Puffballs of Peace

Dandelions. Once the most hated lawn weed, not elevated to hero status. The bees love them. So do birds. And who knows who else. But the bees. The bees we’ve almost driven to extinction — partially by our lawn care products — love dandelions and are encouraged by their existence. hurrah.

No more sending kids out with senseless weapons (did anyone ever come back from an encounter with a lawn full of dandelions without blisters and at least one stick wound?).

The dandelions were fierce in their determination to stay. Maybe we should have listened to them rather than developing chemicals to extinguish them.

What if we let ourselves stand for Peace like those determined bursts of brilliant color? What if we were useful in every way, doing one kind of work at one point and another kind at another. What if we were persistently cheerful and called others to our assistance working hard to make the world beautiful? What if we could shake our heads and disseminate Peace seeds in every direction, rest a bit and come back and do it again?

Let us be dandelions for Peace, cheerful, persistent, prolific, profligate, even! They offer such great lessons! We can learn them! Let them proliferate and teach more of us… and oh, take care of the bees.

Spring Showers & Peace

There’s crazy Beauty out there. Spring! Spring! Spring! It’s sometimes hard to remember that it’s the showers that are part of what brings the Beauty. And it’s hard to imagine that May flowers could have anything on this!

Everywhere you look something wonderful is happening!

What if we looked for small pockets of Peace the way we look for small pockets of violets? What if we looked at dandelions and saw their beauty, their tastiness, and their importance to bees. We could discover a lot, I’m sure, that we didn’t realize was Peace.

Let’s do that! Let’s look for Peace! Let’s be it! Let’s bloom and flourish and spread like wildflowers, shall we? Here we come after the showers, May flowers to the rescue!

Making Time for Peace

You think life looks one way and it does, for a while. And then it changes. And so do you.

Waking on my 64th, somewhat bemused that this is where I am in life, I’m aware of two things:

How very lucky I’ve been in love and family and life experience.
How precious the time we have is.

So we need to make it count. We must be thankful and celebrate, that’s for certain. We must also be accountable. It falls to us to make it wonderful for others. We’re the ones to make Peace. We’re the only ones who can.

So thank you. Thank you so much!

There have been times in my life when I’ve felt that the losses in my life have left huge crevices that will never be filled — but the sweet friendship and kindness of so many are brilliant stones and shining pearls that have filled up those crevices with Beauty. The ache for those gone before is replaced by astonishment for those here. What’s not to celebrate?

Love! Peace! Blessings! oh, Hurrah!

Different Colors of Peace.

Happy Pesach. Peaceful Sabbath. Beautiful Day.

I love those rosy dawns. And I’m forever indebted to Deb because she snaps so many of them — and I often sleep through them. I’m not sure when I became so much less of a morning person, but Deb transforms mornings for me at least on Sundays!

But this beauty gave us a different look at Dawn. The stripes on the River! That redbud tree!

That’s the thing isn’t it? The work of our lives, to keep looking at the same things, differently. To see how they change, to see differently. To see Beauty in something other than what you’d expected.

I believe there is all sorts of Peace lurking around in our lives and communities, we just have to find a way to tease it out. It’s easy enough to unleash the hate. We may have to work harder at Peace, but it is waiting… We are the ones Peace has been waiting for. Each and every one of us!

The Impartial Generosity of the Moon and Peace

On cloudy mornings like this one, it’s hard to remember the Moon, until we do.

Close your eyes and let her rise in your mind, stately and beautiful, silvering everything in her path. Sometimes the Moon’s kindly light allows us to look directly at things that seem to harsh in the Sun.

But every land is beautiful. Every place, every face a treasure in the sight of God. God doesn’t work for you? Try Creation. Fanciful? Maybe. Can it be less for us? Who are we to make that decision?

I’ve been troubled by this article on American liberals. I always imagined that seeing more would enable us to do more. Liberals often ask how conservatives can make the choices they do that seem not to be in their favor. Not so comfortable when we read we just apply things differently and make the choices we do without considering that they hurt other people. Being informed isn’t enough. We need to be congruent and heaven knows people need us to be.

I think of the moon’s impartial generosity — generous impartiality — and think why can’t I be the same? Why can’t I offer Peace in the same way? When I vote, when I give, when I think. So much food for thought… So much Peace to shine on the world. I can only be like the Moon, but if i work very hard, I can be Peace.

Cows of Peace

Don’t you love old wives’ tales? There’s always some truth to them, and some in fact have much truth, but others, not so much.

Cows lying down means it’s going to rain. Do cows lie down when it’s going to rain? Maybe they do, you make a smaller target after all. But do they only lie down in fields when it’s going to rain? No. Especially in Sweden, where it does seem cows lie down a lot. And why not? It’s cool, breezy, and often beautiful clouds. Settle in and enjoy the view!

And having been a large and happy consumer of many of their products that involve whipped cream, I’m here to say to the cows, whatever makes you happy, girls, you rock! If anyone knows how to do their job, you’re the ones!

So here’s to a picture of contentment. Happy cows at Peace on a hillside. There’s a lot about this picture to like. There’s probably even stuff to emulate! Cows! Peace!

Disciplined Practice for Peace

My husband is the best role model I have for pursuing a dream. I didn’t know him as a child, but watching him now, I know that he went after his dream 50 small hand motions at a time, and repeat.

He started when he was ten. He still does those things today. His hands have been hurting recently, so he starts as he always does, with them. Can’t do it the way he used to? what’s the new way to do it.

Then once those motions are in place, again, again, again, he can explore the music. Not that he doesn’t always explore music, but he gives it the honor it is due.

We have to be that for Peace. Practitioners, Practicers. Peace is an Art. You don’t just do art, you develop it. Same with Peace. Every day. Deliberate acts. Here we go.

Fields and Peace

Fields have a job to do and they’re pretty good at it. They grow things. Left to themselves they’ll grow whatever is right for the climate. Cultivated and coaxed, they’ll grow all sorts of wonderful and outlandish things. They are generous beyond what seems possible or even sensible.

Peace is like that too. When you sow seeds of Peace you have no idea how great the harvest might be. You just keep watering it with Love and tend and harvest what appears. And then you share it with the world.

We’d do well to learn about Peace from fields.

The Peace of Water that Wears

When you think of water in reservoirs or lakes, you so often think of water that is. And the ocean seems to endlessly offer and take away. It’s only when there are storms that we really notice it’s power for destruction.

But in little streams making their way down mountains, they slowly change the world. They’re persistent and tireless. They don’t care that it will take them millennia to carve their way through rock, they just trickle steadily over it and past whatever’s in their way.

Sooner or later, you look and everything is different.

I believe that’s how we need to be with Peace. We just need to drip life-giving force on situations so that life changes. Because let’s not forget, Water (and Peace) are life-giving. They are both life-changing. So let us protect the water and let us be about the work of Peace.

Sacred Food, Sacred Peace

Food is an amazing thing — not simply because it is good but because it is good for you.

Nourishing the body, especially when you live in abundance, should be a pleasure rather than something you get to bye and bye or a hasty act committed on the way out the door.

We say we’re too busy. What is more true is that we don’t make the time. Everything else is more important than our good health. Even people who exercise may eat well but not savor the experience. We have about 10,000 tastebuds so we are meant to be delighted by food. (Your dog wolfs his food because he only has 1700 buds and your poor cat, less than half a thousand!)

And where there is delight, there should also be gratitude. So plan for delight, indulge your taste buds and savor the results.

We’re the lucky ones, you know. One in nine people in this world is hungry, suffers from food insufficiency. I read yesterday that that causes profound health problems all your life. Why is this a surprise?

I’m not a person who gardens. Dirt and I are no good friends. But I understand that the planting and tending and harvesting of food is also sacred.

And many of us who have food, bolt it and don’t linger. We waste it. What if we ate only what was in our house and all of what was in our house? What if we under-ate a bit. Not to starve ourselves, but to let grow accustomed to what if feels like to be satisfied, but not stuffed? Playing with our food could have a different connotation than pushing it around on our plates. We could, as this picture suggests be deliberate and meditative about its preparation. Good ingredients, carefully prepared for maximum health and savoring.

We could let our food be sacred. We could be as mindful about how it nourishes us as we are how good it takes. Both, because both are things of wonder. We’d certainly care more about how food is raised and how it is distributed. Let us make Peace with what we eat and how we eat it. And then we can help to make Peace by helping everyone have food to eat.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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