Day by Day Peace

So long to my summer idyll. Didn’t get as much swimming in as I often do, since I was in CA… But every time was sweet.

Closing pools always leave me wistful. it’s not that I mind the advent of Autumn (although I still hold that TWO weeks before labor day is too early to close the pool)… it’s that I love the being suspended in a body of water outside. And a town pool at the close of a year is often fairly quiet. (For some reason, some people get tired of the pool. Go figure!)

Last night, I found myself frantically googling “Lakes close to Lewisburg,” thinking, it can’t be over, it can’t!

But it is. So, time to join an indoor pool that’s big enough I can actually get those laps in so I’m strong enough (for life and) getting my Lifeguarding Badge! Time to figure out some plans for next summer’s indulgence.

And oh, right, get back to work.

But oh, the sweetness of the town Pool and Summer. Luckily, its Peace will come again next year.

Peace of Summer Weddings

When one of your domain names is The Wedding Priestess, you get to do a lot of weddings.

Because I have a wedding outline but not a set wedding service, I spend a lot of time working with couples to create services that reflect who they are. In that time I get the opportunity to really know and care about my couples. Lucky me!

And then I get to preside over the love fests.

It’s a fun and lovely way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Every couple who marries is a reminder to us that Love is all that really softens our edges enough to help us grow in directions we want to go. So let’s here it for love and outrageous ambitious promises!

And for me, it’s an opportunity to remember all my couples… so fun.

And now? have a lovely Sabbath, whether you pack it full of fun or do nothing at all!

I’m off for among other things, my last swim at the town pool…

Peace, you all. May Peace, Love and Happiness be yours…

Today and Everyday Peace

Every day. We have to find the Peace of every day. What is wonderful, beautiful and worth celebrating about today?

And then how do we take that Beauty and use it to give us energy for the road.

It bothers me that we spend such time wishing away the moment. People are complaining about winter when it’s 90 degrees and about as humid as a day could get.

And right now, the food is so good you can barely stand it! We’re so lucky. But food will be good but different as each season changes. There’s always something to rejoice about and without the difference in the seasons, this part wouldn’t be so incredible.

So, here’s to every thing wonderful. yum, yum, yum. And here’s to today. Hope you enjoy it. Hope you make Peace.

Summer Sabbath Sunset Peace

Sorry, I couldn’t resist the alliteration!

But it’s been beautiful at twilight recently. I love driving as dusk is falling, particularly when there are clouds that change colors.

I love how still it often is.

I love how outrageous the colors can be everything from palest pink/peach to deepest purple.

I love the moment when the color drains from the sky and for a short bit the whole world is black and white.

And I’m lucky enough that at least part of my job includes a lot of driving home from summer weddings about dusk…

I hope you have a lovely and restful Sabbath. Enjoy the summer that’s left!

Peace in a Dry Land

What does Peace look like in a drought? What is it in the midst of climate change?

The issues are far more complicated than i understand.

But when people are carefully saving their warm up water for the shower and you see field after field of fruits to be made into leisure drinking and tourism…

It’s good that we change how we use water in our households and a shower a day is a luxury that’s not necessarily good for our bodies or the land.

But shorter showers don’t offset a vineyard.

Shorter showers don’t mean there’s water to fight fires. There are 22 of them in CA now. They’re just trying to save the houses built in the middle of forests and brush and letting the forests burn. Now, Nature seems to like fires; some trees only spread their seeds through fire… And yet — Lives have been lost fighting the out of control fires.

And more wineries are going in. CA is going to become the medical marijuana center of the world: another high water crop.

And I know it’s easy to come in from the outside and have an opinion… even when it’s reflection upon coming back home…

But what I see is land in need. I’m not seeing how the drought is affecting poor communities, but i have people to see before i come home who are working in them — and some people who have a bigger economic view than i ever have.

I say this not because I’m going to make any difference in the drought in CA but because I want some balance and understanding so I can work effectively for change where I live. Knowledge is power. And balance is not always my strongest suit…

Peace has so many facets. and Mother Earth is both powerful and fragile. Both need our helping hands!

Lammas Celebrations! Sabbath Peace! Oh, boy!

In-gatherings!

A friend reminded me that the ancient celebrations were more approximate. You didn’t stop to celebrate in the middle of the harvest. You didn’t grind the flour until the wheat was out of the field and threshed.

I love this celebration in the middle of the hot spell. Back home, there’s corn, tomatoes and blueberries. How much sweeter can summer get?

Out here? there are grandchildren, swimming pools and tomatoes. May in fact be sweeter.

And today, another beautiful summer Sabbath, spent with them. Full moons and hot summers. Sacred. Joyous. yeahhhhhhhh.

Hurrah! Peace be with you all.

Reading Peace

All through the summer, when I was a girl, from about junior high on, I would walk to the library at least once a week and check out about 10 books. Two summers I undertook to just read through the fiction and so I was reading epic Russian sagas at the same time I was reading British spy mysteries. It was fun. Although I have to admit that at the speed I was gulping books I may have missed some of the finer points! But nothing gave me more joy. Swim. Read. Swim. Read. All Summer long.

During the work year, while I may get one or two substantive books read, I pretty much stick to fluffier reading. I read mostly to stop thinking rather than to think. ahhhhh. a chance to unwind.

But now during the summer, one of the requirements/privileges of my job is to prepare for the coming year.

This is made so much sweeter by the fact that this year, no one is sick, no one is dying and I’m not recovering from a death in the family. I am so grateful.

So this year, I get to stuff and stuff and stuff and stuff.

And it’s grand. I have no idea how things will all come together or even if they should, but I’m grateful for the opportunity.

Books have always offered me Peace, even as they’ve stirred and excited me.

Hurrah!

Everyday Peace in the Ripe Garden Moon

I am extraordinarily lucky to work in a UU church which takes the preparation for the year seriously. I have a moth of study and a month of vacation. So few clergy have this, although we all need it.

We need it because we’re tired from a year of putting out. We need it because if you’re not going to hear the same old sermons next year, we need to put something in. But I get it.

And I’ve been a reading fool. I’ve been absolutely luxuriating in the reading. Stuffing my brain full so I can let it all percolate around for a while.

What’s made my reading time more wonderful is that I’ve been able to do it in the company of people I love. I’ve been in one house and then another. And there we’ve sat being together and quietly doing whatever we do.

I’ve gotten things accomplished. In the company of loved ones. And rather than running around doing things, we’ve hung around and done what needed to be done. talked some. laughed a lot. and been quiet together. The first week was with my Sweet Pea. I had long quiet stretches with him. ahhh. oh, the blessings to be counted.

This is a Peace I don’t often have at home. There are things to do. And some of these friends are very far away. But because of my job, I have this lovely, sacred pleasure.

I’m going to indulge this particular Peace as much as I can… and give thanks as I do it. And stare out the window at the lovely Ripe Garden Moon, whose picture his sister took, and remember the vegetables that just graced our supper table this evening… mmmmm.

Sweet Peace of the Road; Sabbath All the Time

I’m on retreat/vacation. Every day’s a Sabbath with me for a while. It’s a wonderful thing and I’m so grateful. I’m being a reading fool. Sometimes a cleaning fool, which IS shocking.

Also a traveling fool. Steve and I took off for Maine for a week and had a wonderful time at our cousins’. Quiet, lovely coastal visit. Lots of oysters. Plenty of lobster. So many books. So many quiet conversations. Piles of Peace and Quiet. Lovely sleeping in the cabin in the woods. Lovely being together. So many blessings it was hard to keep track, let alone count.

We’re good traveling buddies. Talk. Talk. Talk. It’s nice. It was particularly nice doing our night driving on the way home. It was an easy drive with Ms GPS telling me how to get hither thither and yon. So, just lots of comforting darkness. Not even a moon, as it was the dark of the Moon. Just Steve and me and the road.

It was an abundance of plenty. Rejoicing in the Peace.

Now I have a couple more things to do before starting the great writing… but there’s time. Blessed Sabbath to you all… May there be beautiful slow days in your life this summer.

And there was this…

Summertime Peace

What is it about vacation? I had so much I needed to get accomplished today. And an equal amount tomorrow. But oh! It felt so sweet not to have deadlines from someone else. They were all my own and I churned through them!

And I kept picking away at the things that were next! Still more to do, but a lot done. So… I’ll take it.

It’s so important to have time off and to slow down and be present to that time. I’m going to be making some memories!

I’m dashing around now, because starting Thursday, I’ll be off line for a week. Look for my posts here, but don’t expect me to announce them on FB… yesssssssss.

Sweet Peace in the Summertime! I hope you also have some time to disconnect and simply be.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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