Peace Dawn in La Vida Local

It is that time of year when you get up just a bit earlier. The light calls. And it’s worth answering its call because it’s gorgeous if you can get yourself out of bed. But there’s more than Beauty waiting, there’s Possibility.

It’s time. Goodness knows I’ve put it off long enough this winter. I’ve been sad, I’ve been sleepy. I’ve been shoveling snow. And all those things are fine… they are what they are.

In addition, the project I’m working on has been too big to get my arms around until now… It’s still too big, but there are little moments of clarity. Little things are getting done (shout hallelujah!) that are making it possible to understand what it might be. The team is lining up and finding their feet… and we’re off tripping and figuring things out. (I’m not trying to tease, the minute I’ve got a website for this baby, you’ll hear from me!)

This is the time of year for figuring it out. It’s time (Ann, are you listening?) to set the alarm and get up and get going. Because the world needs just the brand of Peace you have to offer. Wake up, wake up, wake up, you sleepyhead. Sometimes waking up is the prayer you need to offer the world. Get up, get up, get up, get out of bed! You’ve got your work cut out for you! Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red! live, laugh, love and be happy! Joy is waiting for you. And Peace is made of Joy.

Rest. Peace. LLVL

I never realize how important it is to have time off until i finally take it. Too often my time off is doing “things.” Hanging with friends, shopping, getting those chores done — in-house and out. But sloth, slow and beautiful, it’s not often we allow ourselves that.

And it changes you. After a day of not moving it charges your batteries and gets you going. What could be more lovely than an entire day of being present to who and where you are. A day of prayer and quiet.

We must pay attention to the rhythms of our bodies and our mind. And every once in a while shut the systems down for a day for repairs. And then?

Back to work. Back to Peacemaking. There’s a world of choices for ways to use your talents… Hello, I must be going! Enjoy your day.

Sugar, Peace & La Vida Local

It’s sugar time here. Or was for a weekend. And won’t be again for a while, if, as is threatened, another Polar Vortex comes rushing through.

It’s the thing about living where you live. In New York City or the Bay Area, if I talked about sugaring, it was all a metaphor. It didn’t happen there.

But here, where I live, weather conditions change and people I know go out into the woods and stick a spigot in their trees and hang a bucket on it. And then they boil. One woman boils in her house. My buddy in MN boils over an open fire. He wrote this morning saying it’ll be the Equinox before they have the first syrup over ice cream… It’s hard work that relaxes, makes memories and deepens the sweetness of the syrup.

Another guy I know is talking about becoming a beekeeper. Lots of people I know garden and then make amazing meals from their take. Since I still tend to eat ingredients rather than a meal, (although whew! can this girl chop veggies for a salad!)

When you live close to the land, the land is part of the local life… whether you work the land or admire it from afar.

Sugaring, bringing a little slow Peace and Sweetness into everyone’s life.

Frozen Tears Need Peace Sabbath, llvl

It seems we need to find new ways of observing and respecting one another’s boundaries. Perhaps the pendulum has swung as far as it might in this one direction so that we can begin to establish new rules of engagement of the most personal nature.

A new civilization… one with awareness, one with respect, one with deliberately slow Sabbaths..

I believe always in our good intentions. But perhaps we need a little more formality than we’re used to?

It’s something to ruminate on, this chilly morning, ways to let the tears soften and flow and for us to hold our seat. I also wish those struggling with their challenges glimpses of normalcy in their lives, long moments to remember who they are apart from whatever threatens…

Sabbath Peace… and please be careful, I’ve heard it’s very icy this morning.

Music-Making, Magic-Making, Peace-Making, llvl

My brother in law accuses me of believing in magic. I’m not sure he’s wrong.I don’t know that I know exactly what it is, but…

I’ve read about it enough, done that thing I do when I don’t make a lot of judgements one way or the other… sorta like heaven. don’t know… does it matter… be here now.

But the other evening, listening to the Sibelius played by the quartet… particularly the 2nd movement of whatever piece we were listening to, I know I have the program somewhere, it was as if I could see the music pouring into the center of the circle caused by their seating arrangement.It danced and curled and flourished, forming to a mind’s eye, a mind slipped half out of consciousness, a beautiful paisley of music. Oh, thought I, oh.

Could we use it, i wondered? Could such dancing power be used to fuel the Peace Journey. How do you gather that music together and thrust it toward, pull it toward, Peace?

It’s not often you see such focused power. It may be the form that causes it. Four players, each bringing their skills and gifts to bear on Music, on instruments, on a composer, on a community. Four players, the four directions, four different voices and talents; four, a solid foundation for a castle of sound.

If those notes and those players’ passions could be fused into a huge and paisleyed sword of Peace, how much hatred could be eviscerated or perhaps simply transcended by that overwhelming Beauty?

I couldn’t help but wonder.

Holding out for Peace, llvl

I’m not sure whether things are actually worse than they were or whether I’ve just gotten an eyeful. But I’ve been astonished by the hate recently. Our government will not ratify a UN agreement on the rights of the disabled, even though it is built upon our own American Disabilities Act, because they will not pass anything. And they believe they are governing. In state governments, women’s rights are being narrowed, hatred toward our GLBT brothers and sisters is being codified, and someone has just introduced an act in a state legislature that allows parents and schools to “spank” (oh why use beat???) a child until a bruise is raised without any fear of reprisal. And around Christmas some fool governor posited that if only the child welfare/work laws were relaxed we could compete with other countries’ manufacturing prices, because you know, you don’t have to pay children the already unliving wage we’re paying/not paying adults.

I know, I have learned, that for me, the only useful response to what I find wrong in the world is to take action on what I can.

We all make Peace from where we stand. We contribute our gifts to pave the path.

But action is required. It worries me that we begin to believe that being outraged on Face Book changes life. Some of us go a bit farther and click through to petitions, and then we go back to posting charming distractions. And the dissonance continues to build.

I read recently that the distance separating the haves and have nots creates different mental distress. The have nots become depressed, which works to keep them from asking for what they want and need. The haves become narcissistic which encourages them to feel exploited (i know, difficult to quite get there, eh?) and protective, believing that, i don’t know, children should be beaten, women controlled and one fears to consider what they believe should happen to GLBT folk. Hidden under all this is racism.

There’s a delicate dance to be done of noticing the evil and not being beaten down by it. Of looking at the problems and rather than being overwhelmed, choosing the one small piece with which you can use your gifts and getting to work making a difference… Peace needs us… and we need Peace, but we’re only going to get there together… and by working very hard.

Icy Peace Assists, llvl

This was the first Winter in a very long time that we’ve had snow storm after snow storm causing dangerous conditions. Facebook has been littered with stories of massive pile ups on major high ways and cars sliding off roads into ditches.

Yesterday was the worst of conditions, a sudden ice storm left everything coated in about a quarter inch of ice. and the icicles were enormous.

For some folks, this was just one more day we had to be out and about. For others, it was another storm and we couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t postpone things any longer… although this was highly dangerous for a couple hours.

The only hope one had was that neighbors would drag you out of any icy puddles. At the end of this long snow spell, neighbors are pretty well primed to be helpful. So, be careful out there, there are snow piles, thin crusted puddles, and slush. And be neighborly… it’s the only Peace you can see… but when someone picks you up off your butt… it’s pretty real.

A new acquaintance from the Quartet I’ve been raving about slipped yesterday and his viola was shattered. He says it’s repairable… I can’t imagine the shock… but a neighbor who repairs string instruments has two for him to try and borrow… helping him out of that snow pile… and dusting him off as best as possible…

So mind your footing and keep your hands out to pull a neighbor out of a jam. Peace.

The Peace of Boundaries, llvl

We all talk blithely about healthy boundaries. Most of us are pretty lousy at them.

We’re a very informal society these days. In many ways that’s a good thing. But in other ways it makes the notion of formality a bad thing. As with so many reactions, perhaps the push back has been too hard and there’s sacred middle ground to be negotiated. Here’s one friend who’s got me thinking about this:

I had a long catch-up conversation with a friend who’s going through a divorce. Her not-so-young-but-still-tender-aged children are reeling in the midst of a family break-up. She’s a lawyer and a case she’s been working on for years is at a crucial point. She needs to be sane for this case and she can’t merely chuck the case because working gives her life some semblance of order and her need to earn a living is now more important than ever.

She lives in a small city, but she and her ex are well-known. However “amicable” her divorce, she’s profoundly sad and off her center. She’s struggling.

What she needs from her friends right now is sometimes to be able to say how sad she is and other times to be completely distracted. She needs to lead the conversations. If she wants to know about your divorce, she’ll ask you, but her divorce is special to her… some day she may be able to hear that this break-up is just like everyone else’s break-up, but this one, in all its raw ugliness is hers. She’s never felt so alone in her life. At this moment that is true for her.

So friends need to traipse carefully. And strangers or acquaintances need to talk about the weather or a great book they just read that has nothing to do with divorce. Outside the tight circle that’s holding her heart together, it’s helpful for her if life isn’t focused on her and her problems. It’s important to her that people are discrete, unless she asks for support.

That’s the deal — to let her lead. It’s a delicate dance, but it’s life. And I realize I’ve got a delicate dance to understand this, and then to find words… Perhaps always the questions are what what is yours, what is mine and what is ours in this life dance. Having our own isn’t a wrong thing, it’s a true thing. Negotiating this stuff is the Dance of Peace… I’ll keep thinking… you think too, ok?

Chamber Quartet Peace, llvl

I always thought I was a city girl, and I thrived… But maybe what I am is a town girl. I like sidewalks (even on days like today, when shoveling is a repeat opportunity!).

What’s great about the village is that things that happen here are more accessible. People might complain that we don’t have the wide variety of activities, but mostly, those people aren’t reading the local paper. With so many colleges in the area and their subsidized offerings, a fabulous ensemble theatre, a great chorale, a local orchestra (or two or three!), musicians of every stripe, poets, dancers, you name it, there are many options for entertainment.

And when outside groups are here, especially for longer periods, like the Quartet’s two-week residency, you get to hanging out and talk and laugh with them. It’s grand. So make sure you’re exploring your village and plumbing its depths.

And then the quartet. What an interesting entity. This quartet in particular, is fabulous. Find them on YouTube and exalt. Lucy Russell, first violinist, says in one of her bios: “She is committed to enlivened music-making, fueled by knowledge, skill and passion but with the intentions of the composer always at the fore.” This quartet offers this in spade.

But the notion of a quartet. Of four highly trained people making music together, music that is precise in nature, as both the timing and notes must be exact or god-awful. The musicians must be both on top of their playing and the music as well as aware and present to their fellow players. Each person brings their gifts and adds it to the whole along with caring for the way each individual piece comes out and how music as a whole is understood.

We would all do well to find the people we work with in such a fashion so that life could be richer, deeper, and give so much more pleasure. So, if you’re local to my local, go see this quartet on Thursday at 7:30 at Rook Recital Hall. If you’re local somewhere else, find out what’s going on. But one way or the other, even if it’s not your “thing,” go listen to and watch a quartet play. And go take advantage of what your vida local has to offer.

I think the way quartets work have a lot to teach the Peacemakers…

Traces of Peace, LLVL

I was a bit lost yesterday afternoon when it came time to write the day’s musing… it’s not a common occurrence, but I’ve been doing this for three years, and it happens. I asked a friend, what should I write? Write about our ice skating escapade he wrote, about the web of life and how it causes community. Hmmm.

Now when I say “our ice-skating adventure,” you understand, I don’t mean MY ice-skating adventure. I don’t do that. I’ve never had great ankles, and I’m not all that steady on my pins. Those two pretty much eliminated any childhood winter olympic dreams I might have had! No, this was a church outing. Although I have to find out if they have those ice-walkers for adults that they have to keep kids upright. I might be more willing to try it again… and less likely to experiment with my “triple-klutz.” (although that may be optimistic!)

But the thought for the musing certainly had possibility, and it wouldn’t be the first time I wrote about something I didn’t do. I’ve written a perfectly lovely poem about biking, and my balance doesn’t encourage that, either…

But the notion of tracing the lines, that move from one single line carved in the ice to many overlapping lines was intriguing. that some of the lines in the web are straight and sure and some are wobbly and uncertain makes the comparison to the web of life more realistic.

And then, above the skates, all the emotions going on, fear, joy, laughter (i spared them my terror!), growing friendships and giggles. There had to be a game of crack the whip, right? That was always the funnest — even when you were the little being tossed off the end. So as lines were being traced, friendships were deepening, and memories were being carved into childhoods and communities.

A silly thing, really, just a day of enjoyment on the ice, but so many connections were possible — and many were made. Even if nothing deeper happened, here’s to winter and the fun of winter sports. Breathing in the frosty air is a treat unto itself!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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