Peace Wabbits. Well, Hares, llvl

You forget how big hares are, when they’re just a word you’re using. But as we were sitting there watching the evening slowly, slowly die, one of them came crashing through the underbrush to take a look at us before loping down the path to the road.

“Hmph,” you could practically see him think as he had to detour around the car. What are they doing here again?

And then twenty yards from the deck where we sat watching, the sun slowly gave up its struggle to shine through the woods. Then it was dusk and it was pretty easy to imagine that you might see the animals that truly do live there. But this day there were no elk or deer, just the ghost memories of them.

It made you consider as we sat in this little Paradise, what the animals might be thinking if they were the sort to do that. How they might fret and grumble about what humans are doing to their world. And it must be said, that in this place, at this cabin, very little, life is lived according to Nature, there’s very little other than our quiet presence to disturb it…

But so many things are threatened. And it seems that people need to push at the edges. There’s an osprey off on an island, and they’ve reserved that island to him. but if you don’t think people need to park their fishing boat right at the very boundary of the forbidden…

Now when life is so slow, it’s easier to hear Mother Earth inhale and exhale; easier to see her beauty; easier to worry about the ways we degrade her.

I wonder why I live so far from Nature when I’m back at my home? And those hares? They’re HUGE! You had to think about Monty Python.

Sounds of Peace, llvl

The joy of being with people you know is not having to talk — or talking when you want to, about whatever you choose. Present time, past times… whatever…

But the silence… I love to live — for a while, at least — in the midst of Nature’s grand silence. To sit long enough that the silence becomes filled with the Earth’s own movements and that of her creatures.

If you’re reading this, you know me, or you’re coming to know me. I am not an outside kinda girl. I live very happily celebrating nature from outside my window or alongside a creek. But don’t ask me to make big excursions in the out-of-doors! I must be a throwback to an earlier genetic mass, because everyone in my family likes to be out in the middle of it. Me? not so much!

But sitting on my friends’ porch, up at their little piece of loveliness in the woods is heaven (especially because i can recharge my e-book! What a great thing that reader is, last time I came on this vacation, I had to carry books. I’m a very fast reader. There were never enough. Now, just one tiny, little device.). The outside toilet and I made peace a long time ago.

I’m captivated by what looks like much of Sweden’s populations ability to sit still. Certainly, there are people lots of places with cell phones. But there are a lot of people without, who are just being. sitting, watching, appreciating. And who then hoist themselves out of their chairs to pack up some sandwiches and thermoses and go down to the lake to bob and float and swim.

It’s really pretty close to heaven and feels a lot like Peace. It’s good to have some familiarity with it, if you’re going to campaign for it.

Island Paradise Peace, llvl

I don’t think there’s any way around this. I think the Swedes are better at being still and in the moment than we are. It could be just me, but many of us, even on vacation are good at just sitting, delighting in the moment. The countryside is beautiful, but there’s beauty everywhere. I’d match my Central Susquehanna’s beauty against beauty anywhere.

One of the things I’ve recognized since I’ve been here is that I occasionally grab Paradise when I meet it. I sat and the stream with Emily and watched the world go by. I floated on the river on my Brother- and Sister-in-law’s boat when my friends came.

And maybe it was just because I’m here that people have taken more time to sit and admire the harbor or the forests, but I don’t think so. They’re on vacation. They’re out in Nature enjoying it. Not necessarily doing something, just being there. Passing around the slightly flavored water and sipping it slowly.

One afternoon, while visiting a sister and her beau, whose daughter and granddaughter were visiting as well, we all piled in the boat and boated around the island. Margita and the 6 year old pulled mackerel lines behind, once we got out on the ocean side of the island. Sophie, the daughter cut their heads off. Björn grilled the fish and we ate them for dinner 3 hours later. Paradise. The sight and taste of the sea. Sweet companionship. A quick stop for a dessert cheese which provided late-afternoon ice creams to tide us over to dinner.

And then the next morning, getting up and packing and then making the time to go down and slip into the sea, there just to bob around like so much flotsam, or is it jetsam, I always forget.

Paradise is here. It’s meant to be enjoyed. It’s meant to be shared. Peace, sweet Peace is in the still, sweet moments in between… (and it’s also, if you get the chance, to be found on islands off the coast of wherever you are. Or in the forests, or the mountains, or the deserts. Just sit and look at Mother Earth. Nature is there to be appreciated. Families are there to be made. Blessings are to be counted. Connections are waiting to slip into place!

Variations on Peace, llvl

It’s all well and good for me to appreciate the glories of my local life, whether at home or at my friends’ homes. It is good to appreciate. But at the same time, I think, you hold the tension of life where things are not going well… There are always horrifying things, but today there seem to be so many.

With a dear friend, living with AIDS for 23 years now, I’m aware of the huge scientific loss of the Malaysia flight in addition to the humanitarian loss. What, you wonder, would make people think this violent act was a good idea? And then list all the other places in the world where people suffer horrendously for other people’s greed…

I’m grateful to know that a sister UU church is standing up and saying No to the hatred in Texas — And I’m sure there are plenty of other churches along side them… but horrified there are churches standing together on the other side of the street, that the welcome being extended is a counter protest.

So, when life is breathtaking in a little village in Sweden (or a little village in Pennsylvania), I think we must store that up against the horror — store it up so we have fuel to get back to work when the time is right… It was a beautiful day touring around the bay yesterday. The beauty is outrageous. The skies were clear and the temperature was perfect. The whole day was a prayer of gratitude and beauty.

And somehow the intermingled stories of the oysterwoman and her priest brother were just so simple and lovely. So I breathe in the love, the wonder, and the simplicity and let it soothe my soul. And I try to be present to each of the fabulous moments. There are so many right now. I am so lucky. I am so grateful. I am at Peace.

Nature’s Pyrotechnic Peace, llvl

Oh, Pennsylvania gardens in the summer! Lush, no other word, except perhaps, pyrotechnic, which our photographer Deb suggested when sending this picture. The greenery explodes, the color pops. “Look,” gardens cry. “Celebrate!” I love the way the spikes burst out of the ground in this photo.

Flowers and plants have their own reason for doing their dance, but we’re the happy recipients of their bounty and their beauty. Doesn’t matter if you’re a vegetable gardener, a flower gardener or, like me, simply a garden appreciator, there they are, gorgeous.

Gardens require a lot of labor. Feeding the world and dazzling us with delight takes tending. I’m so grateful for folks who do the work. I’ve been a dedicated apartment dweller my whole life… I live without dirt, because i pretty much break out in hives or poison ivy in the great outdoors… but that doesn’t mean i’m not dazzled or grateful.

Life. Wild and glorious. Mother Earth is bountiful. And too often we are careless stewards of this abundance. Our approach to such beauty should be reverent and tender. Yesterday I had what i hope may turn out to have been a fruitful conversation about the benefits of boiling water vs roundup for a man beside himself because grass kept pushing up in his sidewalk.

This abundant garden is where we live. For our own sake, and for our Mother’s, why would we put poison on the ground? The Earth gives us life. Shouldn’t we, if we can’t conceive of giving life back, at least consider not poisoning what nurtures us? It seems very little to ask, especially when the world is exploding in bounty under our feet and fingertips.

You understand why painters paint and sketchers sketch and writers write, trying to embrace and honor the beauty. There are so many reasons I’m happy and lucky to live here… gardens are a pretty fabulous reason. Nature, let us be one with it. Let us be at Peace in it.

Paradise, Peace & that Pesky Fly, llvl

It was so fun showing my friends my life here in the Susquehanna Valley. Or at least the happy parts of it! And really most parts are happy parts. The pesky fly in the ointment are the things that are invisible. Hungry Children. Unemployment. All the ‘isms.

But it’s the happy parts of it that give us strength and a reason to stay steady with the work. This is a particularly beautiful part of the body of Mother Earth. Nature… gotta love it!

Added to the glory of where I live, is the great joy of sharing this Valley Beauty with my community/communities…

Sweet times with old friends are balm. All over the world, people are working on the same issues, fighting the same battles, reasoning through the same problems — with perhaps different results, and making differences where they are. And we laugh because we all need to laugh. We compare notes, and then we go back to our lives and see how we can make things different.

But in the meantime. Here’s Paradise. Halfway to Heaven! Y’all come! (and you know I’m not crazy, because Deb Slade is documenting!)

A Little Lightning Bug Peace, llvl

Perfect June nights… This region is known for them. Driving through the darkness, watching fireflies cavort in the cornfields — it’s just the most Peace-giving thing. Courtship for lightning bugs is a lovely thing to watch. Blink on. Blink off.

It’s hard to describe how happy they make me. How that simple dance reassures me.

May you find the sweet, sacred Peace that your vida local offers. And may you give yourself the time to simply be present to it.

More Creek Peace, llvl

It was one of those perfect moments. (so perfect it needed more than one musing.)

“When I sit here, I want Heaven to look just like this.”

“Heaven is right here.”

Heaven was right there in so many ways. It was one prolonged moment of bliss. The water temperature was exactly right. The sun was slowly being hidden behind the trees. The air temperature was warm enough to keep us comfortable in the cool water but not too hot to bear. Old friends talking about big things and little. A front porch experience in the middle of the creek as the neighbors drifted by… neighbors as they always are. some noisy with exuberant kids, some quiet and precise.

And in the heart of it, a moment of Perfect Peace. Magic in Nature. No place to go. Nothing to do. Who knew that making memories could be so completely effortless? Just Being on a summer afternoon into evening. Telling tales of families that held everything of fondness and at that moment nothing of missing. My whole crew so easily could have been around the bend… Floating Heaven. May you have a piece of Heaven to remind you how sweet life is and how sacred.

Summer, Sabbath, Creeks & Peace, llvl

You take your Sabbath where you can get it. Mine started before sundown yesterday with a stroll down to the creek, followed by a quiet plop or two as we settled into our chairs in the middle of the creek.

And there we sat. With no particular place to go and nothing pressing on our minds. People kayaked by. They inner-tubed by. And there we were on the front porch of Peace.

We all waved and wished one another a good evening… Just being neighborly as folks traveled a sweet highway.

A friend joined us. More desultory conversation ensued.

And then the frogs sang.

Ah, the Sweet Sacred Peace Prayers of Summer. Mother Earth was putting on the ritz in a quiet kinda way. This is what a Sabbath is all about for this (don’t tell anyone this part) Country girl.

The Peace That Is, llvl

We so often want what is different from what we have that we overlook the bounty of what we have.

And when things we’ve loved die, we mourn because we miss them. And we do, we miss both the things and the people… But at some point, our grief must make place for the splendor that still is.

It’s a delicate process to find the balance where we care for our grieving hearts and manage to let the beauty heal us. But in that Peace garden, we can find both our healing and our purpose, possibilities exist. Sometimes the gardens are actual gardens. Sometimes the Peace garden is our little local life. Sometimes it’s a world stage. Wherever it is, Peace it up! And enjoy what is…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: nature