Collaborative Peace

It’s not that it’s such a big deal that two small communities should try to work together and share resources and energy. Or maybe it shouldn’t be such a big deal but it is.

Today I met with representatives from another congregation from a very different tradition. It was lovely to dream just a little and to work at what the boundaries might be that would keep us good neighbors and maybe make us a lot better neighbors, not only to each other but to our larger community.

We each harbor sweet dreams of Peace. Today, we harbored them together. That was pretty great.

Let’s find more people to do that with, shall we? Peace. Sweet Peace. We need to find you.

I see a new Moon arising — and no, it’s not trouble I see on its way, it’s Hope.

Peace of Having Gotten Somewhere

When asked how his music is different now, after all years of playing; he said he could now add to his notes all the color of emotion and expression.

What lovely insight. You do your work, you practice the scales and the pieces. You put discipline into your craft and gradually or maybe suddenly you realize that you and the music (or insert your art here) are playmates, free to explore and to be explored. Free to enjoy. Free to be enjoyed.

She talked more about the instrument and the way she’s gradually made this flute her flute. A new flute, different, bolder, more capable than any tool she’s ever played. She gets to bring her color to this new tool as well as to the music… and the music pours from her gift.

Do your work. Over and over again. Climb the steps and then swish down the sliding board — And then climb the steps again.

Their joy in playing was palpable. We can have that joy in our lives if we just do the work. And while that’s not a simple thing, it is an every day thing.

What joy these two brought their audience of friends who have listened for years. What joy they will bring those who listen for the first time. What joy they have in what they do. At this changing point in their career as musicians, what bigger Peace could they ask than to keep on doing what they love. What sweeter Peace can they offer? It’s a new Moon in their lives as well as for us. May it be filled with beauty.

Peace on the Cusp

Today the Old Moon ends and the New Moon rises. Bye and large the harvest is finished. In Canada, tomorrow will be thanksgiving, which is much more in sync with the actual harvest.

Here in Pennsylvania, the leaves are taking their own sweet time to make decisions about changing. There are just the slightest hints of color starting. However, I just looked at the thermometer and for the first time i saw that the temps had dipped into the 30s.

No, Ann, really, time to dismantle the porch that gets no light (and by light I mean warmth) this year.

But I stood outside a barn yesterday (it was a wedding, relax, I wasn’t being rugged!) and looked down across the empty field toward the river. The late afternoon light was all Autumn, and everything was golden in the light. The air was clean.

The world had moved on even though many of us still clung to last season’s warmth. The Beauty on the cusp of changing Moon and changing season was lavish. Open your hands and hearts and let go. And what the heck, take the Sabbath to revel in it, why don’t you?

Notice the Beauty, my friends. We can’t move on to Peace, if we’re holding on to the joys and privileges of last season.

Sky, Love, Peace

I am, and always have been, a concrete priestess. I’m not terribly comfortable with many things present in the out-of-doors… like bugs and slithering things.

But when you finally get me out there I have a great time. Because hey! Mother Earth. Nature.

And when Nature is at her most glorious, you have to just go with it, right?

I’m so glad i worked as hard as i did to get there on Sunday. And that I pried my beloved out his… oh, I’ll just stay home. Because this was the finest symphony of skies.

We live on this earth. we should be paying closer attention. I should be paying closer attention. It’s the explosive beauty of these moments that helps us grasp the importance of caring for creation.

This is the world we have and it’s wondrous. Why wouldn’t we take care of it? Why wouldn’t we spend a lot of our lives, pointing and gasping and saying, well, will you look at that? We should spend less time saying, well, would you look at that, gimme it its’ mine or oh, ho hum. another beautiful day, mountain, lake…

Peace. We need to be about the business of peace. Because a world this beautiful deserves nothing less.

The Peace of an Eclipse with Friends

I beg forbearance. I may be burbling about this for a long time. The eclipse was gorgeous.

Hanging out by the fire with friends, lovely. Hanging out by the fire with my beloved? oh we don’t do that often enough!

And the sky was unbelievable.

Everywhere else people were complaining about the sky’s being overcast, but in this little circle of field surrounded by trees, the clouds — whispy ones at that — would dance in and dance back out. Leaving nothing but a heavy, heavy Milky Way and that beautiful orb that looked nothing like the Moon (nothing!) hanging in the sky like some foreign celestial body.

I could burble for a long time about this. I probably will. Forewarned is forearmed… have topics ready to talk about if you run into me and don’t want to hear about the Moon, the Moon, the Moon!

Why I wonder, when I do something like last night, plopped in a field around a fire, don’t i do that more often. Steve and I both love it so much — although I’m sure he missed a drum in his hands. It was lovely and filled with Peace. it was a perfect moment in my life.

Perfect and filled with Peace. I wish us all many such moments. They give us fuel to walk the Peace Path.

The Peace of a Sabbath Lunar Eclipse

The weather gods may relent. There may be glimpses of this lunar event.

It’s a perfect Sabbath endeavor, now that I think about it. Nothing to do but be present. And watch the fire crackle while you wait. It’s late, because, hey it’s the moon, but it’s a great way to spend time with the family…

And in that time I’ll think great thoughts of Peace. I hope you will too. We’ll watch the Earth cover the moon, and go home to dream sweet dreams of Peace. And in the morning, let us get up and see what we can do about all that needs to be done.

I hope you get to bask in the wonder of tonight’s eclipse. It’s not that often that it happens… What a galaxy we live in!

Peace be with us all.

The Peace of the Red Moon

If this isn’t true, don’t tell me. Because it’s too wonderful! It makes me so happy.

To imagine the Moon catching all the sunsets and sunrises of the Earth and reflecting it back.

To imagine it capturing all that Beauty and casting it back to inspire us.

We, like the Moon, can reflect. We have a little more choice than the Moon. But hey. Let’s reflect Peace. Today. Tomorrow. Every day.

Because Peace is what the world needs. And we’re here able to do the work.

And you have a choice. There are (actually!!!) people walking around saying the Red Moon is a sign of the end times. Really, is that what you think? Well you go right ahead. I’m now seeing sunrises and sunsets. Thank you, scientist!

Peace. What if there were a Peace Eclipse. What if we allowed the world to see what it might look like if we were People at Peace? (and I guess I have tomorrow’s musing, don’t I?

And Dance by the Light of the Moon. Peace!

Every day is what it is. And that’s grand. And yet, and yet. Some days are better than others.

These warm days with chilly nights are just delightful. It’s warm, but not too warm. Cool, but not too cool.

If there were ever to be a night or two to dance under the moon, these would be they!

Humans do well in this weather.

And the Moon is beautiful. It’s closer than it often is and that makes it appear larger on the horizon. And soon, and soon, we’re going to have an eclipse of this big and beautiful Super Moon.

Not only is it rare, there’s not to be another until 2030, I’ll be 78!

It’s also perfectly lovely weather to wrap up and go out to watch the eclipse. And there are no bugs because they don’t like the cool weather.

It doesn’t get much better than this folks, not for Lunar Beauty.

And the Peace of this Moon shines on me and shines on you and shines on everyone all over the world. May we sing songs of Peace and send them out across the planet. Peace be with us. Peace be with us all.

New Moon, New Year, Sabbath, Peace

Lots happening today. For me, it’s the Sabbath, so a day to hit Pause… It’s always a challenge in my life since the Sabbath is also my most important work day. But I struggle to make space, to allow for time for simple appreciation and being.

Already, already, it’s the middle of September and the Harvest Moon is beginning her reign. The Solstice is only 10 days away. Life keeps changing.

Along with this new moon comes the Jewish New Year. L’Shana Tovah! May the year be sweet and filled with blessings!

May all of us consider taking this time to reconsider what we bring to life and what we fail to… may we, if I may be so bold as to use this word, consider where we sin, where we miss the mark. May we ask forgiveness, for ourselves and others, and begin again… in love.

Peace is out there. I believe that. The question remains whether we’re willing to go looking for it — to do the work that it requires of us. It needs us as desperately as we need it.

Peace and Pain in Shared Remembrance

Fourteen years. I was in bed at my friend Carolyn’s house and a friend called wondering if I’d heard.

We’d both lived in New York, though neither of us had known each other then.

I’d watched those towers out the front windows of my office every day for years. They were skyline, they were part of the what seemed like the miraculous world I inhabited. I’d visited. I’d eaten there. I’d gone to a wedding there at the restaurant, in a corner of two windows in the midst of a thunder storm, happening below us.

And although I don’t believe I knew anyone who died, I knew their friends.

I went back a month later and it smelled like death. Of course it did, bodies were still being found. Sometimes there were no bodies, simply wedding rings, watches and memories.

As most of us stood there, stunned, people bounced out of their limo to run up laughing and take their pictures, already drunk at 10:00 am. There was a guy selling hot dogs and souvenir people making money on memories and horror. And the rest of us stood and prayed… My guess is many of us didn’t have words to those prayers or even know to whom we prayed… We were together.

And so many people were missing. Lost. Gone.

Our lives were forever changed.

And now there are others whose lives have been destroyed by the same fanaticism that brought the towers down.

There was a picture of a train station in Hungary where shoes are lined up waiting for people who have walked and walked. Another shows people waiting for the refugees as they arrive in Germany. My mind can’t stop making comparisons to pictures from WWII when people were forced to leave their possessions on the ground and get on the trains.

All these people coming. Will we welcome them?

Can there ever be Peace if we do not?

Even if there can be Peace in the world, can there be Peace in our hearts if we do nothing? There’s a new Moon in two days. Tomorrow is the last of the Fruit Moon. What will we harvest in the Harvest Moon?

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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