Busy Weekend (Sabbath) Peace!

What a rich weekend. Friday night at King Street Coffee House and great friends playing. Doing ceremony — a sad tribute to a lovely woman. An evening all about friends and listening to a dear friend who just gets better and better.

Today is jam-packed. Church (preceded by choir!). A friend in a play (and the reviews have been great.) And then more friends in another short road trip to hear EG Kight sing again.

A couple years ago EG Kight came very close to dying. And did not. But they didn’t know if she would ever sing again, let alone write, let alone tour. She’s back, her voice is better than ever, and although the touring is hard work, she packed a three hour show. Never less than her best.

And she is so encouraging. She’s played with one local musician before, and she brought him up. But she’d heard about a young man called him out of the audience and handed him her guitar. And then coaxed the best out of him and let him coax the best out of her. It was lovely. Such generosity.

So you know me. I’m a bide-at-home kinda girl. But once in a while, you have to make the effort to enjoy the bounty. And doesn’t that seem ridiculous.

I know this area is rich. But every area is. Feast and give thanks.

You can’t help but be at Peace when you’re sitting in a crowd listening to someone belting out the blues. (Most of the time I could even let the young talking kids in the front off my indignant that’s-no-way-to-listen-to-a-concert fuddiduddiness!) Music. Theater. Ceremony. Community. Faith. It’s a weekend worth celebrating and a Sabbath worth indulging, and making sacred. Oh, and there were moments of sublime beauty. It’s Peace if we give it a chance.

Crispy Fall Sabbath Peace

And here it is. That quick turn to coolness. No fooling ourselves any longer, the season has changed.

We’ll have a little sweet respite this week, but temperatures are living up to the (down to) the Frosty Moon name.

And it’s time. Life is moving on as it does, as its meant to.

Today’s Sabbath activity recommendation? Go see those leaves!

Me, I’m going to make myself some food I can gum for now and to take along to a meeting. After which I’ll go do a wedding in my sister’s old house for the young couple who lives there. If that’s not observing the change of the season, I don’t know what is.

Blessed Sabbath to you. Blessed Peace.

Not So Perfect A Peace

And we’ll take it.

The perfection of something is the perspective we bring to it.

Yesterday was a day with a lot of wonderful facets. The weather, the scenery, the friends, the family. And if I’m counting, my religious community. I like us. A lot. It was all that a sabbath can be. I even got to read.

So the day was just grand. And it carried the sweet emotional residue of the day before.

The day was made more precious by the reminder of what had been lost in Selena’s life.

So, when we see sweetness, we have to notice it, and then embrace it. And then sit down with a piece of apple pie and a glass of cider to celebrate.

Peace is where we find it. And when we see it, then we can begin to help others find the Peace that allows them to breathe in the sweetness…

Peace on the Cusp

Today the Old Moon ends and the New Moon rises. Bye and large the harvest is finished. In Canada, tomorrow will be thanksgiving, which is much more in sync with the actual harvest.

Here in Pennsylvania, the leaves are taking their own sweet time to make decisions about changing. There are just the slightest hints of color starting. However, I just looked at the thermometer and for the first time i saw that the temps had dipped into the 30s.

No, Ann, really, time to dismantle the porch that gets no light (and by light I mean warmth) this year.

But I stood outside a barn yesterday (it was a wedding, relax, I wasn’t being rugged!) and looked down across the empty field toward the river. The late afternoon light was all Autumn, and everything was golden in the light. The air was clean.

The world had moved on even though many of us still clung to last season’s warmth. The Beauty on the cusp of changing Moon and changing season was lavish. Open your hands and hearts and let go. And what the heck, take the Sabbath to revel in it, why don’t you?

Notice the Beauty, my friends. We can’t move on to Peace, if we’re holding on to the joys and privileges of last season.

The Peace of a Sabbath Lunar Eclipse

The weather gods may relent. There may be glimpses of this lunar event.

It’s a perfect Sabbath endeavor, now that I think about it. Nothing to do but be present. And watch the fire crackle while you wait. It’s late, because, hey it’s the moon, but it’s a great way to spend time with the family…

And in that time I’ll think great thoughts of Peace. I hope you will too. We’ll watch the Earth cover the moon, and go home to dream sweet dreams of Peace. And in the morning, let us get up and see what we can do about all that needs to be done.

I hope you get to bask in the wonder of tonight’s eclipse. It’s not that often that it happens… What a galaxy we live in!

Peace be with us all.

Life Is Precious. Sabbath. Peace.

Oh, the weather is beautiful. Noisy in the neighborhood, however. Last night it was cackling with loads of college students; this morning the geese are running practice flights for their trip south.

It’s a wonderful time of year. At the beginning of every season, it seems, there’s a washing clean of the old… There’s a burst before the settling in. We’re having that right now. I always feel more alive during those passages. (I’ve always been a fan of the places in between!)

Today, I really want to hold on to that sense of being alive, to hold it up.

My friend, by no means a close friend, just a man I like, is alive. So easily things might have gone the other way. It’s always the little things that cause the accidents… says the woman who tripped over an acorn yesterday and went flying.

Life is precious. All life. My friend’s life. It’s too short, really to complain. But not too short to celebrate. Not too short to give thanks. Not too short to pack every single minute with joy and awareness of its abundance. We’re busy we think — we think until something makes us remember… right, show up, be present: now is the time.

My friends, about those Syrian refugees. They could use some support. Their lives are precious as well…

My last two decades have been shaped by deaths. This year, two years away from the last huge, significant death, I’m feeling a little steadier on my feet. I understand, all too well, that death happens. But it’s better when it doesn’t.

So look around your circle and celebrate. Life is here. That’s really what observing the Sabbath, keeping it holy, is all about — Life is right here. There is a wild and outrageous Peace in that. Celebrate fiercely. And let’s use that to fuel the work we have to do with others whose lives are not so lucky at the moment. Because we can.

New Moon, New Year, Sabbath, Peace

Lots happening today. For me, it’s the Sabbath, so a day to hit Pause… It’s always a challenge in my life since the Sabbath is also my most important work day. But I struggle to make space, to allow for time for simple appreciation and being.

Already, already, it’s the middle of September and the Harvest Moon is beginning her reign. The Solstice is only 10 days away. Life keeps changing.

Along with this new moon comes the Jewish New Year. L’Shana Tovah! May the year be sweet and filled with blessings!

May all of us consider taking this time to reconsider what we bring to life and what we fail to… may we, if I may be so bold as to use this word, consider where we sin, where we miss the mark. May we ask forgiveness, for ourselves and others, and begin again… in love.

Peace is out there. I believe that. The question remains whether we’re willing to go looking for it — to do the work that it requires of us. It needs us as desperately as we need it.

Peace in Moving Beyond

Sometimes I realize what a stick I’ve become.

Do I really want to go to a Burning Man Party I wonder?

Oh, yes, I did. It was just marvelous. Not only the food, Ann’s first way of judging a party! But a whole bunch of new people in a beautiful place. People who did fun things, like the woman who twirled fire. That was really a fun thing. It was beautiful. She’d learned in Hawaii, and hadn’t done it for years.

And then the man. My friend had built this marvelous man. I sweet talked my bud who went with me into staying for the burn. It was lovely and emotional. Yay!

And the night, mugginess and bugginess aside, was a perfect evening. The stars, the stars, the stars.

And today’s another party of another kind. A weekend of relaxation. hurrah. (well, except for the yardsale!) And today, the summer is over and I get to go back to church after the sabbatical. My peeps! (This is sort of an all over post, isn’t it?)

There’s a lot of Peace in exploring things just outside your comfort zone… and even if it doesn’t get all the way to Peace, there’s a lotta fun! It’s the Sabbath. Relax and enjoy. Why not try something new?

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!

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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