that moment nothing of missing. My whole crew so easily could have been around the bend… Floating Heaven. May you have a piece of Heaven to remind you how sweet life is and how sacred.

Mystery, Beauty, Peace, llvl

Our beautiful little village and our photographer who captures it. This is such a splendid picture of what’s happening all over at this moment in moist and lush central Pennsylvania. There are certainly other places as beautiful, but none more so, I think.

For some reason this catapults me back to childhood and playing make believe. Which I did for years. (who knew, all those years when they thought I wouldn’t ever grow up, I was just preparing to be a writer.)

It’s true that today’s Ann looks at this and thinks, oh, there’d be bugs under there (yes, I’ve gotten crochety/practical as I’ve seasoned.), but when I look through the eyes of the little girl I was I see Magic and Possibility everywhere. And where there’s Magic and Possibility, there’s Peace. There’s got to be Mystery, too, who knows what magical beings might choose to live in such beauty…

So, feast your eyes on this picture and enjoy the beauty. Consider who you used to be and consider how you might have played in this Faerie garden and who you might have met… Oh, such joy!

Feelin’ it Peace, llvl

Sunday we had a humor service at church. I tend to love humor as it occurs rather than as it’s planned, but I admit it, I roared… The kids were hilarious. The other guy definitely upstaged me, glad i wasn’t competing. I did my usual oh, so meaningful sermon. (eyes roll) But it seemed to go over.

What I love about this community is that we laugh all the time. When we’re working on hard things and when life is going along easily. What I also love is that we cry easily too. We’re willing to invest in one another and experience the edges of life, which are often sharp and uncomfortable and to do that right alongside the mundane and daily life.

Emotions exist to be experienced. I’m not talking about drama queens, I’m talking about life’s normal ups and downs. What does it mean that we have drugs we inject into our foreheads and our upper lips so that we have no lines? I’m not excited I’m older, I’m far creakier than I was. Yes I have very different fun than I used to have, but I had that fun and that wasn’t better, it just was. Life’s an amazing thing. And of course, getting older means living a rich life of memory and possibility. It means more moments of self reflection and more moments of pure magic. And it means finding your equilibrium, your balance.

One thing we know about these great prophets is that were in life. May the same be said for us!

Head Start Peace, llvl

Steve and I played and read yesterday at a local Head Start. Pennsylvania chooses a book every year to give to the kinds and local people are invited in to read it to the kids. Yesterday we got to be the guests in the classroom. (Year three for us and counting!)

It’s a fun day for us, once we get past the bothersome figuring out of who’s going to do what… play this, read it this way. But the joy of doing what you love and are good at with the one you love, we’re aware not everyone has that opportunity and we’re so grateful and flat out happy. And when you add in little ones and then Head Start the Happy Stew just gets richer.

When you’re privileged to walk into a Head Start class you can almost see kids stretching and growing through the patient love and skills of the teachers. When we talk about heros, it’s so often the folks who walk into burning buildings. But I’m telling you, it’s also the people (all women in this case) who, day after day, walk into a class full of youngsters and make a monumental change in their lives. Some of them are excited newbies; some of them are seasoned and constant. And always, there’s a class grandma with a lap full of contented child.

We were guests not only of the teachers, but also of people who train and evaluate those teachers. Their dedication to and faith in the Program is astonishing. When was the last time you went to a workplace where no one was jaded? It’s being present to a miracle.

Head Start matters, my friends. There’s talk about gutting it or getting rid of it altogether. Head Start helps to level a wildly inequitable playing field. It helps to make a difference at the beginning of children’s lives, starting them out to become strong and powerful adults. We need to take very good care of such an important process. Head Start is a constant reminder that magic is the result of very hard work.

Our keeping faith with Head Start is an important step in keeping faith with Peace. However you can help, from voting to lobbying, please do. Let’s make giving thanks an active verb, shall we?

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: magic