Posy Peace, llvl

Today is brought to you by the sturdy, cheerful daffodil.

They’re not the first flower to tiptoe in when spring starts, but when they arrive spring is no longer hovering on the edges of our lives. The light has changed. The temps have usually warmed some. And there they are. great masses of them, thumbing their trumpets at the wind and the cool and damp. They’re not fragile.

I love that you plant them and they slowly take over. There are houses whose entire lawns become spring festivals when the daffodils bloom. You can find them in the woods where there used to be houses and the while time has reclaimed the foundation, the daffodils sunnily march on. They are creatures of abundance, those blooms.

My cousin wrote after seeing this morning’s poem to remember her spring coat. Both our mothers sewed, and we were so lucky… and my mother LOVED color. when it was spring around our parts, you could tell that the Evans girls were in the house.

So, get out there and shine. Be strong. Be beautiful. Be Peaceful. Be your best self. It’s spring and it’s time to blossom!

Peace of Perfect Days, llvl

However grand we find life most of the time, there are still those astonishing halcyon days, when everything seems perfect. We especially notice them in spring when the weather turns nice for the first time. But every season has them. They are extraordinary days, filled to the brim with Beauty and Love and Gratitude.

Hopefully when these days arrive we can remember to count our blessings rather than demand that all life be that perfect. Into every life a little rain, and all that! These days are beautiful, ephemeral jewels to be exclaimed over, enjoyed, and released… These are sacred days, not mundane…

hmmm. there’s a theme to be explored… life as catch and release…

yep, pretty sure I should stop right there. Peace… Beauty, Love, Gratitude — not much more that’s needed! (except, of course, your appreciation).

Warm, Expanding Peace, llvl

Warm air. It’s quite a remarkable thing. Warm, flower-scented air, even more delightful. The opening continues to catch me off guard in a delightful way.

And I’ve stepped, momentarily, into warm scented air that I used to know. I’m visiting a friend, walking paths of earlier days, letting the memories roll out. And so many of these memories have no overlay of the grief I have recently encountered. They have their own remembered challenges, but also many, many, many sweet triumphs… and giggles. There were lots of giggles. And this is a place where I moved from the person I had been to the person I would become/was being.

It’s wonderful to be making new memories in a place of old community and connection.

This place is much farther into Spring than the place I left. And I’ll miss that brave unfolding with daring daffodils defying the chill and the breeze to bloom, damn it! But here things are bravely lush, defying the drought. There is here a determination to bloom as fierce as any. (Sweet Deb, for bringing back the angel, surrounded in truth and possibility!)

This is sere landscape. But not right now. Right now it is as rich and lush as my memories and sweet on the heart. Peace Pieces, back from the past. Blessed be… Blessed am.

Feelin’ it Peace, llvl

Sunday we had a humor service at church. I tend to love humor as it occurs rather than as it’s planned, but I admit it, I roared… The kids were hilarious. The other guy definitely upstaged me, glad i wasn’t competing. I did my usual oh, so meaningful sermon. (eyes roll) But it seemed to go over.

What I love about this community is that we laugh all the time. When we’re working on hard things and when life is going along easily. What I also love is that we cry easily too. We’re willing to invest in one another and experience the edges of life, which are often sharp and uncomfortable and to do that right alongside the mundane and daily life.

Emotions exist to be experienced. I’m not talking about drama queens, I’m talking about life’s normal ups and downs. What does it mean that we have drugs we inject into our foreheads and our upper lips so that we have no lines? I’m not excited I’m older, I’m far creakier than I was. Yes I have very different fun than I used to have, but I had that fun and that wasn’t better, it just was. Life’s an amazing thing. And of course, getting older means living a rich life of memory and possibility. It means more moments of self reflection and more moments of pure magic. And it means finding your equilibrium, your balance.

One thing we know about these great prophets is that were in life. May the same be said for us!

Peace of Spring Memories, llvl

Yesterday, I remembered the Spring coats April used to bring. Mom would sew wonderful light wool coats in marvelous colors. Locally, it’s very difficult to buy wool like that, these days. (Not that I’m allowed to buy any more fabric… I love fabric, I just shouldn’t be allowed to despoil it!) One of those many times I turn to ask Deb what she remembers… Mom never made Tom Spring coats! (bet he’s jealous!)

But in thinking about them, I thought about the reality of Spring. We didn’t expect Spring to turn to Summer immediately. I don’t think I’m remembering wrongly. I think weather changes were more gradual then. There was such excitement in the unfolding. We certainly got tired of winter, but embraced the cool blustery days.

Is there, I ask myself, a certain urgency to accepting things as they are, realizing that if we insist on the world being as we want it all the time (as if we can insist on weather!), we’re growing unwilling to make the changes (the cutbacks) to arrest global climate change. We’ll pay a huge price if we don’t. And we won’t be the first ones to pay it. So, I’m going to look for the right clothes for the weather we’re having… and keep thinking about ways to respond to climate change that aren’t simplistic and kneejerk… things that are meaningful… I guess the first step is waking up, paying attention.

But maybe I at least have a Spring colored scarf! That will help me do the work I have to do… ah well. today i’m wearing stripes… because I’m off to Head Start with my Sweet Pea to read a book entitled Stripes of All Types for their PA 1 book of the year.

New Beginnings Peace, llvl

It seems to me that Spring is a season of delight and expectation, balanced by (equinox remember) deep disappointment. It’s still cold and it’s still grey. Never mind that a look at the almanac is pretty clear that cool, grey, rainy weather’s the norm for April. We want it to be warm, and somehow damp and 55 isn’t cutting it for us. And that many of those flowers we’re long for aren’t really due until may. And when they show up early, as fun as it is… it probably means the weather’s a bit out of whack.

And I’m longing as much as the next person. But part of writing this blog is being honest with myself about what is true. And that’s that the way we live, particularly those of us in the first world, particularly those of us in THIS part of the first world, want what we want with no thoughts about impact.

So, can we enter Spring differently? hmmm. I probably need to think about this, write about this. Living la vida local isn’t all sweetness and light. It’s paying attention to what’s real and true. And doing what’s best for the community. Ah those challenging places in between… Here it’s not so much about finding Peace, perhaps, as making Peace… How will we do that?

April (Tax) Fool Peace, llvl

Some days it’s just about churning through the work. I’m lucky enough to be going away with my sweet pea for vacation… but I’ll be away over the 15th… sooooooo. Taxes due today. Really hoping there won’t be any unpleasant foolishness! eek.

But getting things done — that year’s worth of stuff sorted and and stuffed back into the right categories — gives a body pleasure. Nope, I’ve tried doing it month by month. Takes a bunch more time and causes a lot more anxiety. Not worth the effort, but thanks.

And it’s not like I’m actually responsible for DOING my taxes. Thank goodness for Kim, my April best friend. And that makes me a lucky woman, that I can do that…

I might wish that my taxes would pay more for social services for people rather than corporations (although I certainly use any tax breaks I get). Looking at the not-quite 10 cents a day I pay toward SNAP, I’m trying to balance that out in my charitable life…

But the bottom line (taxes are all about the bottom line) is that I live a very good life. And I’m grateful indeed.

Here’s to making Peace with all those pieces of Paper!

Cusp o Peace, llvl

Back and forth and back and forth… can’t you make up your mind? Oh right… you’re the weather, you don’t have to. And yet, the Sun’s changing what the North Wind refuses to acknowledge… here comes Spring, cold weather notwithstanding…

Even as I huddle against it (and superstitiously leave my snow shovel outside to ward off the snow… don’t laugh — have YOU had to shovel around L-burg lately, I don’t think so!), I notice the determination of the crocus (playing through!) and the tips of the complacent willows (so turning colors, here!). The sun is implacably moving north and life changes.

So, I’m frantically looking for spring colored clothes to wear that are not ALL black but still manage to envelop me in warmth… because 20˚ is after all 20˚!

But something’s coming, something good! I think Deb Slade has once again done her magic and shown the promise in the water! Thirteenth week. One-quarter of the year (or will be at the end of the week) through this Living the Vida Local… I’ve been seduced by my local Peace, how about you?

Snowy Owl Peace, llvl

It’s all supply and demand, but this time I can get it. Apparently, last year was a bumper crop for lemmings somewhere way up there in the Arctic tundra. Which meant that the snowy owls, instead of laying one egg, all laid three. And they all hatched. Lots of snowy owls. This year, there aren’t as many of those little cliff leapers, but now there are two many snowy owls for their original region, so they widened their territories.

Presto Changeo, snowy owls in North Central PA, creating a new end of winter vida local. Mother Nature offering joy to her humans (and terror to the small, and even not so small wildlife.)

And I saw one. My friend said, oh, wow, there’s an immature hawk, maybe we’ll see the owl take the hawk. (ann the girl who likes to pretend that meat comes in styrofoam packages — no, i know better, and i give thanks to those whose lives are sacrificed that i may eat all the time! but still, ewwwwwww. ) I smiled gamely, tried to look interested and thanked the owl for sitting still and taking a moment to preen.

And there it sat. Not all that far from a large field of swans. Swans, hanging out in the cornfield. A hundred or so. It doesn’t get more beautiful than this. Nature, right here in my little local life.

I’m so grateful Liz was willing to haul me around and make me sit and watch. Taking the time to enjoy the beauty! Hooray!

Peace of the Snowy Owl, to you, my friends, and of the migrating Swans. Peace of la vida local.

Edges of Spring Peace, LLVL

I’ve realized recently that I’ve been on edge. Well, duh. We’re on the cusp of so many things. The weather refuses to turn, but Mother Nature responds to sun this time of year. So we keep slowly moving toward next season’s promise…

At the church, we’re slowly figuring out what we’re doing to fight child hunger in the Susquehanna Valley. Every time we move toward a solution, we find a billion steps we have to do first. OK, yes, I’m exaggerating, but it feels like that. I’m the regular ready, fire, aim queen, but a project this large demands a large amount of aiming.

And I’m realizing that I’m being shaped by things… having lost so much of my family, it’s really about reshaping myself. I’ve chosen to locate myself in my life… that’s what writing la vida local is about. We’re doing a hunger project for kids right here… choosing to lead where we live. Time for community… time to make it what we want, to form it in the style of Peace, of Love.

And it’s time to pay attention to the changes and make new places to celebrate what happens…

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

Tag Archives: seasons