The Peace of Snow Moon Community

Shoulder to shoulder around the fire. Or at a restaurant. Or at the theater.

The weather’s totally impossible right now. So it’s a good time to snuggle up and get to know you neighbors. Take a chance on finding new people to know and connect with.

Someone just wrote on her facebook page: What to do when it is 7 degrees outside? Have a warm breakfast with good friends and then it goes up to 12….whoo hoo! I responded, see, friendship works miracles. (thanks Benita, you little community builder, weather magician, you!).

It’s not always easy to make connections, and yet it’s so important. And in this season of the cold and frosty Snow Moon, we can use some heart-warming encounters.

Yesterday, I went with a bunch of people to see Art at the local ensemble theater. Oh, we’re so lucky; we have a fabulous theater group in Bloomsburg. But if you don’t live around here, there’s someplace else wonderful to gather; something to spark an interesting conversation.

These small acts of community are beginning acts of Peace. There is great strength in Community. People say it’s Lunacy to go out in this weather. Ah but that’s just their thinking of lunacy as crazyness and not as sacred inspiration! Lunacy has a leading role to play in Peace.

Peace and Lunacy at the Snow Moon

Big Foot. Yeti. Coming to town.

What is it about humans and their myths?

No really, we saw him. Boston. Well, we didn’t see him. Someone did. Pictures!

I once sat next to a guy in a waiting room, when Deb was getting cancer treatments, who was devoting what was left of his life to seeing Big Foot. (he’s all over PA, don’t you know). If that isn’t a metaphor for miracles, I don’t know what is. (and people only see one… never a family, how do they come into being?)

Now don’t get me wrong, I write poems about Faeries… I adore the notion. It was easy to see in the Swedish woods where the stories come from. (I’m not sure that I started out to write a Yeti-denier post)

But what if we kept our Lunacy for working on things like Peace? Wouldn’t the world be better for that?

And let the poor guy with big feet get himself a beer and a hamburger on a cold and wintry day?

Because I’m not really sure what Bigfoot’s going to do to change the world. But I’m pretty sure that Peace is a wild and wonderful idea under the Snow Moon. Let’s hear it for Peace.

Lunacy, Laughter, Snow Moon Peace

Oh, it was a fun and silly thing. Missing imprints in the snow and that was all it took to have a moment of family laughter… even though most of the people laughing were (oh, the temptation to say… beyond the veil… in a sepulchral tone of voice is large) dead and the others not present.

But you know your family well enough that pesky little things like death don’t really bother you. Mine loved to laugh. And yesterday on the bridge, I could hear them all, hear their snorts and snickers, hear them adding to the ridiculousness.

So you laugh. And then you cry. And it all happens on a bridge on the way to breakfast when snowy footprints are obliterated. I’m blaming it on Snow Moon Lunacy and the strength of Love.

Hope Peace ambushes you with laughter and Love. Life really is Magic, isn’t it?

The Lovely Lunacy of Snow Moon Peace

Oh, it was a gorgeous day yesterday; light snow fell and fell and fell!

It kept us busy shoveling, which got me outside enjoying Winter. Where were the children? It was such a lovely snow!

I have nothing deep and meaningful to say about this Beauty. But oh, i enjoy the beauty.

And there’s everything good to be said about going outside and being overcome with delight. I had a fairly relaxed day, Mondays are often down time for me, more about house chores than work. And indeed laundry was done, things put away, sidewalks were shoveled. (And the snow was so light, very little strength was needed to push it around!) The Moon was not admired, the snow had elbowed its way to the front!

But friendships were renewed with visits, chats were had and a gloriously indulgent Hotel Budapest was watched. It was a slow day, dotted with pauses to gasp in wonder.

Lunacy to stand outside in the snow? Perhaps, but what a thing of Peace!

And while I reveled in the Beauty, I was mindful of the danger that many people will be facing today and tomorrow… May all be well.

Indulging in Snow Moon Sabbath Peace

All the beauty of winter was on display yesterday. And here’s it’s message: We have to get out in it while it’s here.

It’s a challenge, it seems to take advantage of the beauty of something as fleeting as snow. But part of snow’s Beauty is the temporary nature of it. Those sweet, beautiful flakes. those blanketing drifts.

It’s so easy to dash toward the cold and wet and the icy. But the Beauty is real.

If we don’t indulge the wonder, we lose so much of life. And the complications are real. You’re going to be late when it snows. There’s going to be extra work. You’re likely to have to pit your strength against its implacable presence. It’s slippery. It’s Winter. It’s snow. Yet another sacred manifestation of a sacred season…

But the slippery part leads to sledding and tobogganing and hot cocoa and laughter. Such different fun that any other season of the year.

And it’s unbelievably beautiful. So mind where you walk and get out there and be amazed and amused. Happy Sabbath! Happy Snow Moon! Happy Peace!

They’re all ours to enjoy and indulge. What are we waiting for?

Twinkling Peace, llvl

There’s something so lovely about having an evergreen, a true outdoor tree, in your house. When you add the lights to it… sweet.

Growing up, the house I lived in was pretty quiet… So there was time spent in the living room, lights on doing nothing more arduous than reading. There could be five of us in the living room, with the only sounds the rustling of newspapers and the turning of pages.

Remember sitting together in a room, reading? Remember when 3 people used to sit on a couch and not think you had to talk or have the couch to yourself? I miss being together in Silence. Steve and I are pretty good at it, we just don’t do it much… Note to self for the new year! just a quick step on the light button, and I can feel a big exhale arrive.

If it soothes your soul, I wish you quiet time with twinkling lights. I’m going to hog a bunch of this this holiday season. I’ve got some books lined up… Some days, not every day, but some days, Peace on Earth really needs to start at home!

Seasonal, Musical Peace, llvl

There’s been all sorts of music for me this holiday season. From listening to the intricate, beautifully wrought (and sung!) choral music right down to the music making with my voice teacher in her living room. Learning something new, hearing something fabulous.

Last night at the Mitchell Musical Mash-Up, the kids were back from college and grad school. Ahhhhhhhhh. Music, music, music.

People used to sit around and sing. We don’t do that enough. It’s one of my secret joys in church. I love that I can burst into song in the middle of a sermon and everyone will join right in!

One of the sweetest things about these Winter holidays is the music. Take your choice: old beloved music, hoary chestnuts and new and interesting pieces being written; There are wonderful sacred pieces from many traditions and lovely secular favorites. They get played to death on the radio and in the malls and we know ‘way too many of them, even the ones we don’t like!

Singing matters. Singing helps. Having a season defined by song is a rich tradition… and it allows the meaning to deepen every year. We need traditions. We need songs. So, let’s make some memories. Let’s sing along. Let’s hear what our neighbors are singing… and why not sing a sleighing song tonight and have a rollicking good time? Laughing all the way might bring us a bit closer to Joy to the World and Peace on Earth. What more could we ask?

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!)

Peace Where You Are, llvl

You know me, I love the holidays. I like pretty much whatever holidays I run into. It started with that trip to Sweden my senior year in high school. Swedish Christmas, so different and yet so festive. I’d grown up a quietly religious girl, Christmas there was fairly secular but steeped in cultural traditions. I got to spend 5 Christmases with family and friends over there. It forever changed how I celebrate.

And then I lived in NY. This time of year, it’s all about the bright lights. But my dearest friend there was Jewish. And so I was invited in to all those fun experiences. And foods. I really love festal foods. I like the rhythm of going back, year after year and having the right foods at the right time. To sit at table with people you love.

For me it’s not about the particular holiday, it’s about the whole experience with all the amazing sensory experiences — and the Love. It’s always about the Love for me.

And then it was off to CA… and that was the first time I really firmed up my own sense of these sacred days… Oh, yes, the Solstice. And the house on the hill overlooking the bay. And the friends. We got to design it to fit us. Our home… pretty fun.

And then back here to the family and what they needed, wanted. When I came back, I don’t think I understood how much their needs needed to be first. And so went the first 12 years. But in the midst of that, I was growing into a new community who had their own celebrations and they fit very well!

And now, we’ll see… But all these holidays gave me such pleasure, have such distinct flavors, taught me so much. As the song says: there is more love somewhere… hopefully it’s where we decide to be… Peace on Earth! whatever you celebrate, whoever you are! Joy to the World!

Little Bits of Peace, llvl

This is a crazy-making time of year. Everyone’s caroling about Heavenly Peace, and meanwhile, back on Earth, people, particularly parents are going cray-cray.

Oh, It’s the break for Winter Holidays. Let’s throw in the end of the year madness so that no one has any time at all to enjoy things.

So, I’m coping any way I can, but one way is to celebrate each little bit of completion as a gaily wrapped Holiday Package under the tree I haven’t done anything about putting up.

Yesterday, it seems I wasn’t alone in feeling the stress. There was more than one FB post saying “ack.” (or alackaday… how come no one says that anymore? Robin Hood and the Sherwood Forest Gang used to say it all the time.)

So if you’re making a list (and checking it 800 times, sure the jolly red-suited guy only needs to check his twice, well isn’t HE special?), you might want to keep a little tally of everything you’ve done. At some point you might decide, “that’s enough!” no matter what else is on your list.

But I wish you small islands of Sanity, small experiences of the Sacred Dark and Quiet, and yes, you know me, I’ll keep holding up Peace as something to aspire to! Maybe it will inspire us to put down the list and enjoy something we love. And along with Deb Slade in this beautiful photo (look you can see a snowflake!), I’m hoping for snow. We don’t want the reindeer to have to work hard in case they have to land! And besides, getting snowed in would mean a bunch of things got accomplished! pant, pant, pant.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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