Shadows and Peace

We live in a world dominated by fear. Maybe that’s always so. Maybe because I came up in the generation I did, graduating college in the mid-70s, there was the thought that things could change — and would keep on changing.

I guess they did, but the clouds above aren’t big and white and fluffy, hopeful sort of clouds, they are grey and low-hanging. They are clouds of fear and hate.

I’m astonished by the hate. I realize I’m hopelessly naive about the hate and the fear. Between my family, my religious up-bringing, my year abroad as a Rotary Exchange Student, and my tiny, little women’s college attended in the 70s, I really thought we had the blues on the run. I’ve seen hope triumph and assumed it triumphed forever. It didn’t.

The stupid, hateful fear-mongering that is going on now, the casual disregard for one another’s humanity is horrifying to me. And it’s so big. Hard to know where to enter the fight.

As always it comes back to our choices. We can’t give up on the macro level, we have to participate. I do best working here at home with like minded people. Tiny little acts of love and courage. But we cannot be out of touch with those who do the other work. They are our neighbors too. We can help them keep believing that there are reasons for Hope, that change is possible. We must feed and nourish their souls even as we struggle to find ways to feed and nourish the people of our towns and cities and countrysides.

Under threatening skies, let us build shelters for our neighbors and ourselves. Let us build enclaves of Hope and Beauty, Art and Commerce. Let us understand that storms pass, because they do, however horrible they are in the meantime. But in the storms, we can be the light and the hope. We can push back the hate.

If we believe in Peace, we must do so.

I believe in Peace.

Fleeting Gold, Lasting Peace

Part of the reason I wanted to write this series this year was to encourage us to be present to the moment. From the very beginning of the year, really, from January first, people started listing the number of days until spring or summer. (as if summer isn’t just a count down to winter, hello folks!).

It’s so foolish to wish away time. For those of us who have sat at the end points of people’s lives, we know how precious those last days are, even when it’s clear they’re leaving, and soon, on the go-to heaven bus.

Those last moments to soothe, and comfort. The last laughs and words of love. As hard as it is, it’s so very sweet, so powerfully intimate, so agonizingly beautiful. It’s beauty you don’t want to look past, even if you wish your beloved weren’t suffering (And I’m here to tell you modern medicine and humans had better figure out the hows and whys of keeping people comfortable.) But those awful moments are also gold. And then they’re gone.

But the going doesn’t diminish the beauty. They’re just over.

Winter is beautiful. It’s hard. It’s Beauty is unlike the Summer’s. As I sit writing, it’s pouring outside, making dangerous ice. Stay home, not good driving conditions. But still… beautiful for all that…

When the gold appears, stop and notice. Stop and appreciate. Stop and give thanks. And then keep your eyes open, because it will happen again.

You make Peace last by remembering those moments. The more you notice, the more you’ll see. The More Peace you’ll make. May that be so.

For today, I have this photo of golden beauty and a day at the computer and the kindle. I have food. I have flowers in the house and candles. Life is pretty darned good. (and my landlord shoveled! hurrah!)

Sharing Chocolate for Peace

Sigh. When it’s as beautiful as the chocolate in this photo, it’s hard not to hoard it…

But, no, really, I usually share. Usually!

Thinking about this made me laugh. I remember one time when there was a big break-up in my life. (oh, thank god such drama is behind us!) But it had been on the BF’s birthday.

There was champagne. There were truffles. I’m sure I was devastated. However, next thing you know, there were friends sitting around laughing their heads off drinking champagne and eating those truffles. It was in the long run, a much better use of those little bombs of deliciousness!

It’s silly. sometimes I won’t share even with myself. I’ll ration it out so long that I lose interest.

Although these look mighty tasty… Damn that Terri and her beau George make some good looking food!

Chocolate aside. The Love stuff? It’s better when we find new ways to Love. More love. More better! Or as my nephew used to say More Betterer! Peace is built on Love. It could probably be built on chocolate that looks like this, if only some of us (sigh, ahem) were willing to share! So we wonder. What does Peace Chocolate taste like…

Cold Sabbath Peace

When the World is this cold, there’s not much stirring outside.

We huddle in our barrows and long for spring.

When we do, we miss the beauty. Crystalline air. Ice sculptures made of the most mundane webs and branches. Rivers slowed by pieces of itself frozen fast to the shoreline.

However you participate, this day offers itself up for your enjoyment. It’s a day off for many of us. How will you fill this precious Sabbath?

Bundle up. Wear all the clothes you’re supposed to. And go out into the world — go out knowing that you can come back in.

And spare thoughts for those who have no place to go. Maybe spare some change.

Peace needs to be for all of us.

Here’s to a frozen Sabbath Peace. May you enjoy it.

The Peace of a Winter’s Night

There are so few perfect Winter nights. I know, this year’s column is all about being at Peace whatever comes, but those spectacular winter evenings when there’s snow on the ground and you go outside into the quiet Darkness.

I love the nights that are not the in-between nights best. If it’s snowing, that’s great — Gambol in the snow! If it’s clear it’s amazing — Bundle up and tip your head back to watch the sky.

Trish’s picture really caught the magic of a perfect Winter’s night.

I hadn’t realized, there seem to be far more great Summer evenings. Get a warm night and out you head to the ice cream stand… You could, if you didn’t care about your hips, do that several times a week.

But these perfect Winter nights? There are only a couple to savor each Winter. Inertia can keep you from getting out and enjoying… and then you miss it!

There is Peace in a beautiful Winter’s night. Don’t miss it!

Pups for Peace

Pups make Peace with every moment, don’t they?

They’re such good role models. Look, here we are and life is grand!

There was one of those sad stories on FB about a dog who had been brought to the animal shelter. Two months went by and the dog just got sadder and sadder. They posted the sad tale. You looked at the dog and wondered, will he ever recover if he does get a new home. (I refuse to say re-homed… whatever the hell does that mean… somehow making up for deserted?)

And then a couple days later there were pictures of him going home with his new Mom. It’s such a lovely story, he’s going to get to go to work at a nursing home and make lots of people happy. Sure there may be problems in this pups future, but at the moment, riding home in the car with the new person, the dog looks happy. Doggone happy! That look at how everything’s right with my world happy.

It’s hard to argue with. Whether or not you want to live with dogs, It’s always a good idea to know a couple who are glad to see you coming.

It’s also good to remember to be a bit more like them. After all, it’s not as if dogs don’t sense when something’s off. But the rest of the time? They’re all, “ok… here we go! Isn’t this great? Look food, let’s eat! And oh, what a great place for a nap!”

Both the keeping an eye out and then the joyous giving of self to the moment are great characteristics for Peace. Be like a pup… Find the Peace that’s right in front of your eyes and live into it. And occasionally look at someone like they hung the Moon! it makes life sweeter! Embrace the moment! Embrace the Joy! Embrace the Peace!

Good Boots for the Walk into Peace

You can’t over-estimate the importance of a good pair of boots.

When you get good boots, they’re old friends. They hang in their with you for years at a time. You get them resoled and resewn. You polish them or you don’t. You put the waterproofing on… and you wear them. You wear them because they tell the world who you are and you wear them because they’re the most comfortable things in the world.

Old friends, those boots. Who better to walk into Peace with? Who better to dance the dance of Peace with?

Peace, my dears. And may your boots be comfortable for the whole journey!

Peace on the Edge and In-Between

This is such a great picture of a weather front. On one side of the line it is bright and beautiful; on the other the clouds are grey and lowering. I love that she caught a shot with the delineation happening along the shore; as above, so below.

This, I believe, is where Peace dances; here a bit, there a bit and in between. If we’re going to dance with Peace we must live in the confusion and the mix up. We must welcome what is and what is coming; what is and what was… I don’t know which way that front is traveling.

We’re not always fans of that unsettledness, particularly when what is ahead isn’t all bright and beautiful. But we have to make Peace with that as well. Because the seeds of change are there.

Peace. I think it cuts both a fine line and a wide swath.

In Peace, Breathing Matters

For the past four years of my musings, i’ve danced with one picture a week or a month. It’s been a wonderful adventure. It’s different this year to have a picture come in every day. It’s different in both challenging and wonderful ways.

Even six weeks in, most people have a thought about why they took a photo. When you add that to whatever it inspires in me plus whatever’s working in the world at that moment and it makes writing the poem more challenging.

So Scott sent this beautiful picture and said, I don’t know, Breath of God? Dawn of Creation? And there out of my mind came not only the old hymn but the newer benediction: When I breathe in Love, I breath out Peace. When I breathe in Peace, I breathe out Love…

And new metaphors emerge to challenge and deepen my own understanding. This is why I call these musings, you know… what am I thinking about what I believe and what am I believing about what I observe? What supports me? What challenges me? What moves me?

Breath of Peace. Big B. Big P. For me the capitalized beginning indicates words that are sacred in our mouths. Not just powerful — hate never gets a cap. But Breath. ah… let’s pay attention to its coming in and its going out. Let’s stand in the way of it when the World exhales. Let’s breathe in Peace. and please, breathe on me Breath of Peace. You my beloved. You, the World. You, the Divine. You… Peace. Breathe. Peace breathes. I breathe Peace.

Happy Year of the Monkey Peace

You know me — opportunity to celebrate? Count me in.

Another new year? A fresh chance to to begin again in Love? Why wouldn’t we take that?

And then, as I so often ask, festal foods? Oh, yeah. Of course I’ll come to your house.

I confess, my celebration of festal foods doesn’t do the artistry of these gnocci justice. They’re so beautiful, and another gift of slow food from Terri and George. Wonderful things happened when those two met, I’ll tell you, on all sorts of levels. Dinner was certainly an important one.

Welcome to the Year of the Monkey. The Monkey is a clever, curious guy with a magnetic personality. He’s intelligent, adaptable, flexible and eloquent. Occasionally that wit and curiosity can lead him astray, but his heart is huge. Animal activists are hoping to use this year of the Monkey to speak to destroyed habitats and illegal trade in these little guys for pets and for more nefarious activities. It wouldn’t hurt any of us to pay some attention to this…

We are one with the natural world, whether we acknowledge it or not. It’s better to acknowledge it. Better to as Robert Isaacs Eller says, “forgive ourselves and each other, and begin again with love.” So go ahead, explore the world. Be a bit adventurous.

And don’t forget the festal foods. We think of this as Chinese New Year — it’s celebrated in many countries by billions of people as the Spring Festival. It’s a lunar holiday, beginning on the second new moon after the Winter Solstice. This year, for the very first time, in acknowledgement of New York’s large Asian population, schools are closed in observance. More people in the world travel for this holiday than for any other holiday in the world. People go home to be with their families.

Peace, my friends. Peace of the Monkey Year, be with you. Call your families. Tell them you love them.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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