I have been alone in my life, but I have never been lonely. Books. The most amazing companions.They introduce me to new ideas and new places. They teach me ways to cope when I’m unsure. They hold my old friends and a whole bunch of new ones.
So this picture by Heather Adams… of a book, a chair and a shawl… Comfort, security, a goad, and Peace.
Books offer me Peace and challenge me to make it. I’m grateful for many things. One of them is Books.
Empty fields. Broken hearts. They have a lot in common.
There is that vast expanse of nothing. And buried deeply life flickers.
But some days, some months, you just have to sit with the vast expanse of nothing but what once was. You have to trust that Peace is there, and yet know that at the moment, you’re not responsible for finding it. Your job is to hang on in the grief.
Ours is to be the Peace that is needed. Blessed be.
That is what I long for. This is what I have.
Sometimes, when the question is one of, say, Peace, what you long for is what you work for. Sometimes when the question is one of, say, the weather, what you long for is a) a waste of time and b) ignoring what is beautiful just as is.
I love snow. It’s so beautiful. The snow in this picture is light and fluffy and fun to shovel.
I know that it’s dangerous. So many people have a hard time getting around when the snow’s on the ground. It’s slippery and can be inconvenient.
But dreaming of snow does not pile it up outside my window. This morning we have a beautiful frigid day. This is winter. This is the Winter I have. This is the Winter I will love.
I’ll wrap up and go out in it, to have a meeting on a topic that sizzles.
Winter. It is what it is. and there is life to be lived in it and Peace to be worked for. But truth? I’ll still welcome snow when it arrives!
May we be with Peace.
Everyday matters. Every day matters.
This year is about finding and celebrating the Peace of every day. So that’s got to include Peace, right? And here’s the Priestess with her Bartender Buddy celebrating food. Nothing more mundane. Nothing more sublime. Thanks, Terri Peterson.
And there’s the beauty. Nothing more plebian than beans and rice, right? But this is festal food and raised to an art form. It both is and ain’t your grandma’s Hoppin’ John.
In so many ways, life is what we choose to make of it. Why not choose good food? Why not choose Peace? Every day? Everyday Peace.
Cheers and Happy New Year.
Sundays are for sunrises. and for Sabbaths and for Peace.
Sundays are for the joy of working with Deb Slade again — and that’s fun!
This sunrise encourages us. Let it be a beautiful colorful year. I think of the Robert Isaacs Eller line: “we forgive ourselves and each other and we begin again in peace.”
All week long we work at Peace. On the Sabbath we can think back a bit on what we’ve done and rededicate ourselves to Peace. You look at what’s going on in this world. Peace needs us. Everyday Peace. Every Day, Peace.
Wouldn’t it be nice if Peace were simply black and white. And certainly there are some things about it that are. If we’re ambivalent about Peace, then we’re not going to have it.
But Peace is a slow and subtle thing. We learn more, we become more attuned, the longer we work for it.
Winter is a time of subtlety. It is a time of greys and shadow. It’s a way of thinking as much as a way of living. Before we wish that away, we might want to understand what that way of thinking can teach us. Some of us are excellent at moving through the shadows. Some of us work much more easily with a more action centered existence. But both are in all of us and it’s good to find the balance. And as the sun sets, it filters through the shadows giving another kind of light in which to examine what we know…
Every day matters. Everyday matters… Peace.
What will this year hold? We’ll have to discover. So much ahead. Much of it unimaginable, simply because it’s not here!
If, however, we’re going to have a year with Peace in it, we’re going to have to dare to imagine that; we’re going to have to dare to put Peace into it.
So, let’s do that. Let’s fill this year up with Peace. Every day, Peace. Everyday Peace. Let’s take this year seriously; let’s inhabit it. Everyday matters. Every day matters.
And that’s plenty enough for the day. Peace, my friends, in 2016 and may it be happy and healthy.
Peace. It’s what we need.
Sometimes I wonder if I’m just naive or blind… beating just this drum… am I doing enough to make Peace happen or just dreaming about it.
But then I think, I don’t know what else to do. I don’t know another answer. Black lives matter — we must Peace. Let the Syrian refugees come — we must Peace. Hungry Children — Peace. The safety of our Muslim sisters and brothers — Peace. Women. LGBTQA People. Everyone imperiled. Every marginalized soul. Our sweet Earth. Peace.
So Peace, my friends. Let’s build at it. let’s make our little hometowns and Valleys and Plains sweet places to be. Let’s connect them. Pull a string of need, any string. And let’s Peace.
Thank you for the joy you gave me in 2015. Thanks for looking forward into 2016. I hope you have a happy, healthy, prosperous Year, filled with Peace and Peace making.
Thank you, my dear friend Lorraine Rantala, for your lovely lunar shots. I am sorry to leave them… I loved living with them… loved knowing where the Moon was and what it was up to. we’ll see tonight whether I can let go of that or not!
Love and Blessings, Ann
It’s not that learning to say no isn’t important. It is. It is particularly important for women as we negotiate a world that has laid claim to our bodies. No, sorry, you can’t have this. This belongs to me.
But there are so many places in the world where we say no instinctively. I’m not about that. I’m not for that. I don’t like that. And we say it so easily, we forget to say yes! I’m all about this! I want this. I’m moving toward this!
I’ve read that the brain doesn’t recognize no. So when we say “no hatred” it sees hatred. So we have to learn to say “Yes!” “Yes I will!” Yes, I can!” “Yes, I believe that.” “Yes, I stand for that.”
So, Peace. How do I stand for Peace today? Every day? How do I fashion my life to celebrate what matters in my life. How do I spend my time on FB celebrating the possible rather than the ridiculous. It’s not easy. But it is my chore for next year.
I want to stop whining about what life is not and start making it what life might be. I want to stop wishing away beautiful days because they’re not this season or that. I want to celebrate life where it is. Everyday. Peace. Yes. I hope you’ll join the journey.
Our world is out of balance.
The only way that’s going to change is when white, privileged people decide it’s time for it to be different.
It’s not easy. In fact, it’s quite a hard task. You learn things about yourself you’d rather not know… indeed you learn things about yourself you’ve gone a life time trying not to learn.
How much unmissed potential can we bear? How many dead children? How many folk incarcerated? how much hatred before we’re completely stunted?
Our world is not only out of balance, it’s in a shambles. There is so much work to do — and ours are the hands and hearts and minds of Peace.
Let us Peace.
