Peace in the Dead of Winter.

It’s been cold, cold, cold… There’s something pretty wonderful about that.

I have the clothes. I make sure I’ve got lotion on my face and hands. And off you go, invigorated.

Shockingly, here we are at the 19th of January, what meteorologists call the Dead of Winter and this is only the second time we’ve had bitter cold. The light is slowly changing, by the end of the month we’ll have almost enough light to wake a ground hog!

Yes I know it’s cold. This is what winter’s about. Pests and Germs are dying as we complain about the cold… But heat up yesterday’s soup and admire the beauty!

The cold, clear Peace of the Dead of Winter be with you.

Reveling in the Peace of Advent

Happy Holidays! All of them! I love this season for so many different reasons that I did as a child. (although Santa, still love me some Santa) I love the Dark. I love this cold quiet time of the year. Tiny sparkly lights whether in the sky or on trees are an additional pleasure, but… just the Dark.

And then there are all those moments. Some are simply solemn. Others are joyfully festive.

But I take this period seriously… It’s the end of a year, time to take account. It’s the beginning of a new with hopes for something better, something more, something Peace. My job today is to revel in that. To let that sense of wonder vibrate through me like the sound of a bell in the cold dry Winter.

Peace needs us. It needs us, it seems, more than ever. It’s on us to appreciate the Peace we have and to keep it growing

Alternative Advent for December 17: 5¢ for every reusable water bottle in your house (or car!).

Remembering the Peace of Advent

One of the hard truths about this time of year is that we are forced to confront what we may have missed, or have lost. For some of us, those of us who are very privileged, the holidays have been sweet, families have been united and traditions have traveled between the generations. But even those people have lost beloved family members who are no longer there.

It takes a while to recalibrate. It takes a while to decide to focus not on what i don’t have but on what is there. It’s important for me to honor the heart of the holidays, both religiously and communally. But it’s also time to cut out the pieces of the holiday that no longer fit.

I love to think of the root of the word remembering … to re-member, to piece back together. To take the remnants of the good and to make something beautiful from it.

It takes a while to demand (of yourself) the space to celebrate holidays in your image in a fashion that suits you. But you are worthy of that. If you’re alone, find other people who also are. Or celebrate another holiday and make that yours until you can reclaim your own for yourself.

Remember the holidays… Feel free, not to long for what you once believe you had, but to create that which celebrates the deepest possibilities of life. Savor the Dark. Explore the Mystery. Be amazed by the Wonder. Gather with those who love you as you are — even if that means you’re alone and loving yourself fiercely.

Allow your holidays to be filled with Peace. Share that with others. Remember. Make that cloak of beautiful memories and move forward with joy. Peace be with you. Peace be with us all.

Alternative Advent December 12 – 15¢ if you have dishes in your house. There are actually people in our Susquehanna Valley who do not. So be generous. if you have more than one set, try 15¢ per set.

Peace of the Dark Sacred Night

There is such beauty in the night. Too often we ignore it, brush by it, try and light it up.

What is most wonderful to do is to linger in it. To go out into its silence and breathe it in. To honor the Dark as well as the Light. To honor the traditions that celebrate this dark Beauty.

The night is also a gift. Particularly here in the country, where we don’t worry as much about the violence that hides in the night. But we cannot let them steal it from us. There is a movement dedicated to safety for women in the dark: Take Back the Night. Yes! Let us do that very thing. Honoring the very holy Dark. Honoring the Women and Men who have always honored the flow of time. Finding my place in that long river of souls that know that nature is a thing of balance and that balance is to respected.

And this night? this is a dark, dark night. No moon. The sun is late to rise and early to bed. Winternight. The Earth is getting ready for rebirth. But that’s a time away from now. Right now we have Beauty and Abundance and this Dark and Sacred Beauty.

Let us go out into the Dark in the winter and breathe in that crystalline air, rejoice in the stars. Let us simply be at Peace in the night.

Alternative Advent, December 11: 2¢ for every bar or dispenser of soap in your life. Don’t forget all the stuff under the sink, in your linen closet or in the laundry room… You thought, oh, two cents. Hah! it adds up.

Cherishing Advent Peace

Here at a time in my life when so much of my family has died, I have had to make decisions about what and when I cherish. What do I bring forward from that life with them? What do I call out from my time in California? How do I incorporate the people in this life whom I’ve come to love and their celebrations? And how do I leave myself room to “mind the gaps,” to drift away from what is still too painful to touch?

This is some of Advent’s important work I think.

Many of us, for reasons far sadder than death, don’t have the family they want. So how do you celebrate and cherish the family you do have? How do you make holidays that matter with who you are and what you have.

The Dark is a precious gift and so are the holidays that come with it. And there are so many. Can’t do the one you were born with? Can you do it differently, or make a home in another one?

And can we all acknowledge our responsibility to cherish life? This is a time of new beginnings, celebrations of tiny scraps of God among us and light returning. Can we sing sleep in heavenly Peace in December and mean it in January? Can we light candles and remember the past and look forward to the future and providing defiant light to the world?

We’re the people to do that! We’re the people to cherish our own traditions and to invite people over to share the festival foods. We’re the people to become curious about others’ feasts and fests and learn about what makes us different and celebrate the urge to come together to with our families and communities to make new memories.

We’re the people to create Peace. We’re the people to cherish it. May it be so.

Alternative Advent today is 10¢ for every flush toilet. That should be a dollar! These are precious!

Engaging in, Being Engaged By Advent Peace

Today’s Advent Word – Day 7 is engaging. It’s all the same use, really, but it always seems if I say I find something engaging, I am amused and charmed. Something is whimsical. But when I say I am engaged in a behavior we hope it’s powerful and purposeful and rewarding.

So I am absolutely delighted by Virginia Zimmerman’s new YA book: The Rosemary Spell. I find it wonderfully engaging. Sadly, I’m not engaged in reading it, because my work is pushing. So, I am stopped at page 67… what happens next? But hurry up, says her daughter, and go write a 5-star review! I told her I was finishing it before I wrote the review. I love her canniness!

But I am engaged in what I hope is Peace work. There’s nothing I believe in more fiercely. There is no work, I believe, that is more important. I have the areas I work in. You have yours. But it’s all Peace. Peace with the Earth, Peace on the Earth. (Do I believe there is Peace without working on climate change, no I do not. And I am grateful to those who take the lead on this in this valley.)

Engage in Peace during this season of Advent, and make it a life long love affair. Peace be with us and may we be with Peace.

Alternative Advent for December 7 is 3¢ for every pair of shoes, etc., in your house. Wow. Hair care and shoes close together? That’s a lot.

Sabbath Opening to Advent, to Peace

Today, in the advent wreathe we add the candle Love to the candle Hope. Love Makes things possible. This is the prayer my community will say in services this morning:

The Second Candle is lit for Love. Are you willing to open your heart to its abundance? Can you be generous with the world and its brokenness?

May I be a generous person, quick to open my heart to new friends, new places and new ways of doing things. May I be known as a lover of life, one who embraces the world as it is and works to temper its harshness with gentle acceptance. Blessed be.

It’s easy to resist this however, which is why today’s word is opening. I must open to the possibilities when everything within me is so ready to shut down. Fear makes you do that. Anger. Being just damned tired of the bullshit.

But today, I have a new book to read by Virginia Zimmerman: The Rosemary Spell … rosemary is my very favorite herb. I wrote my thesis to a candle of rosemary, knowing that the Greeks used rosemary wreaths as prizes for their intellectual Olympics.

It is my Sabbath, a time for reflection. It is Advent, a time for preparation for what is to come. It is time to open for Peace.

Waiting for Advent; Waiting for Peace

Advent is a time of Anticipation and Expectation. Peace must be that as well. It must be a wondered waiting to see what will emerge.

Waiting doesn’t come easy. But when you’ve set up and are ready but Godot hasn’t arrived, then you just have to wait. You can find wonderful ways to pass the time, but you can’t hurry the process.

So, do your work, and then engage yourself in life, and keep encouraging — but do not force. Wait on the world, it has so much beauty to show you.

Today’s Alternative Advent suggested donation is 5¢ for every bed.

Every bit of Peace’s coming into being is a challenge — one that is well worth the waiting and watching. Enjoy the Peace Process. Enjoy Advent.

Dreaming of Peace in Advent

Hope is the name of the first Advent Candle. Dreaming is the word I’ve assigned to this third day of Advent.

So many of these verbs, which are normally understood to have a passive voice, also have an active one.

So dreaming isn’t merely floating in some safe, beautiful vision of the future. It is also envisioning something desired and then designing the steps to get there. Dreaming involves, I believe, bringing those hopes to life.

Today, as we face the aftermath of another shooting, this seems particularly apt. I suddenly thought that someone might read this years from now and look back and say, shooting? what was going on in those times. Oh, may it be so… But I write for today.

I write frustrated because, since these shooters were Muslim, we now see them as terrorists. But the guy who killed people last week was Christian, so he was not. And yet,

Are not large numbers of people dead in both events? Did not both intend to overset the safety of civilians? Is that not terrorism?

Mourning doesn’t seem sufficient. And certainly the numbness that spreads through us is not a good sign. “Oh well, more people killed” is not an attitude to be cultivated. We must not allow ourselves to be overtaken by resignation.

So we must begin to purposefully, actively dream of Peace. We must move beyond our resignation and fear. We are the ones to bring Hope to the world. We are the ones to make Peace.

Alternative Advent — Day 3 suggests 3 cents for every pair of jeans your family owns.

Anticipation: Peace of Advent 1

Several years ago, I did a bunch of meditation cards for Advent. There was a word for each day. It was great. A couple weeks ago i looked at it.

Now? It’s totally missing from my computer. Can’t find it anywhere.

I guess that’s an invitation — and isn’t all of Advent.

Today’s word is Anticipation. This week is about Hope.

And if you’re doing the Alternative Advent Calendar, which is an opportunity to put money aside for a cause based on all the wonderful things you have in your life, today’s invitation is to put in 10 cents for all the hot water taps in your house. I get off easy. My little rental only has 3. 30 cents for me.

You are cordially invited to donate to the weekend food back pack program that my community supports here in the Susquehanna Valley. You can find out more about the LOVE Project (Let Our Valley Eat) here.

I love Advent. I love the Dark of it, the Quiet of it, the Introspection of it. I love the Peace it brings to me and the way it asks me to bring Peace to it.

Ahhhh… I’m going to revel in every day. If you read me, you’re going to have to as well! Peace!

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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