Whatever Happens, Sabbath Peace

Well, we’re either getting the biggest snow ever or nothing. They’re predicting a trace to 20 inches.

It’ll be what it is. In the meantime. You and I had better get on with our lives. if it’s a big snow, it’s Sunday shoveling, snow angels, hot chocolate and the NY Times by the fire… or something. It’s going to be wonderful, whatever it is. Or will be if you decide to let it.

Peace. Sabbath. Snow. (nevermind the date) Or No Snow. If it’s snow, it will be Peace and Quiet, the beautiful muffling quiet of snow…

I can’t be bothered worrying about what’s going to happen. Because it’s going to happen whether or not I worry about it. So I wish you a Joyous and Peaceful Sabbath — a mid week break before resuming whatever passes for normal life.

Frozen Tears Need Peace Sabbath, llvl

It seems we need to find new ways of observing and respecting one another’s boundaries. Perhaps the pendulum has swung as far as it might in this one direction so that we can begin to establish new rules of engagement of the most personal nature.

A new civilization… one with awareness, one with respect, one with deliberately slow Sabbaths..

I believe always in our good intentions. But perhaps we need a little more formality than we’re used to?

It’s something to ruminate on, this chilly morning, ways to let the tears soften and flow and for us to hold our seat. I also wish those struggling with their challenges glimpses of normalcy in their lives, long moments to remember who they are apart from whatever threatens…

Sabbath Peace… and please be careful, I’ve heard it’s very icy this morning.

Companionable Sabbath Peace, llvl

Mmmmmmmm. Here we are, it’s mid-week Sabbath in my whacky world of calculations. Having started the year on a Wednesday, I’ve continued to start the weeks on Wednesday, introducing Deb Slade’s new pic, and thus my new week every Wednesday. It makes Tuesday a special day of anticipation, because Deb’s pic is coming and Wednesday a day of pleasure, because I’m introducing it and having to think differently in response to it… which brings us to Sunday, smack dab in the middle of the week. Yay.

So, I’m not sure whether I’m only mid-week or also mid-life (technically, i know probably past midlife by a good 10-15 years!), or whether it’s just that we’ve been snowbound, but I’m really appreciating the remembrance that we’re not on this journey alone.

It’s been wonderful to start working on Love Flows: The LOVE project, which involves our gathering money to feed hungry kids on the weekend. And it’s been even more wonderful to gather people who are willing not only to think about the project in different ways, but to do something about making a really big dream a possibility.

Being in community makes big dreams achievable and companionable. And on the Sabbath, you get not only to celebrate the dream but also appreciate the community. Well, you do, if you want to. This week, I’m feeling particularly grateful and counting blessings.

and You? are numbered among those blessings.

I’m also enjoying winter, and although I’m not going along… i’m happy that a whole bunch of folks from the church are going off ice skating this afternoon. This is one of the things I remember from my happy little childhood… have a great time guys!

And yikes! because Sabbath to me also means church, I’d better stop sitting around smiling and get ready to go sit around and sing and smile and not be responsible today, because one of my companions on the journey is responsible today!

Blessed Sabbath. Celebrate the Dreams. Imagine the Peace. and do something that’s not work!

A Neighborly Sabbath Peace, LLVL

It was going to happen sometime. Someone I knew who lived alone was going to get hurt or sick and we’d have to figure things out.

When a friend of mine in California got sick, her community, from all over the country rallied around. Her husband suddenly died about a month before she did and friends started flying in, a week at a time. People showed up. She was that kind of friend. You did that. She was part of a culture that moved about for business. Luckily for everyone, she was part of a culture that made enough money that people could fly about.

But this accident happened in the village. You step outside to snap a rug and that quickly you’re on the ground with your foot going the wrong way. Our friend somehow managed to get back inside to call 911 but then she called a friend, and they came to take care of the dogs and to remind her how very loved she was.

By the time I found out the next morning, there was a place for her (and her little dogs, too!) to stay when she got out of the hospital. One little dog got sick and it turned out Wilma needed an operation too. That was being handled. Friends, on the job. The interwebs were alight with news. If you ever wondered whether FB has value, wonder no longer. Email would have connected a few of us. FB connected many more.

It’s a nice thought to savor on a frosty Winter Sabbath morn. Yes, the ice is treacherous; but hearts are sweet and warm. If you’re present to life, there are so many ways for that to be true.

If you move off the couch today, you might want to call a friend and weave the web tighter. You might want to thank a couple friends for being so important to you. You might just sit, gratefully appreciating how sweet life can be, how grace-filled, even in the moments that just seem scarey. But when you make a life where you are, live la vida local, people can respond.

Peace is in the cracks of life… what is it Cohen says, they let the light in — and the Peace, they let in Peace.

Sabbath Peace for Phil, LLVL

It’s going to be a Peaceful Sunday for Phil the groundhog after being rudely awakened this morning at 7:28. He saw his shadow and is headed back for another six-week snooze. Living la vida local in Pennsylvania, you pay attention to Phil. They’re now attributing atrocious poetry to him as well. Although, goodness, he IS a groundhog, so I’m not sure how well developed his poetic functions are!

A Superbowl winner I will not predict,

But my weather forecast you cannot contradict

That’s not a football lying beside me, that’s my shadow that you see.

Six more weeks of winter, it shall be.

Sorry Phil, had to redact a little. We’re having a little break in the weather, which was good for the 200 who plunged into the 39˚ river yesterday. After they broke the ice on the shore, there wasn’t much ice in the river to worry about. But it’s a pretty bleak day. Cozy in with a good book! Do something that’s your version of down-time.

Beloved husband is playing music today, I’m off to work. As always anniversary celebrations will wait and get fitted in to some leisure time. We’re not postponing joy, we’re extending it!

This day has become the most significant in my life in many ways. I may need to think a bit about that. It’s the stirring awake metaphor and reality that catches me. And maybe the beginning again. I said that I liked Chinese New Year because it was a beginning again, but I think perhaps it’s the beginning of sap rising in the trees that catches me. I see this as the beginning of the cycle, the actual new year. The end of the year is about rest for me, and this is about waking up. For me this is a natural break in the year.

Let us recommit at the beginning of the cycle to creating the new possibilities for the year. Let us be the awakening light… after a bit of snoozing around!

And as for Phil, my sister must be sighing the big sigh of relief that she won’t be chasing his cousin from under the flagstones around her pool. I doubt we remembered to warn the new owners about the groundhog. Ah well, you live on land, you live in nature! So Happy many anniversaries to me (and to Steve) and burrow in, at least for today. Peace may lie in getting enough rest. But watch out when we wake up.

Gather ’round Peace Sabbath, LLVL

There’s something about people gathered round a table. Friday night it was old friends and some new. People who live here, people who don’t. Listening to great music. Laughing. Catching up. Singing along. Hugs on the break. It was fuel for the day and the tables ahead of me.

Yesterday we said goodbye to a lovely woman. Her sister and her kids were funny and clear, lost and, oh, so very proud of their sister/mother. People sang. People wept. People laughed. People paid tribute. It’s what you’d want to know people would do for you. It’s what you want to do for people we love.

And then we sat around tables again. She was loved, this woman. People cooked because she cooked. Her brother in law, lives in California, comes from India, also cooks. He made potatoes in California, packed them in their suitcase and flew to be here. Fed us. Love people, said her bumper sticker, feed them tasty food.

Today is a day of reflection. My Sabbath. After church, I’ll gather at a table with new friends. A quiet opening, so needed after the big closings of the past two weeks. We’ll laugh, get to know one another a little. And later, my usual Sunday night date with a friend.

Gather ’round. It’s where community is born, ideas are conceived, stories are shared and laughter grows. Sometimes the seeds of Peace are sown there. And sometimes, if you’re very lucky, some wonderful people will have pulled together great music to listen to. La vida local: Here’s to living it. Oh, right, first, i’ll go brush the fluffy white stuff off my car.

Balancing Sabbath Peace, LLVL

Another mysterious Sabbath morning. Foggy. Here in the Valley, we’ve gone from bitter cold to flood warnings. Winter is harsh, even when beautiful.

I’m working once again with balance. A friend wrote last week after one of my musings about the difficulty of being perceived as capable, the curse of the competent as someone has said. Here, you’re competent do it all.

But doing it all doesn’t nurture community. It makes a martyr out of you and it’s hubris to think you can or should do it all. So those who are competent need to speak up. We also need to lower the bar on what people do. If someone else does something they don’t need to do it to our standards, they need to do it to their own. Part of being an elder (OMG, ME????? sigh, yes.) is handing over the wisdom, so you can concentrate on those things you’re good at. It’s not about doing everything, it’s about being you.

Those who are willing to let others shoulder the work. sorry. Your turn. Your community. Your turn. and your benefit as things become yours…

Balance. on a sweet Sabbath. Figuring it out. Getting it right. Getting it wrong. Trying again. All for the sake of community, Love and Peace.

Sabbath Peace, LLVL

Trying something new this year thanks to a friend’s wondering. When we were talking about this year’s LLVL adventure, Sarajane got excited about the weeks’ starting on Wednesday.

I hadn’t really thought about when I would change the pic, but I found this interesting. How would it change our thinking, if at all, if the rest days were the center of the week rather than the end? What if Tuesday became the day we finished things up at work and Wednesday was a new beginning.

What if we began to think about recalibrating our week with a period of rest in the middle?

Would it change things? Would we use the sabbath differently? Embrace it more fully?

Whatever your tradition, whenever you take it, giving yourself a day of relaxation and reflection once a week is a good idea. Holding that day as sacred, understanding it as a responsibility to yourself is a great gift. There’s Peace in the looking at life and breathing deeply. Peace in the moving forward with all that play and silence within you.

Joining Advent & Sabbath Peace

At last, the fourth and final Advent candle: Peace. Do we understand that we are responsible for Peace, responsible for being Peacemakers? Not just smoothing things over, although calming rough waters is important; but acknowledging our similarities and celebrating our differences. The prayer might read like this: “May I be a person who encourages that which is right and just. Let me stand fast for my beliefs and cherish the work of Peace. Blessed Be.”

To that we add (join? connect?) the Peace of the Sabbath. A very weird warm humid Sabbath here in Central PA. Today it’s 59 headed into the 60s, by tuesday night it will plummet into the teens. And the stinkbugs are out. blech. I know, as Bill Staines says “all God’s creatures gotta place in the choir.” Obviously fragrance is part of that choral arrangement. And I’m not properly appreciative. But if the verb is join, they’ve just joined the heavenly chorus. (can you hear it?)

But the harp is sounding. We are to join the chorus for Peace. We are to be the chorus for Peace. (wow, weird dream flashback, I was joining the men’s chorus in my dream — given my cold this morning, not inappropriate, i’ll cover the bass as long as it’s only one squeaky note. But the men’s chorus just practiced on a better day!)

Ok, back to Peace. That’s what it’s all about, wherever we go, whatever we’re up to, we just get back to Peace. Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.

Enjoy, Love, Advent, Peace, Sabbath

Eek… that’s a title! But it says it all… pretty simple.

Today is the start of the second week of Advent. The second candle is Love. Will you surround your dreams with loving approval? Can you accept the world and all its brokenness? This week’s prayer might read this way: “May I be generous; quick to open my heart to knew friends, new places and new ways of doing things. May I treasure what is brought me to today. May I be known as a lover of life, one who embraces all there is in this world. Blessed Be.”

Enjoy your life. Love the world. Expect great things. Settle into the Sabbath. Move toward Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: sabbath