Community Pink Moon Peace

For a woman raised in a very calm and quiet household, lord love me, i adore a little chaos. (Particularly if I have a quiet place to retreat to afterwards.)

When I was an exchange student and I went from having two fairly quiet siblings to having four fairly noisy siblings, while I missed home, I thrived.

And found a way to fit in. And continued to treasure the quiet moments.

Maybe because belonging to a group, my family and my church community, were so safe, I don’t mind watching the chaos swirl if it’s benign and building community.

I believe in community. I find it healing and inspiriting. It welcomes you home and kicks you out. It makes it possible to do things you can’t do alone. It’s a good thing.

and when laughter and hilarity ensue from learning about important things. hurrah. That happened for me yesterday. And because it’s the Season of the Pink Moon, there was an entire wonderful collision of holidays to celebrate… Making memories. Making sense. Making Community.

To Peace under the Full Pink Moon!

It’s not always easy to stay in the present. Easy to be caught by the perfection of yesterday and the promise of tomorrow. Or the horrors of what happened and the fears of what’s to come.

And yet, here, one perfect day, ready to unwind before us. What could be sweeter? It’s to be a blustery spring day with a full moon rising in beauty. There are things to accomplish. Things to enjoy. Certainly there will be things to deal with. And so what?

It’s here. Here for us to treat gently. Here for us to make Peace with, to make Peace within, to make Peace for. And here are we… ready to Peace.

And later? here comes the full Pink Moon. ah… Beauty. For us. Enjoy. Go out and make some memories and Love and Laugh and Dance and Peace by the light of the full Pink Moon! I can’t wait to hear the tales you’ll have to tell.

What’s on your Song List for Peace?

We all have those favorite songs from the magical times in our lives.

They helped us stand up and do what was in front of us and sit down and enjoy what was right here, right now.

Joni Mitchell is on my list. She was background for the development one of the most important friendships in my life. She was background for my college years. I became more fully myself singing along with her songs.

And now she’s aging and oh, btw, she’s not quite 10 years older than i am.

But I love that high voice and pointed lyric.

Thanks for the Peace and all the wonderful memories I made while you were singing! May I be a Peacegiver too…

Floating Harbingers of Pink Moon Peace

It must be the change in light that nudges the birds into wakefulness… or maybe it’s the absence of a certain kind of food that alerts them. Pssst. get going. Time to be on the move.

Whatever it is, it causes great swathes of them to rise up and return to their summer homes far up North. I believe that I’ve heard, but could find no corroboration this morning, that these gulls are headed to the Great Lakes. The swans and the snow geese have their own destinations.

But yesterday, they’d reached a cornfield along their journey where they could roost and rest and a stretch of the river where they could calmly, time and again, rise and fall and simply float down the stream.

I promised myself, watching, that this summer when the water and the air warms, that I would do the human version of this. I would gather my friends together and we would put our innertubes in the water and float merrily down the stream. The gulls remind me of the importance of quiet communion on the water. Fun and Friendship.

Thanks, river gulls for this glimpse of Peace. The Pink Moon brings so many wonders… Do you think the gulls whisper of the sweet memories made on Sundays on the Susquehana? Delight ahead! Let us all remember!

Snow Geese, Swans & Sugar Moon Peace

Migration is such an amazing thing. Birds travel thousands of miles from their summer to winter homes and then back again. (well, they’re traveling to keep the same seasons going).

Because I live two blocks from a North/South waterway, there’s no escaping this beautiful reality.

I drove over to “the” field yesterday about dusk and 2000 birds were taking off. They flew in formation back and forth, catching the sun and then the shadow. They looked like an Escher print. Now brilliantly white, then golden in the sun, then black in shadow. The Vees formed and reformed. They called back and forth.

Every year, the same astonishing display. As I said, for me, it’s wrapped up in my Dad… but the beauty is overwhelming on its own. There it is, for free. Today, maybe tomorrow, but certainly next year! Making memories and all we have to do is show up and be present.

Every day there’s a reminder of life’s Abundance and Beauty. Swans and Geese are today’s gift of Peace from the Snow Moon. (oh, and the gulls, let’s not forget the gulls!)

Looking Back at Lunacy & Sabbath Peace

Riding in the back seat of the car with siblings is/was a rite of passage for many of us.

For many people, back in the day (whichever day that was), it was a Sabbath occupation. Once services were over, whatever tradition you were, you got in the car and went to grandma’s… or auntie’s… or…

It wasn’t so funny then, especially if you were smushed on the hump because you just happened to be the third (and therefore the shortest) child, but what’s funny is how universal the complaints.

I suggest you throw your offspring (no matter their age) in the back of the car immediately and go off for a drive. Everyone should have such childhood torment and delight… it makes for a lot of fun when you’re grown up..

It’s going to be bitterly cold, so please be careful. Peace be with you all… The Snow Moon is bringing those arctic winds and icy drifts. brrrrrrrrr.

Growing Family Peace, llvl

We never spent a lot of time together growing up — for whatever reasons. I’m sure part of it (and I inherited this from her) my grandmother didn’t deal well with chaos. Too many evans/bennett kids in one place = chaos!

It took family losses to bring us together. Death, divorce, more death. The more it happened, the more insistent we became that we gather.

And so we have, in whatever groups can get there… we usually eat… depending where we are, we might drink champagne… and we always laugh… We have a wedding coming soon, what joy… and then we wait a while while the kids grow up a bit… but still we gather.

I wish i knew how to bring the California families into this… and how to spend more time with the California families… life, it is what it is. sigh. But what it is is sweet — at least from time to time when we can make it happen. Let’s all make memories while we can…

Love, it’s what we need. And when faces we love look back at us with faces that are very like ours, it’s pretty wonderful. I had to wait 50 some years to get it, but i’ll claim this as mine — and as wonderful. Peace sometimes looks just like you, and isn’t that grand!

Seasonal, Musical Peace, llvl

There’s been all sorts of music for me this holiday season. From listening to the intricate, beautifully wrought (and sung!) choral music right down to the music making with my voice teacher in her living room. Learning something new, hearing something fabulous.

Last night at the Mitchell Musical Mash-Up, the kids were back from college and grad school. Ahhhhhhhhh. Music, music, music.

People used to sit around and sing. We don’t do that enough. It’s one of my secret joys in church. I love that I can burst into song in the middle of a sermon and everyone will join right in!

One of the sweetest things about these Winter holidays is the music. Take your choice: old beloved music, hoary chestnuts and new and interesting pieces being written; There are wonderful sacred pieces from many traditions and lovely secular favorites. They get played to death on the radio and in the malls and we know ‘way too many of them, even the ones we don’t like!

Singing matters. Singing helps. Having a season defined by song is a rich tradition… and it allows the meaning to deepen every year. We need traditions. We need songs. So, let’s make some memories. Let’s sing along. Let’s hear what our neighbors are singing… and why not sing a sleighing song tonight and have a rollicking good time? Laughing all the way might bring us a bit closer to Joy to the World and Peace on Earth. What more could we ask?

Your Peace Road, llvl

What road leads you home?

I mean, what real road takes you to your spiritual home? When you’re driving down a particular road what’s the exact point at which you feel that deep, lovely exhale that says you’ve arrived safely?

Mine’s heading West on I-80 from the Delaware Water Gap, the grade not long after the rest stop, that heads down across the North Branch of the Susquehanna. From there to the Lightstreet turn-off, I’m heading home. Never mind that my road doesn’t stop there any more. Never mind I have more beautiful road to travel before I come home now, I’m “home” when I hit that hill.

These days I live and love my vida local thirty-five miles from my old home town. These days I float around Bloomsburg like a ghost, haunting old familiar spots without encountering familiar faces. It’s okay. Sometimes I need to eat a sub from Steph’s or to drive by the church or to walk in the park. I’m not really interested in building new relationships to tie me to the town… I have all those old lovely memories and a busy new life. And somehow seeing people I know makes me miss the people who are gone.

Still, I have that good road home in the setting winter sun. Deb Slade, illustrating my heart, one more time.

Where is that place for you? And which road leads you to some Peace for your heart?

Sabbath Peace Coincidences, llvl

Fall driving through Pennyslvania makes a few things pretty clear: 1) they weren’t wrong to name it Penn’s Woods. Even though much of it was clear cut for logging, it has now reclaimed its title and right about now is about as glorious a place you would ever want to visit. 2) I’m very grateful for roads. I would not have wanted to be moving around in a wagon on a small trail the bears and deer wore down. 3) Road trips with good friends are really great.

We drove ‘way too far to hear a great friend sing. But it’s been a while; in the meantime she’s been very sick, a mutual friend of ours died and my sister died. It felt right to push to spend a bit of time and hear her sing. We didn’t know if EG would recover but she did, and her new cd is simply delightful. You really might want to take a listen. EG Kight’s voice is as lush as ever and her pickin’? Yes’m. She invited this friend of hers up to sing, Long, Tall Deb is another fabu blues singer. These women play well with others, the two of them. Such generous sharing of great talent. Hootin’ and hollerin’ ensued.

Then a great night of sleep on a lovely hotel bed. Call me shallow, but I do love mangled hotel sheets. mmm.

Neither Emily nor I had ever seen Falling Water, so we decided to come home the long way. (and oh yes, it was the long way. You really can’t get there from here. But we did.) What a beautiful place. I’ve lived in PA a lot of years but I’d never seen it. It’s worth a visit. (Geezer alert, lots of walking, lots of steps with no balustrade. Oh the things we notice these days we never did before. Steve’s wanted to see this, makes me sad that I can’t take him along…)

But then to come out and seem my nephew’s mother-in-law hanging around in the visitor’s center, that was pretty fun. We did a lot of squealing and hugging. And they were getting ready to meet Elijah and Meghan. I had to get back and get ready for today, so we couldn’t be the surprise guests at their dinner party, but what a fun thing! Altogether now, one loud chorus of “It’s a small world, after all…”

So, here’s me, heartily recommending a weekend off with a bud. Peace is in the details and the coincidences. Go have a lovely Autumn Sabbath afternoon, that color won’t last forever! Go make some memories!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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