Sunrise, Sabbath, Summer Peace… ah…

Before I start, I have to acknowledge the passing of the extraordinary Elie Wiesel. I am so grateful for what he taught us, his insistence on truth and his grace in the face of human frailty. We were so lucky for his presence among us.

This is one of those posts where I’ll have a hard time keeping the day straight. There was Peace on Saturday and there will be Peace on Sunday. It was Saturday that I was knee deep in the Susquehanna sending 30 paddlers off for a day on the river: The inaugural paddle of our riverkeeper, 22 miles of the Susquehanna on a perfect day in July.

We have one! This is a thing!! She’s in there fighting for our River who cannot fight for herself. The paddlers are all passionate about her mission.

So they had a lovely day, saw some things to be corrected, remembered just how beautiful this river is AND how vital to our lives. I could burble on a long time.

However, today is also going to be a great day. We start off with a hymn sing in an 1800 chapel. It’s got wonderful accoustics and my community loves to sing. Harmony! hurrah. It’s good for the soul.

There is no yard sale today! hurrah, hurrah… Which sounds like I’m not grateful for it, the good it does, the community it builds, and the money it raises, I am, but I’m tired.

So I’ll spend a little time turfing out my house and prepping salad for tomorrow’s yard sale and then… i’ll open the books for my summer sabbatical. and smile! I’ll sit on the porch and read. Maybe I’ll swim.

I’ll remember this Sabbath and keep it holy, that’s for sure. I hope you find something wonderful to do. If your weather is like our weather, it’s going to be a great day! Peace of the summer, Peace of the river, be with you, be with the whole world.

The Moving Sun, A Summer Sabbath, The Moving Peace

It took me halfway through the year to remember how much the sun travels not simply across the sky, but North and South. Now it’s true, I don’t have a window on the Bay the way I used to.

But I’ve listed the times of the Sun’s rising and setting every day for half a year, being fascinated by the times, and yet, have not watched the sun rise. So, how interested am I really?

But as always Deb Slade helps me to see. That’s what we do, isn’t it, help one another to see and understand?

It’s a lovely day in my little valley. There will be church and swimming and gathering with folk from the Synagogue for Israeli dancing. And then, a surprise visit from an old, old friend. What could be sweeter!

I hope you find Peace in your day. Peace in the rhythm of your life. Peace in the rhythm of this world…

Enjoy the time of the light… Enjoy the Peace you can make in the time of the light!

A Screech of Gulls — A Sound of Summer Peace

I couldn’t remember the collective noun for gulls the other day, so I looked it up, (don’t we love Mr. Google). A screech of gulls. What was ever more appropriate?

They’re a pesky sort, these gulls, and yet entirely amusing — well, as long as it’s not your food they’re threatening. Mine! is another word they seem to screech.

But they are wholly themselves, know their niche in the world and inhabit it with flair.

It’s a grand thing.

Peace be with you, my friends, on this rainy summer morning… Enjoy the gulls, they’re part of Nature and they’re part of Summer. Accept the inconvenience, laugh at their antics and enjoy the way they gather and stare into the future… What do they see when they do that you wonder? What do they look for.

Be good if humans would stop and stare into the future for Peace, wouldn’t it. But we can!

Peaceful Ghosts of Summers Past

I like all the seasons. I’m excited to see each day unfold and wonder what it will offer. I’m sort of an everyday nerd… gee, what’s the world like today?

But I never realize until the joy seeps in that I’m excited about summer in a totally different way. Well, there’s swimming. But I think it’s also when my family came into their own. There was tennis for many of them. There was the pool. There were picnics. There were family and family/friend traditions like strawberry shortcake festivals. There were those plates of sliced tomatoes and corn on the cob… There was sitting on the porch reading or just hanging out watching the fireflies…

Summer. it’s pretty grand.

So this is when my ghosts arrive in a big old van stuffed with towels and suits and coconut scented sunn screen to bless me with memories and make my heart yearn. I was so blessed and every once in a while I’m lonely for them. But I’m so lucky because there are others to go to the pool with. Others to have picnics. There is life. and it’s grand.

It’s Sunday. I have a family picnic, and before that a family meet up with other family, and before that there’s church and that beloved community. This is Summer Sabbath Peace at Ann’s house. I hope there’s Peace at your house too.

Prayers for the families of the people wounded and killed in Orlando. Sadly, there’s no Peace there today.

The Peace of a Slow Summer Day

It’s early days in the Summer season, some people insist that Summer starts on Mid-Summer instead of it’s being, you know, MID-Summer. I love the European start it on the First of May. We’re all jonesing for it anyway, right? From watching FB, you’d swear some folks thought it started in January. Nope, that’s global climate change folks. sorry.

But there’s nothing sweeter than June days in Pennsylvania when they decide to act like June days. Nothing to do but relax — or at least to pace yourself through the day.

I loved this sunset for this reason (The local television station loved it too and gave it a prize! Hurrah Trish!)

I got my porch opened (at last! at last!) yesterday. And so today, i get to write this sitting on the porch that looks way more like the screened in porch of a summer cabin than the downtown town house it is. It’s rustic and cozy and cool… and so quiet.

Hopefully the weather will last for the wedding this afternoon. Cool, calm and lovely is a wonderful day for a wedding!

Wishing you all the blessing of a slow, early summer day with no particular place to go and only lovely things to do, if you must do! Go ahead. Waste it on Peace. I’d write more, but i have to have some strawberry shortcake, right now!

Ah, Summer, Berries, Peace

This is the time when the sweet foods of summer begin. Here come the berries. Oh, yum. Such delight.

I don’t know if there’s more to say about the richness than “Welcome!” I don’t know what there is to say to one another other than “Let’s Enjoy!”

This is so fleeting, Let’s celebrate. And Peace is in the delight and the sharing of that with one another. Berries for Peace, yes indeed. (and cherries! and lettuce! and radishes! and…)

Welcome to early Summer. Let’s make a trifle of Peace!

Early Sabbath Morning Peace

Up early this morning, not quite early enough to see the coming of the light… since sunlight was a bit subdued.

But the Sun is rising about as early as it will rise all year. Only four more minutes to add to the day from the morning side… (a few more than that for the evenings).

Quiet golden dawns are an invitation to reflection… Sabbath is an invitation to reflection. I keep wondering about, poking at the notion that I might start Sabbath at sundown Friday along with so many of my friends and enjoy it all the way through Sunday sundown. I would want to live deliberately during that time; to be present and conscious…

Maybe that can be a goal for my time away this summer… slow, peaceful days — with some fun in the sun with my favorite folk tossed in.

It’s early, here, but I have a bit of sermon to polish and tuck into my ipad. Wishing you a lovely day, hot and humid as it is…

Summer Life; Summer Peace

Summer Life is meant to be lived large. Out loud. Out side.

The Sun is dominant; it can be dangerous — everything has a flip side. Mother Earth who rules Winter can also be dangerous. But the Sun brings warmth; it brings food; it brings desire to the surface to simmer for all to enjoy.

Summer. Sun. Gardens. Pools. Abundance. Excess. Delight.

Everyone loves, if not Summer itself, at least some of the things that go together with it — picnics and family gatherings; sitting outside on a summer evening enjoying just being alive. All the berries, all the melons, all the vegetables. Yes indeed, indeed.

I had my first strawberry shortcake yesterday. I had my first garden lettuce. I’ll have some radishes for breakfast! MMMM.

The Sun is hidden behind some rather damp gloom, but the light is still with us. We are blessed by Summer. Let us be a blessing to the World. People are out and about. Smile and say hello! Offer Peace to all you meet. And mean it.

Watermelon and Peace?

Summer foods and particularly summer fruits have a Peace all their own, I think. Although I tout the maxim that we should eat foods grown within a 50 mile radius of our home as I was taught in Chinese Medicine, I confess I lose sight of that when certain summer foods begin to show up in the grocery store far earlier than our fields are producing them.

Watermelon is one of those things. I could eat summer watermelon for breakfast every day.

So when Dag posts these pics and vids of her pack of wagging pups delicately taking turns eating watermelon, it makes me laugh and laugh. And completely understand.

Indulge in Summer it’s what it’s for. Share that indulgence with whoever your with. Let them delight too. Summer Delight. Summer Peace.

Rolling in the Peace

It’s not just the plants that come dancing back to life in the Spring. Most of us do too. (A special shout out to those who feel about Summer the way the rest of the world feels about Winter).

But for those of us whose faces turn eagerly Sunward, there’s something that pulls sheer, giggling exuberance from us.

For me, it’s always great to see the crocus, but It’s the stalwart daffodils and narcissus that make cheery. I fret about whether it’s time to run to Catawissa hill to see the grape hyacinths that my family always visited. And I wait eagerly for the violets to rampage across lawns. C’mon violets. (And Spring, don’t you go getting too warm on us so that the violets can play a while. pleeeeeeeze?)

There’s something about the freshness of the air that thrills. And the changed angle of the Sun. Whatever it is, enjoy whatever great laughing, Springing Peace you’re called to. This intoxicating moment is brief — that’s part of what makes it wonderful.

Spring! Peace! Life! Enjoy them all. Oh — and pay your taxes.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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