The Peace Between, llvl

In my mind, I separate the peace we find in our souls with the Peace we make in our world. I don’t believe you have to peace (little p) to be working on Peace (big P). I fear that, too often, we’ve substituted the pursuit of our own calm and beautiful center for our struggle for the well-being of the world.

That said, we can’t neglect ourselves either. Life is here to be lived in. Selflessness is overrated, I believe. Selflessness does not often embrace the richness of life, and what a crime that is. So it’s a balancing act…

Some people don’t find flying easy either. The first time I flew in a big plane, I got on in NY and got off in Sweden. I was hooked. New worlds at the end of flying. (The first time I flew in a little plane there was The Sound of Music at the end… who knows where my friends took me.) So who didn’t want to fly. I’ve almost always flown alone. And that’s lovely for me. And flying with Steve is a fairly solitary event, since as soon as he gets on a plane, he drowses… and I’m back in my little world. Just me and a brand new book with a fun place at one end and a fun place at the other. Well, hopefully. Not all my flights have been to fun destinations, but most of them have been to Love…

This country is so vast and so diverse in the landscape. And there we are in our little silver tube sliding along. It somehow feels very like being part of the river moving from a source to a delta… at least for me.

I suppose this is particularly true because when you fly between Love, life is busy on either end and flying is solo and silent and rejuvenating… and somehow so very hopeful. So, even if I have a hard time getting my clock reset. Even if there were a billion people to see and not a lot of downtime there and a billion things to do and not a lot of downtime here and those wonderful things are my Life and my Work… in between, I’m part of that lovely silver river of Silence, sliding under the bridge… and then, time for Peace and Peace Work again. Counting those blessings…

The Discipline of Peace, llvl

I don’t know what I was thinking yesterday… it’s 10,000 hours, not 2,000. That’s five years of the hard work of Peace Making in order to have Peace become reflexive in our hearts…

Will it work? I can’t tell you. Is there any reason why it shouldn’t? I don’t see one. I see a lot of impetus toward Peace. Not the least is the recent paper circulating in the Eastern Ukraine, (is it a governmental decree or a terroristic sect’s threat?) that all the Jews should go to register on threat of forfeiture of their citizenship and their property… along with all the continued oppression happening all over the world…

We must be the difference. And we must start to work…

Peace is in our hands. It must be in our hearts and in our actions. We must practice, every day and every moment. All these years after it was sung, are we willing to give Peace a chance?

Body Memory Peace

I got to see my husband play with a mentor this week. It was such a joy. Benny Barth, jazzman!

One of the things I loved about the experience was realizing that both of these men, playing wonderful drums, were handicapped in some way. Steve’s hands are full of arthritis, he has neuropathy and he now needs carpal tunnel surgery. Benny’s in the beginning stages of alzheimer’s.

But wherever else there is impairment, behind the drums there is none. Not in the way they sit, not in the way the hold their sticks, not in the way the music flows through them. They’ve played so long, that rhythm knows how to make it’s way through them.

It was a joy and an honor…

I couldn’t help thinking… what if we practiced Peace that way? Practiced so long and so hard that it became second nature? That Peace could have her way with us, even when we were feeling irritable or small-minded? It would take a lot of hours to make it second nature… But watching these two men, I had Hope. Hope. Peace. and 2000 hours of practice. And we’re off!

Catch and Release Peace, llvl

What do you think? Too corny? I confess I really like the notion. Move toward Peace, enjoy the moment, let it go out into the world. Take the next step, repeat the process.

What would that mean? Well, some of it would mean filling up the airwaves and the electrons with good news about Peace.

I know a lot of people get nervous about about putting good deeds in the newspaper because they feel it’s self-aggrandizing. But the fact is, some place in our brain we’re monkey see, monkey do. We’re more generous when we see other people being generous.

So it makes sense to Catch and Release Peace. Make it. Love it. Proclaim it. Repeat. Fill up the newspapers with good news. Maybe we should have contests! Peace! (and look at Deb’s beautiful new Pic that inspired this! and look, it’s the 16th day of April in the 16th week of the year! and it’s still a palindrome: 4.16.14. Beautiful Happiness and goofy Happiness!)

Peace Here and Now, llvl

I’m away visiting family, so I guess my wind up is slow. Certainly is this morning as I write this a long while after waking up!

It took me until the end of the week to notice how the angel was a little black and white slice in that pile o pansies and daffs. I liked that life was vibrant.

When people ask me what I think about the afterlife, I often reply that I don’t. Well, of course I do, I have many dead loved ones. I like to think that they are up there having a great time and will be happy to welcome me home. But that’s wishful thinking… imagining, kinda… But I don’t have a “sound theological understanding” of heaven, because — I don’t think it matters.

I reserve most of my thinking for the here and now, because that’s all I can affect. Things aren’t working well. Are they working worse than they have? I don’t know, I don’t find that helpful either. There is work to be done. There is Peace to be made. There is appreciation to be given.

All we read is war and hate. It’s our turn to start making headlines for Peace and Love. We need to do what matters. We need to turn from the negativity. It’s not about the nos… it’s the yeses that matter. Let us be the ones who give Peace a (fighting) chance! Let’s be those who work for connection and community.

Peace of Perfect Days, llvl

However grand we find life most of the time, there are still those astonishing halcyon days, when everything seems perfect. We especially notice them in spring when the weather turns nice for the first time. But every season has them. They are extraordinary days, filled to the brim with Beauty and Love and Gratitude.

Hopefully when these days arrive we can remember to count our blessings rather than demand that all life be that perfect. Into every life a little rain, and all that! These days are beautiful, ephemeral jewels to be exclaimed over, enjoyed, and released… These are sacred days, not mundane…

hmmm. there’s a theme to be explored… life as catch and release…

yep, pretty sure I should stop right there. Peace… Beauty, Love, Gratitude — not much more that’s needed! (except, of course, your appreciation).

Blending Peace, llvl

Steve and I both lived in the Bay area for important periods of our life. But since we didn’t know each other then, we have whole periods of our lives to explore. Yesterday we sat at a table with friends from our pasts.

It wasn’t so much a get to know you fest as it was a delighted parallel conversation with a little overlap… but oh it was grand. Marriages late in life come with a lot of unshared territory. Since we’re now living across the country from our pasts, it takes very deliberate work to weave them into our present.

I confess, I’m more interested in this than Steve is, although he’s always happy to come along for the ride. What’s true? We’ve had some very interesting blends. I’m so grateful.

And I’m just reveling in the people I have loved a long time. Visiting is grand. And reveling too in the fact that my present is where it is. Home sweet home AND home away from home. Life is sweet. Peace is elusive but so worth the work! And Friendship, I believe, is the gateway to Peace. And then? there’s family!

The Scent of Peace Past, llvl

It’s been wonderful to step back into my past for a bit… and somewhat jarring. The changes that have happened gradually in my old life arrive in my heart as one big shock.

I didn’t see the neighborhood kids grow up, although i watch them on facebook. But when I go back to the old place, it’s oddly empty. And in my absence, gentrification has really hit the neighborhood… only one black family left on the block. That’s a pretty stark reminder of the way the world changes.

And it’s not just the kids who have grown up. The fig tree did and my Lincoln rose. My roommate, so much younger than I… still in her thirties when I left, is now the “elder” at her gig. Hi-larious!

But still I recognize the bones and love this life deeply. And the sweet relationships that knew me when… and helped to shape me. So happy to remember! Lucky to have had a life with sweet, sweet memories, scented by a beautiful rose! And for the moment I’ll hold that scent in my heart. Peace be with you.

Peace…

Peace from the Past, llvl

Ahhhhhhhh…

When the past was good, it’s good to visit. I spent last night at the house I lived in for 4 years. When I moved back East, my friend’s beloved moved in, so I get to go back to my neighborhood to visit… It is such a sweet thing. Of all the places I’ve lived, this place had about the best la vida local. It was a neighborhood… yeah, even kind of a ‘hood, but delightful for all that.

And as Jen and I were arriving from different places, another neighbor who doesn’t live here any more, walked out of her mom’s house. Hugs all around! Not two hours before that, I had run into a former wedding client in my friend’s fabulous store. Connections! Community! Life! Love!

I’m short on time, trying to fit everyone into my two minutes here, which is ridiculous and i can’t. But I’m getting a good armful of people I care about and miss a lot. The past has it’s own special Peace. Sometimes it’s because you’ve made Peace with the hard parts. Sometimes it’s because making new memories with the folks you made old memories with is the sweetest thing in the world. Living la vida local… past and present. It’s a good thing… good too to remember it’s not a new thing in my life. Rollin’ in the Peace. May you do the same!

Warm, Expanding Peace, llvl

Warm air. It’s quite a remarkable thing. Warm, flower-scented air, even more delightful. The opening continues to catch me off guard in a delightful way.

And I’ve stepped, momentarily, into warm scented air that I used to know. I’m visiting a friend, walking paths of earlier days, letting the memories roll out. And so many of these memories have no overlay of the grief I have recently encountered. They have their own remembered challenges, but also many, many, many sweet triumphs… and giggles. There were lots of giggles. And this is a place where I moved from the person I had been to the person I would become/was being.

It’s wonderful to be making new memories in a place of old community and connection.

This place is much farther into Spring than the place I left. And I’ll miss that brave unfolding with daring daffodils defying the chill and the breeze to bloom, damn it! But here things are bravely lush, defying the drought. There is here a determination to bloom as fierce as any. (Sweet Deb, for bringing back the angel, surrounded in truth and possibility!)

This is sere landscape. But not right now. Right now it is as rich and lush as my memories and sweet on the heart. Peace Pieces, back from the past. Blessed be… Blessed am.

Sacred Village

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