Everyday Peace, llvl

Well, I’m off again today, this time to visit Cecilia. Lorraine and I get on the train in just a few hours. But before we left, I had this lovely slow day catching up on things, doing things that are completely Ann… writing my blog, writing a musing, prepping some weddings. A sweet, sweet day.

Even with fun, you have to take a pause once in a while and come back to self. It’s fun to recognize how very much I like my life and my work. And even with fun, once in a while you have to stop…

And stopping in a garden full of flowers, friendship and writing? that’s pretty heavenly!

I’m not sure when I’ll be back to this… can you imagine, people a) have summer homes and b) don’t always have wifi in them. And that, means going with the flow! Peace. It arrives in so many packages. We have to keep sampling, until we find it. Well, by Monday, certainly.

And we have to keep finding new ways to work on Peace, because what we’re doing isn’t edging the world forward, is it…

Peace and Paradise, disturbed, llvl

Asch. We are who we are. And life is as we know it. Sometimes that’s amazing. Sometimes it’s less so.

Yesterday was filled with both. Lorraine’s sister and her daughter came to visit. Hooray. We packed down a watermelon and a gooseberry/black current pie/raspberry (oooh, my!) and took the ferry boat from the Picasso sculpture (yes i sorta took a picture, some time I’ll figure out how to put my reeeeeeally mediocre pics on Facebook… oh, thank goodness for Deb Slade and her art shots!) over to the island.

Once we got to the rocks on the other side of the island, it was amazing. You could dive off the rocks into the lake and bob and float and laugh and we did! Apparently there are rules: two dips in the lake and then you can drink your coffee or tea. No drinking tea if your eyelashes aren’t damp!

It was just lovely. You can’t believe the amount of stuff we hauled out there to enjoy ourselves: chairs, towels, sunblock, thermoses, forks plates, knives, cutting boards, serving spoons. All for a trek through the woods. But make no mistake. Once again, it was Paradise!

But the niggling little problem about paradise is that I don’t walk well in the woods, particularly woods that are up and down with stones and roots. And roots covered over with springy, springy moss, which is beautiful and flowering. I’m not sure what triggered it, I had it fairly well controlled going out, but coming back to the boat, I realized I was having a panic attack. It was full blown before it broke my concentration, fast heart, fast shallow breathing, threatening tears. Once I realized, I could ask Lorraine to go more slowly, and to be patient. It wasn’t so much help I needed as time. It’s frustrating, because it’s really beautiful in the woods… intellectually I know that. But if you’ve ever had panic attacks, you know it just takes a lot of concentration and slow exhalations to calm them. And understanding friends. I had all that, but whew. Unreasoning fear, from out of nowhere.

Exhale, inhale, exhale, inhale. one foot, two foot. (ah, why didn’t Dr. Seuss write a book about dealing with panic attacks? It’s exactly what you need… silly, mindless repetition.

But we got to the boat on time and the ferry was waiting. Wonderful old wooden boat to take us back to the mainland, laughing all the way. But sheesh, wanna know if like having all my insecurities on display, in front of beloved friends (and who better?), no, not so much. Hard work. Great Payoff…

And yet, it was Paradise. There was Peace. There was nothing more beautiful than, not only the rocks, but the journey out and in. I think I’ll try it again. (Poor them! Lucky me!)

Sweet, Summer Peace Days, llvl

I’m having the loveliest time… So many sweet summer days in a row, “no particular place to go…”

Although today we do, Lorraine’s sister Dorothy and her daughter Sigrid are coming and we’re taking the “banana boat” over to the island and going to Kjell and Lorraine’s favorite rocks on the island. Lunch is coming along. Swimming will ensue. It’s only going to be mid 70s today, but the water’s still warm… ahhhhhh. And it’s nice because there’s a rigamarole attached to it. Drive to the boat. Stand in line. Ride to the island (we’re on the Vanern Lake now, the large, large lake in central Sweden, Karlstad is the closest town that’s usually visible on the map, but we’re in Kristinehamn.) Then it’s a 20 minute walk through the woods to get to where we’re going. (that’s the scary part for me… my balance, my balance!) and then out onto the warm, warm rocks that slope into the sea. yay! Everyday’s a holiday.

Yesterday there was dinner with a well known Swedish filmmaker… small art films, not big commercial ones. Gunvor Nelson lives in the same Artists Area in K’hamn that Lorraine and Kjell do. (There’s a print of her house in the snow, done by Kjell that hangs in my office). Pizza. yum. Really, it’s a perfect vacation, lots of eating, lots of swimming, lots of talking to beloved friends and visiting beloved places.

And so I’m reading and enjoying life. Writing a little. And at the same time, fretting a little because after all… There’s a war on and my friend Sonia’s family is at risk. But I guess my prayers from here are carried as well as they might be if i were at home. It’s a very frightening time we live in. As Pope Francis, quickly becoming beloved, said: No more war! No more War! No more War!

Fairy Tale Peace, llvl

Oh, the forests are really mysterious here. Not in a creepy way, just mossy and green and beautiful, with big stones and fallen trees. It’s easy to imagine that the little people dwell amongst the rocks and roots. And there are lots of animals. We were just out at Kjell and Lorraine’s cottage, and in the surrounding forests there are elk, deer, foxes, and a rumored wolf or two. Birds for days. Pheasants and swallows and gulls. Across the way from where we swim is an island that an osprey has claimed and the county has acquiesced. “OK, that bunch of rocks is yours. No one can fish there!”

And the clear lakes are so beautiful. They’re connected to one another by canals so you could take your row boat or kayak or little motorboat all the way from here to Stockholm, but why would you, when it’s so beautiful here?

Lorraine fretted that we wouldn’t find a good place to go into the lake, after we waded through the grass to get to the edge, but there it was a little dip just big enough for three or four to sit with easy entry into the lake. Fifteen feet out and you’re floating and you can see your feet if you hang straight down, but not past that, and really, who wants to know? It was a little rocky to sit, so we scrounged around for little canvas stools to take (Lorraine has EVERYTHING squirreled away in her studio out there). Kjell decided it needed a permanent solution, so he “just knocked together” a beautiful bench to stand… They’ll be swimming there all summer…

But, fairy tales, isn’t that where we started? Sitting on the porch, looking at the woods (because we did a lot of that), I thought about how scary fairy tales are. We talked a little about that. What were they teaching? Was it that everything came out well in the end? Was it that you really should listen when your parents say, don’t do that because they can go so horribly astray?

But then I thought, ever the Pollyanna, despite Barbara Erenriech’s new “Bright-Siding,” that I’m slogging my way through, scaring myself at every turn. (Oh, don’t you hate to see where you’re shallow and oh, go ahead, wrong?)… I thought well, if things are so mucked about in the middle of fairy tales, but eventually get figured out, can’t we be the ones who figure things out?

And of course, can’t we be ones who figure things out without killing off folk? Because of course in fairy tales there’s only one bad guy/gal and you kill them and you’re all fixed… but when you’re working toward Peace, killing is a bit beside the point…

Lots of thoughts and all a fair distance from where there were first just the wee folk peering out at us. I’ll think again in a bit… it’s time to go out and walk around!

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.

The Peace of Deep Friendship, llvl

There is no greater joy, I think, than to have fast friends. People who know us. I love making new friends. But oh, those friends who understand where we’ve come from and how we got to where we are today.

I love those instantaneous “oh, I like you” relationships. But I really love those friendships that you grow into and grow in. The ones that just keep spiraling deeper. The ones that aren’t dependent on constantly shared lives but which sweeten on shared understandings.

Being here in these friendships is like swimming in beloved waters. You simply soak them in, gratitude for being alive fills each moment. It’s as if your ability to be present is sharply magnified and you are who you are.

Such friendships call you to account and give you space to reflect.

Such friendships remind you when you miss the mark but offer you the opportunity to try again.

If I have a creation myth, it is about being called into relationship with the Divine. Nothing more sacred than friendship… Oh, we give thanks, for this precious day…

I’ve been singing that a lot recently. Sweet Deep Peace in the rising and falling of conversations with friends.

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!

Slightly Connected Peace, llvl

It’s so sweet having good friends scattered over this country. There is much to be grateful to the Rotary Exchange Program for!

It’s always seemed weird that these separate little worlds don’t know one another. Well, my friend Lorraine knows everyone, because either we lived in the same town for a while, or people have come through Kristinehamn (K-hamn) and stopped to see me at Lorraine’s house. Altogether, it’s a pretty fine thing.

But this week, there was a little breakdown. Margita, in whose house I lived in K-hamn when I was here, came to Fjällbacka to pick me up at Margareta’s summer home. They’d never met before. Marg had lived at my family’s when my brother was an exchange student in Mönsterås in 1967-68. So there were Marg and her daughter Katarina and her boyfriend Mikke. (We were all sort of collapsed in heat after the cake party for Marg’s name day. Yep, gotta celebrate not just your birthday, but your name day as well. More cake. And this was right in the middle of — don’t you love this — housewife week, when one often has cake parties. But hey, it’s cake. I can slide right over the political correctness!)

But Margita came and we went and got pizzas and clambered aboard Marg’s boat and whisked ourselves out to an island in the middle of this rocky bay. Oh, the water was amazing, cool and refreshing. Nothing like the time i was there with my parents and the water was well… frrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeezing comes to mind! But Betty went in, so we all did, squealing all the way!

Ah, it was nice to have those edges meet. so sweet, so sweet. sisters of my heart. Marg’s very clear about being my “big” sister, because she has me by a year. And since I’m, shall we say, down one big sister, i’ll take it! Sweet, wonderful crazy time.

Worlds colliding and enjoying one another. Isn’t that what we have to learn to do? To sit at one another’s house and eat cake and on one another’s boat and eat pizza and to laugh, to laugh, to laugh. If the Rotary know this… shouldn’t everyone! This isn’t a secret to keep, this is a sacred truth to shout aloud!

Joy, Joy, Peace, Peace, llvl

I believe it’s important to live into Beauty and Love when given the opportunity. And I believe it’s important to make the opportunities. What a delight to be living that out. Almost moment by moment. It’s so rare for me to be here, that I’m working very hard to experience every moment. I’m working — or not working — to know Peace from the inside.

I’m not silly enough to think that I must know personal Peace to work for global Peace. But I am smart enough to revel in what’s here. To notice. To rejoice. Those are important, don’t you think? I’m so privileged to be living back into these friendships and this beautiful country.

To be in the sea is such a delight for me… It’s full of memories and pleasure and so much joy. It buoys my heart as well as my body. And to share that with friends, friends who belong in different lives… the joy deepens!

There we were, dashing about cleaning up the house and making and assembling cakes. Four people; four cakes. New marketing idea for USA: cake bottoms! I was charged with the meringue whipped cream fruit cake. stacking, I can do it! Lovely, lovely, lovely!

And now, it’s time to pack away these beautiful thoughts and move on to the next, oh, my goodness, wonderful island. My soul continues to expand.

And at the same time, I think of the places and the people whose lives are not filled with expansion. I hold my friend Sonia in my heart, whose family still lives in Palestine and who is building a house there. Whatever the problems, bombs are not the answer, not, not, not. We must do better…

And those of us who live in Peace must pay attention and be grateful. We’ve got to help Love to conquer Fear. We are the ones the world has been waiting for… Let there be Peace on Earth and let it begin with me. and you. Peaceful Prayers be with you, my friends.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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