Peace and Deliberateness

When I was looking for the right form of the word Deliberateness to use… it’s rather an awkward word, I admit… I wondered for a while if it was really different than intention… But I think so. I think deliberateness includes intention, but it also includes being aware and being careful. So in the pursuit of both Sacred Vocabulary and Peace, it seemed a good word to add.

I often have clear intentions, but I also often fall in the “ready, fire, aim” class of doers, so this is an important word for me. Peace is a fragile endeavor. Much of the work can be accomplished with good will and large vision. But you have to be aware, present and somewhat self-reflective, as well.

If ever a word argued for partnership and cooperation in my life, this would be it! And do you know, I don’t believe either of those words have yet made it onto the vocabulary list. What was I thinking… perhaps that vocabulary is something that develops slowly and relative to the needs of the situation and the wisdom!

So move about your day today with great deliberateness…see how that changes things. It will certainly slow things down and if your weather is like ours, it will be a wise response to the heat…

Peace Adventure

No really, I didn’t plan this when I set out to write about a month full of words we might want to live into. But on the day I write about adventure, I’m off on one! Today I climb on a bus to New York with about 35 other people to attend a gallery opening.

My sister’s bestie from high school, a woman with whom she got up to all sorts of shennanigans while being 11th grad Girl Scouts traveling across Europe, has her first gallery opening in New York City.

It’s so easy to turn your life into a rut and never climb out. And yet, the trip to school is an adventure if we exhale that breath we are holding. We’re alive. We’re with people we love (even if at the moment we’d like our cheeky child to be kind just for once be pleasant to her sister or brother), and life is therefore grand. What do we notice as we travel the same ground day after day.

I think one of the most important periods of my life was the time I went to feed my mom two times a day for two plus years. Not only did I never exactly know what was going to happen when I got there, I began to pay attention to the landscape. Oh, not always, there was plenty of routine, but there began to be places where I could tell that summer was folding his tents or spring was making her way. Suddenly the everydayness of it became exciting.

But it’s important to take adventures outside our daily lives. Because they teach us so much about not only others but also about ourselves and our ruts. Once we peek our head over the rut, life looks very different. Once we’re outside, we begin to notice that there’s a huge difference between peaceful and Peace. We’re working toward Peace. Being peaceful is helpful but not mandatory. Adventures? I don’t know if they’re mandatory, but they’re a lot of fun! (even if slightly scary in the moment!)

And of course for me, today is sort of a practice adventure for a HUGE adventure. On Friday, Deb and I go to Philly and spend the night. Saturday we get on a plane to Vancouver. Sunday we get on a ship to cruise the Alaska Inner Passage… and then days later a train to Denali National Park. Lots of fun ahead. And no internet. and I’m not sure how much cell phone coverage. Lots of being present to the moment and the beauty and my beloved sisty. Maybe some self-reflection. Definitely some memory-making. Lots of blessing counting for my sweet love and rich life. Oh, Hooray! Oh, Joy! Oh! A two-week Sabbath. Oh, Adventure!

Picnic Peace

Moments of silence for fallen warriers, short but boisterous parades and sweet picnics at a friends: These are the joys of a good Memorial day. An important part of remembering is making new memories against moments of loss and grief. I hope yours was splendid. (and let us not forget to count the blessing of the three-day weekend! Let’s hear it for Unions!)

Peace of Uncomfortable Belonging

I have a very mixed relationship with my pride in my country. or really in any group. I’m very happy to be an American. It’s shaped me, made me who I am. There are many opportunities here. At the same time, there are many things we don’t do well, and I worry we’ve stopped trying. And blind nationalism scares the hell out of me.

But you don’t spend a lot of time in a small country without beginning to see how some sense of national pride and unity changes and strengthens you. There I am, back and forth, one foot and and the other. Mostly I get to ignore it. I’m not sportive, I don’t wind up in places where there’s a lot of singing of national songs. (Well other than when Hope and I sing for the elders. Then we sing them all, and they sing with gusto. It’s another way you realize how important both the celebration of unity and the singing of these songs are.)

I wonder if the national ambivalence about belonging has lead to the notion that it’s ok that we not be the ones who sacrifice. It’s fine for others to sacrifice for our country, but we aren’t asking ourselves to support that in any way… hello, can you talk about health services for returning vets? Would singing national songs change that? I don’t know, maybe if they were the right ones. I certainly think that singing in groups can solve lots of problems!

But there I was, caught off guard when the graduation ceremony started with the Star Spangled Banner. And to be truthful it’s not just my ambivalence about nationalism that makes me hesitate to like the SSB. It’s hard to sing and so many people sing it badly. And there’s this new rather lamentable (at least to me) trend to sing with so many notes that the song is obscured. But this young woman stepped out on the library steps in front of 30,000 people and sang her heart out. Simply with great conviction. The teletron was right there, so you felt as if she were singing to you. No manipulation, no over-the topness, just joy in the moment and the possibilities…

Caught me off guard. I certainly wasn’t the only one wiping tears from my seat. It was a good reminder to keep my opinions flexible. And to stay in touch with the pride, not focus only on the disappointments. Freedom of speech, willingness to question: we need these things. But Balance. it’s important too.

And of course, everything was meaningful that day, because my sweet Hannah was graduating. But I’m very grateful for the song.

Graduate Peace?

Our graduates are coming out into a tough world. There aren’t lots of jobs available. And there are many things wrong with the world. We’ve certainly given them unrealistic expectations that their lives would be better than ours — a notion the boomers proved to be true in their early work lives perhaps but are perhaps struggling with today.

It’s a great time for leadership. And I’m not sure it’s going to be ours. Because we haven’t led. I realized two things in writing this. 1) well, that was depressing, despite my faith in them and 2) the next poem had better be to their elders, we’d better Peace-up, and start looking for our own solutions.

But graduates? Count those blessings, Review your shortcomings. Do that self-reflection dance. Stay present. Stay connected to your friends with great ideas and the will and ingenuity to implement them.

And isn’t that the work of right now? What’s going in that garden to feed our family? What Peace seedlings are we planting and tending to feed a Peace-hungry world? There’s work to be done. And for too many kids there are choices to be made between doing nothing and doing good. We cannot let these shining stars become discouraged; and they’re of an age where they might want to realize that it will be dangerous for them.

So, an important part of their challenge is to stay involved and inspired in their lives despite a very challenging world. There’s very real danger in their becoming disaffected… we owe our children not to let that happen — and they owe it to themselves.

Cusps and Verges are very interesting places filled with wonder and possibility and fraught with danger…

Peace of Recognition

Namaste is such a powerful word. As a greeting, it goes right to the heart of what we all most crave — to be seen, to be recognized as sacred and worthy. It is one of those words, which if you begin to use mindfully, will change your life and your perspective.

You cannot say “Namaste” and then talk trash about someone or a group of someone. In your saying “hello, I recognize you” there is the plea to be recognized. There is a celebration of one’s humanity and one’s divinity. it is an acknowledgement of the other’s worth and dignity. Namaste is a word of Peace. It demands being present. It demands self reflection. It demands being aware of and counting one’s blessings.

I’m wary of snatching up words from other languages and cultures and assuming the right to use them. But any words that make us stop and consider how we interact in the world are good words to have around. Namaste, my friends, may you make it a wonderful Peace-filled day.

A Civil Peace

Here’s the thing about high ideals. They require a lot of step-by-step on the ground work. So just when you’re thinking about buying the champagne and Peace bunting you realize that you have to be making Peace in your local community… and helping them to become Peace makers.

It’s one of the reasons we need to team up on this journey, because some of us work well at blue sky levels, some of us work better on the ground… and then of course there are those who work in between and some who just like to work behind the scenes, they’re all necessary.

But just as the Sandy Hook tragedy underlined the necessity but also the opportunity of working together, this spate of violent gang rapes while teens stand idly by and then text horrific pics and threats offers us the necessity and the opportunity to talk about public responsibility and public discourse. We’d all better take the opportunity. This isn’t a case of those kids over there. This is all of us. We’ve failed those kids. All the “don’t make them come along, sit at the table, participate in group activities” leniency we’ve offered our children has taught them they don’t need to participate. Technology is both an incredible opportunity for widening our world and a removal from first person experience.

I’m not sure what the answers are, but I do know we’re the folks to work on this. We need to relearn and to teach the arts of civil discourse and engagement. Life is a conversation in which there are exchanges and silences. If it’s about violence and threats and disinterest, that’s our work to repair. We need to look in the mirror and indulge in some moments of self-reflection. We need to be stepping up to the challenges, because our children need us. We need to be working on the Peace Conversation.

Backroad Peace

The monoliths of the Four Directions offer such clarity. Here you are, this is what’s going on here: Perception and understanding, Passion and Drive, Dreaming and Envisioning, and Grounding and History. To stand in one Corner is to know exactly where you are.

But in one sense, it’s also to be hemmed in. One of the fascinating things about writing the musings and then reflecting on them is the picture that begins to emerge of my own behavior. (Self reflection? Peace needs self reflection?????) I, unlike many, actually like superhighways. Why? because I can’t get lost. I’m always late; they’re speedy. And, to fess up, I’m not secure when the lines aren’t straight. But spiritually speaking, it’s in the getting lost that growth happens, that interest deepens, that you encounter new ideas, people, even perhaps pieces of the Divine.

Ah, that old goal/process thing. I’m all about the goal. I understand process and I can facilitate it. But I’m all about the shortcuts. I always flunk that test that says read all the rules before you begin to write. And then when I’ve completed the test I get to the end that says, put down your paper and sit quietly. Well, not that I sit quietly very well, either! But I’m going to have to stick my toes in the water of the small streams. Because I’m convinced, while principles of Peace may be encoded in the Four Directions, the working of it, between actual individuals happens in the places in between. And I’m beginning to believe that Peace will only happen when we the people demand it!

The Peace of Winter’s End

While everyone’s jumping around hollering because the sun’s shifting, I am reluctant to let go of Winter’s beauty and its blessed slow pace. I am a jumping around kinda person, so I like being offered Winter’s opportunity for reflection. I like slowing down. I like focusing on my dreams and not just on action.

But will-he, nill-he, things are changing in the natural world’s cycle and carrying us right along with them. So we must consider what pieces of our Peace Dreams we’re going to start developing. You know me, I don’t garden, but I know gardens. They’ve been pouring over seed catalogs and ordering in their favs, designing the layouts of which vegetables and flowers will nestle side by side.

There’s our challenge — to make sure we have what we need to bring our Peace Dream to fruition… to help it bear fruit. Let’s show up and be present to the new season’s beauty, count our blessings and use them to spread over our Peace Gardens and perhaps we can continue to honor the Winter with some consistent periods of quiet, dark and reflection to sustain us for the time of jumping around. Peace, it looks so different at different times in the year, doesn’t it?

Peace on the boil!

Well, it’s nice to be back. Life has been so hectic recently that I haven’t had the time to sit down and write. Good things happening, so I”l tell you more, in another post.

The sugaring image has been tugging at me recently. Lots of effort and lots of ingredients and lots of time required, but oh what sweetness at the end. Peace is a lot like that, while it may be as simple as a smile, there are always logistics to be worked out. But, as with anything worth having, you have to take the time and make the effort to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You work hard, and then you wait. You have to keep the fire banked and burning steadily so you don’t burn the sugar or fail to chase the moisture. If you’re smart, you’ll glory in the process as well. We might as well let go of the notion of simply getting things done, getting past this or that to the sugar at the end. The process makes the sugar sweet, but you can allow the process to be sweet as well. Make some memories to store up for the year ahead. Reflect on your life and the beauty of nature. Have a good time and enjoy your solitude and your company. Live in the time you have.

Not the one tending the fires? You have to invest to enjoy the fruits of other people’s labor. We each add our own piece to the process. Our Passion can help keep the Peace fire steadily burning. Maple sugar is a little delight. Peace is a grand one. Maple sugar isn’t good for everyone. Peace is good for everyone. Enjoy your Maple sugar judiciously. Spread Peace on everything. Peace awaits our hands to do the work and our hearts to take the time.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: moments of self-reflection