Gun Stats Disturb Sabbath Peace

Since the Battle of Lexington until today in Afghanistan, 1, 171, 177 Americans have died in battle. Since 1968, 1,384, 171 Americans have died from firearms in this country (including suicide). This means 212,994 more Americans lost their lives to gun violence in 45 years than in all our wars. (Henry Porter gathered these statistics from the CDC).

Tough statistics to pack along to your favorite house of worship, mountain lake or desert hill. And yet, we’d do well to live with them. If they disturb enough of us enough, maybe we can consider how to make it different…

It seems the Sabbath ought to start with more calming news than this… This is not the road to Peace.

Wading Peace Sabbath

I’ve probably watched too many Westerns and read too many stories of people escaping to freedom, but I’ve always been fascinated by the role that water can play in people’s escape from their lives.

I’m sure it wasn’t easy and that these journeys were fraught with desperation and fear, but that water could play a role in saving people is very interesting to me. The notion that water is forgiving of our humanity… I’m drawn to that.

Many of the notions in Christian baptism do not draw me… particularly infant baptism. The notion that we are born in sin, and needful of forgiveness, don’t get me started. And that isn’t quite where I’m going with this either.

This musing concerns itself with the notion that water can hide us… and transform us. Today I notice the tie to the waters of the womb where we transform for the first time and emerge new and newly aware…

It takes determination to wade in the water with an eye to coming out transformed. Whether we’re being pursued or are simply in the need of transformation… It’s a misty Sabbath morning — maybe there’s space to think about this today…

A Deliberate, Discerning Sabbath Peace

Life’s a confusing thing to balance, isn’t it? And yet it’s walking that teeter-totter that we’re supposed to do (and how long has it been since i’ve printed that word?)

But here we are, with a day ahead of us in which to practice discernment… in which to practice refusing a mindless response to life, to release knee-jerk business.

I know not all the world observes the Sabbath on Sundays — Sadly, many of us don’t observe them at all. “I’m not religious” people say. But church-going, snyagogue-going, mosque-going or temple-going or not, the sabbath is about the pause and the in-breath and the out breath and then the repetition… in that sweet stillness is a place of regeneration and a place of sound decision making.

So, altogether now, exhale. now inhale. repeat. What — exhale first???? Yeppers. get rid of the stale air before you put all that fresh, clean, sanity giving air on top.

And then make some choices about your day… Wishing you a slow Peaceful Sabbath of being present and of doing the work that’s allotted.

Foggy Sabbath Peace

Mornings have been gentle lately, which is all to the good for me. I’m slower to embrace the day since it brings unwelcome realities. But the intensity of this time has also awakened in me the desire to sit quietly together under the arbor (bees buzzing overhead — the bees, oh, the precious bees), with a glass of cool mint tea, and consider how we might move forward in peace. The pages of the calendar turn, the seasons change, and Sabbath comes around again, with any luck, bringing with it peace and quiet.

So many of us have worked so hard, and now is the time to press the issue, to stand together. The next month and more will find our Jewish friends celebrating many holidays… peace, repentance, a new year, the harvest. The rest of the world would do well to pay attention… With my mind occasionally able to refocus, this is my prayer, that we make Peace, that we, each and every one, become Peacemakers.

But let us be gentle with ourselves today as the morning is gentle with the day. Enjoy September’s Mandala, Peace Arbor, about which Nanso (Nancy Cleaver, the artist) says: “Where are you standing in the arbor of peace? A tiny bird’s flitting view of light, of which it is made, was my inspiration for the squared spiral.”

Peace be with you. Peace be with us all. Peace be with us all because we make it so.

Roots, Peace and a Sabbath

When the mornings start out misty, the root vegetables start coming… This time of year, they’re as tender as the mist, but infinitely more substantial… I’m sitting at my sister’s watching the sun turn the river fog pink and then gold and then ghostly white. Up here, it’s all blue sky.

Church and then brunch and then a nap, a swim and a visit with a bestie. And all along, cherished time with my sister. it doesn’t get sweeter… And now Debbie’s life, which is pretty damned ephemeral, is infinitely sweet for me, if challenging for her, for us all.

It’s the Sabbath… counting blessings, giving thanks for what is. Life in the very slow lane. With Beets. and Peace.

Succotash Sabbath Peace

It’s grey and mysterious out there today, and will burn off to a beautiful day. August at its finest.

I wish you meals full of the bounty of the season and dips in cool pools… A very blessed day of quiet and laughter… I’m sure it’s more about me that I’m longing for peace and quiet.

Succotash celebrates the abundance by mixing it all up. All those wonderful summer vegetables in a bright summer mix. I wish you that as well — and Peace, always Peace.

Peaceful Picnic Sabbath

I love to picnic… whether that’s eating on my porch or going to a pavilion in the park where you line up the “covered dishes” on one table and sit around wooden tables… (with your favorite picnic cloth to be sure!) Why yesterday, which was almost a picnic except everyone opted for the airconditioning, I was introduced to a whole new concept in jello “salad.” I never make jello. I love it at picnics!

It’s the food. It’s the outdoors. It’s the kids’ running around playing age old games… swinging on swing sets… and later sitting around campfires, singing old songs (with those few of us who are old enough to remember campfire songs. Last night I was with people who had never HEARD Ashgrove before… sigh.)

So, let’s bring back picnics… it’s a great way to spend time with people. It’s fun to learn what other people put in their potato salad. And let’s remember that we can take along our own dishes… and not make a mess to be recycled. Here’s to eating outdoors on a peaceful Sunday afternoon… Here’s to a peaceful picnic Sabbath…

Sabbath Peace and Potato Salad

Of course, it would have helped if I’d have written this post yesterday, and we all could have prepared by making a big ol’ bowl of potato salad to mellow overnight in the fridge.

There’s something fabulous about having a day when the food is made in the fridge and all you have to do is pull it out. Some cold protein, a couple salads, an icy slice of watermelon. mmmmmmmmmm. and life is grand. Add people and it’s a party. Add a book and it’s relaxation. Either way it’s Sabbath living and that’s pretty grand.

Maybe I’ll clean off the porch before I go over to my sister’s this afternoon, because the weather is really just perfect for porch sitting. What will you do to revel in your life? It’s a fair question, I think…

Peace, my friends. Enjoy the day.

Eternal Sabbath Peace

On a very hot summer day in plain view of the majestic mountain we released a small bit of our parents’ “till.” They were always sorry the mountain was wrapped in clouds when they had traveled there 20 years ago. Today the mountain was in full glory under a cloudless sky. Here their spirits will linger and rejoice in the beauty and the Peace and quiet. Gilead is many places, but the balm is constant.

Lingering on a beautiful day and rejoicing in the bounty is a pretty good idea. Resting in Peace is not something to be confined to the afterlife. We might do well to occasionally put our burdens down and rest in the Peace of Possibility. Wishing you a blessed Sabbath.

Whale Peace Sabbath

They are so large. Huge. And they eat krill. Humpbacks spend the summer eating and then fast for about 9 months. I guess that’s one way to keep your girlish figure!

Even though I understand that in Nature, you are somewhere on the food chain, there is, nonetheless, something very calming and reassuring about this notion. I probably wouldn’t be as sanguine if I’d seen an orca eating a sea lion or a baby humpback, even that while a bit more bloody than a luncheon of herring by a gang of humpbacks, it’s still just how life goes on. And there we were in the sea just mere yards from 14 whales. It was awe-inspiring.

So, may you have a sabbath in which you are at one with nature, and witness to it’s incredible beauty… and may you be at peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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