Sugar Moon Peace Distillations

I’m full of new ideas. A new one comes any time you need one. But the distillation of thought into action is challenging.

And it’s painstaking.

Painstaking is not my best attribute.

But Peace is a painstaking kind of activity. One of the greatest strengths needed for Peace is probably the ability to keep in the slog.

And so you take all that wonder and you begin to boil it down. And somewhere in that boiling, you begin to see what actions are needed.

But you keep holding back, because moving too quickly, if what you’re doing is boiling down the sap will get you a mouthful of something not very interesting or even not very good.

And half cocked uncompleted movement toward Peace isn’t all that helpful…

So we can remember that sometimes, slow and steady… blah, blah, blah… but hey, Peace!

And it’s good to sit and watch it boil and bubble once in a while. And you can bundle up and sit around a campfire under the swelling Moon. sounds pretty marvelous!

Expansive, Forgiving Peace

I like tea. A lot. I spend a lot of time with it. Sometimes I’m alone. Sometimes I’m with friends. I like its taste. And I love the way the cup feels in my hand. If I’m at a meeting, it calms me and helps me be reflective. I can linger over a cup for hours.

And when their are friends, all the better.

Because of this, I don’t do well with precision teas. There are those teas that you can only steep for a few minutes. If you do more, it becomes hopelessly bitter. I like drinking those teas, but i like it when someone else prepares it. Occasionally.

And I know, that’s the way they make tea. That’ll be the way they make Peace.

But I come from messier stock. Put the kettle on, set the bread and cheese in the middle of the table and settle in. I won’t be negotiating Peace treaties. I will be having tea with all the unimportant folk who will find new ways to live in one another’s company.

And a cup of tea is a good start to that process.

I know, I know, this is the year of the Moons. I couldn’t get there with this musing. Unless we acknowledge what is true, which is that when it’s cold and snowy, a friend and a cup of tea make a lot of space for learning…

Peace, my friends. Cozy Peace. Peace as it is Peace. Peace in the time of the Sugar Moon, because what is sweeter than Peace?

Moon Paths to Peace, Lunacy!

All my life I have been captivated by stories of people following the path to the Moon. I’ve fantasized about the glow on icy fields and love to watch the moon rise from behind the horizon to cast a path across water.

People tell legends about the rainbows, but it’s always been the moon for me. I’ve been in the ocean at moonrise and in ponds at moonset… and always the siren calls me… come here…

I love the Moon’s mystical call… I love that in my life her call has always been to Peace rather than adventure. (I sometimes think I’m not a very adventurous person — or at least that my notion of adventure is different than many’s. I have no need to climb mountains, but I have a great need to stop and admire… I know that’s not true for everyone, but it’s always been so for me.)

But what kind of Peace am I pursuing? You? It’s different for all of us and probably different at different times in our lives.

Sometimes I’m not ready to follow the path; although I can acknowledge its Possibilities. Sometimes I am content to simply watch and wonder… Peace of the Sugar Moon be with you!

Snowy Peace in the Sugar Moon

As part of my work this year to become a Lunatic for Peace, I am trying to be present to every day. I work to consider the wonder and the blessings, not just of my life, but in every day life. I’m trying to watch the Moon change its shape and notice how it pulls on the Earth.

In winter, that means I pay attention to the weather and what’s happening in my neighborhood. It means I work to embrace rather than whine about the snow and the ice… I try to find its beauty. Because although this is no longer the Snow Moon, it is sometimes called the crust moon, when the sun melts the snow and the night freezes it to a blank sheet that can be razor sharp when broken.

But still… it’s not all that hard, because it is beautiful. Every day is a wonder. It is sweet and precious… All the hard stuff that happens is all the stuff that life is composed of. Wishing it away is wasting life. Having spent so much time at bedsides of people who are leaving life, you realize, there really aren’t any throwaway days. Which means the weather is part of what we have every day.

And the other day we had snow. Beautiful, beautiful snow. It fell steadily throughout the day and was light and fluffy and beautiful. It was easy to shovel and to dust off the car. And best of all it looked like diamonds falling. A day filled with diamonds falling into my life. Pretty fun.

Peace is such a complicated package of big vision and little immediate actions. I choose to welcome what is true at this moment in my life. Peace. When it’s snow, fluffy snow, it’s a pretty easy thing to be joyful about and to take delight in.

Sweet Sabbath for Sugar Moon Peace

An Anglo and a Palestinian woman walk into a doughnut shop: time to make the Peace.

Sometimes it’s that simple. Meeting up, in public places, so people get used to seeing women with and without headscarves sharing sweetness. Giggle for Peace. Share a pastry. Spend time with friends to build community.

It’s heartbreaking really, what’s going on in the world, all the places people were being killed. We named them, all the martyrs, all the ravaged lands, including our own.

Kindness, we need more kindness. Give up on your need to have others be wrong. Reflect on what you can do better. I’m not going to solve the problems in Africa or the Middle East. I can keep building community here. I can go out for a sweet slice of life in the name of friendship and wind up having it be Peacemaking.

If that’s not keeping a Sabbath holy, I don’t know what is. And every day is a holy day. This is the season for boiling our inclusive instincts down into kindness and compassion. Sugar Moon, indeed!

Interplanetary Sugar Moon Peace

Driving home last evening around sunset, I realized what I wanted to write about. The sky was so beautiful; it reminded me of a tale I’d once read, I had to talk about the joy of looking up…

When I got home, and opened the computer, my Facebook page was filling up with the same image that had so captivated me. Making sure that I had my planet right, and that that was indeed Venus hanging out by the Moon, a little research pointed out Mars was part of that cocktail party.

Out I went to check. sure enough, if you looked closely, there he was.

And then the people posting the pictures noticed Mars as well, (he’s such a quiet and shy man for a War God… a man of strength and action, I guess; not showy at all): Oh, look, I never saw him until I took the picture!

I remembered a tale that celebrated the New Moon and the friendship between the Sun and the Moon. The author suggested that once the Moon had gone off to do travel in her own orbit, she and the Moon had only one day a month to see one another.

I’ve learned a lot about the moon since then. Now I know that, with the exception of one day, she always has her eye on her beloved Sol…

But there we were last night: the God of War and the Goddess of Beauty hanging with Her Serenity in her sly beauty. A more Peaceful night is hard to imagine. If those celestial beings can be at Peace, whether hanging together on a cold Winter’s evening or sailing majestically through their own orbits, couldn’t we work harder to do the same, i wonder? And instead of griping about the cold, couldn’t we instead give thanks for the stunning Beauty of the Winter sky?

New Moon, Another New Year’s Peace

This is an interesting new Moon… So far, with the exception of worms, every metaphor for this Moon has shown up. And when the weather warms a bit, I’m sure the worms will make their appearance known as well. No robins until there are worms!

And of course, among the names for this Moon, which are drawn from Indian tribal names, the Chinese New Year Moon doesn’t make an appearance, but 6 billion people (one sixth of the population) deserve mention! And it’s a Moon that causes migration — it’s the world’s largest human migration 2.8 billion people will travel home to celebrate the New Year.

It is the year of the peaceful, gentle ruminant… Imagine a year of being reflective! Of being part of a community. Of having fun together. Oh! that’s exactly what we’re being asked to do…

Maybe it’s time to join our Peacemaking efforts together, taking delight in one another’s efforts and seeing if they work for us. Time for testing the strength of the herd. (maybe working once again for herd immunity?)

Ruminants for Peace. Sheep, Goats… who knows who else…

Sugar Moon? Lenten Moon? Peace.

Lent is no longer part of my religious tradition. Even as a child, while I recall quiet vesper services and beautiful hymnody, i don’t remember imposition of ashes or the relinquishing of a pleasure for the duration.

But of course I knew people who did… I knew lots of friends from other traditions…

It often confused me however because i could never make the connection between ice cream and the crucifixion or alcohol and hungry children. That became more and more true in my 20s and 30s as i knew people who stopped one or the other either to lose weight or to dry out. I became somewhat cynical.

So it’s lovely to have friends who take the sacrifice and the prayer practice seriously. As a ritualist, I’m always interested in ritual practice and in the ways it changes lives.

My friend Faye is a Prayer Warrior. And by that I mean two things: She lives her life in and at prayer, working at things that matter and having a rich and full life. She also can pray mightily when an occasion demands it. I believe in prayer… and I am always grateful for the focused attention that she gives a subject, if for no other reason than how she is changed by those prayers… and how she leads the way.

So when Faye sacrifices for prayer, I pay attention and I welcome the thoughtful giving over of self to make the world and her life better. I guess I’m not as impressed by people who can go 40 whole days without ice-cream… or who think that that matters… unless they’re doing something important with that time.

Aside from all that, she’s a great friend and we laugh together and puzzle at the world together — which is a great gift!

I’m still struggling with having given up cynicism and fear all that time ago. It’s an ongoing struggle. But the Lunacy of Peace is a great thing… and well worth the struggle.

Sugar Moon Lunacy and Peace

Welcome to the Sugar Moon. Right now, it’s cold and the Moon is dark. All there, but all potential.

So many names for this Moon, so many metaphors, so much going on. This will be a Moon of bitter cold and surprising warmth. The sap will rise. It’s up to us if we choose to make sugar or not.

Making sugar from sap is a slow and arduous process. It’s dangerous because boiling sugar burns… But oh, the sweetness at the end! That’s well worth the investment of time and energy. People shake their heads and say it’s lunacy to do such a thing when you can just buy the finished product at the store…

But some things that also boil down very slowly to reveal their beauty cannot be bought in the store; they must be hand-crafted. So it is with Peace.

When the sap finally rises in Minnesota, my buddy Doug taps his trees and sits by a fire in his back yard. There he contemplates both the Peace of what is and what can be. Every year at this time, I think of this Peace activist, keeping tender vigil over his slow boiling pot. Doug probably sings, he often does. He probably thinks and pokes the fire with a stick a lot. His family members join him (although in my mind, the lovely Kim only does as much or as little cold weather fire sitting as she wants!). People drop by to pick his brain and enjoy his friendship (and probably beg for some syrup.)

They take away a message of discipline, dedication, and patience — because that’s what it takes to get to the essential sweetness. Pretty much what it takes to get to Peace, too…

Blessed be, my sweet friend Doug. Here’s to syrup and Peace which both make the world sweeter. Here’s to the lunacy of taking potential and boiling it down in to reality. Strength is required… enjoyment is your decision… and why wouldn’t laughter and joy be what you chose? Step up! Sit down! It’s a long, long prayer… participation required…

Cold Peaceful Close to Snow Moon Lunacy

This is it for 2015 Snow Moon. Tomorrow the Sugar Moon starts. Thanks for your beauty — you gave us a lot.

You were brutal, this year. There were “extreme winter weather events” all over the Eastern Seaboard this year. There was biting cold. (and oops, there still is!)

So here we are, on the other side of the Snow Moon and what do we know. The worst winters in history are piling up. It could be a “weather phase,” but it’s much more likely to be global climate change. We need to take this seriously. We’re fiddling while Rome burns.

And meanwhile we’re complaining. And you know, lots of people who were complaining were underdressed. Can’t run around in a teeshirt under your jacket and whine because you’re cold, my dears, it’s negative degrees. and that? is cold…

I sound like my mother. I have to admit. I don’t think she was wrong. She wasn’t wrong about recycling either and she and daddy started early, early, early. There’s a lot we should be doing for this planet.

We can’t just say we want Peace on Earth and Peace for the Earth, we have to do something. We’re the only ones who can make a difference. Peace is on us.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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