Rising Sabbath Peace

Sundays are for sunrises. and for Sabbaths and for Peace.

Sundays are for the joy of working with Deb Slade again — and that’s fun!

This sunrise encourages us. Let it be a beautiful colorful year. I think of the Robert Isaacs Eller line: “we forgive ourselves and each other and we begin again in peace.”

All week long we work at Peace. On the Sabbath we can think back a bit on what we’ve done and rededicate ourselves to Peace. You look at what’s going on in this world. Peace needs us. Everyday Peace. Every Day, Peace.

Quiet Sabbath Peace

I don’t know about you, but I received some books for Christmas. Oh, how happy that makes me. (I don’t know about you, but I helped in the number of books coming in!)

And that’s what Sunday’s (my Sabbath) are for. Catching up on my reading. There’s been wonderful visiting and wonderful food. But oh a salad sounds appetizing. Longing for the low key…

I enjoy the time between these two holidays. There’s a little lull. Not a lot gets accomplished. Not a lot of requirements. Maybe some visits, but they’re very low key.

Plenty of time to contemplate the year gone by and consider the one coming.

Our weather adds to the feeling. Nothing but grey days and nights. Neither the Sun or the Moon makes it through haze.

Quiet. Peace. Contemplation.

Lovely.

Understanding Sabbath; Understanding Peace

It seems that there is so much confusion these days. And some of the confusion, it often seems is about what it means to understand something. People look at something that’s different from their norm and they say they don’t understand… but they often seem to mean they don’t understand how something can be different from the way they see the world, and don’t want to look farther than that.

But understanding has to include acceptance, I think, don’t you? Acceptance of the reality — only then can we work to change things.

It’s a cold clear day here… feels like it should for the moment, even though temperatures will soar. Advent — a time of quiet waiting, deep listening, sweet anticipation. Today we light the fourth candle, Peace. The Sabbath — a time of respite, reflection and restoration. Peace — what we all so sorely need, what we must be engaged in.

Let there be Peace. May I be part of the wonderful journey. May you be my companion.

Alternative Advent — December 20: 10¢ for every non-water beverage you had today.

Joy in Advent Sabbath Peace

Today we light the third Advent Candle Joy. Let us welcome Hope! Love! Joy!

It’s the Sabbath. Today it really feels true. Tonight we’re having an Anti-Gun-Violence Vigil. It’s such a solemn thing — such a needed thing. So much to learn. So much work to do. Too much death. And yet, even this will be a thing of beauty. There are religious folk from 6 different traditions and many denominations assembling tonight. There will words of reality, words of hope, words of dedicating ourselves to what is needed.

And yet the word for today is enjoying. And somehow we need to balance both. It is the holiday season, filled with memories and tradition and hopefully Joy.

Today I remember my year in Sweden and I treasure the family and friends I found there. So many lovely traditions that still linger in memory and sometimes grace my table or my tree or my winter windows. Lucia is one of them. She brings the promise of returning light.

Apparently back in the old calendar, the 13th of December was the solstice. Somehow they counted their days differently. Today families sing of Nighttime’s heavy plodding around the yard… and they fight that with Lucia princesses and star boys. And those wonderful, wonderful saffron rolls. Oh, yum. And I think that may have been my introduction to whipped cream in my hot chocolate rather than marshmallows. On the whole, a rather wonderful trade off!

And so my friends, find joy in this celebration of waiting in the Dark. Enjoy the parties and the connections and the traditions. Stop for a moment on the sabbath so you get to recall what this season is really about. And Peace. may it be with you. May you be with Peace.

Alternative Advent – December 13: 5¢ for every meal with meat this week. Vegetarian? How will you give today? Because the point is NOT to escape giving, the point is to feed kids. What richness do you have that others would be so happy for?

Sabbath Opening to Advent, to Peace

Today, in the advent wreathe we add the candle Love to the candle Hope. Love Makes things possible. This is the prayer my community will say in services this morning:

The Second Candle is lit for Love. Are you willing to open your heart to its abundance? Can you be generous with the world and its brokenness?

May I be a generous person, quick to open my heart to new friends, new places and new ways of doing things. May I be known as a lover of life, one who embraces the world as it is and works to temper its harshness with gentle acceptance. Blessed be.

It’s easy to resist this however, which is why today’s word is opening. I must open to the possibilities when everything within me is so ready to shut down. Fear makes you do that. Anger. Being just damned tired of the bullshit.

But today, I have a new book to read by Virginia Zimmerman: The Rosemary Spell … rosemary is my very favorite herb. I wrote my thesis to a candle of rosemary, knowing that the Greeks used rosemary wreaths as prizes for their intellectual Olympics.

It is my Sabbath, a time for reflection. It is Advent, a time for preparation for what is to come. It is time to open for Peace.

A Quiet, Fall, Sabbath Peace

I spent yesterday cosseting a cold. I’ll do a few more things today. But not a lot.

My guess is that nothing I do will be visible — i’ll work on the infrastructure of my life. There are sweaters to be straightened, a cabinet that needs to be emptied and then rearranged.

There may be a walk outside in the newly changed season. It is now late fall, and the temperatures are where they’re supposed to be. The leaves have finally blow off the trees.

Nothing extreme… but little accomplishments that will give me time to think about the upcoming holiday season, the things i’m thankful for, the things that are ended.

Time to make space for that which is to come.

Peace arrives in such small incremental measures. But we must keep open to its possibilities. Enjoy your day. May it be filled with Peace. May it be filled with 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.

Starry, Family, Sabbath Peace

Every once in a while you should have loaner kid sitting on your couch. Not that I have my own kids, but loaner kids bring another take. If they’re nieces and nephews, there’s trust and laughing and fun things to do, so you’ve already cut through any awkwardness.

You learn a lot about each other. They get another look at adulthood. You get a dose of what’s up right now.

And then, if it’s this fabulous young woman, she reshapes your hair, goes uncomplainingly to party’s with 70 yos and to smokey bars to see a new band. She then demands you stop and take a gander the stars (she IS an evans child… my parents would be so proud! and so will her bennett/hermanson parents be!)

And the next morning, she uncomplainingly goes to church with you. That’s a niece! And a darling. Lucky Auntie.

She’s my cousin’s kid. Back when we were losing family at a fearful and awful rate, the cousins one generation down from mine were saying, our family is too small, we’re claiming one another and my generation was saying, we didn’t know one another growing up, we’re going to know one another now. We live into that every chance we get.

So, a visit from a niece. It’s a wonderful way to spend a weekend. and a great way to spend a beautiful, brisk fall Sabbath.

Enjoy the day. Today I’m celebrating the Peace of developing family. Whatever you’re celebrating I hope it’s lovely.

Misty Autumn Sabbath Peace

It’s a day for raking leaves and sweeping sidewalks. It’s a day for mysterious walks in the foggy woods, It’s a day for lighting candles and enjoying a book.

A Sabbath in Autumn. I’ll take it. And enjoy it.

It seems, given last night’s remembrances, that it will be a reflective day for me.

How lovely.

Hope yours is lovely too and filled with Peace — and not too much of the Halloween candy.

Local Theater Peace

We have a great theater professional group here in the Valley. We also have wonderful amateur theater.

Yesterday, I hustled to fit a production of “Dinner with Friends” into my busy Sunday schedule.

I’d heard great things, I don’t know if I’d have made the effort if it weren’t a member of my congo who was one of the four people.

It was excellent. It’s a strong, pointed and provocative play that made me laugh — when it didn’t make me cry. And the actors were wonderful — all the more so because they are friends, people i know doing things that interest them.

What a wonderful investment of time for me — and i hope for them. I hope they aren’t sitting around, lower lips poked out because it’s over… because it was that good, you hate to let go of the headiness of living in that alternate world.

But. the show closes. And they were excellent.

And the locals got a helluva show, and good friends got juicy roles. It was a great way to invest my Sabbath afternoon.

There’s Peace and Joy in that! Here’s to more. (and more about that soon!)

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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