Sabbath Peace Morsels, llvl

Living la vida local. Knowing your community. I think these things really matter. Because if you know where you are in the world, and who’s around you, your movements can be freer.

Yesterday at a wedding, I watched two brides make two young men incredibly happy. They invited them into their family and gave them rings to signify their place in the pack. Both of these guys have challenging lives. Being not just accepted, but celebrated was amazing for them. And yet, it was a pretty easy gesture on the women’s part; the guys are already part of their lives. But that they thought of it, and then did it, was an act of kindness that touched and I would venture changed everyone there.

We can be different. We can do differently. We can transform people’s lives with our Love.

If we can, why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we make Peace… maybe a lot of little steps can make the larger ones look less daunting. Maybe we’ll be encouraged to demand them of those who are in a better position to make them. Peace. We can stretch out our hands.

It’s Sunday in the midst of the holiday season… What wonderful thing are you going to do for yourself? Will you do it alone or with others? I’m going to the movies with a friend! yay!

Solstice Sabbath Peace, llvl

So much newness going on. It’s the new Cold Night Moon. It’s the Midwinter Solstice (6:03 pm). Blessed Dark! It’s still Chanukah! More light! It’s the Fourth Week of Advent: Peace on Earth! (And Hope! and Joy! and Love!) It’s also the Sabbath and I’m so taking a nap after services today!

(I’m going to start talking about the moon to get us ready. As we leave a year of living locally, we’re entering a year of Lunacy: by the end of the year, we’ll be looking for that orb in the sky and appreciating how the Moon works on our lives!

Although many people will be celebrating the return of the light, I will be lingering in the Dark… I celebrate its beauty and its calm. I’m not a naturally quiet person, so when the season turns dark, I’m encouraged to tunnel down into the Beauty and Silence.

Soon we’ll have snow and that will lighten the world considerably… but for now, shhh, the world is sleeping.

Peace to you, my friends. Peace on Earth! Wishing you Joy in this season of Sacred Holidays, whatever you celebrate. (and whatever you do, if you can find it in you, celebrate!)

Sabbath Appreciation of Peace

This has been a week with many opportunities to reflect on cooperation and support that develops as I (we) live la vida local.

I’ve had both meetings and tasks all week. Since I’m in a helping profession, this often means that the work I do is for other people. At every step of the way this week, someone was there to help me make my work better and easier. And more fun.

I’ve always had good friends. One of the things friends do is help one another out. But living in community is new to me — and very precious. I am amazed and grateful that this is my life. I’ll be thinking over my lovely life as I go to hear four or five of my friends sing holiday songs this afternoon…

Part of living la vida local in a small town is that much of the music and theater you get to enjoy is done by people you know. And that adds richness and sweetness to the experience — and far more expertise than one might initially expect…

So here’s to you and to a holiday Sunday filled with joy and appreciation. This isn’t how I though my life would look. But it sure is lovely! Thanks. Peace on Earth! and so much Joy!

Reflecting Sabbath Peace, llvl

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…

Sometimes Sabbath Peace is enough, llvl

Whether it’s a little boy laughing and flirting in a cafe or a grandmother with a lapful of love in sleepers reading her two boys a story, there are just times that the innocence fills your heart. And you know, the force for Peace is powerful.

But those two little boys in my friend’s lap face a far more uncertain world than the little in the cafe because they’re black and he is not.

That has to stop. We have to change that. We do. Because loving, giggly, happy boys deserve a chance… And the world deserves to know what gifts of wonder those little boys can become.

Sweet Sabbath Peace be with us. Wish me luck I’m preaching a difficult sermon on this today… For those celebrating the sacred season of Advent, I wish you Hope.

No Hate in Peace Sabbath, llvl

I’m on FB, and I cherish the connections I have there. My friends group is comprised of friends (from childhood right through whatever-we’re-calling-this-hood), my wonderful wedding couples, ministry colleagues and some business ones, and some dear, dear acquaintances.

I’ve always been proud that my friends range across all sorts of spectra — political, gender, religious, race, background, and age. I find people fascinating and an endless source of beauty, laughter and heart. I like watching the community grow and cross pollinate.

But recently, I’ve been taken aback by the vitriol. It seems people aren’t happy. In too many cases, it seems that they’ve decided that whatever’s wrong in their lives is a result of Someone Else.

Too often their responses to their disillusionment is mindless Memes. Mean Memes. I hate you Memes. It makes me sad. I don’t think the response is cute cat videos, but what if we spent some time talking about how we’re engaged in making life better — not just for ourselves, but for others… anyone interested in a kind, constructive December? then if we’re successful for a month we maybe will have started something for the new year.

Today’s a Slow Sweet Sabbath for me. Starting out with breakfast with a friend and then services and a course and dinner with a friend. Maybe a little story writing in between… ah… Enjoying! I hope you do as well. May I (you) (we) be kind. May I (you) (we) be well. May I (you) (we) be filled with kindness and Peace.

“Peace on Earth” Sabbath, llvl

What if we just blow right past that old Happy Holidays debate, not that I don’t hope that all of your holidays are happy, whatever you celebrate? What if we just decide to wish one another Peace on Earth! Joy to the World!

What if we then decided to make it so.

There you go. December. Peace on Earth month. Whatever else you’re celebrating, let’s also spend a little time focusing on this.

Here’s to a lovely, lazy day. Or a day filled with lots of enjoyment. Or even one catching up on all those things… Enjoy yourself!

Peace on Earth! Joy to the World. You’ll hear that from me a lot. Better get used to it! What more could we ask? ‘Tis almost the season.

Time-out for Sabbath Peace, llvl

Things don’t always go smoothly as much as you’d like them too. Sometimes there are hiccups along the road to Peace.

So you take a spoonful of sugar and you exhale. Eventually the hiccups stop.

And perhaps you take a break. Get outside and breathe in Autumn. Celebrate creation however you do that. Sit around with friends and laugh. Sit around on your own and read a book. Catch up on your craft. Put yourself on time-out for a little (self) reflection and reconsideration. ahhh.

Take a break from the work. Take a break from your Peace partners. All that work will be there tomorrow. Today, go ahead and cherish the Sabbath. Make it yours. Fill up.

Peace. Give yourself a piece of it. Tomorrow’s another day…

Saintly Sabbath Peace, llvl

Ooh, lots of ssssss. I couldn’t help myself!

In a little coincidence yesterday I spent a couple hours watching a vid on UU history and the background music was “For All the Saints” (which for a memorial hymn is pretty march, march, march, but lovely). Amazing to hear about the men and women who shaped this church. (Sad to hear how much burning at stakes everyone did in those days.) I took a long time to get to this church, but it’s certainly home. Sometimes the journey felt arduous. Yesterday certainly put THAT in perspective. But I’m grateful for the work they’ve done.

Grateful too for the saints among us now… or the recently departed. Not just the Pete Seegers and Nelson Mandelas. But those folks we know and love putting their lives on the line for the things they believe in. People we know…

I giggle a bit when I remember on my tour through the hospital in chaplain training. I’m a very low church kinda priestess as I’ve said before, so the notion of intermediaries between me and the Divine are just not part of my understanding of death. But it certainly is for some churches. A guy on the hall, who’d been quite an unpleasant patient, died. The priest came and prayed, and said at the end, Well, now when you pray, you can pray to Harry. I swear the nurse and the wife rolled their eyes at each other. So hopefully, he’d be a better saint in death than it seemed he’d been in life… But that’s the thing about the communion of saints, particularly if you’re a Unitarian Universalist — everyone gets on teh go-to-heaven bus.

I do believe that if we allow them, people will linger with us as they can and as we will let them. When my beloved die, I work hard to carry on their best work. I look to find their point of view in situations where I used to look for their counsel — or their giggle. I hadn’t really planned the service to take advantage of this, but All Saint’s Day happens to be the day of Deb’s memorial. Deb wasn’t a saintly kinda woman, but she was divine! And I relied on her guidance, support and counsel my whole life. While her loss is devastating for me, she whispers her Deb-view in my heart quite frequently. Here’s to the saints!

And while we had a long sleep last night, (I certainly took advantage of the extra hour) it’s going to feel like a short day because the change in times will bring that sun crashing to the horizon at 5 pm. So, many of us have leaves to rake, but enjoy that indoor stuff because it’s a grey and cloudy sabbath. Might as well read the Sunday papers cover to cover! Peace be with you and the saints of your heart.

Fall, Sabbath, Peace, Beauty, llvl

We can’t know how many more of these days we’ll have, so I want to take advantage of this one. Welcome to my vida local… it’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

One of the great joys of writing my musings and this blog is being seduced into discovering the beauty of the moment. It’s so beautiful here, so there are lots of those moments. Mountains, trees, fields and streams… pretty good building blocks for Beauty.

And Time and the lingering over it are pretty good building blocks for a Peaceful Fall Sabbath.

Next week it could be gray and cloudy. But it’s not today. Indulge yourself. Savor the day and the weather and whatever else comes your way. Yesterday it was folks standing around outside carving pumpkins (not me, no don’t be silly). To get there, we had to drive past fields where local Amish farmers were using teams of horses to pull the feed corn being harvested. Then you drove down into a valley filled with color and that small beautiful creek where only months ago I found myself sitting watching the world drift by. Today it was so still it looked like a lake, holding nothing but an occasional leaf and the reflections of the trees and the sky. Picture perfect…

Somewhere, someone said something like: “Delight is the only response the Creator desires from the created.” Today’s a good day to practice!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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