Only Peace in the Sugar Moon

Language has power. Words matter.

But it seems that things that have been in our lives forever don’t often get noticed.

I was really startled yesterday when I went back to that Ecclesiastes passage yesterday. It was a passage you heard a lot. Thanks to the Byrds and coming of age at the right time it was a song I heard and sang often…

But yesterday as it came to mind, I realize I really don’t believe this. I don’t believe that any God ordains war or hate or killing. There’s no gift of the Universe in racism, sexism, name whatever ism you can come up with. No.

Today when Boko Haram and ISSL are declaring themselves engaged, I want to say clearly, I understand that they think their fanaticism is Divinely ordained — and I think differently. Very differently.

Whatever you hold as holy or precious is life-giving, not life denying… and if it’s not, look up holy. Explore it. Spend some time in Nature and come home and say, oh, yeah, war, what a great idea. I don’t think so.

Peace is Sacred. Misunderstandings and Differences are opportunities to grow toward Peace. War and hate are simply giving in to the laziness of not understanding. I get the seduction… But as Matt Fox says: Artificial Ecstasies…

Bah. Under this particular Sun. Under this Sugar Moon: Peace. It’s what we’re made for…

Therefore let us keep the feast.

Peace on a Changing World

The Earth tilts. The Moon waxes and wanes.

We cool, we warm. Our days shorten and elongate. The Moon waxes and wanes and our tides ebb and flow.

Every day is different, although there are some constants. The progression is always the same.

As a result each day is sacred as move through the seasons and the Moons. There is new wonder to behold for every day.

Makes me suspicious of Ecclesiastes… I don’t think I believe there is a time for war and hate. Or if there was, it’s over. We’ve done that.

Time to make Peace with today. Which means not rushing into spring, but being in the in-between and deconstructing the walls of fear and hatred and stupidity.

Let’s give Peace a real chance. Today, because today is perfectly today — Earth slowly tilting toward the Sun, Moon slowly waning… Let’s be about Peace today.

Crow Moon Peace!

Dick Bonham, friend of mine, friend of my mother’s (and part of a mutual admiration society for one another’s art), and husband to a friend, did this beautiful piece.

Crow Moon is called that because the cawing crows are supposed to signify the end of Winter. (really, they could try a little harder to let Winter know it’s ok to let go!)

Art about the Moon in celebration of a Baby. Peace. Any questions?

Sugar Moon Peace Distillations

I’m full of new ideas. A new one comes any time you need one. But the distillation of thought into action is challenging.

And it’s painstaking.

Painstaking is not my best attribute.

But Peace is a painstaking kind of activity. One of the greatest strengths needed for Peace is probably the ability to keep in the slog.

And so you take all that wonder and you begin to boil it down. And somewhere in that boiling, you begin to see what actions are needed.

But you keep holding back, because moving too quickly, if what you’re doing is boiling down the sap will get you a mouthful of something not very interesting or even not very good.

And half cocked uncompleted movement toward Peace isn’t all that helpful…

So we can remember that sometimes, slow and steady… blah, blah, blah… but hey, Peace!

And it’s good to sit and watch it boil and bubble once in a while. And you can bundle up and sit around a campfire under the swelling Moon. sounds pretty marvelous!

Expansive, Forgiving Peace

I like tea. A lot. I spend a lot of time with it. Sometimes I’m alone. Sometimes I’m with friends. I like its taste. And I love the way the cup feels in my hand. If I’m at a meeting, it calms me and helps me be reflective. I can linger over a cup for hours.

And when their are friends, all the better.

Because of this, I don’t do well with precision teas. There are those teas that you can only steep for a few minutes. If you do more, it becomes hopelessly bitter. I like drinking those teas, but i like it when someone else prepares it. Occasionally.

And I know, that’s the way they make tea. That’ll be the way they make Peace.

But I come from messier stock. Put the kettle on, set the bread and cheese in the middle of the table and settle in. I won’t be negotiating Peace treaties. I will be having tea with all the unimportant folk who will find new ways to live in one another’s company.

And a cup of tea is a good start to that process.

I know, I know, this is the year of the Moons. I couldn’t get there with this musing. Unless we acknowledge what is true, which is that when it’s cold and snowy, a friend and a cup of tea make a lot of space for learning…

Peace, my friends. Cozy Peace. Peace as it is Peace. Peace in the time of the Sugar Moon, because what is sweeter than Peace?

Snowy Peace in the Sugar Moon

As part of my work this year to become a Lunatic for Peace, I am trying to be present to every day. I work to consider the wonder and the blessings, not just of my life, but in every day life. I’m trying to watch the Moon change its shape and notice how it pulls on the Earth.

In winter, that means I pay attention to the weather and what’s happening in my neighborhood. It means I work to embrace rather than whine about the snow and the ice… I try to find its beauty. Because although this is no longer the Snow Moon, it is sometimes called the crust moon, when the sun melts the snow and the night freezes it to a blank sheet that can be razor sharp when broken.

But still… it’s not all that hard, because it is beautiful. Every day is a wonder. It is sweet and precious… All the hard stuff that happens is all the stuff that life is composed of. Wishing it away is wasting life. Having spent so much time at bedsides of people who are leaving life, you realize, there really aren’t any throwaway days. Which means the weather is part of what we have every day.

And the other day we had snow. Beautiful, beautiful snow. It fell steadily throughout the day and was light and fluffy and beautiful. It was easy to shovel and to dust off the car. And best of all it looked like diamonds falling. A day filled with diamonds falling into my life. Pretty fun.

Peace is such a complicated package of big vision and little immediate actions. I choose to welcome what is true at this moment in my life. Peace. When it’s snow, fluffy snow, it’s a pretty easy thing to be joyful about and to take delight in.

Interplanetary Sugar Moon Peace

Driving home last evening around sunset, I realized what I wanted to write about. The sky was so beautiful; it reminded me of a tale I’d once read, I had to talk about the joy of looking up…

When I got home, and opened the computer, my Facebook page was filling up with the same image that had so captivated me. Making sure that I had my planet right, and that that was indeed Venus hanging out by the Moon, a little research pointed out Mars was part of that cocktail party.

Out I went to check. sure enough, if you looked closely, there he was.

And then the people posting the pictures noticed Mars as well, (he’s such a quiet and shy man for a War God… a man of strength and action, I guess; not showy at all): Oh, look, I never saw him until I took the picture!

I remembered a tale that celebrated the New Moon and the friendship between the Sun and the Moon. The author suggested that once the Moon had gone off to do travel in her own orbit, she and the Moon had only one day a month to see one another.

I’ve learned a lot about the moon since then. Now I know that, with the exception of one day, she always has her eye on her beloved Sol…

But there we were last night: the God of War and the Goddess of Beauty hanging with Her Serenity in her sly beauty. A more Peaceful night is hard to imagine. If those celestial beings can be at Peace, whether hanging together on a cold Winter’s evening or sailing majestically through their own orbits, couldn’t we work harder to do the same, i wonder? And instead of griping about the cold, couldn’t we instead give thanks for the stunning Beauty of the Winter sky?

New Moon, Another New Year’s Peace

This is an interesting new Moon… So far, with the exception of worms, every metaphor for this Moon has shown up. And when the weather warms a bit, I’m sure the worms will make their appearance known as well. No robins until there are worms!

And of course, among the names for this Moon, which are drawn from Indian tribal names, the Chinese New Year Moon doesn’t make an appearance, but 6 billion people (one sixth of the population) deserve mention! And it’s a Moon that causes migration — it’s the world’s largest human migration 2.8 billion people will travel home to celebrate the New Year.

It is the year of the peaceful, gentle ruminant… Imagine a year of being reflective! Of being part of a community. Of having fun together. Oh! that’s exactly what we’re being asked to do…

Maybe it’s time to join our Peacemaking efforts together, taking delight in one another’s efforts and seeing if they work for us. Time for testing the strength of the herd. (maybe working once again for herd immunity?)

Ruminants for Peace. Sheep, Goats… who knows who else…

Sugar Moon? Lenten Moon? Peace.

Lent is no longer part of my religious tradition. Even as a child, while I recall quiet vesper services and beautiful hymnody, i don’t remember imposition of ashes or the relinquishing of a pleasure for the duration.

But of course I knew people who did… I knew lots of friends from other traditions…

It often confused me however because i could never make the connection between ice cream and the crucifixion or alcohol and hungry children. That became more and more true in my 20s and 30s as i knew people who stopped one or the other either to lose weight or to dry out. I became somewhat cynical.

So it’s lovely to have friends who take the sacrifice and the prayer practice seriously. As a ritualist, I’m always interested in ritual practice and in the ways it changes lives.

My friend Faye is a Prayer Warrior. And by that I mean two things: She lives her life in and at prayer, working at things that matter and having a rich and full life. She also can pray mightily when an occasion demands it. I believe in prayer… and I am always grateful for the focused attention that she gives a subject, if for no other reason than how she is changed by those prayers… and how she leads the way.

So when Faye sacrifices for prayer, I pay attention and I welcome the thoughtful giving over of self to make the world and her life better. I guess I’m not as impressed by people who can go 40 whole days without ice-cream… or who think that that matters… unless they’re doing something important with that time.

Aside from all that, she’s a great friend and we laugh together and puzzle at the world together — which is a great gift!

I’m still struggling with having given up cynicism and fear all that time ago. It’s an ongoing struggle. But the Lunacy of Peace is a great thing… and well worth the struggle.

Sugar Moon Lunacy and Peace

Welcome to the Sugar Moon. Right now, it’s cold and the Moon is dark. All there, but all potential.

So many names for this Moon, so many metaphors, so much going on. This will be a Moon of bitter cold and surprising warmth. The sap will rise. It’s up to us if we choose to make sugar or not.

Making sugar from sap is a slow and arduous process. It’s dangerous because boiling sugar burns… But oh, the sweetness at the end! That’s well worth the investment of time and energy. People shake their heads and say it’s lunacy to do such a thing when you can just buy the finished product at the store…

But some things that also boil down very slowly to reveal their beauty cannot be bought in the store; they must be hand-crafted. So it is with Peace.

When the sap finally rises in Minnesota, my buddy Doug taps his trees and sits by a fire in his back yard. There he contemplates both the Peace of what is and what can be. Every year at this time, I think of this Peace activist, keeping tender vigil over his slow boiling pot. Doug probably sings, he often does. He probably thinks and pokes the fire with a stick a lot. His family members join him (although in my mind, the lovely Kim only does as much or as little cold weather fire sitting as she wants!). People drop by to pick his brain and enjoy his friendship (and probably beg for some syrup.)

They take away a message of discipline, dedication, and patience — because that’s what it takes to get to the essential sweetness. Pretty much what it takes to get to Peace, too…

Blessed be, my sweet friend Doug. Here’s to syrup and Peace which both make the world sweeter. Here’s to the lunacy of taking potential and boiling it down in to reality. Strength is required… enjoyment is your decision… and why wouldn’t laughter and joy be what you chose? Step up! Sit down! It’s a long, long prayer… participation required…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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