The Peace of a Stream

Oh, the ironies. Here I am, thinking about streams to cross as the streams of ending and possibility, because they’re often both, right, and completely unaware at that point of the realities of streams of liquid chaos pouring in on Boulder. What fear and devastation in the lives of those who live there. Our prayers are with them.

But I was thinking of streams, if we can wrench ourselves away from that colossal event about the streams that form boundaries in our lives. They form actual boundaries for people, the people on one side of a river have often had rivalries with those on the other, They form emotional boundaries as crossing flowing water often changes our perspective. How many historical sayings do you know about the impacts of crossing a river or a body of water?

But not crossing a stream means accepting the boundaries life places on you. It means giving up your curiosity. As much as you explore the stream on your side, there are always great possibilities on the other side. We’re meant to look beyond our shores. Peace cannot mean keeping out the other and keeping from the other. Peace, like Love, like so many other grand traits is bigger than boundaries.

And sometimes crossing a stream is not a choice. What is behind you is finished and there is only forward in life. What made me mull about this was the fact that yesterday my sister’s house sold. (in less than a week. zoom). Any lingering thoughts that life could remain in stasis for a bit are gone. No more singing that Girl Scout song that’s been on my lips for the past two weeks: “Mmmmmmmm I’d like to linger here, mmmmmmm a little longer here.”

But I like water, in fact, it’s to water I go to heal, will go to heal. And it’s water we cross for a new life, a bigger life, when we’re done playing in the shallows. However comfortable life is where we are, the grandeur of what lies beyond trumps that, even if the road is rocky. And the possibilities of Peace lure us forward with a song far more compelling than one that gently encourages us to linger…

Love. Peace.

Sometimes life is hard. As you know, I’ve been harping a bit on this this month. Trying to stay faithful to Love and Peace when your heart is broken is a challenge. And you stay faithful by not forcing yourself to work on a bruised brain.

And broken hearts and bruised brains don’t mean that nothing else will happen. There’s no insurance for this, no moratorium on the numbers of blows that can fall. Yesterday, my favorite oldest cousin called to tell me that her former husband, the father of my “nieces” had killed himself. It’s a sad, ugly and brutal story.

If you’d have asked me if I would have been able to step up and do what was needed, I’d have told you nope. But when the call comes, you pick up the phone. And then you pick it up again and offer the girls your heart. The UUs sing that old spiritual, “There Is More Love, Somewhere.” And somewhere it is. Because it’s there when you need it. And it holds you up and it carries you along. If ever Deb were with me she was with me [i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart) — thank you ee cummings] in the placing of that call. She loved those girls. She loved their girls. And so, in my grief, perhaps the love I got is the All Love and the love of Deb. Both girls said, “oh, we didn’t want to bother you.” But Love keeps swelling up and spilling out.

So there is more love, and even in the wasteland of grief, there are oases… and springs in the wilderness. Love. It leads us to Peace — because there’s more of that, too.

Peace Obscured

It’s somehow shameful in this culture to admit that something is beyond you. “Stick to it!” we say. “Find that can-do spirit.”

But sometimes it all feels overwhelming. And do you know what? Stop! It’s perfectly okay not to be able to manage everything. Not every piece of work is yours to do. It’s important to remember:

We’re not always the right person.
It’s not always the right time for anything to happen. The way may not be clear.
We’re not always in a position to do what needs to be done; we may just be sick and tired and unable to keep moving.
Someone else may have the vision that’s needed at this particular moment.

The need for Peace is never going to go away. But you have to be aware and rested to participate in the struggle. And if you’re tired? You should rest. And if you’re confused. Sit down let the clouds pass… and maybe someone will wander by with the answer. Or you can figure out where you might go to get the answer. No sense flailing about!

Simple Peace

On a day where what is remembered is senseless violence and senseless loss of life, let us remember that we can so easily be people of Peace. The only response to hate is more Love. Love was what we saw that day as well. And Courage. People were so brave in helping one another, on that day and in the many horrible days that followed. Brave even unto death.

Nothing will bring those beloved lives back. Nothing will make that “better.” People may quibble with my statement that those lives are unredeemable, there was no reason for God to redeem them, God simply gathered them home to the Divine heart. But the notion that we redeem them by our actions implies a power I don’t think we have. We can only mourn and honor those lives and we must. As we must with all who die senselessly in the crossfire of people’s hatred.

And in honoring them, all we can do is work to make it different. Many have chosen to pull in and brace in fear. But it is better that we reach out in celebration of all the possibilities.

May there be Peace on Earth. May it begin with each of us.

Trudging Peace

Every Tuesday I have breakfast with my friend Turrie. I’ve told you stories before about the little drive-in along the river. Today, in an effort to get my life looking a bit like normal and tend to my health, I decided to walk. As always, I was late, stride, stride, striding along.

On the way back I found myself fiercely concentrating… and I’m not sure I can tell you on what. A moment of self reflection perhaps? Or considering that I needed some dish detergent? But back I came, head down, chewing on something or the other, things to do, things I’ve done, broken hearts, you know, the usual.

I got home to a message from Turrie… did you see the eagle? Um, no, I hadn’t. I’d been so busy trudging and stomping through life, that I’d neglected to notice a very large and beautiful bird about 20 yards away.

You gotta look up. Mr. or Ms. Eagle would have lifted my heart, if I’d been willing to see him. Here I was, thank you, Oscar Wilde, living out the poem I’d just written. Life imitating art… (I know, audacious, eh, to consider my little musing art…) but not the uplifting part of it.

So, in my walking about today, I’ll try and get my head up off my feet… and perhaps cut myself a break… we’re not always ready to look up or out, but it’s a healthy reminder that we miss beauty when we’re stuck… Luckily the eagle lives here and I’ll unstick eventually!

It has been my pleasure to serve as your reminder of missed opportunities. Just remember, as our parents might have told us “do what I say, not what i do!”

Peace Challenges

It’s always more work than you think it is. And there are always more obstacles than you think there should be. And too many of the obstacles, hard work and challenges are about what you bring to the journey: your beliefs, your insistences, your close-mindedness…

Just when you think you’ve gotten some clarity, grabbed a deep breath and think things are fine, the way gets rocky.

And yet, somewhere, deep in you know. There is only Peace. It is all you want. And so you persevere.

Sometimes it’s really, really hard work. Today? It’s one of those days for me. I hope your day is being better. But even if it isn’t. On we go. Peace wants us… there’s joy and laughter and sweet memories, just a bit farther on down the road. And there we’ll sit and weep and mend our hearts and restore our souls a bit before we travel on. We’ll do that simply because we’re there with one another.

A Deliberate, Discerning Sabbath Peace

Life’s a confusing thing to balance, isn’t it? And yet it’s walking that teeter-totter that we’re supposed to do (and how long has it been since i’ve printed that word?)

But here we are, with a day ahead of us in which to practice discernment… in which to practice refusing a mindless response to life, to release knee-jerk business.

I know not all the world observes the Sabbath on Sundays — Sadly, many of us don’t observe them at all. “I’m not religious” people say. But church-going, snyagogue-going, mosque-going or temple-going or not, the sabbath is about the pause and the in-breath and the out breath and then the repetition… in that sweet stillness is a place of regeneration and a place of sound decision making.

So, altogether now, exhale. now inhale. repeat. What — exhale first???? Yeppers. get rid of the stale air before you put all that fresh, clean, sanity giving air on top.

And then make some choices about your day… Wishing you a slow Peaceful Sabbath of being present and of doing the work that’s allotted.

Sacred Detour Peace

I’ve been thinking a lot about the notion of Sacred Detours recently. I don’t know when the term came to me, but I know that it’s true for me.

I am a planner. I’m a dreamer, but I’m also a planner. Here’s a bunch of things. Get them together. Check them off. But then life happens. I had a writing project and an organizing project I had been dreaming about for months. I was ready to go. Deb and I went to Alaska, wow, even broader/deeper scope for those dreams.

And then, the re-emergence of Deb’s cancer. And the suddenness of it. They called it dynamic. I call it ravaging. “Deb, how do you feel, on a scale of 1-10.” “Shitty,” was the response.

Much of July and all of August were spent hovering, trying not to hover, working to be present to whatever was needed. Working to focus my sometimes snarky self into kindness. All I could ask of myself, was to be there and to be tender. I think I mostly succeeded. But I couldn’t care about the other pieces of my life. Because this one precious piece needed my full attention.

Sometimes the world has to wait. And really, how self important to think that in the grand scheme of things your little contributions might matter more than your absolute presence where you can make a difference.

But I’ll tell you one thing I’m clear about. These Sacred Detours take the stuffing out of you. They demand a great deal of you and leave you wounded and winded. No, I don’t want to hear, “you’ll never regret.” I know that. It’s just that, lying exhausted on the shore, you wonder how and why you’ll survive. what wisdom you’ll take from this. and when you might be able to put this to use. Knowing it’s a very long way away, and yet immediate.

But for now, it’s enough to know I’ve been on one and that it has left me feeling sad and barely alive and wondering how long Peace will take to mend my heart and fill it up again with life. and not really caring, concentrating on moving breath in and out of my body and finding safe arms to hold me close.

Talented, Skillful Peace

We all come with skills and talented. If we’re smart, we’ll develop both of them. Both of them require discipline, because all the talent and deftness in the world doesn’t mean anything unless you take responsibility for those gifts.

Some gifts, those we perfect by dogged practice, take more out of us (even if they demand no less of us) than things that come naturally to us. We’ve worked and worked and worked to get good at things, they may or may not thrill us, or they may please us simply for the fact that we accomplished them. We may work our whole lives with nothing but our skills because it’s the work available to us. It’s good to work with your skills but it’s better, if we can to work with our talents.

Those are those gifts that show up in us and wait for us to discover. Sometimes I feel when I use the things I’m best at, whether it’s ritual or presence, that I am in another world entirely… the world where everything fits just the way it’s supposed to. It’s the world where I am truly alive and soaring.

What are those things for you? Can you sort it out? Are you practicing both? One? or the Other? Do you understand that that hard work is prayer? Take yourself seriously. Don’t take your gifts for granted, take them with great gratitude.

And in the meantime. Stand on the picket lines, shovel the snow, cook a pot of soup, winterize someone’s house and stuff the envelopes. Those are the things that build the realm of Peace.

Village Peace

This poem took shape on a FB message talking about how to help a friend deal with a problem. I grew up in a small town. Oddly, I’m back here now, at my sister’s house enmeshed in the love of a small town as I hear from everywhere (The Democratic Committee sent my brother and me their condolences on Deb’s Death, telling us how wonderful she was.) It’s hard to slip through the cracks when people keep stepping up.

People do. and small towns can be vicious and tough. Nothing’s perfect. But they’re vicious when folk, oh, let’s just say we, here, eh?, aren’t conscious about the forming of community, when we’re lazy about it.

But when we work at it, whether we’re connecting hands and creating webs across continents or oceans or we’re making sure our neighbor’s house gets cleaned when someone falls and can’t manage, the web catches us when we can’t stand upright on our own.

This village-making is one of the building blocks of Peace, i believe. It’s tricky, because part of the nature of villages is that they’re closed. And we’re calling for open villages. Connecting our hands across boundaries to offer the support that’s needed. Not turning away from those who are different, challenging, unlike us.

Let us be webweavers, my friends. Conscious webweavers. Because we can weave ourselves together with vitriol. But that? doesn’t really cut it. It cuts out folks, isolates them. That can’t be what we choose… and yet it is a choice, a choice for laziness and disinterest. But we must choose connection.

I always think this. But I’m feeling it so strongly now. Now in the places where connections have been made and in the places where they just don’t exist. I must be careful where i rest my broken heart. Yet support emerges, webs make themselves beautifully visible in the most unlikely places. And from this place of brokenness, new webs will be woven.

The world is so broken. If we weave the little webs, we can attach the big ones to that. The most amazing thing about those spiders is that they weave entire worlds in a very short time and go back and reweave when the human ones break them. So let’s all do like the spiders do: weave, weave, weave! Let’s keep making this world sweeter. We do the work. We realize dreams we never knew we had. Peace. Peace Dreams.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: peace