Farewell and Peace, llvl

The seasons keep turning. I take incredible joy in summer… bodies in bodies of water… ahhhhhh. I’m sure I leave the town pool at the end of every summer, even knowing that I’ll be swimming the day after, with some of the same feelings I had when leaving the womb (developmental crowd, did i have feelings or just sensations?). Well, at least I was reluctant.

But every season brings its joy. The trick is to celebrate. I positively gushed about how beautiful this region is in the Spring. Wait… the fall and its colors are coming. And then the snows. Sure the storms are annoying. If the Almanac is right it’ll be a snowy one. thank goodness I have snow tires. I may actually put them on this year.

I think it’s important to find sweetness in every season and to cling to that… enjoying. Every season is too something: hot, cold, grey, snowy, polleny, rainy. But every season is astonishingly something as well: green, sultry, colorful, clean, clear, shady… Life on Earth… we’re so lucky.

Now if only we could find ways to embrace the differences in all of life and not just the seasons and the landscapes, we’d be making progress toward Peace. Let’s do that, shall we? It’s a large job… but if we each do our tiny little piece… we can do this. Peace. it’s what we’re made for.

Pretty Peaceful Swimming, llvl

Nope, we’re going in. Lorraine’s Law. And friends go along if doesn’t mean jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge. Even at 62, there you go along. It’ll be a while before I have the chance again.

um, whee? Clambering across algae covered boulders and stones, please, no slip-sliding awy… trying to get out to where you’re at least knee deep, so you can turn around, squat until you’re immersed and push off. oh, ok, whee! indeed, whEE!

It’s not as if it’s ever a real hardship to swim and giggle in the water, and by now I’m almost adept at the whole changing under the towel thing… this was NOT a day to push the “I’ll just sit here in my wet bathing suit and dry off thing”… brrrrrrrrr. barely 60 degrees, but we did it! And then there was ficka: tea or coffee, your choice and for each of us, a baked good of choice. I ALWAYS choose cinnamon roll, unless of course there’s something with almond paste… (no almond paste today, they’re moldy… bah!)

But it was a rewarding, wonderful moment of Peace, sitting under the Picasso sculpture on the shores of the lake… goodbye, lovely lake. goodbye, lovely swim. goodbye, lovely i’ll do it if you do it Peace… goodbye, lovely sacred prayer of Life…

It’s summer and we were swimming and that’s the way it is.

Sweet, Summer Peace Days, llvl

I’m having the loveliest time… So many sweet summer days in a row, “no particular place to go…”

Although today we do, Lorraine’s sister Dorothy and her daughter Sigrid are coming and we’re taking the “banana boat” over to the island and going to Kjell and Lorraine’s favorite rocks on the island. Lunch is coming along. Swimming will ensue. It’s only going to be mid 70s today, but the water’s still warm… ahhhhhh. And it’s nice because there’s a rigamarole attached to it. Drive to the boat. Stand in line. Ride to the island (we’re on the Vanern Lake now, the large, large lake in central Sweden, Karlstad is the closest town that’s usually visible on the map, but we’re in Kristinehamn.) Then it’s a 20 minute walk through the woods to get to where we’re going. (that’s the scary part for me… my balance, my balance!) and then out onto the warm, warm rocks that slope into the sea. yay! Everyday’s a holiday.

Yesterday there was dinner with a well known Swedish filmmaker… small art films, not big commercial ones. Gunvor Nelson lives in the same Artists Area in K’hamn that Lorraine and Kjell do. (There’s a print of her house in the snow, done by Kjell that hangs in my office). Pizza. yum. Really, it’s a perfect vacation, lots of eating, lots of swimming, lots of talking to beloved friends and visiting beloved places.

And so I’m reading and enjoying life. Writing a little. And at the same time, fretting a little because after all… There’s a war on and my friend Sonia’s family is at risk. But I guess my prayers from here are carried as well as they might be if i were at home. It’s a very frightening time we live in. As Pope Francis, quickly becoming beloved, said: No more war! No more War! No more War!

Peace River Puzzle, llvl

When you live in this Valley, the River’s part of every story. And every story, no matter how universal, is local. We have to live where we are, make Peace where we are.

When I think of the Peace River I also think of the song, “Peace (Love, Hope) is flowing like a river, flowing out of you and me, flowing out into the desert, setting all the captives free…”

So, I want always to be near that river. To tenderly hold it when I can contain it, to release it when it is so much bigger than I am. To float on it when I’m able. and to be part of it when it will allow me. Peace River. La Vida Local. A committed Life. Peace.

Rainy Day Peace

My corner (or perhaps my center) of PA has been a little dry. We’re three inches short for the year. Which is odd, since March and April are often very wet months (April showers and all that.) Between the dry spell here and some conversations about the California drought — and very scary fires — Water and its lack have been on my mind. All of which is balanced, in a horrible kind of way, with the heavy storms the MidWest has been having.

But I might have looked at the weather before I wrote the poem. Here we were with a front about to stall over us. It rained so hard last night that I kept being awakened by the pummeling rain… I’m so unused to the sound.

But water. We really would do well to remember that it’s a sacred resource and must be treated with respect and reverence. We don’t need long showers to wake up, we don’t have to use a hose when a broom would do. We don’t need to plant flowers that don’t grow easily in our climate. It’s hard; it’s not what we’re used to — and the reverence is what our planet needs.

We all need to learn to share. It seems like we’ve forgotten this kindergarten staple. But your neighbor has pretty much the same needs that you do, and having more money doesn’t make you more deserving. How does the saying go — the rain falls on the just and the unjust? The universe doesn’t care, we’re all deserving of the bath and the blessing!

So, let’s think about water and how we use it. In many many parts of the world just access to Water is Peace.

Peace Tears, llvl

I don’t know why I’m so caught by the notion that our bodies know the difference between tears of joy and tears of onions. It’s not the first time I’ve noodled about this. But, see, our bodies really ARE our temples! We knew that, now they’re proving it. Different fats along with different minerals comprise the emotions leaking out of our eyes.

And then! Someone told me (someone who actually studied this sort of thing) that young men have some chemical in them that discourages them from crying that eventually goes away. Does it change their feelings? Is it so they aren’t saddened in the same way when we send them off to war — or does it mean that they just can’t get the emotions out when we ask them to do unspeakable things and bear unthinkable memories? (I tried to google this, but couldn’t figure out what to ask to get any information about anything other than babies. But this guy’s pretty meticulous about his research and his sources.)

What is the composition of the tears we release when we witness an act of Peace? Do we release the same chemicals or is everyone a completely different chemical stew suspended in life-giving water? Is there some connection between the tears we cry and the foods we should eat to be more Peaceful?

And in the long run… We should probably just commit more acts of Peace. And if we weep a bit, in joy of Peace, it’s not a bad thing…

Sacred Water Peace Blues, llvl

It was International Water Day (and I missed it! well, I was writing about something else.) If you’ve been following me long you know I love Water. My completely non-scientific take on my love for the wet stuff is that I’m an earth sign and it’s only in water that I decompress a bit… And of course, I am as they say in relation to matzoh balls, a floater… What’s not to like.

Many of my most precious memories are about water and times I spent in and on it. Chinese medicine would tell you that memories and inheritance are held in the kidneys… that water reference makes sense to me!

So to stop and contemplate what it would mean not to have free access to water for drinking, for bathing and for swimming is a terrible thing to imagine. We are so privileged here. We have so much. So why can’t we notice and appreciate? Why can’t we protect.

I’ve got grandchildren. Ones a great swimmer. The other one is a great mucker about in ponds… What if they don’t get to hop off the boat into the river to see what they can see? What if they can’t float down the river on something inflated and just thrill. And what… if like so much of the world…. we didn’t have safe drinking water. 6000 children die every day from unsafe water. We should fret about that. We should do something. We should stop certain someones from doing other things that endanger the water. As much as I like swimming, I like fresh water better… and I want it for all the children. I know you do too… How are we working for Peace?

This Peace or That One? LLVL

It’s hard to know sometimes where to go to work. There’s so much work to be done.

Peace is a multi-faceted creature. It is gentle, but firm It is silent, but outspoken. It is beautiful, but stark. It deals with power and hunger and justice at all levels. It is hopeful, but it is inexorable in its demands.

We can go to work and pull any little tendril that needs tending and start there. Some people can contemplate the tangle of possibilities in its entirety. I love to listen and watch those people think, but I’m more a nudger toward the tendril kinda person myself.

What is your relationship to Peace? What work do you do for it? How does it change your life?

I love this picture taken by my friend Deb. It captures a moment of indecision, a moment in-between. If you’re going to be present to life, you’ve got to notice and appreciate those moments. In the case of the weather it will go where the weather goes — the temperature will go up or down. You are invited to watch in amazement (and of course make sure you’re doing your part to care for the earth). In other moments of in-betweenness, you are needed, you are invited to step up and take responsibility. So, watch for the beauty, and step up when it’s your turn. Start local, it’s where Peace grows and starts to propagate. It’s where you grow best, as well. So, this one or that one? Why, yes, or course!

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.

Paradise, Peace and Ugly Reality

There I was, reveling in the beauty, focused on my own sweet task. The weather was unbelievable, out of season fabulous. The beach was clear and wide and clean. Impossible to tell there’d been a horrible hurricane just last year. And the water? September sweet. Warm and clean. No better place, it seemed, to lay my burden down.

And there was my cousin along with me. Her first step out into the world after a summer of back surgeries and setbacks remembering that she is a woman who travels. We have fun together, we laughed at the inconveniences. We both worked. (I worked, I read, it felt like old times. There was my brain, processing information, in what felt like forever. What was not to like?)

Well, of course, even in the midst of euphoria, reality intrudes. We’re not the only ones who came to this waterline. And not everyone came to worship.

Many came to gamble. Many came to party. Many came to work so that others can do those things. This is a town of gritty realities. I live tucked away a rural landscape where our gritty realities are spread out. Easily avoided. There’s no town square. Homeless people don’t “sleep rough in the woods.” They live right there, waking or sleeping. They panhandle.

People who gamble here do it on line, in the privacy of their homes. If they wander downstairs, dazed by their addictions or their losses, whose to see. Who’s to hear them through their thin walls, calling, begging for more money.

It was time to go home and start thinking about it all. Because that’s the irony, isn’t it. These things live side by side. We were finding Peace in this place because the price for sitting on the beach was right… and of course it was… because money was being made on folks whose seeking was so very different. But the magic of the water was there. The possibility of being present, there as well. All the tawdry tinsel in the world couldn’t change that. The couple in their 80s he in his wheelchair, she frail thing that she was, sat in the same spot every day, soaking in the wonder. The shoreline… so much happens there. Self-reflection… self-indulgence … immersion, in the water, and in the greater wonder.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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