Abundance. Peace.

This is the time of year when it’s easy to comprehend Abundance. Look at any garden. Count your blessings in numbers and varieties. Although, you may also, if you’re the gardener, be a little overwhelmed by the chaos, which is the flip side of abundance. We need, I believe, good glasses to find the abundance in chaos — and a lot of deep breathing.

But yes. it is our responsibility to eat tomatoes and tomatoes and tomatoes. They’re here. They’re wonderful. Sure. Put them up as well… but taste them! yummmmmmmm.

And Peaches. And Peppers. And whatever else is tickling your fancy.

Although, it must be said, i don’t feel any responsibility to eat the 45 foot long zucchini!

But enjoy. Give thanks. Don’t take this bounty for granted for one moment. And share.

There’s enough for everyone. Let’s share. Let’s Peace, for goodness’ sake.

Creek Sitting Peace

It’s simply amazing. What a silly, wonderful idea.

You pick up your plastic chair and march into the water and plop. There you are.

You and a couple friends. Your friends, their friends, it doesn’t matter. When you’re in the water, it’s magical.

People float by. Hellos are exchanged. Goodwill and enjoyment are acknowledged.

You talk. or you just sit and take it in. Life goes on around the bend but here, there’s nothing but presence.

Beauty before me. Beauty behind me. Beauty around me. Beauty within.

Peace.

Chipping Out Hate for Peace

I know I’ve had these words in my mouth before: institutionalized racism, misogeny, able-bodiedness… i’ve used them all.

But I don’t know that I’ve really looked at how those particular hatreds, or any kind of hatred, became codified and part of the structure.

One of the first things the First Congress took up was who was human and therefore who could vote.

We’ve been fighting against those definitions ever since. They’ve been taken out of law but not out of practice.

Until those of us who have do something to ensure that those who don’t have access nothing will happen.

What is that something? Well, we’re going to have to figure it out. It’s hard work. It will demand unpleasant self-reflections. We must acknowledge that there is abundance and that it must be shared… We must find the balance. We must, we must, we must. yeah i know. You’re not to do that. Nonetheless…

People are depending on us. Peace is depending on us.

Summer Sabbath Sunset Peace

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration!

But it’s been beautiful at twilight recently. I love driving as dusk is falling, particularly when there are clouds that change colors.

I love how still it often is.

I love how outrageous the colors can be everything from palest pink/peach to deepest purple.

I love the moment when the color drains from the sky and for a short bit the whole world is black and white.

And I’m lucky enough that at least part of my job includes a lot of driving home from summer weddings about dusk…

I hope you have a lovely and restful Sabbath. Enjoy the summer that’s left!

No Peace Without Respect for Women

Astonishingly it was Mao ZeDong who first said “Women hold up half the sky.” I found that out when I went googling to find the exact title of Nick Kristoff and Cheryl WuDunn’s book Half the Sky.

But you wouldn’t know it from their treatment in the world. We all like to point fingers at other parts of the world, and forget about the unfairness here. Forget about the lost wages, the underpaid jobs and the sex slavery. Forget about the mistreatment of undocumented workers. Forget about the lost opportunities.

And then there is so much of the world where they are chattel.

I’m grateful for the Elders who are working on this. Grateful that Jimmy Carter in his cancer diagnosis has said this is the work that he will devote the rest of his life to.

And I don’t yet know where to pull the first thread… but dammit. It’s awful.

I said last night I don’t believe in a condemning God nor a hell to which people should be consigned. I know that it is my feeling powerless that makes me long for it in this case.

Just the words “Theology of Rape and Sexual Slavery” combined with “enshrined.” I must get past the rage to work effectively. But right now? I’m sitting with the rage.

And that’s no way to Peace. And Peace is damned hard work. I’ll get there. But maybe not today. And still it is a goal. Peace.

Ripe Peach Peace

I totally missed one of my favorite holidays this year because I was traveling. Lammas, the first of August, is always my eat a ripe, juicy peach holiday.

I think there’s nothing more delicious. Nothing more sensual. Nothing more joyful and celebratory of life.

And here we are, with a whole month devoted to such deliciousness! Viva the Fruit Moon!

I think when the fruit is ripe and full, it’s almost a rite of holy obligation to enjoy it if we have the means. And thinking about it, the other part of that obligation is to find a way for others to enjoy as well. Fruit. We should eat it!

Being in our bodies, completely absorbed in appreciating the beauty and abundance of our Mother Earth is a prayer of Peace. Peacing! Praying! Giving thanks!

Words that Open Into Peace

Ta Nehisi Coates’ new book, Between the World and Me, is absolutely luscious — which is an odd thing to say about a challenging, painful, hopeful memoir.

In writing his letter to his 15 year old son about the fragility, the endangeredness of the black male body.

You couldn’t look away from the honesty — and didn’t want to because you might miss something.

You couldn’t look away from the sense of responsibility, the need to make this different, the push to become engaged.

It was a privilege to be invited into his world — and that privilege carries weight.

There are huge chasm’s between us and Peace and if we do not recognize them, if we do not make a difference to those who are so endangered, then Peace is just a wistful little fantasy. We must Peace. There are no prayers but our involvement, our willingness to change and to make a difference. There is work to be done.

The Peace Between Goodbye and Hello

I love living where I do. But I also loved living where I lived.

I love my friends from other pieces of my life as much as I adore the ones from this life.

I feel lucky and privileged and loved.

So today, as I stand one foot still in the land I visited and the other stretching toward home, I have to remember that the place in between is also lovely and can be filled with the Peace of both Gratitude and Anticipation. Remembering, Reflecting, Making new memories… all of it. Peace!

Gratitude too for the Ripe Garden Moon. The last day comes not today, but tomorrow!

13-Year Peace(s)

How bizarre that the only people in my life today who knew me when I was working in New York are my Swedish and American family. I have friends from my seminary days. And loads of friends from my California days. And then some very old friends but mostly new from my life back in Pennsylvania.

I’ve had a wonderful life, but it has, I think more segments than many people’s… Not everyone changes careers in midstream (taking a long time with a slide through another course of study to get where I belonged) and I’ve always known lots of folks. My friend the epidemiologist uses me as an example of people who know a lot of people with terminal diseases simply because I know so many people — and have been supportive. Great, another thing to put on my resume, I’m a statistical anomaly!

But I’m happy to know and love all these people. Happy to have known and loved these landscapes. Who doesn’t love NY? Who doesn’t love the Bay Area? And as many of us remark, the central Susquehanna Valley is paradise, except for those for whom it is not…

I seem to have dug in here. My husband’s happy playing here. I love my work, my friends, and my life. My family has changed a lot in the last 13 years, a couple gains, a lot of losses. But still this seems like home. And so I stay and try to figure out what great fun can i get up to in the time ahead? 13 more years and I’ll be, gasp, 76… And hopefully still doing what I love to do!

We’ll see… In the meantime… I’ll keep looking through the lens of Peace and see what I need to get up to next.

Peace and Blessings, my friends, and may you love and be loved where you live.

Thinking. Peace. Sabbbath.

Here I am having a reading summer unlike any I’ve had since about 9th grade AND I’m visiting friends I first met after my four year career in reading (what else IS graduate school if not a reading career?).

Not only are these people with whom I once talked (worked) and considered late into the night, they’re people who know what I used to think about… who I was before I was a married UU minister. There’s a wonderful joy in knowing people who hold your history. Friendships!

And today I’m joining friends from my church in PA who just happen to live in the same town as our daughter’s family and doing what I so rarely do on vacation — going to church! They’re here 5 months and then at home 5 months and It’ll be wonderful to see where they are making their spiritual home when they’re not with us. It’s going to be a slow Sabbath with some good visits thrown in.

And the morning started out watching my grandson play with his legos… what a wonderful unexpected joy and fabulous side effect of marriage. Kids and grandkids— quite the jackpot, one I’m only slowly learning how to enjoy… never having expected it…

It’s a great period in my life. That said, I’m really looking forward to home and the weddings and the swimming that are the last stage of my summer. If I don’t look too closely, I feel like a 9 year old! There’s a sweet Peace in all of this!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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