Breakfast of Peace

I try to start my mornings out slowly. But slowly doesn’t have to mean solitary.

For the past three weeks, i’ve had good friends staying with me on a long visit from Sweden. Oh, such joy, they haven’t been to my house before. so it was grand. On most mornings, we’ve had Swedish breakfast, bread, cheese, with tomatoes or cucumber (darn, i forgot to buy a cucumber the other day!)

But once in a while, we’ve done a big breakfast. It’s a meal I actually feel competent at, so no stress. And they’re not sitting tapping their feet waiting for the next thing, they’re quiet in the morning as well. They too like peace and quiet in the morning.

Good breakfasts fuel us for a day of Peace-making! Another slice of toast, before you Peace, my friends?

The Many Peaces at the End of the Dock

This picture may well be as close as i get to a picture of heaven.

The satchel with my books, my towel, my little chair, and my iced tea jug were obviously put down to snap the shot!

I often think when i see shots like, (and i disregard my healthy skepticism about heaven), that my best-beloved, long-departed are in another cove also out of sight. My family you know. Heaven will have a lot of water.

But here at this moment there is nothing but silence and beauty. And Peace. For me, a whole lot of Peace. There’s the Peace of Sitting. The Peace of Swimming. The Peace of Floating. The Peace of Being. The Peace of the Gentle Quiet.

Today I start my reading sabbatical. Today I dive into this Peace.

I wish you Peace and Quiet as well. Revelry too. but not today! Today it’s Peace and Love and Blessings…

When the Sabbath Peace Slowly Dawns

I love the notion that even the Sun doesn’t make a big to do every day. Some days sunrise is just a quiet “this is what we do” event.

For me Sundays are both days of work and days of wonder. Because somehow, I managed to build a life where my work is the seeking of wonder. Part of my weekly responsibility is remembering the Sabbath, calling attention to it, helping everyone remember that it matters.

I have to tell you, it’s pretty great.

I wish that for you. Wonder is a lovely companion.

This week I have the labyrinth and Dark Moon to look forward to as well. A day dedicated to Peace. A day of friends, shared meals and quiet conversation. A day of fun things to read. If I’m lucky, a little raucous laughter. And why not be lucky.

Days don’t have to start in a blaze of Glory to be filled with Peace. The Peace is there. We just have to meet it.

Drifting Peace

We’re so bound and determined to do things now. Now! NOW!

Sometimes now is not the right time. Sometimes it’s not the right time because you’re not well (or well-enough) prepared. Sometimes it’s not right because it’s just not the right time.

When the way is drifted shut, it’s not the right time.

You can work against that, but you run the risk of not only missing the beauty of right here and right now, but also of losing sight of the long-term goal in your need to forge ahead.

When the way is soft and drifted, admire it and hole up for a while. Enjoy the Peace of what is.

Peace of the snowy drifts to you.

I find this picture particularly poignant, because 2016 doesn’t look like a year of a lot of drifted snow. It’s early days, i can easily be wrong, but… Enjoy the beauty. Enjoy the fact that for once, there are no miles to go before you sleep. Dare to enjoy the Peace and Quiet!

Anticipation: Peace of Advent 1

Several years ago, I did a bunch of meditation cards for Advent. There was a word for each day. It was great. A couple weeks ago i looked at it.

Now? It’s totally missing from my computer. Can’t find it anywhere.

I guess that’s an invitation — and isn’t all of Advent.

Today’s word is Anticipation. This week is about Hope.

And if you’re doing the Alternative Advent Calendar, which is an opportunity to put money aside for a cause based on all the wonderful things you have in your life, today’s invitation is to put in 10 cents for all the hot water taps in your house. I get off easy. My little rental only has 3. 30 cents for me.

You are cordially invited to donate to the weekend food back pack program that my community supports here in the Susquehanna Valley. You can find out more about the LOVE Project (Let Our Valley Eat) here.

I love Advent. I love the Dark of it, the Quiet of it, the Introspection of it. I love the Peace it brings to me and the way it asks me to bring Peace to it.

Ahhhh… I’m going to revel in every day. If you read me, you’re going to have to as well! Peace!

Sweet Peace of the Road; Sabbath All the Time

I’m on retreat/vacation. Every day’s a Sabbath with me for a while. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m so grateful. I’m being a reading fool. Sometimes a cleaning fool, which IS shocking.

Also a traveling fool. Steve and I took off for Maine for a week and had a wonderful time at our cousins’. Quiet, lovely coastal visit. Lots of oysters. Plenty of lobster. So many books. So many quiet conversations. Piles of Peace and Quiet. Lovely sleeping in the cabin in the woods. Lovely being together. So many blessings it was hard to keep track, let alone count.

We’re good traveling buddies. Talk. Talk. Talk. It’s nice. It was particularly nice doing our night driving on the way home. It was an easy drive with Ms GPS telling me how to get hither thither and yon. So, just lots of comforting darkness. Not even a moon, as it was the dark of the Moon. Just Steve and me and the road.

It was an abundance of plenty. Rejoicing in the Peace.

Now I have a couple more things to do before starting the great writing… but there’s time. Blessed Sabbath to you all… May there be beautiful slow days in your life this summer.

And there was this…

Peace on a Porch

For me, there is really nothing quite like reading on a screened in porch. Add in the sweet breeze off the bay and a cool glass of tea or lemonade or gasp even a shandy and i’m in heaven.

I had great books to read. They ranged from the meaningful to the totally useless. What a lovely buffet!

While i was alternately either stuffing or emptying my head, Steve was living in his own wonderland. We slept in a little cabin up a rise from the main cabin. So cozy. And he could practice and practice and practice and sleep and sleep and sleep. We both did a lot of that. Gotta get up to the cottage before you have to use your iphone flash light don’t you know.

But my cousin Doug’s a Quaker and so is Steve. So they could talk and talk. They’re both COs… more stuff to talk about. Steve doesn’t go to meeting much around here, because Sunday mornings are worship of another kind for him: jazz workshop! and have been for the last 19 years.

So to have the opportunity to go to meeting to hear Doug take the message and then to just hang with him was fun for all of us.

But the men sat and told their stories about being COs. War stories of a peaceful flavor. War stories we forget about. War Stories people need to hear. War stories that they needed to tell. Peace is not easy; it’s quite hard work actually. It demands conviction and commitment. Both these men have that. I was proud of them and happy for their stories.

Peace needs us to work on its behalf. To stand firm. Always.

The Fullness of Peace

I’ve been exhausted. I was chalking it up to how incredibly busy I was and not really paying a lot of attention to what I was very busy doing — mostly because i was just so busy doing what needed to be done next.

This past month, I have been more deeply… more immediately… involved in people’s lives than normal, working to be present to people at the place where life begins and the place where it ends and some of the magnificent places in between. When it comes in a wave as it has recently, it’s demanding. When you’re needed, you show up. I lean on the Lady, others lead on the Lord, others just the great gift of Life. But you lean, because you’re never enough alone. (and yes, i lean on my community.)

And while it is tiring to be that present to people’s lives, it’s the most exhilarating thing in the world.

As a priestess, I think a lot about the prophetic claims of the job: the need to speak about the many ways life is denied by the institutions to those cast as outsiders and to the most vulnerable. It is a privilege.

But what brought me to this whole priestessing thing was ritual. I love the celebrations. I love being asked to attend at moments of great importance and to lend the reminder that Love and Life are what matters. I love the time spent talking to the people involved, conceiving what will respond to their needs, crafting the vessel and the words and performing the ritual.

I enjoy the weaving together of community. I am pleased when I can help their Joy emerge and grateful beyond belief when I can give voice to their sadness and sometimes comfort and Peace in the midst of their loss.

It is also wonderful when these periods end and you can sink into your favorite chair, or pool or a meal with some friends. Or as I got to do last night, walking the labyrinth and a ritual celebrating the Full Berry Moon… Part of this work is not just the leaning, it’s the privilege and the demand of pouring out of self. I am grateful. and today? I’m tired.

Luckily, the Joy and the Peace will slowly, slowly fill me back to the rim with Life and Love. I just need to give them a chance. And until there’s a little more of me, I’ll quietly give thanks. And as the very wise Jack Kornfield said, “After the ecstasy, the laundry.” or as Buddha’s mother said, “chop wood, carry water.” The first of many loads is churning in the washing machine and I’ve got a day full of little chores to make my little paradise lovely again. A little peace and quiet to recharge the batteries. Peace be with us all…

Dashing Flower Moon Peace

It’s no wonder people think we’re the center of the Universe. The other night, driving home along the river, it seemed so clear that the Moon was chasing me until she caught me and showed me the good road home.

In moments like that, it seems so easy to think we’re communing (ok, maybe it’s just me) with the Moon.

Because her soft light is reflected, she’s so much more approachable than the sun, at whom you can’t glance directly.

I love the notion of that intimacy, and I’m sure the Moon doesn’t mind the secrets I share. Maybe the Moon Goddess cares, maybe not, but she’s never disabused me of the sweet silliness of it.

And I love how she finds me and spills that golden path across the water. Swimming the Moon path may be one of my favorite things in the whole world… I love how she softens the landscape so that we can see possibility and move slowly toward our work of maintenance and restoration.

It’s such a private and quiet moment of Peace. The utter stillness and sweet contentment reminds me in those moments, that we are on this Earth to notice these moments and to help one another find the space for Peace, with ourselves, with the Earth, with one another. Let us Peace by the light of the Moon.

Lazy Flower Moon Sabbath Peace

It’s chilly, but it’s a beautiful day out there! Blue, blue skies and all those budding bushes and trees.

And I’ve sort of written my way into an open day, so this afternoon’s going to entail some sitting around with a book. maybe a little walk. Some time to ponder the very sweet gift of love I received from so many yesterday! I could use a little peace and quiet after all that glorious frivolity…

No sense giving in to the allergies, they don’t seem to be going away! Might as well just ignore and appreciate what’s in front of me.

Spring’s beauty is fleeting. No sense missing it. And the Flower Moon and her Bounty comes but once a year!

Wishing you Peace on this lovely Sunday. Spread it around! Be at least as generous as Mother Nature!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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