Peace on a Changing World

The Earth tilts. The Moon waxes and wanes.

We cool, we warm. Our days shorten and elongate. The Moon waxes and wanes and our tides ebb and flow.

Every day is different, although there are some constants. The progression is always the same.

As a result each day is sacred as move through the seasons and the Moons. There is new wonder to behold for every day.

Makes me suspicious of Ecclesiastes… I don’t think I believe there is a time for war and hate. Or if there was, it’s over. We’ve done that.

Time to make Peace with today. Which means not rushing into spring, but being in the in-between and deconstructing the walls of fear and hatred and stupidity.

Let’s give Peace a real chance. Today, because today is perfectly today — Earth slowly tilting toward the Sun, Moon slowly waning… Let’s be about Peace today.

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.

Working with the Snow Moon Peace

Having been watching the weather in Sweden, I know it’s far warmer there than here — at the moment it’s about 35 degrees warmer. (it is a bit brrr-ish here at 0˚. I currently have heaters aimed at the cold water pipe in my sink and am flushing warm water down the toilet… neither of those pipes have insulation… sigh.) So it’s not unreasonable to hear that they’re going out into the woods to gather winter fuel.

Still, oddly, I find it difficult to imagine my loved ones in anything other than my weather, so I find it extraordinarily brave of them!

What they are, in fact, is far better attuned than I to the difference the seasons make in the woods and how best to take advantage of that… or rather, more rightly put, to live with that.

it’s hard, since i’m an indoor girl to be to aware of how the earth moves… and it’s good to have a circle that includes people who know the forest, know when the mushrooms crop up and the berries come, know when the forest offers what’s needed.

I’m both wildly interested and disinterested in the same moment… Sometimes I think it’s just laziness… others, i’m not sure…

So i return as I often do to the circle. To having those in my circle who know what I don’t. Who pay attention differently, who turn their heads in other directions… Those friends keep us more widely engaged.

And now I have the image of birch logs blazing merrily in their fireplace… and I think of their eating one of my favorite pastries through the Lenten season… as they presage the Sugar Moon in so many ways. (who’d expect the Northlands to lead us into the the Spring?) I love them, and I love that I’m invited to see life through their eyes.

We make Peace with the Earth, with the Seasons and with our lives in so many different ways. It’s only as we gather them together that Peace can be seen as the beautiful patchwork it’s meant to be…

Expanding & Consolidating Snow Moon Peace

It’s a notion, isn’t it, to work with Nature rather than against it. To open as the Earth does and consolidate and review what happened as the Earth shuts down to take stock and gain strength for the next efforts.

Or to do the same with the Moon on a monthly basis, taking into account the essence of that month’s message.

All of which depends on my being a person grounded in life on Earth. And if I am, that permits me to be a person who seeks Peace using the strengths that are given to me to move the quest for Peace along.

Peace in the Snow Moon. the Lunacy of Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace. Peace.

Moving Snow Moon Peace

For over three years now, I’ve been writing dailies. In each successive year, I’ve become more and more aware how much the grounding in a principle, in a community, in nature deepens my ability both to observe what is and to notice possibilities.

I wonder sometimes, if the writing of the daily musings didn’t grow from my twice daily visits to my mom. Every day, at lunch and at dinner for at least a couple years, I drove to the nursing home to feed mom. Every day, twice a day, at the same time, the same route.

I watched the seasons build and fade into the next. I watched the light and the darkness fall across the sky. I saw the Moon wax and wane. I saw this happen on the same stretch of road. And then I watched the life in the houses, because some of it you couldn’t miss. Kids played in yards, people landscaped. One house burned down and a person died.

But still the seasons changed and life continued inexorably and Peacefully on as Nature insists. Even the scene of the awful fire has been reclaimed by grass and small trees and deliberately changed and renewed by clearing, rebuilding and planting… Life insists. Nature smooths what it can.

It’s up to us to translate the Peace. Up to us to identify it, name it and then extrapolate it into the way we live into what we offer the world. Peace. it’s our task to see and to do.

Challenging Peace Lunacy

If there’s anything this Pollyanna hates to acknowledge is how challenging and sometimes painful life can be. But looking away doesn’t change that, however often we try avoidance as our coping mechanism.

Life is hard. Bad things happen. Pretending that good things always come from hard things is magical thinking. It’s true we may survive hard things, but it doesn’t always make us stronger or better. Sometimes it just makes us incredibly sad.

In the hard times, we have to search for the balm of Peace. Sometimes we find it in our friends’ or family’s love. Sometimes we find it in quiet moments of Nature. And some folks find it in loud dance music. Wherever we find respite is a good thing.

This year as we go through the year, looking at the Moon and its phases, I’m finding balm in the Moon, in the knowledge that her sweet and serene reflection is always there (even when I can’t see it.)

I like knowing that the balm of Moon shines on you and your problems at the same time. Because life is hard. Challenges do arrive. So I must take a deep breath, drink that light in, and as a favorite prayer says, forgive myself and begin again in love.

Shrinking Moon Peace Lunacy

Following the Moon’s changes makes me realize how often I think the way the Moon works. It grows wild and expansive and I think, oh, we could do this and we could do that. and then the Moon is bright and full of hope, and it turns, and I realize, maybe we should get some foundation under us before moving forward.

And so I do a little research. Retrench a little. Figure out what I need to build a better idea or project. Using the waxing and the waning of the moon to help me move along. I don’t know why I don’t immediately check out the basis for myth… Logic certainly told me the wolves had their own reasons for singing at night. As they said in the video… the wolves have been howling at the moon for thousands of years, and it’s still there…

Peace. It’s not an easy process. But, if the Moon wants to help, I’ll take it!

Short today. I’m off to drive a friend to Philly to a doc’s appointment. We’ll get a couple hours in before the moon sets for the day. Stay warm out there… Think good thoughts and dream of Peace.

Moon-howling for Peace

Truth to tell, I’m not much of a howler. It’s one of those weird times I get all straight-laced and my family-ish. It certainly won’t surprise you that Steve is a howler!

But on nights like last one, when the moon rises huge and gorgeous over the trees, something primal stirs. What? OK, late to do her homework… Ann discovers… wolves don’t howl at the moon. They’re nocturnal. They just howl. Only we howl at the moon.

It seems even our fears are primal. We fear the wolf although she’s not all that interested in us. We build on her land and graze our animals and then are surprised when she’s happy to dine at the buffet — even though wolves only kill to eat and they don’t do it that frequently.

Who the wolves are in our lives is, I think, fairly indicative of how far we have come from really living on this land. Our world becomes more and more artificial. We cut down forests and move in. We immediately “forget” that animals once lived there and do not easily dismiss their habits. If you build in bear territory, the likelihood is they’ll be dining on your beans come summer — and being outraged about that is pretty silly… Because bears do all sorts of things in the woods and eat is one of them! We live on Mother Earth. It behooves us to consider living in tandem rather than in opposition to nature.

But oh, that big and beautiful moon and her deep, mysterious magic. all and all pretty wonderful. Last night’s moon drew many of us outside despite the cold. We want the Peace dance… we just have to do it.

Lunacy’s Wild Peace

I started writing about the Moon for a few reasons. The list grew as I was writing about it…

One. I’ve always loved the Moon. I love that she is calm and reflective. I love that she is beautiful. I love that she changes yet remains the same. I love that she calls to me.

Two. She rules our lives in ways we don’t often acknowledge… she particularly plays with the tides of women’s bodies. (I almost remember).

Three. She rules the Night. As a culture, we aren’t out in the night anymore. Bad things happen we’re told. Women get rapped, be afraid. And we do. More often we’re raped at home, so better we should get outside for a breath of fresh Air once in a while. Because the Dark is Beautiful and so is the moon. And we give up half our lives… a very important part if we don’t honor the Night. The everflowing balance of Dark and Light is what makes the world beautiful.

Four. Wild things happen in the light of the Moon. We’re no longer the allies of the Wild. We’re so mixed up about the Wild that we think we can take selfies with bears. And we can. We just die when we do, because, it’s a bear — those cute little things with the big paws and claws… But it’s only when the domestic and the wild, the prey and the preditor walk side by side, honoring the others’ existence that life is full and balanced.

Five. Magic happens by the light of the moon. We fall in love. We find ourselves and one another beautiful.

More? As I find ’em, I’ll list ’em…

But for now, Let’s gather in the moonlight and dance for Peace. Lunacy. Let it happen to us.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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