Tag Archives: peace

Slow Morning Peace, llvl

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Morning breaks more slowly in the winter… as if it too tugs itself from the warm nest of blankets. But that gives the colors a chance to settle in…

We live in a beautiful world. And as much as I talk about it, I sometimes don’t pay as much attention as I should. This time of year, we’re meant to burrow in, and I do. I find it difficult to tear myself from my cozy cocoon. I’m up late reading and in late sleeping — Finding the rhythm of the season.

But this morning, thanks to an early car appointment, I’m going to be driving into the morning’s light. (and probably driving back into it since it looks like the car may need a days worth of fluffing.)

So, here I am, slower than usual, but happily embracing the moment. In the midst of the turmoil over race and torture and rape… let us envision the possibility of Peace on Earth and Joy to the World. And then let us come together and work for justice. It’s a beautiful morning for it.

LLVL50Dec10

 

Peace with What Is, llvl

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They’d promised me the big storm. Again. We’re getting icy rain. Again.

And that’s what it is. Again. It’s always what it is.

Expectations. They offer a fine bit of sword dancing. On the one hand, we have to work and make space for the unthinkable. (not those things we dread, but the things we hope for.) On the other, we can’t invest in them.

I’d wanted to get my work out shoveling piles of fluffy white stuff. Instead, I’m going to have to go to the gym and be very careful driving my round of appointed errands. (If the weather’s ok, I’m having play practice with Rachel for this year’s Holiday Program.) don’t want to miss that!

I could be wildly disappointed that I didn’t get what I wanted, or I could just live into today and keep building possibilities for Peace. Or even just get the work I have to do done. Pay the bills. Write that assignment. Clean out that closet. Do what’s in front of me. Not every day is a day for the big things. But if we clear the little ones out of the way, we make room for great things. And shoveling will come… It is Winter after all… And there’s lots that needs my attention. Why yes, of course Peace is one. Trying to live into the Joy to the World and Peace on Earth.

LLVL49Dec9

 

Reflecting Sabbath Peace, llvl

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What do we see when we look in a mirror. if we only look deliberately, we see the face we believe we show the world all the time. But is that the face? I think there’s value to having a lot of mirrors in our homes, because it’s the face we catch a glimpse of on the fly that’s the one we offer the world. There are times that’s not reassuring!

Recently, after Deb’s death, I noticed how much grief I really carried. “oh, I’m fine,” I’d think and then I’d see my face… And why did I have to be fine? Why couldn’t I be grieving… and how could I continue to grieve in such a way that didn’t cause people to want to fix that the moment they saw my face? Because, there’s no fixing grief, there’s just living through it. I had to be ok with grieving, and I had to give myself the space to do it, space from others… it required a face I was in control of…

If I want to offer the world kindness and Peace. If I want to be generous and open, I have to become those things to look them. Mirrors are pretty good gauges of where I am, of who I am.

Often, who I am is tired. When my mirror tells me that, I should pay attention. I finally began to listen to my mirror as I realize how out of shape I am. I have a long journey ahead. I need to be stronger, fitter. And so I’m swimming and going to the gym regularly. There are other secrets the mirror whispers about that I’m beginning to take seriously. Mirror, Mirror on the wall, who am I… You don’t need a mirror spirit to answer that question, but you do need to look…

And because I’m tired… because we’re living in the season of tired, which makes it difficult to notice that it’s a sacred season, I’m going to embrace the notion of Sabbath, of a deliberate pause in the rush of madness… If I want to wish everyone Joy to the World and Peace on Earth, I must strive to be those things, I must look those things, not merely mouth them. Looks like there might be some mirror sessions ahead… I may not get it right, but I might get a start! a peep into the wonder of creation might be a good place to begin… May I truly be a reflection of the Peace I long to see…

LLVL49Dec7

Spiraling toward Peace, llvl

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Whether I’m writing or plotting a campaign, I find the way is never straightforward. Much of the time it takes to accomplish something is not the actual writing (or doing), it’s what’s needed to allow things to assemble themselves.

Really — aren’t brains remarkable? To think of little thought molecules flying apart and then reassembling while we wait (and — sometimes — wait and wait). Then there’s the need for that oh-so-important red pencil, because, really, just because one paragraph flows from the next doesn’t mean that you don’t have a detour on your hands.

And it doesn’t seem to matter how much attention I’ve put into things beforehand. I can travel around with a project on my heart for a week or so, and still find that nothing is straightforward… Ideas and projects seem to have minds of their own! And part of the realization is that the way is never straight, there’s no one direct line between here and there.

Maybe the process is simply one of making Peace with the slow and meandering nature of project-making, of allowing myself to be informed by the information I gather and the need that’s trying to express itself. I’m certainly grateful for the opportunity… but it does take time, which sometimes makes me grumpy.

And discipline… I never thought I’d be great at the discipline part, but I guess I simply didn’t have anything I cared about enough to hone a craft. But even daily and weekly repetition of the craft doesn’t eliminate or even dwindle the amount of time a project needs to become what you want it to be and what it wants to be. I find the words teach me. I may think I have a clear idea where a story’s going and then it picks up and moves. Then I have a lot of work to do to discern whether I’m getting closer or farther away from the heart of the matter.

The vision of a spiral does help, to consider on working downward and inward on ever tighter circles, coming constantly closer to the heart of the work is an image that sustains — but really… sometimes I long for work that I can just get out of the way. I guess I should take up ironing! I’m not sure how ironing will contribute to world Peace, however…

So I guess I’ll walk the Peace spiral, do the hard work, and be grateful. Not everyone has the possibility, the privilege, of waking up and doing what you love. I do. And I give thanks. Peace be with you on the crooked, meandering spiral of life.

LLVL49Dec6

Peace Encouragement, llvl

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They’re here from all over the world. And people have come in from all over to encourage them. Gay and straight, men and women. More straight men are needed. Quite a few of them are young, young, young. A surprising amount of them are people of a certain age. They’ve been at this for years. And they can talk about the grit and the dreams and the computer apps with the best of them.

Sex ed, it’s not for the squeamish… But it is for the kind. There were sessions on the elderly, sessions on people with disabilities, sessions on sexting, sessions on how the hell we got in this predicament anyway. Some of them were simply informational, some were simply ho-hum, and some were simply inspirational. A conference like any other, but with a great goal. There were 650 people paying attention — a huge, do-gooding, optimistic, learning/learned community.

Bill, the man we came with, came to introduce Jane Fonda. Yeah, Jane Fonda, who now has dedicated her life and no inconsiderable amount of money to the children of Georgia. For 20 years, she’s been running a program entitled Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention. Along with other efforts in the state, in that amount of time, the number of pregnant teens in Georgia has dropped by 50 percent. They’ve changed their name to Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Power and Potential. you go, gurl!

What was really fun was that our kids from church were featured in a vid that introduced Jane’s book, “Being a Teen,” because they’d read it in our Our Whole Lives program. Our kids will be doing peer work in their schools, because they can, because they know, because they believe it’s important. And it’s not just about sex, it’s about image, ethics, self-awareness, decision-making. We’re all proud.

We’re all better educated.

And at least some of us are ready to leave a group of 650 enthusiastic folk and go back to sermon writing! But what a (one-time) privilege!

There are a lot of different ways to make Peace. Keeping kids safe, helping them become knowledgeable, helping them stay on course to get what they want in life, helping them dream beyond this very minute… these are great tools for Peace. Blessed are these particular Peacemakers. Blessed are they all.

LLVL49Dec5