Wild Sabbath Peace

Yep, this weekend has been flurries of fun mixed with serious moments…

It’s been a long time since I did anything that spectacularly, well, anything…

Taking off your clothes, putting aside good sense, and hopping into the cold water.

But Faye had always wanted to… and i had always wanted to see if I could… So we did and I could.

It’s important to have friends who dare you to deeper things.

Yesterday we hopped in the river. Today we’ll hop in the pulpit. That will be equally fun, very safe, but in its own way equally daring. In between we sat on the couch or at the table and laughed and talked seriously…

And then I’m hopping in my bed for a nap. Poor Faye has to hop in her car and drive for five hours.

I’ve got thinking to do about how our women’s college — Wilson — shaped my life. Today i’m just mulling about how that early connection holds fast in so many ways… and how good and rewarding that is.

Peace… through wackiness. We’ll laugh to that!

Peace of Sunset at the Farm

One of the reasons I like snow is that it lets the sun paint it colors.

It is so beautiful to have those golden colors reflecting off the snow. It’s so easy to imagine coming home to this Peaceful and Beautiful place…

Beauty — just one of the reasons I don’t want to rush past winter… And the cold is another one.

Today the cold brings my little town our ice festival. Hurrah. There were lots of pictures from last night of friends sitting in ice chairs and having their pictures taken besides ice sculptures. The Ice Fest has arrived. We’ll have to walk down to see folk plunge into the river this afternoon… (crazy people, i tell you, not me!)

Both the picture and this festival are reasons for me not to rush past winter. Every day, there’s something beautiful. Every day in your life, there’s something beautiful. We should welcome and celebrate that.

Peace needs every day to be complete — just as it needs every person!

Solitary Peace

Solitary bovine Peace?

Cows are such herd animals. But occasionally, even they have the need to wander away.

We should trust our own need… and use it not to brood, but to plot.

Sometimes the wandering away requires a burst of courage. Sometimes we just follow the path in front of our hearts.

Peace is such a curious thing. We need to figure out how we’re best able to participate in it, and then get on with it! Sometimes it requires close work with like-hearted folks. Sometimes Peace becomes a solitary endeavor. Maybe for all of us, it’s always both… but it’s always Peace!

Dormant Dreams of Peace

We rise and fall with the seasons… but when we’re focused and involved, even during the off seasons, our project is only dormant, not dead. It’s important to give fields and dreams a time to lie fallow, and so necessary to put them back to work. Fields of dreams — it’s important that we have them.

And/but… it’s so easy to let go. Our dreams have seasons, but unless we truly renounce them, we need not to just let them molder. It’s a choice… to believe we’re worthy of our Peace dreams and they are worthy of our investment.

Pete, my friend who took today’s photo, sends me provocative choices as she decides what fields to send. And so does everyone in the group. 5 weeks into the project, there have been one or two curves each week. It’s a lovely challenge; I feel so privileged. Who gets to do this? lucky, lucky me!

The Peace of Winter Beauty

This process I’m engaged in, the daily writing and this year the daily reacting to images, is fascinating. I’ve had people say I don’t know how you decide what to write every day.

Some days I make a conscious decision. But often the picture really does say what about this… or the person taking the picture suggests it.

But I was surprised by my reaction to the icicles. I love icicles. as a child i loved those winters when there were lots and you would knock one down and suck on it like a lollipop. (yeah, can you say asbestos shingles, anyone?)

But there i was, looking at them, and then i thought about its being my anniversary today and then Rumi’s poem was in my head and i was writing the poem. Icicles and marriage. Icicles and peace…

It’s a good question to ask myself, do I dare to Peace in my Love? When I say it’s so important in other parts of life? Do any of us dare?

I find it especially poignant when I look at a world that is in such desperate need of Peace and Love. So can I start at home? Do I?

Peace. Icicles. Yep. “Stand together, but not too near together.”

Slow Food Is Sweet Peace

You need to understand from the start, that I am an admirer of slow food not a preparer of it! Although cooking more is on my agenda this year, I’m starting with cooking breakfast or soup in the crockpot. Let’s not rush into things! Nonetheless, soup is good food. Both the making of it and the eating it brings me Peace. Oh, and health. let’s not forget health.

I am neither a patient nor a precise person. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have friends who are! And whether I’m dining with them or simply delighting in their stories of good food made the old fashioned way, it makes me happy!

Some people will say they cook this way because they can’t afford to eat out, but that misses the point of cooking that way because they love cooking and eating what they cook. Whereas cooking for me is a white-knuckle affair, for them it’s an exhale into life.

I resent the time it takes; they revel. I have a friend who as her mom was dying, when her sister relieved her for a bit, came home took a shower, and then baked. A cake and cookies. It soothed her and gave her strength the way that writing does me. Familiar rituals bring order to our lives and good things to our families. Her sisters ate cookies and comfort as they gathered throughout the week. It was a bit of family/familiar comfort as their mom slowly departed her life.

That reveling is Peace. That healing is Peace. I can appreciate it without participating.It’s exactly like Peace-making. We all contribute differently. But we all benefit from the fruits of such labor — even if only visually.

Keep rolling that pasta, George! Pasta and Peace. I think it could be a thing.

When the Sabbath Peace Slowly Dawns

I love the notion that even the Sun doesn’t make a big to do every day. Some days sunrise is just a quiet “this is what we do” event.

For me Sundays are both days of work and days of wonder. Because somehow, I managed to build a life where my work is the seeking of wonder. Part of my weekly responsibility is remembering the Sabbath, calling attention to it, helping everyone remember that it matters.

I have to tell you, it’s pretty great.

I wish that for you. Wonder is a lovely companion.

This week I have the labyrinth and Dark Moon to look forward to as well. A day dedicated to Peace. A day of friends, shared meals and quiet conversation. A day of fun things to read. If I’m lucky, a little raucous laughter. And why not be lucky.

Days don’t have to start in a blaze of Glory to be filled with Peace. The Peace is there. We just have to meet it.

Drifting Peace

We’re so bound and determined to do things now. Now! NOW!

Sometimes now is not the right time. Sometimes it’s not the right time because you’re not well (or well-enough) prepared. Sometimes it’s not right because it’s just not the right time.

When the way is drifted shut, it’s not the right time.

You can work against that, but you run the risk of not only missing the beauty of right here and right now, but also of losing sight of the long-term goal in your need to forge ahead.

When the way is soft and drifted, admire it and hole up for a while. Enjoy the Peace of what is.

Peace of the snowy drifts to you.

I find this picture particularly poignant, because 2016 doesn’t look like a year of a lot of drifted snow. It’s early days, i can easily be wrong, but… Enjoy the beauty. Enjoy the fact that for once, there are no miles to go before you sleep. Dare to enjoy the Peace and Quiet!

Taking that Moment for Peace

When the moment arises, you must seize it.

That’s what these gals did.

Man, does that sun feel great on your back.

Consider. A break in the temperature, a barn break and someone delivers lunch. There’s not much more we can ask of our lunch breaks with our work buds..

Sometimes life is wildly meaningful, sometimes it’s just the experience of joy.

These are the moments that are so essential to our understanding of why Peace for all should matter for us.

Sometimes you just want to go out with the girls and you should be able to…

Because the moment is right. Because Peace. Because it’s better for Peacemakers to be filled with Peace.

Lunch break anyone? Peace break?

Practicing for Peace

I’m not sure what the scales of Peace are… or the beats or the (enter sports analogy)…

But I know we need to practice them. It’s what will make Peace sing.

It’s important when you want do great things to have the basics at your fingertips.

Years of hours practicing scales means your fingers automatically know where to go. It means when the Peace process bogs down you have other notes to offer, other harmonies to try. What about this note, or this? The movements are instinctive.

Music is hard. Peace is hard. We need to practice and get good at it. Music practice, spiritual practice, Peace practice. Beautiful music changes the world. Peace changes the world. The practice is worth the time.

And oh, by the way, I think Beautiful Music can be a road to Peace — one we don’t talk often enough.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: peace