Sabbath Seal Peace, llvl

Well, it doesn’t get much more local than yesterday. It was hard not to be present to every seemingly perfect moment. The day before was the day of seeing the seals. They were hilarious. Look, the neighbors dropped by! And there they were in a big-eyed smiling circle, just hanging out…

Marg, my first Swedish sister, who lived at my house when my brother was an exchange student, took me out for our daily constitutional, hup, hup. We ended that with a plop into the sea. It’s gorgeous on the coast, but there’s not a lot of shade because it gets scoured by winter storms. So the water felt wonderfully refreshing. Silly Swedes were saying, oh, how warm (70˚!)… i was gasping a bit, but really… it was so clean and clear AND it was warm enough to discourage man o war jellyfish from the day before. yikes.

I need to fasten this ability to stop daily life and be present to the moment in my brain. it’s good to do this now and again. look at this. look at that. look at this. oh, taste this. summer, summer, summer. sea, wind, water, sun. and love! 45 whole years of it.

Tomorrow I move on, and I’m both sad and excited. This time is so worth the work and the wait and the resources required. I tried to think yesterday… didn’t work to well. Love will keep growing if you just pay attention. Connections will be woven.

Today is Sunday and there’s a cake party underway. two cakes being baked. I’ve been assigned to assemble the meringue torte… under strict instructions. but what the heck. meringue, raspberries, blueberries, whipped cream. for that, I’ll follow anyone’s direction, do it just the way they want.

Yesterday was a tired day. couldn’t remember how to walk or speak swedish or do anything, so i stuck to doing the dishes and folding up the wash.

We finished the evening sitting on the patio until it finally got dark at about 11:30 (sun went down at about 10:10!). Two of Marg’s friends dropped by and there was a lot of laughter and tales of days gone by. Life is for the Living. the Sabbath is for the noticing. (I’ll be noticing the four cakes!) and for the reflecting as I pack down my suitcase for the next time… Heaven has been spotted many times. The bad news is that there are 4 inch slugs in Paradise. and i stepped on one… urgh. Peace. Gratitude. Beauty. Wonder. Love. ahhhhhhhhhh. Keeping the sacred in the sabbatical.

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.

Peace/No Peace, llvl

It seems odd… here am I in wonderland, looking out over the sea who hides her changes. The good news here is that the mackerel are coming back… or so we hope. But Fjällbacka, like my lovely little Lewisburg, is a small village and much that is wrong is very well hidden and all that is beautiful lies on the surface.

And at the same time, the world is exploding in roiling ugliness. People are gathering to turn away children. People are gathering to watch a war as if it were television. People are being shot from the sky. 300 lives ended, including some of the great minds working on AIDS. And those are only today’s headlines, there is so much we’re looking away from.

And so I pray. I pray for those who are warred upon, may their bodies be protected and their souls comforted. I pray for those who make war, may their hearts soften and their brains clear. I work to pray with each breath, to notice the beauty, to appreciate the love in this family and my life, to realize how precious life is and to be grateful.

I may not feel guilty for my time off, that would sully it. Cutting it short wouldn’t change what’s happening… I am not so powerful. So I must treasure this time — and all of you — and prepare myself for my return. I must make more good memories to savor and shore me up.

In the meantime, I am also wildly grateful for those who do their work so that the world may be better…saner… safer… I pray that we may make it more Peaceful, more Just.

Picnic Peace, llvl

Sitting on the rocks in the middle of the sea, I am certain that I could do this at home.

But, I don’t.

Why is that? Why don’t I take stillness in the midst of the great beauty that is my home ground… indeed my life.

It’s not as if it’s not there to enjoy. Just over a week ago, I was out on a boat in the middle of the Susquehanna with my brother- and sister-in-spirit. and it was quiet and sweet. Not long before that, I was sat in the middle of Penn’s creek. But this absolute do-nothingness, absolute immersion in the elements, day after day, that is not something I give myself. It’s a shame. I know, all of life is not a vacation, but it’s not all work, either.

And this is wonderful. Because here I am, in the company of old friends, marooned on an island and sucking the marrow out of the day. yum. drinks on hotel patio overlooking the harbor. shelling shrimp at 9 at night (or what they’re calling night but is really full sunshine) on the home patio overlooking the harbor. Go to bed. get up. more of the same.

Just a few responsibilities: Be present. Enjoy. Count blessings. Give thanks. I hope I’m succeeding in my assignments. I’m sure at some point I’ll write, but… not for a while… and in the meantime, I’ll savor the Peace. Life is sacred. It is often filled with joy. To live this way is a prayer. I am the among the luckiest women in the world.

So, you heard it here first. Picnics in beautiful spots when i come home. ‘k?

Peace Dreaming, llvl

Dreaming… It’s so important… Imagining something bigger is the first step to Peace. To envision sitting someplace with people unlike you in appearance but so like you in heart and soul; people who live somewhere so different from where you live… ah… that is a great and luxurious pleasure.

Dreaming is more than day dreaming, dreaming is serious business. It’s fun to simply float along, but it’s good to have a dream that looks to become reality. That sort of dreaming stretches our hearts and our heads…

It’s been fun to go to sleep on this bed with the map on the wall above me. and of course central to the map is Sweden. My whole life changed in Sweden… For a lot of reasons, I relearned friendship. I learned to speak another language and thus listen differently. I lived in another culture. I lived in another family. I was transformed, my heart fundamentally altered. It was such a wonderful experience. I came from such a safe wonderful but supremely little world. And then my life was broadened… even though I moved to another little world…

I love sitting betwixt and between… being here and remembering that life can be restarted… and looking at home where life is also burgeoning. (Deb Slade always knows how to capture our attention, doesn’t she?) Love. Peace. Growth. Possibility. The world really is much bigger than we think. Let us give thanks for the Wonder of it all!

Chocolate Cake Batter Peace, another llvl

Wherever you are life goes on. (it went on so quickly, I didn’t have time to write yesterday, first time in a long time!) I may be looking out over one of the prettiest harbors in the world, one that is far from my beloved coves on the Susquehanna, but put a two year in the kitchen with adults and an emptied bowl of chocolate cake batter, and it’s the same. Spoons out and dig in! So la vida local is always la vida even when the locale changes from place to place. It’s all about making memories, creating family and laughter and love!

So interesting to drop back into life after 6 years. My friend’s mother is gone now, I had hoped to see her once again — She said when I left the last time, “I will probably not see you again, but it was nice to have known you…” I’d hoped she was wrong, but… no. And my friend’s children, one with a child of his own, are fully functioning adults… and yet, it is life, it is the same, rich and sweet.

Fish and fish and fish. and sweet times. The wind’s blowing and it’s chilly, but still so beautiful. I’m a little cloudy still from too much sleep after too little, but I’ve been promised a brisk walk around the village to clear my head.

I’m always amazed that you can move so easily between lives… i guess i think the secret (for me, at least) is to remember that while their life is foreign to me, it’s local to them, so it’s about fitting myself in and not comparing, just enjoying. And the cake was as good cooked as battered… because cooked it had strawberries and cream… yep, the wonderful thing about this local life is that strawberries are just now coming into season! yay!

Peace be with us, Peace be with us all! Summer’s Peace. Peace of the laughter of small boys. Peace of dear, long-time friendships… Peace.

(I’ve promised to blog on another site here on sacredvillage, but not today, and maybe not tomorrow. getting my Sweden legs… and more importantly Sweden head… Jet lag takes me somewhere cloudy, indeed)

The Peace of Love Sabbath, llvl

Saying I love you, right out loud. It’s what the world needs. More love, extravagantly stated, more love, outrageously lived. More love. “There is more Love somewhere!”

Yesterday, after viewing pictures of one of my grooms being fêted at his job in this little central PA town, I said that what I felt was the right song to sing right then was Bob Marley’s “Redemption.” Staying the course makes the difference. It’s so important that the laws change. It’s great that the church turns out for the weddings we’ve just had. But we’re UUs, you’d expect that. We’ve worked on ourselves, signed petitions, and not always without effort or halting, opened our hearts and our doors. But the proof of change is in every day people’s getting it.

And they do. So, let me say to the other whole bunches of lot of States: Be not afraid. for all the brouhaha… the people are leading on this. And haters aside, they’re leading to Love. And the haters are loud and ugly. but they’re not the majority any longer. Marrying for Peace: an idea whose time has come.

Love, Love, Love, Love, crazy Love. or as Mr. Seeger might have sung: God’s countin’ on me; God’s countin’ on you! And sometimes, we just see God through. And if that’s not enough work to take the Sabbath off, i don’t know what is. Life is sacred; our job is to cherish it! Happy summer.

Disturbing the Peace Friends, llvl

I had the most divine trip down one side of the river and back up the other yesterday. I’ve see the river from both sides now from in and out and still somehow… I love this stretch of the river.

And in the center of the trip, along a rushing stream, there was a wonderful lunch with two friends. One’s a long-term friend, my mentor since seminary, who has the astonishing knack of allowing me to mentor or perhaps minister, to her. The other is her niece, a woman with whom I sense potential for friendship, but who at the very least is a charming, charming, insightful lunch companion.

So there was catching up on the life that’s happened since last we saw one another, catching up on the bits of one another’s lives about which we had no idea and oh, more than a little time, dreaming into the future.

It’s such a rush to have those conversations. Talk about our loves and losses, our passions and disappointments, our rages and our curiosity… Intense, irreverent, inane, insane, inspirational and just flat out funny. and, oh, reassuring. Lovely to know there are folks you could get up to great good with and occasionally no good at all!

It’s important to have folks you dream with and folks who call you to account for your dreams. Let us disturb the peace (peace with a small p is just status quo) so that we can make Peace (a new, exciting, just world). Let’s do it locally, and let’s do it on a grand scheme. We’ve got friends. We’ve got the world. And we have laughter. And that’s a lot!

(wow, picking words for word search. all these years of these blogs and FRIENDS has never been a choice for me? where has my brain been?)

Containing Peace, llvl

Ah, the human heart. Or at least this human heart. Holding so many contradictory thoughts and feelings.

But I guess that’s the truth of life, isn’t it. It isn’t this or that, it’s all those things. We need to stretch past the other, very real emotions and obstacles to Peace.

There is a stunning picture making the rounds on Facebook (and I helped) of a bereft Israeli father holding a bereft Palestinian one. Moving into their grief toward Peace. How do we learn to love one another?

Loss is a lousy way to get there, but it’s sometimes the road we’re on.

I know that the visceral anger I feel at what’s going on in this world is helpful. It is that rage at what is wrong that pushes me to what is right. It mobilizes not only me but us. Here we are, in whatever haphazard way, working toward becoming a Valley with No Hungry Children. Individuals putting in their $1.25 a week or finding ways to help the project along. Making a difference because we can and because we want to.

How many lives can we touch? How many hands can join in the Peace-making efforts? So many more than our cynicism would like to believe. Peace. It’s where we want to be going, whatever else is going on in our lives. I’m grateful that my vida local is small enough that I get to know so many neighbors who are going there too…

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.

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