Balancing Peace, llvl

I suffer (and therefore so do you) from intensity overload. I have focus but it tends to be all consuming. But working on an issue or a problem is more than simply laser focus. It’s about the down moments not just the exhilaration.

Peace doesn’t get made without being able to laugh at the missteps… and the successes.

Peace (Life? Love?) is an experiment. So let us do the work, but let us be filled with wonder when things move in the right direction. Let’s not be afraid to fail, because our failures make us smarter. Peace isn’t all or nothing, it’s what you have to work with now.

Finding the balance. This is our one precious life. Spend it wisely… and have a whole lot of fun. Because things will go wrong, you will be sad, you will screw up, and the fun and the great Possibility are what will enable you to come back to the Work of Peace. Find your balance, the trail is steep…

Team Peace, llvl

I read a great (and depressing) article in the Atlantic the other day that said that no one’s giving Venture Capital to people over 35. While I know I may have had good ideas at that point in my life, I would never had been as daring or as far sighted. And, you know, good ideas are not grand dreams!

And I was far more competitive.

And thanks to some great therapy and some great years, I’ve moved to a far more complementary working style, a collegial one, wherein i’m responsible for my work and I look for the ways your work props mine up (and my work props yours up) and then we go calmly (and sometimes excitedly) about changing the world. I’m excited that you’re so smart rather than being worried about your being smart in areas that I’m not. (although I continue to be jealous maybe envious of your talents in those areas in that wow how does he/she do that kinda way.

But when team work works? It’s amazing. And I’m grateful and pleased and proud. And happy to acknowledge the places you make life different and better and wonderful. And I don’t have to stew about the things I can’t do, because you’ve claimed them. You toss them off and it would take me 12 years to get them done. Thank you for being you and for letting me be me..

Not only Peace happens, but progress… and wow, isn’t that what we’re looking for? Let’s keep the water flowing over the dam, shall we?

Community Peace, llvl

We hear, we say, it takes a village. And it seems this is true. But what’s also true is that, with hard work and clear statement of the problem, there is a village. Community forms around causes. Communities are generous and like doing good.

Yesterday, sitting in the studio at WKOK, talking about the need for weekend backpack programs and my faith community’s decision to raise money for them. I was doing the ask. I asked for people to donate. And they did. I asked for people to provide a matching grant. And someone did. At the end of the day yesterday, $1,695 was in the bank. Since November 2013, with our push just starting, we’ve raised $15,000 (until yesterday, most of that came from within the congregation) If you figure it will take at least $250,000 to feed the elementary schools we’re 6 percent there. We may need to get to 20 percent before we get to writing a grant… and of course, and sadly, this isn’t a one time deal… this is an ongoing need.

What was clear at the end of the one-hour program was that people were willing to step up and support their village. You just have to ask. And when you do people respond. Do we need more people? Why, yes, we do. Do we believe that more people will participate? Why, yes, we do…

Am I overwhelmed, grateful, excited, bouncing off the moon? Why, yes, I am. Stepping up and working together is how we will make Peace in this place and make this a Valley Where No Child is Hungry. And that is a confirmation of what I’ve always believed. People want to help. You just have to show them how. And when you do, they break your heart open in joy. Oh, Hallelujah! If you want to donate, go to Love Flows: The LOVE Project (Let Our Valley Eat) and make a donation… or if you’d like to be a matching angel… write to me (find me at contact us). And in the meantime, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Let’s go! Kids need your help. You are the best!

Cusp o Peace, llvl

Back and forth and back and forth… can’t you make up your mind? Oh right… you’re the weather, you don’t have to. And yet, the Sun’s changing what the North Wind refuses to acknowledge… here comes Spring, cold weather notwithstanding…

Even as I huddle against it (and superstitiously leave my snow shovel outside to ward off the snow… don’t laugh — have YOU had to shovel around L-burg lately, I don’t think so!), I notice the determination of the crocus (playing through!) and the tips of the complacent willows (so turning colors, here!). The sun is implacably moving north and life changes.

So, I’m frantically looking for spring colored clothes to wear that are not ALL black but still manage to envelop me in warmth… because 20˚ is after all 20˚!

But something’s coming, something good! I think Deb Slade has once again done her magic and shown the promise in the water! Thirteenth week. One-quarter of the year (or will be at the end of the week) through this Living the Vida Local… I’ve been seduced by my local Peace, how about you?

Serendipitous Peace, llvl

What makes these things possible? Presence? Discipline? Sheer, unadulterated Luck? All of these? I don’t know.

I know I am humbled and grateful.

I would love to believe it’s my little village, but it’s not. Villages and Cities are filled with wonderful interesting people everywhere. It may be true that it’s easier to see one another in small towns… I can believe that. And I don’t know that it matters.

I’m here and for whatever reasons, I’m connected to amazing people. People who when we notice that children are hungry step up. I’m grateful every day for the team I get to work with. Caring people and very, very smart. And not just smart, but ingenious. There we are… making things happen. Things that need to happen. Things that matter. You don’t have to be the best at what you are, what you dream… you do need to be disciplined and consistent. You do need to be, dare I say it, earnest about your dreams and your determination. Earnestness translates; it sells. And selling is what we’re doing.

No one is going to feed hungry children unless you offer them the opportunity and give them a place to pay. It’s that simple… I didn’t always understand that, but there it is.

I believe fervently that we can do work that makes our hearts explode in our chests wherever we are. Yes, sometimes it’s that overwhelming. Yesterday was one of them. I adore this artist. If you’ve followed my work, you’ve adored her as well… She’s the woman who did the Peace mandalas for last year’s musings. A wonderful artist. She lives here. We show up at the same events — last night at Steve’s Musical Mash-up. She’d been there last week and we’d talked about mandalas, about the LOVE project, about doing a project together. We brainstormed words and phrases (while listening to our neighbors play astonishing music).

And then this week she came back. She’d played with words and found three that work. She taught me how to look into her designs and then she told me how her designs move. In and out; around. The designs are gorgeous and her explanations completely germane to the work we are doing. And so we will go to work… And this will be one more way to step up, to be socially active, to feed children… and one more way to think about what matters. And for us, it will be one more way to use our arts… to explore them… to apply them… to collaborate… for good, for community, for Peace.

Oh may your lives be this joyous and filled with magic! I am awed and grateful that mine is.

Sacred Water Peace Blues, llvl

It was International Water Day (and I missed it! well, I was writing about something else.) If you’ve been following me long you know I love Water. My completely non-scientific take on my love for the wet stuff is that I’m an earth sign and it’s only in water that I decompress a bit… And of course, I am as they say in relation to matzoh balls, a floater… What’s not to like.

Many of my most precious memories are about water and times I spent in and on it. Chinese medicine would tell you that memories and inheritance are held in the kidneys… that water reference makes sense to me!

So to stop and contemplate what it would mean not to have free access to water for drinking, for bathing and for swimming is a terrible thing to imagine. We are so privileged here. We have so much. So why can’t we notice and appreciate? Why can’t we protect.

I’ve got grandchildren. Ones a great swimmer. The other one is a great mucker about in ponds… What if they don’t get to hop off the boat into the river to see what they can see? What if they can’t float down the river on something inflated and just thrill. And what… if like so much of the world…. we didn’t have safe drinking water. 6000 children die every day from unsafe water. We should fret about that. We should do something. We should stop certain someones from doing other things that endanger the water. As much as I like swimming, I like fresh water better… and I want it for all the children. I know you do too… How are we working for Peace?

Speaking Sabbath Peace, llvl

I continue to be astonished by the journey. Having declared that this year’s journey was all about living locally… my world continues to unfold. People drag me off to do local things because I’ve said they’re important. So I get to see a snowy owl. I’d have been happy before to know they were there, but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way… but someone made that happen.

All of a sudden I’m taking a course about geography (and geology), things about which I have a somewhat, shall we say, intellectual interest. Mother Earth & Nature are not so much about their actual dirt for me… (ok, i’m shallow, what can I say?)

In my word scramble that says what my important key words are, the word Sabbath keeps getting larger. As I click it every Sunday, after I’ve written about trying to be aware of it, I work to honor and enjoy the day — to infuse it with a joy that is slower and more aware than my usual dash-through-the-day enjoyment of life.

And living here, truly here, I begin to be aware not only what’s right and wonderful, but what’s broken and in need of our loving hands. This was a clear and painful conversation we had at class… painful because we were all poking at the rough spots in our love for where we live.

So, as you go through your day today, take some time, think about what makes your world wonderful… and where your duty lies… Duty, not a very 2014ish word, is it? But our duty is what moves us toward Peace. oh, this being conscious is hard.

Neighborhood Peace, llvl

Getting to know your neighborhood changes both your neighborhood and you.

Being visible, being present, being aware, being kind, being involved… they all matter.

They take a little time, but they don’t really take that much energy. And oh, the rewards the reap.

Start by walking around. Add in saying hello. Move to asking folk how they’re faring. Care about their answers.

Pretty soon you look forward to more of their story and people are being kind to you and to one another.

Kindness is contagious. Enjoy it. Embody it. It opens your heart! It starts the Path to Peace… and isn’t that why we’re born?

Dance Peace, LLVL?

So the big question is will we do it? Will we dare to be silly? Will we offer that option to everyone else around us? It’s a little town, we know lots of people, and they know we’re wacky. Are we going to be found at 2 pm on a Saturday, dancing it up?

We’ll have to see… It’d be awfully fun. You show up. You dance. Dance as prayer, dance as being present, dance as a ridiculous wonderful thing!

No one needs to worry what they look like. all you need to think about is will we laugh?

Dance Challenge… making it up and down the street… Some days it’s the little things that build Peace. (and let you have fun, fun, fun)!

Science Peace: llvglobal

Well, of course, la vida local is also la vida global. We are all part of the interconnected web. And so much that’s astonishing in life has a really long lead time. Here‘s a wonderful video about a scientist hearing that what he believed, nurtured and cherished has come to fruition. The 30-year lead time on that knowledge doesn’t change the wonder. And his 30 year lead is predicated upon, built upon the science of others.

The science is ‘way beyond my comprehension… but the notion that one could “hear” echoes of the big bang billions (loads of zeros) of years ago — and actually of the “inflation” that happened one trillionth of a second (greater loads of zeros than the last load) after the bang… now that’s a thing of wonder. An inflation that unites us in wonder… and leaves us with the responsibility to unite in Peace. “Come together, right now.”

(how extraordinary is this! I totally get it that I may have gotten the science wrong, but my inability to wrap my arms around the extent of the possibility isn’t science’s fault — nor does it change the wonderment! Oh, my Daddy would have been so excited. Look kids, science is fun and extraordinary.)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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