Believer, Non Believer… I believed we are all called to open our hearts and arms and houses to the strangers at our door…
That way lies Peace.
Let Them Come to Peace
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Tag Archives: peace
Oh, That Moon. What Peace!
I’m in love with the Moon’s Beauty. It’s not just that she changes with the cycle, she changes with the seasons as well.
I’ve spent a year looking at her, a year being blessed by her beauty. It’s been a year blessed by slowing down and being present to what is.
I keep thinking wherever we are, she smiles on us. Isn’t that a call to smile on everyone?
Isn’t it a call to smile. a call to Peace? May we offer Peace to the Moon so that she may shine that back on the world.
The Ties that Bind Us to Peace
I was caught off guard. It’s not that I don’t miss them all individually. And sometimes I miss the family. I know a lot of people who know that I lost them. But I don’t know many people who knew us together.
But when El walked in, and I’ve not seen her since Deb died, it opened floodgates that had obviously been lurking.
I was home. I was safe. And there were memories here to pull out and sort through. I had a long drive to do that very thing. It was very sweet. It was very sad. But I not only got to see my very dear friends, I got little snippets of my family back when I least expected it.
Love is so very sweet, even when it’s sad… even when it’s hard. Our work is to find the Peace in Love.
Sunrise, Sunset, Sabbath, Peace
I received a video this morning to tell me that the sunrise had been beautiful. As beautiful, it turns out as the sunset last night. And the sunset was gorgeous. (even if driving west during the sunset is a pretty lousy idea.
Ah, this earth. and this beauty.
I’m grateful that this is my Sabbath today. After the tumultuous weekend, it will be so good to gather with those who are my family of faith. Our traditions may be different, but when they’re right for us, there is that sense of coming home. And when the world is so crazy, home is central to our well-being. And so many, so many have lost all they’ve known as home.
I must admit that after the long hours on the road, I’m really looking forward to an afternoon nap as well. zzzzzz.
But enjoy the day. it’s cold but beautiful. Do those things that remind you how good it is to be alive.
Peace be with us all, my friends. Peace.
Jumbled Thoughts, Big Houses, Acts of War, Love, Peace
I wrote the musing about Newport’s big Houses. They’re so ostentatious and huge. And loads of them were for sale. No surprise, who can keep them up? And yet so beautiful. A product of their age and our systems of class. Something I coveted in my childhood and youth and shake my head about now I’ve grown up. But man. Such beauty. Because privilege allows us beauty.
I wondered how much more money and influence did you have to have to live on the cliff side of Bellvue street? And New Yorker that I was I kept thinking of the hospital where people with mental illness were imprisoned in squalor.
But oh, these places are beautiful… and Newport has oysters. yum. I ate a lot. Ridiculously I ran into a man I know from home.
And I came home to news of the Paris attack. I came in at 20 feared dead, awoke this morning to 158. Such horror. Such violence.
And, sobered, I realize how many people live with this every day. I’m horrified because it happened in a city I love… But it’s this fear, this violence, this murder, that puts people on boats to escape their lives. what is the right prayer, we wonder? What is the right action.
War only begets more war.
But how do you love the violence out of movements of hate? How do you Peace?
I reach out my hands, my friends. I wish you Love. I wish you Peace. I wish that we will Peace together.
Into the Woods for Peace
We take the beauty of our woods for granted. And then we see another forest, equally beautiful, and remember how beautiful our forest is.
I don’t get out enough. Every time I”m out, I realize… look… look what you’re missing.
The world is so beautiful.
If we don’t get out to treasure it. We won’t notice as its beauty disappears. Its future beauty is on us.
There’s Peace in the woods in Autumn —Each season has its own Peace Let us go out to the woods and find it.
The Peace Is on Us
It’s been a fascinating glimpse into people’s lives as they post their pics of themselves and their family members as vets. My generation are the children of WWII vets. In all their pictures, I recognize memories. And oh the soldiers were so young, so young. They all are.
But those soldiers came home to a life and possibilities. We felt responsible to and for them. No, we didn’t talk about PTSD… and it was ghastly.
But now our soldiers are disgorged into emptiness. There are no jobs. If they can get medical care it’s hit-or-miss. There aren’t anywhere near enough support services for soldiers who have seen more than a heart and soul can safely bare. We ask so much. We give so little.
Disproportionately homeless, un- or under-employed, divorced, incarcerated… discarded.
Even those of us who struggle against war recognize it — and yet we don’t organize. We think, one thing at a time, but it’s not, it’s all of those things together.
We cannot continue to ask these young men and women to do difficult and often horrible jobs and then not tenderly care for them when they get home, not give them the tools and the opportunity for reentry.
We must care for those who fight even as we work to put an end to war.
Peace be with us all. May we be part of what helps Peace to be with us all.
The Peace of Long Nights
Today is the Dark of the Moon. Our Beautiful Moon has her face turned away from us and she’s smiling at the sun.
Tomorrow when she turns back to us, it will be the beginning of the Long Night Moon.
“Come down, into the Darkness, let the one who wants to be be born.” (i tried to find alink to that song, and can’t)
There’s lots of beauty in the darkness. Lots to explore. Many candles to light. Many stories to tell.
We make such a big deal about the horrors of the dark… and wind up missing what it offers. SAD is real. But for the rest of us? we miss something when we don’t explore the dark — its meaning, its hope…
So today, when the Moon has turned her beautiful face away, I celebrate the starry dark. Celebrate with me, will you? there is Peace there.
Peace of the Long Night Moon to you, my friends.
Pride and Peace
I have wonderful friends. I know wonderful people. People who do ordinary and extraordinary things. People who do things to the best of their abilities. People who stretch beyond what is expected of them… whether by others or by themselves.
We have this weird thing going on in today’s culture… we have both very low expectations of people, jumping up and down when you phone in a an experience — and ridiculously high ones: failing to notice when when people reach deep into themselves and pull out all that is bright and beautiful and put it to work.
When we do our halting best and do a good job, that means something.
Too often we don’t turn to those we love — or even to those we barely know and say good job you worked so hard, you really tried. Not even you succeeded — you worked your heart out on that. The least I can do is be present enough in the moment to notice and to tell you.
And it’s good to know that your friends treasure your work because they know what it costs you. We all do a lot of things that aren’t the easy things for us. We should be proud of ourselves. And we should be proud of people we know. And we should tell them.
I know this is dicey. I know that that pride can be a dangerous thing. It can become more about the pride and less about the doing what needs to be done.
But sometimes we need that encouragement. Sometimes we are so petrified at what we’re undertaking it means the world to have someone turn and say, yep. you’re doing a wonderful job. Keep going. You’ve discovered new possibilities. You’re working hard and doing good. A friend of mine always used to say 5 attaboys or attagirls for you. Yes, you.
My friends, I’m proud of you. Be Peaceful with yourselves. You’re doing the best you can — so much more than you imagined you could.
Starry Chalice of Peace
Ah, the Moon. The Planets. Endlessly entertaining.
And the human mind, endlessly inventive.
And that’s a power to use for the good, isn’t it? If we can see a chalice, that makes us think of refuge offered to to people under siege and we’re encouraged to be welcoming, I say take your portents from the sky.
You say, hornswoggle? That’s fine and dandy. What encourages you to be welcoming?
Because isn’t that the question?
What makes us put our hearts and souls on the line? What makes each of us get to work in the world. Something different for each of us… But goodness the world needs us.
And really. the stupid silly brouhaha about whether or not Starbucks cups are killing Christmas. And I know no one I know is saying that, but lots are posting articles about ridiculous people’s saying that. Really? People get their religion from Starbucks? Oh, wait, they’re the people who published the story about the child soldier weren’t they… when no one else would.
But go to your religious communities for your holidays. Do your work in the world. And support the mega-conglomerate of your choice for coffee. Or get it at your local coffee house where your business makes a difference.
And don’t talk to me about the color of your coffee cups until there are no more hungry children in this world. You wanna bitch about folks’ missing the celebration of the tiny Bethlehem Babe? Look at how many children are still hungry. Right here. Right next door to you. Fix that. Wanna help fix that in the Susquehanna Valley? Go right here and help.
Peace of the Starry Chalice to you, my dears. And may there be no hungry children because we decide it is unacceptable. Let there be Peace on Earth, and let it begin with feeding hungry children. and us. Let it begin with us. No need to wait for whatever winter holidays you celebrate to start this observance.
