Chipping Out Hate for Peace

I know I’ve had these words in my mouth before: institutionalized racism, misogeny, able-bodiedness… i’ve used them all.

But I don’t know that I’ve really looked at how those particular hatreds, or any kind of hatred, became codified and part of the structure.

One of the first things the First Congress took up was who was human and therefore who could vote.

We’ve been fighting against those definitions ever since. They’ve been taken out of law but not out of practice.

Until those of us who have do something to ensure that those who don’t have access nothing will happen.

What is that something? Well, we’re going to have to figure it out. It’s hard work. It will demand unpleasant self-reflections. We must acknowledge that there is abundance and that it must be shared… We must find the balance. We must, we must, we must. yeah i know. You’re not to do that. Nonetheless…

People are depending on us. Peace is depending on us.

The Peace Between Goodbye and Hello

I love living where I do. But I also loved living where I lived.

I love my friends from other pieces of my life as much as I adore the ones from this life.

I feel lucky and privileged and loved.

So today, as I stand one foot still in the land I visited and the other stretching toward home, I have to remember that the place in between is also lovely and can be filled with the Peace of both Gratitude and Anticipation. Remembering, Reflecting, Making new memories… all of it. Peace!

Gratitude too for the Ripe Garden Moon. The last day comes not today, but tomorrow!

House-holding Peace.

I confess (which is hardly a confession if you know me!) that I am not a great homemaker. While I love a lovely home, and have one, I am too easily distracted to constantly be working at upkeep. So it comes in binges from me. (and should probably come from a cleaning person on a regular basis… maybe i SHOULD start playing lotto!)

But when summer break hits, I seem to snap into motion. Calm and beauty must be restored at home! So I can leave and come back to a place of beauty and be encouraged to put away all the travel stuff really quickly so that it can be beautiful again!

The Peace of your Home supports you as you work for the Peace of your World. Everyone needs a little corner of sanity!

Summertime Peace

What is it about vacation? I had so much I needed to get accomplished today. And an equal amount tomorrow. But oh! It felt so sweet not to have deadlines from someone else. They were all my own and I churned through them!

And I kept picking away at the things that were next! Still more to do, but a lot done. So… I’ll take it.

It’s so important to have time off and to slow down and be present to that time. I’m going to be making some memories!

I’m dashing around now, because starting Thursday, I’ll be off line for a week. Look for my posts here, but don’t expect me to announce them on FB… yesssssssss.

Sweet Peace in the Summertime! I hope you also have some time to disconnect and simply be.

Peace with Mistakes that Rattle Your Days

Sometimes you fail at things and that’s one thing to cope with. Other times you make mistakes. You don’t check a fact, find a typo, or, for some other reason, simply overlook something.

But there it is, in living color, a mistake. Big and bold and unable to be stuffed back into the box.

The horror that can generate is often completely disproportionate to the gravity of the mistake. But there’s that same old shameful feeling that rises up from yesterday, from your hidden depths, from who knows where, but there it is. You were wrong. Publicly. Flat on your face.

As a friend of mine joked, as only friends can, knowing that i am clumsy, wow, your falls are usually only literal, not figurative! true that, and i have the sprained ankles to prove it.

But there you are. Wrong and rattled in the Thunder Moon. No one else thinks it’s a sin, but you’re having a hard time convincing yourself. OK, I’m having a hard time convincing myself. I’m pretty taken aback by my over-reaction. Did I really think I wouldn’t ever do something wrong? And what was that seductive temptation to stop the process so that I could never make another mistake, never be seen as human. There’s a shadow!

If I can’t make a mistake about this, how am I going to be about dealing with the big things that are part of my make up? Or as in the case of racism part of my privilege?

Thunder Moon rattles, I shake… Peace is looking it all in the eye and coping/changing/living through! Ah well, I’m sure none of you struggle with any of this! Peace in the struggle… and in those stark little moments of self-reflection.

Peace is the Berry Moon and an Open Heart

The Berry Moon is about being ripe and luscious. Fully yourself, decadently, decidedly you.

Welcome.

The open heart is about appreciating not only your own charms but those of the others whatever charms they are.

And if others don’t love your charms, and you’re convinced, because you are also wildly self-reflective, that your charms are you and you’re not trying to be someone else, but then, even then, you’re searching! and if other folks are damning —

Then you don’t need those other people.

Because that way lies insanity and self-hatred. Peace lies in your lusciousness, you ripe and juicy berry, you. Love the Berry Moon. Love yourself. Love Peace.

Save the World for Peace

This is the Berry Moon. it’s the Moon of growing things. The Moon of that first harvested sweetness.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country, where they’re already harvesting sweetness, they’re using water they don’t have for households to produce berries for people everywhere.

And out on the coast, an oil line has burst and degorged into the sea. the beautiful, beautiful sea.

And CEOs get to say sorry and think that is a response.

Big business, fragile Earth. it’s a bad mixture. And Peace is definitely the casualty. What are we going to do? I have no idea… But you can’t unsee this… and you have to keep asking yourself questions…

On Bringing the Peace You Can

It’s really about presence and showing up, isn’t it? And doing the best you can.

You seek to say the things you know will bring them comfort. You work to be as grounded as you can be, as open-hearted, open-souled… open minded, because even here, where it’s about the very stuff of life, there’s so much that’s going on around and as part of it… as you can be.

Even when you have spiritual comfort to offer, it’s often your ability to be comfortable where you are, to be with friends and strangers alike, to let people know they are seen and in the deepest sense of the word, loved.

It’s such a privilege to do this sacred work… and you bump along, sometimes doing it better than others. Doing your best… and showing up. Hoping you can help this family in the midst of what is so hard, hoping there can be Peace and dignity… hoping that you’re helping to create a memory they will always grieve but maybe not regret the way it went.

I knew and liked the woman who died yesterday. It was a hard death for her. She labored to let go. Don’t let ’em fool you, death, is rarely easy. I knew her husband a little, enough that he trusted me. and the same with her mother. Her poor daughter, poor sweet Katy, I had seen only as a baby. This woman was never as proud of anything in her life as of her daughter and of being Katy’s mom.

But there you are struggling for your own grounding in the midst of people you know and those you don’t at the doorway of something huge. Life-not-this-Life.

I believe Peace really lies in open hands and open hearts. I believe it also lies in Presence. And so, I’ll keep trying to show up. I’m grateful to be called and give thanks when i can be of service. And it’s hard work.

Blessings, Peace, Love.

Peace Withheld by Violent Measure

It suited the mine bosses for the different ethnic factions not to get along. No chance of a union’s forming if you can’t stand the cut of another man’s lineage. And so they did everything they could to fan the flames of dissent.

Living was hard scrabble and just plain hard in these mining towns. All the Flower Moon blooming in the world can’t pretty up the effects of mining on a small town. And now it’s hard scrabble because towns built up around a

Now you ride by little pretty little streams and there are warning signs posted about the ruination of those streams and the dangerously high rates of mine acid. The mountains are sheared off. Greenery is only slowly, after 40-50 years, returning to the hills…

People are so slow to learn. We didn’t “know” mining was bad. at the same time we were clear cutting the trees. We didn’t know that water couldn’t deal with the stuff put into… and we didn’t much care when people downstream sickened and died.

We didn’t believe that others deserved a chance at the bounty we had… we didn’t really at that point consider lots of these workers human. And that still goes on. I’ve decided to go to a workshop to see what i can do about my part in all this… It’s time to turn this around. Past time, really, but now is the time we have to make Peace. The Beauty tries to tell us what Peace might look like… time to take it seriously. It’s only making space for those moments of self reflection that will help us understand how we stand in the way of Peace and how we might contribute to it, consciously, consistently… Peace.

Pink Moon Peace Realities

It is what it is. My friend Lenore says that all the time. And I keep coming back to it.

Paid my taxes yesterday. Every year, the Pink Moon arrives and you can bet that Tax Day won’t be far behind. It was a stretch. And you know what? I’m doing it wrong. Year after year. It doesn’t change — because I don’t change.

I like to think I’m just that way with money. but I’m pretty sure I’m lying to myself. I think if I did some accounting, I’d be aware of places I’m not balanced in most of my life.

I know I pay a price for it financially. What do you want to bet I pay a price for it in other ways… and other people pay a price as well…

And then that lovely question… and what am I going to do about it?

Realities just help us to see both the distance and the terrain of the journey to Peace. Peace means a lot of things. Our honesty is part of the struggle. Sigh. There’s always work to do. Luckily it’s a beautiful day for work. What day isn’t?

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: moments of self-reflection