Anticipate Hope Advent Peace

That’s a fun string of words!

I really can’t imagine why our culture doesn’t think anticipation is fun. It seems that when we want things, we want them NOW! but there’s so much pleasure in the waiting for it to appear. Think of the number of kids who bounce into Christmas Eve. Sure it’s about the presents, but it’s SANTA. and magic reindeer. and oh, my goodness, JOY.

Believers of all sorts look forward to the changes that the middle of December brings with the same bubbling delight. As of one date, life will be different.

That bubbling delight is something we can have — but we have to make space for it. With kids, it’s instantaneous, but then we train it out of them, and invite ennui to take its place. A friend told me about her girl’s over-the-top excitement because SHE’S GOING TO A CONCERT. In August. And she’s still spinning like a top. Good friends invited her and she’s always wanted to see this band and no one’s told her you can only get excited about what’s right here and now.

Advent, for me is about that. Lighting that candle at night (or in the afternoon — hooray for early dark) reminds me that something’s coming, something good. It allows me to plan for that.

My meditation at this time of year is about what I’d like to bring into the world this year. What particular seed of my soul am I willing to plant and bring to fruition. or… fruit! If we’re following the Wheel, we’ve spent the fall, sorting the bounty and then examining the gifts of our souls (our own rich soil) and now we get to consider what we want to coax out into the light when the time is right.

This is a long luxurious time, if we let it be. And I know, all the obligations of the season loom. But just because you go to a party, doesn’t mean you have to do more than show up and drift through. Life can be lovely, you just have to plan a bit and then… sit back and anticipate.

Imagine, you’re on the road to Peace. You are. You. What fun will that be to get there!

Acknowledge, Hope, (Wonder), Peace

How did we get so frozen?

We can’t accept things the way they are. We can’t forgive ourselves for our screw-ups and missteps… what hebrew calls “missing the mark,” even though religious traditions all call for that, but ah, right, most of us aren’t part of a religious community. And then, we have a hard time acknowledging the things that are right.

What have we done to ourselves? Everything gets so strapped down, no place for the wonder. Because it seems that might grow on acknowledgement of things that are going along the way they should. If we acknowledge what’s right, at the same time we accept and forgive, BOOM! there they are Possibilities — and aren’t they beautiful.

Right here, right now, in this holiday season… Life, Potential, Possibility, Peace, growing by leaps and bounds and we get to wonder at the Beauty. Let me just tell you how grateful I am for all the amazing things you have done. You’re really quite talented. (Now say thank you!)

Forgive, Hope, Peace

Forgiveness keeps coming back. Probably because we never get done with it. It’s a messy, uncomfortable business. It’s hard to admit we were lacking or we missed the mark. (yeah, we were wrong.) It’s hard to acknowledge another’s human foibles. Sometimes it’s hard to forgive people for being better than we are at something we want to be good at.

And all of those things create a large barrier between us and Peace.

You know me, I’m not a new age forgiver. I believe that much of forgiveness is that verb we used yesterday… accept… as in accept the fact that we cannot change what has happened to us. I don’t know that you forgive your rapist, or if you do what that looks like. I do know if you do, a large portion of that forgiveness will have to be meted out toward yourself for having been vulnerable. I know I’m not at the place where I can let the rapists of my friends off the hook… but maybe forgiveness doesn’t do that. but it does acknowledge their humanity, however broken, whether or not they had a reason.

But if we can take down those bricks in the way of Peace, we won’t have to climb over them, or squeeze through the cracks between them every time we want to move forward in Love. That would help our hearts enormously.

Accept, Hope, Make Peace

Part of my Advent Meditation was to make a calendar with a verb a day that pertained to the candle of the week. The candle is Hope. Yesterday’s verb was notice (your assignment should you choose to accept it). Today’s verb is accept (should you choose to notice it!)

What made me think about it was the amount of time I (or perhaps also you?) spend lamenting what is. And it’s so easy to stop there. What’s harder for me is to just accept it. As my friend Lenore keeps trying to teach me: It is what it is.

Now what are we going to do about it?

And that’s what acceptance frees us for: Seeing the possibilities. Wondering what we do next.

May your acceptance of the world as it is lead you to a notion of how it could be better. And then may you jump into action… jump into Peace. Because everything goes better with Peace!

Advent, Sabbath, Hope, Peace

This is the first Sunday of Advent. I love this Season of Expectation. While I’ve traveled fairly far from my roots, the process of discerning what in fact I am expecting is a delightful, contemplative process, best undertaken in a lot of candlelight. It’s been interesting in that journey to discover Advent’s roots outside Christianity… Life is rich that way!

What in fact I am expecting in my life, in the world? Considering this will be fascinating this year as I’m in a very different place in my life than i was 6 months ago. In the midst of this great loss there is also a great deal of freedom of choice and a fair amount of indecision…

And along comes Advent. The first Sunday you light the candle of Hope. I wonder, what are the dreams you harbor for your life, for your family and for the world? What do I? This week’s prayer might be something like this:

May I be a person who believes that the world is a good place, that things can be made better and that I might be an instrument of Hope in the world. Blessed Be.

Light a candle, sit down where you can see it and think about that while relaxing into your Sabbath Peace. Notice what happens when you do that!

Accepting Peace

Choosing one’s own path to Peace is a challenge.

For many of us, I fear, we make our choices as we recognize that whatever place we’re in is not one that fosters Peace in us rather than catching sight of a vision that dazzles and attracts. No not everyone, but many.

Sadly, few of us are skilled in divining what we do want or daring to ask for it — let alone pursue it. It’s too easy to frame our choices against what is wrong with the world we’re leaving rather than what is right with the world we’re choosing.

Neither is it easy stepping out of the status quo. This is a big and powerful river headed in one direction, so swimming to an edge and finding another branch of that stream or climbing out on the land to search out a trail requires quite a bit of determination.

I don’t know if it’s possible to do such a thing freely, without defensiveness. Not choosing what our family, friends, lover choose makes them question their choices. Who likes that?

I do know, for our health and sanity as well as for the future of our relationships, we need to find that sweet, easy conviction about our decisions.

Watching a couple exchanges recently allowed me to look back and wince at my own movement from my theological/socialspiritual roots and consider how lurching a process that was. A good friend said to me then, “Annie, clarify what you DO believe, you can’t just NOT believe.” It was great (if painful at the time) advice. And life is so much easier since adjusting the mantle I’ve chosen to sit comfortably on my shoulders.

It’s a challenge to keep asking ourselves “what do I want” and looking for real answers. Not self-indulgent ones, not the preferencing of me over you… but the deep answer that allows me to be me in relationship, perhaps even consideration, with all others, because I know and take responsibility for who I am and what I believe. And then, finally, I take Joy in it. And in that Joy I find the fuel to move toward Peace.

Self-reflection’s a bitch, isn’t it? But oh, so worth it.

Sated Peace

Now, when we’re filled up with Thanksgiving, giving thanks, blessing counting, turkey and oh, yes, stuffing, let us capture this emotion and use it to start our movement forward into Peace.

And if you’re shopping, consider asking yourself, what you need to be a Peacemaker…

In the meantime? Continue giving thanks. It’s good for us. And hey, make another date with the friends and family for whom you’re grateful. Nothing sweeter to give for the holidays than the gift of presence.

Thanksgiving Peace

It’s an odd day today. My heart is both very full and very empty. I miss my sister Deb, I cannot lie. My heart aches for my nieces who lost their father 2 weeks later. And my friend who lost her husband just a month after that.

I mourn the loss of tradition and I celebrate the reforming, re-imagining, the cut-from-new-cloth-entirely of traditions. I cherish knowing that you are somewhere you like with someone you love — or that you’re taking care of yourself by not being there.

And in the face of so much hunger, I celebrate that we’re the ones who will do something to make a difference. Because we will be. Because we can’t look away. Because we care. And that is Thanksgiving Peace enough for all of us. So I’m trying to stay present. I’m counting my blessings. I’m going to eat turkey and stuffing with no guilt about the fact that others hunger or that I’m overweight. I will be with my Beloved… and I can think of nothing sweeter.

All’s not yet right in the world. but it will be. And today, let us be at Peace and give thanks. Blessed, blessed, blessed be, my friends. I am grateful for you.

Acting Thanksgiving, Acting Peace

I’m an applied theologian. I care less about what you believe than what you do with what you believe. I think often in active verbs, noticing, becoming aware, deciding, giving… sometimes rejecting. Always celebrating, always seeking.

Don’t get me wrong, applied theology isn’t all there is, not by a long shot. But it’s what I’m good at. You’d better be reading, You’d better be reflecting.

But when it comes to thanksgiving, you’ll do well to consider how to make your thankfulness dance. If you’re totting up your treasures, do it because you want to put that love to work in the world.

It’s time. There is so much need in this world and you are the answer. And you need to put your skills and your love to work in the world.

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday filled with so much that’s good. Eat the wonderful food. Enjoy being with your family. Reflect on the wealth of your life. Give thanks. And then move into your generosity. It is the best part of who you are.

The more generous we can be, each and every one of us and all of us together, the closer we are to tearing down the walls between us, the closer we are to Peace.

Presto-Changeo Peace!

It really is about changing your mind, about deciding that Winter is not going to bother you. Actually, it’s about going even farther than that and allowing Winter to delight us. I don’t mean people with SAD… I understand that your malady is real. (change those light bulbs, get out and walk.) I mean those of us who sit around in our cotton tee shirts and complain about the cold.

We have to dress for it. Hats, mittens, coats, long underwear. Boots that are not just fashionable but functional. (It was interesting looking at my Swedish sister’s boots. They had thick soles to keep your feet off the cold pavement.) Yes, it’s cold. Yes, it’s sloppy.

Winter has an important job in the cycle of life. It holds all the mystery and the time of looking within. Can we draw a correlation between the soles of our boots’ not being thick enough and the fact that we have no time to examine the state of our souls?

But there’s also something about being satisfied with what we have, with changing what can be changed. We can’t change winter (well, yes global climate change is changing winter, but we can’t wish the cold and damp away.) So let’s explore it. We can change or at least impact the numbers of people who are at the mercy of winter. so let’s consider that. Let’s step up, in our thick-soled boots, to the very sensitive and painful problems.

Peace is pretty concrete these days. Enough to eat. A warm place to sleep. Healthcare when you need it. Peace in the Winter.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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