Lines of Peace this Sugar Moon Sabbath

Today is the 50th Commemoration, I can’t say anniversary, like it’s a happy thing, of Bloody Sunday.

It was a day about lines. Lines to keep people in boxes that they weren’t going to accept any more. Lines that people in power were clear should never be crossed. Lines that at last, at last, the media finally decided to cross to show what was going on. Lines that kept a nation of people comfortably allowing them to keep thinking of themselves as good people.

We should know our lines. What are the lines we believe never should be crossed? What are the lines that keep us from being fully who we are. Lines both protect and prohibit… it’s an odd thing, isn’t it? We ahve to consier if we’re willing to do the hard work to stand on those lines, to step up to those lines and stand in solidarity alongside others who believe and those who are unwilling to see or wake up.

So, looking at my latitude and longitude helps me consider lines. I live at 40.9˚N and 79.8˚W… What other intersection I live in I’ll need to consider. And meanwhile the Sugar Moon shines sweetly down on all of us, doesn’t it?

If you haven’t read the President’s speech from the bridge yesterday, you might want to. You might want to look up your own latitude and longitude. You might want to think about where your Peace Lines are, which ones you’ll never cross and which ones are holding you back… A blessed and lovely Sabbath to you, my friends!

Crow Moon Peace!

Dick Bonham, friend of mine, friend of my mother’s (and part of a mutual admiration society for one another’s art), and husband to a friend, did this beautiful piece.

Crow Moon is called that because the cawing crows are supposed to signify the end of Winter. (really, they could try a little harder to let Winter know it’s ok to let go!)

Art about the Moon in celebration of a Baby. Peace. Any questions?

New Peace under the Sugar Moon?

A friend of mine, an amateur but dedicated astrologer, says that we’re in the midst of a large breakdown of societal structures. And that things are spiraling.

Don’t believe in astrology?

Okay, let’s read the newspaper.

Same message.

Determined assaults on public food, healthcare and shelter. Facile racial and religious slurs and hate crimes.

What’s to be done? One response has been the purity movements we’re seeing. They’re causing death and mayhem.

If we remain lackadaisical about this, the purity movements will win and hate will become even more entrenched.

Celebrating diversity and building civilization on that is hard work, no way around it. And it’s necessary. We are the ones. Peace is waiting for us. And creation is under assault while we don’t act. Let us be Peace on Earth. Let us distill the sweetness still here under this Sugar Moon.

The Same Sugar Moon Peace

The same Sugar Moon shines on me shines on you.

There are no hot spots under the Moon… there is only softly silvered landscape, sweetly silvered faces.

When we look at the world under the moon dripping with that soft beauty, it is possible for me to believe in Peace.

It’s not that I can’t see the Peaceful beauty in a sunny day… nothing i love like a lovely day in whatever season we happen to be in.

But the Moon’s touch is gentler. And I don’t think anyone could argue that we could stand a gentler touch…

No one could argue that Peace is what is needed here and now.

Not much else to say this morning, but Peace…

Clinging to Lunatic Peace

There is work to be done. And we’re the doers of that work. Sometimes it’s confusing to figure out what our piece of Peacemaking is.

It’s easy for me to get lost in how big the problems are and how interconnected the problems are and then to poke at those issues as intellectual puzzles rather than deal with it where it’s real. People’s lives are affected by the things we don’t address.

Children are hungry. People of color’s lives are truncated in so many ways by our refusal to see. People in poverty are seen as the problem rather than the result of laws and policies.

Some of us are best suited to deal with symptoms. Some better to rabble rouse and expose the truths of fear and greed’s costs. And some of us are policy makers. Each of those jobs are important.

And each of us can do some piece of one of them.

It’s just a matter of deciding what…

And then rising the swell of a beautiful day and a burgeoning moon to the rescue! The Moon may help us understand we’re all equal but the sun helps us to move from dreams to action.

Let us both dream of Peace and bring it into being. What banner will you take up? What cause will you embrace?

Recommitting to the Lunacy of Peace

We live in our isolated little bubbles. Stuff that happens outside our bubbles isn’t real. Stuff that happened a long time ago is hard to remember. There are wonderful things about our bubbles… I cherish my community of friends, colleagues and strangers…

But life isn’t like this for everyone. I spent the weekend immersed in a life outside. Friday night I listened to Peterson Toscano do a stand-up series of short skits on homosexuality and climate change. Saturday I saw Selma. Sunday I saw Dear White People. The whole was a strong wake-up call.

I know that life is not rosy for others, but I do like my cocoon… But if I live in my cocoon, I condemn others to a continued hell of invisibility. It’s an embracing of willful ignorance. It’s a rejection of a pretty large piece of the world.

And if I who knows better will do that, who is going to do the stepping up?

We’ve been told time and time again, Peace, Love and Understanding are lunacy. Dreaming? Lunacy. Possibilities? Lunacy.

But you know what hate, fear and greed are disgusting and hold us hostage in separated tribes. We’re more than that. We’re better than that.

And our world will not forever survive that worldview.

More is possible under the Sweet Sugar Moon. What would the Lunacy of Peace look like?

Peace of the Slurpee, Sabbath Sugar Moon

it has been so cold lately that the ocean has frozen. The ocean freezes more slowly than sweet water because apparently the salt displaces the ice that would like to form.

This isn’t the first time the ocean has frozen, but it is believed that it is the first time anyone has recorded the phenomenon of the ocean being gelatinous with ice so that the waves still rose and fell (albeit soundlessly) but slowly.

A surfer/photographer took it, and no other pictures or videos have emerged. Scientists say they’ve never seen such a thing or heard of it. One guy in the right place at the right time. And he never turned on his cell phone.

New and wonderful things.

It’s a good thing to remember when the world seems out of control. It’s a good thing to take some time on this cold winter day to reflect and consider what it means that things are still happening that have never before been seen. That’s not all bad.

They say the cold is breaking. That would be a lovely thing. But in the meantime, make Peace with what is… you never know when you might see something new and wonderful under the Moon. Happy Sabbath. Happy Peace.

Discombobbled in the Sugar Moon

It catches me off guard every year. February has only 28 days, who knew?

It’s not like I wind up with extra money at the end of the month. No this is always a catch up month so times are just as desperate on the last day of the month now as they are any end day.

It’s just I have more I want to get done, and poof! I’m out of month.

Yes, I know the poem. I know February only has 28 days. But it seems I don’t know it; not deep down in my bones.

And I wonder… Why did we change to a solar year? Oh, my gosh, google that madness. Science. Astronomy. Warfare. Easter. Because it’s correct (even though that’s not the thought in Ethiopia or Mt. Athos. Because I can. This Caesar and that. Because no one thought the keeping days to a regular length and adding a month every once in a while was a good idea.

Wait! What, are they kidding? People used to add in a 27 day month every x years? Do you know what we could do with an extra month? In my perfect world, it would be a month of Awareness and Appreciation. It would be a month of Culture and Creativity. It would be a month of Fasting and Feasting. It would be a month of Prayer and Peace. Let the whole world say… Yes! Let’s start saving for the Peace Celebration.

And until that happens, I’m grumpy about February. It’s gone, it’s March, and I was so taken off guard that I never got time to say goodbye. February. Peace be with you? Maybe this will be the year I have finally learned your lesson and your form. March. Welcome. and yes, Peace.

And oh, my goodness, did you see that Moon last night. and around here, as promised, it’s going to be warmer. Wednesday it’s supposed to rain. Shocking.

Upside Down Lives, Elusive Peace

Sometimes Peace gets put to the side… because peace with a little p is so disrupted in your life. It’s not that you find yourself looking for a fight; it’s rather that you’re looking for your balance.

Two of my friends took serious hits to their hearts this week. One a relationship hit and the other a health hit. Just like that, life is upside down. Good things may eventually come from these events, but that’s a long time in the future.

At the moment they’re trying to find their feet and whatever agency they can.

Life is really topsey turvey. It’s hard to admit, we who love our control, that that’s what it’s going to be. The ground we wind up standing on will look very different from the ground we’re on today. But that ground we’ll wind up on isn’t clear.

All that’s clear is the pain. And it’s important to honor that. And to remember hits like this have nothing to do with your strengths or your Peacemaking abilities. Give yourself a little strength and let your friends support you.

Calling on the Sugar Moon, to help us distill these new truths into our coming life. Calling on Peace for support. Reminding it we’ll get back to the work when we are able. Meanwhile the Moon smiles gently down.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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