Forgive, Hope, Peace

Forgiveness keeps coming back. Probably because we never get done with it. It’s a messy, uncomfortable business. It’s hard to admit we were lacking or we missed the mark. (yeah, we were wrong.) It’s hard to acknowledge another’s human foibles. Sometimes it’s hard to forgive people for being better than we are at something we want to be good at.

And all of those things create a large barrier between us and Peace.

You know me, I’m not a new age forgiver. I believe that much of forgiveness is that verb we used yesterday… accept… as in accept the fact that we cannot change what has happened to us. I don’t know that you forgive your rapist, or if you do what that looks like. I do know if you do, a large portion of that forgiveness will have to be meted out toward yourself for having been vulnerable. I know I’m not at the place where I can let the rapists of my friends off the hook… but maybe forgiveness doesn’t do that. but it does acknowledge their humanity, however broken, whether or not they had a reason.

But if we can take down those bricks in the way of Peace, we won’t have to climb over them, or squeeze through the cracks between them every time we want to move forward in Love. That would help our hearts enormously.

Accept, Hope, Make Peace

Part of my Advent Meditation was to make a calendar with a verb a day that pertained to the candle of the week. The candle is Hope. Yesterday’s verb was notice (your assignment should you choose to accept it). Today’s verb is accept (should you choose to notice it!)

What made me think about it was the amount of time I (or perhaps also you?) spend lamenting what is. And it’s so easy to stop there. What’s harder for me is to just accept it. As my friend Lenore keeps trying to teach me: It is what it is.

Now what are we going to do about it?

And that’s what acceptance frees us for: Seeing the possibilities. Wondering what we do next.

May your acceptance of the world as it is lead you to a notion of how it could be better. And then may you jump into action… jump into Peace. Because everything goes better with Peace!

Presto-Changeo Peace!

It really is about changing your mind, about deciding that Winter is not going to bother you. Actually, it’s about going even farther than that and allowing Winter to delight us. I don’t mean people with SAD… I understand that your malady is real. (change those light bulbs, get out and walk.) I mean those of us who sit around in our cotton tee shirts and complain about the cold.

We have to dress for it. Hats, mittens, coats, long underwear. Boots that are not just fashionable but functional. (It was interesting looking at my Swedish sister’s boots. They had thick soles to keep your feet off the cold pavement.) Yes, it’s cold. Yes, it’s sloppy.

Winter has an important job in the cycle of life. It holds all the mystery and the time of looking within. Can we draw a correlation between the soles of our boots’ not being thick enough and the fact that we have no time to examine the state of our souls?

But there’s also something about being satisfied with what we have, with changing what can be changed. We can’t change winter (well, yes global climate change is changing winter, but we can’t wish the cold and damp away.) So let’s explore it. We can change or at least impact the numbers of people who are at the mercy of winter. so let’s consider that. Let’s step up, in our thick-soled boots, to the very sensitive and painful problems.

Peace is pretty concrete these days. Enough to eat. A warm place to sleep. Healthcare when you need it. Peace in the Winter.

Winter Peace

It is cold outside, I have to acknowledge that. But I’ve decided not to fret about it this year. It’s not going to be too cold. It’s not going to be too hot. It’s going to be life. I live in the Northeast. We have winter. It rains. It sleets. It snows. It’s cold and windy. It is what it is. Because you know what? Life gets cut short. And then there’s no time to spend together.

And if we spend our time together wishing our way our time together, we’re not having time together. I spent a lot of time last year working on improving my relationship to the dark and searching for the mystery. I think I’ll spend a lot of time this winter looking for (and finding!) the beauty.

I’m going to buy marvelous potions and lotions and slather myself in them.

I’m going to wrap up against the cold and take long walks. I’ve got the gear. Why not try it out?

I’m going to hope for snow and be glad to shovel.

I’m going to light candles in my house and keep the tea and oranges coming. I’ll keep my house clean and cozy.

And I’m going to give up wanting the clock to move in anything other than its stately progression. I’m going to work to be present and self-reflective. Because this is the time I have with you. This is the time I have with me.

So Winter is going to be all about Peace for me. It’s going to be about wonder and the sacred, sacred Dark. It’s going to be more work on living my life as a prayer of thanksgiving. I hope it will be for you as well. Because it certainly is beautiful. And this is our time.

Autumn Peace Swimming

I love swimming. You can’t have read these for long and not have gotten clear about that. And swimming out of doors, whether in a creek, the ocean or a pool. The best. But swimming anywhere? I’ll take it.

The pool where I swim in the winter is in a room on the end of the building, windows all around. No matter what’s going on outside, the water remains a cozy 84˚. The air is even more balmy (unless you get too close to the doors on a winter’s day.). Sometimes I get to the pool in the afternoons and it’s empty except for the guard and I do my work out chatting with Tara and enjoying nature. It’s wonderful. Oh, look, there’s an eagle. Funny that wind last night didn’t take all the leaves off that tree…

But it’s also wonderful in the early mornings, when the pool’s open before class. The ladies come drifting in for their stretching and aerobics classes. It’s such a delight to hear them chatter. Catching up on their days, talking of bargains, of plants and old friends. Giggling. Comfortable in their bodies and in their lives. Grumbling a bit about the inconveniences, but present. Showing up to life and the moment. Counting their blessings and sharing them with the person next to them and the one across the circle.

May I be such a one. Swimming still. Reveling in the full-bodied embrace of water on flesh. Enjoying my friends and the morning gathering. Life is still rich and they’re generous with stories and lessons and laughter. Ah… Keeps me going back because this is the exercise that feels most like joy to me. And that makes the exercise sacred for me. Joy in my body. Joy in my heart. Peace in my mind and soul. It doesn’t get better than this for me.

Candlelit Peace

I don’t know what it is that candles do for me… or rather I know what, but I don’t know why.

OK, throw that all out. I know that sitting in a room with lit candles calms me. I also know that when I light them with intention, that I might be present, that I might be calmed, that I might appreciate the beauty of where I am (where I live!) and the gift of the dark.

Now as I mourn my sister’s passing. I create a small, quiet, beautifully lit oasis so that I might sit in contemplation.

To give myself that Peace, I must make my space beautiful, a place I want to be… The whole process helps, and indulges the luxury of time and of being exactly how I am, feeling what I feel and feeling wonderful in the midst of it.

I love the sweetness of the dark for all it offers me… May you find comfort in the dark as well. May we leave those sweet oases with Peace on our hearts and go back into the world as its envoys.

Autumn Sabbath Peace

Here where I am, it’s a warm, foggy rainy morning. Watch out, it’ll be slippery underfoot, thanks to all the leaves lying about on sidewalks (really, i could have swept!).

Pretty soon, I’ll get up and get ready for church, but I’m enjoying a few last minutes cozy in my living room, writing to you. I’m preaching about my reluctance to claim myself publicly as a minister. Odd. I adore my work, yet somehow can’t be all braggy about it. I guess I’m just tired of the role churches play and don’t play in the world. so, i’m practicing… Say, did you know I’m the minister of a small, lovely, involved UU congregation. Yep, I am.

Last evening’s walk was gorgeous. Every sense got called to attention. It was a good reminder that every season has moments that call to us. It’s too easy to complain about Fall that turns to Winter. When we do that, we skip right over the beauty each season, each day, even each moment can offer.

The moon was so big and the moment so perfect it was easy to put things into perspective. This is a vast and wonderful world, and I am a very small pilgrim on its crust. Still, in the midst of finding my place, I could feel the world pushing me to speak out, speak up. For Peace. For the Earth. For the Web. (Really, do other people get to just crunch through the leaves and not think about this stuff? I sure do get caught on the meaning!) Here I am: one little flyspeck for Peace, overcome with the Beauty and Abundance.

But as June Jordan reminded us: “We do what we can, more than that, what can anyone ask?” So, today, on this misty Autumn Sabbath, enjoy the moment and speak up for Life. Speak out for Peace.

Autumn River Peace

Looking down from the bridge into the slowly moving Susquehanna this morning, I was caught by the beauty. It was picture perfect — looking ‘way too much like many of those sympathy cards I’ve recently received.

So at first I was stuck with that image. And then I recognized the movement of the water, flowing down to the ever renewing ocean. The gorgeous red and gold leaves slipping down over the stones were just the symbols of Fall’s slipping away…

And suddenly, I was smiling again. Happy to think about the notion renewal and rebirth… far away and unknown, but reassuring in some weird, but deeply visceral way. It was also a lovely reminder of how beautiful Deb’s life was and of what I’d been called to do and the ways I’d responded, ways I was proud of. I loved her. She’d needed me. I’d been there to the best of my abilities. She knew that and accepted my love and returned it full measure.

And now a gentle reminder that leaves slipping by are the way of the season… and incredibly beautiful. And I am a sad and lucky woman. Let us take it all in as it comes to us, all the sweet abundance, because in that we can search for Peace. Finding it, even if only from time to time, we can begin to spread it abroad.

Spiral Sabbath Peace

Our lives are so busy. I think we, okay, I, often fail to notice the rhythm of the spiral. And I think we often fail to stop when we finally make it into the center to enjoy the Peace, before turning and moving back out into an every deepening meaning. In and out, in and out, and so we weave our lives.

I’ve been in a frenzy, trying to reclaim my house and write my bits for this weekend.

So much ahead. The terror and sadness of saying a formal good-bye to Deb. The joy of gathered family and the gift of my Swedish sisters’ visit. Counting noses in the swimming pool — and missing the absent. The overwhelm of too much stuff and the joy in seeing this beautiful house re-become my home and refuge. (and maybe even the place where I invite you to tea. How long has that been!)

Fall, in all its beauty, ready for our admiration. A cornucopia of opportunities for interesting ways to spend a lovely Sabbath. A musician, a play, a labyrinth, a Circle. Today I’ll take some time to replenish myself for the trek into the middle of that circle, a circle that is both everything and nothingness.

What will you do to pass this day in Peace? May your day be one of Beauty. Wishing you a blessed Sabbath, my Friends…

Threads of Peace

One of the interesting parts of writing the musings is that a line sometimes emerges that you hadn’t planned. There you are heading somewhere, and poof, a new metaphor. I was caught by the notion of spinning the mist into the threads of Peace.

Before we can begin to weave a blanket to warm us, we must spin the thread and that thread must contain all the colors of the seasons, winter whites, spring greens, summer golds and winter reds and oranges, the many colors of the sky and the waters and our beloved Mother Earth.

Only then can we begin to weave a blanket that will comfort and protect all of us. I am here, we can tell the world, these are my colors, this is what I know and can teach you about. Which are yours… what can you tell me about them?

My father, the dye chemist, was very proud that he could hand spin… and proud too that he could find the chemicals that made the colors sing. Everything adds something to the thread. Some of it will be expertly spun, some of it some of us will make a hash of… but once there is thread, we can weave that bumpy, uneven totally gorgeous mantle of Peace.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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