Balancing Peace, llvl

I suffer (and therefore so do you) from intensity overload. I have focus but it tends to be all consuming. But working on an issue or a problem is more than simply laser focus. It’s about the down moments not just the exhilaration.

Peace doesn’t get made without being able to laugh at the missteps… and the successes.

Peace (Life? Love?) is an experiment. So let us do the work, but let us be filled with wonder when things move in the right direction. Let’s not be afraid to fail, because our failures make us smarter. Peace isn’t all or nothing, it’s what you have to work with now.

Finding the balance. This is our one precious life. Spend it wisely… and have a whole lot of fun. Because things will go wrong, you will be sad, you will screw up, and the fun and the great Possibility are what will enable you to come back to the Work of Peace. Find your balance, the trail is steep…

Science Peace: llvglobal

Well, of course, la vida local is also la vida global. We are all part of the interconnected web. And so much that’s astonishing in life has a really long lead time. Here‘s a wonderful video about a scientist hearing that what he believed, nurtured and cherished has come to fruition. The 30-year lead time on that knowledge doesn’t change the wonder. And his 30 year lead is predicated upon, built upon the science of others.

The science is ‘way beyond my comprehension… but the notion that one could “hear” echoes of the big bang billions (loads of zeros) of years ago — and actually of the “inflation” that happened one trillionth of a second (greater loads of zeros than the last load) after the bang… now that’s a thing of wonder. An inflation that unites us in wonder… and leaves us with the responsibility to unite in Peace. “Come together, right now.”

(how extraordinary is this! I totally get it that I may have gotten the science wrong, but my inability to wrap my arms around the extent of the possibility isn’t science’s fault — nor does it change the wonderment! Oh, my Daddy would have been so excited. Look kids, science is fun and extraordinary.)

Peace and la Vida Local

To be intentional. To be deliberate. To live here. To root here. To bloom here. To flourish here.

That’s the assignment and the art of living locally. To deliberately plant my roots and care how my living makes the locale better at the same time it makes my life better.

This becomes the Peace I can make. This becomes the Peace I can live in — because I know it. Or maybe those sentences should be reversed. I can begin to understand what Peace this Valley needs when I pay close attention to it.

And when I go away from it, as much as I love to travel, I long to know what’s happening back here at home. And extrovert that I am… home often means community. Not always but often.

A friend posited when I was younger, that I could always travel because I had such a good and healthy center in my family. Now, many of the people who formed that center are gone. Now I that I’m building my own healthy center, it’s harder to leave and sweeter to return. Sweet Wonder. Sweet Peace. Sweet Home.

Music-Making, Magic-Making, Peace-Making, llvl

My brother in law accuses me of believing in magic. I’m not sure he’s wrong.I don’t know that I know exactly what it is, but…

I’ve read about it enough, done that thing I do when I don’t make a lot of judgements one way or the other… sorta like heaven. don’t know… does it matter… be here now.

But the other evening, listening to the Sibelius played by the quartet… particularly the 2nd movement of whatever piece we were listening to, I know I have the program somewhere, it was as if I could see the music pouring into the center of the circle caused by their seating arrangement.It danced and curled and flourished, forming to a mind’s eye, a mind slipped half out of consciousness, a beautiful paisley of music. Oh, thought I, oh.

Could we use it, i wondered? Could such dancing power be used to fuel the Peace Journey. How do you gather that music together and thrust it toward, pull it toward, Peace?

It’s not often you see such focused power. It may be the form that causes it. Four players, each bringing their skills and gifts to bear on Music, on instruments, on a composer, on a community. Four players, the four directions, four different voices and talents; four, a solid foundation for a castle of sound.

If those notes and those players’ passions could be fused into a huge and paisleyed sword of Peace, how much hatred could be eviscerated or perhaps simply transcended by that overwhelming Beauty?

I couldn’t help but wonder.

HNY, LLVL, Peace

Whew! there are a whole buncho assignments! Is it possible to have a happy year, to live la vida local and to keep stretching out toward Peace?

I guess I think that the openness to the new (built on the old), the decision to pay attention leads us down the road toward Peace. Provided, of course that we agree that others in the world are invited to walk those paths with us.

Consciousness. Wonder. Love. Determination. All supremely difficult and challenging; all consummately simple. So, reflect a little. Determine to fill 2014 to the brim with wonderful memories. Commit to laughing a lot, a lot, a lot. And crying once in a while. Dream deeply. Resign yourself to the constant starting over a little smarter a little saner. Keep going down that Peace Road.

It could be a great year. Many more people might have what they need and the space to become who they’re meant to be. We could claim that space because the likelihood is if you’re reading me, you have a great many options. And then we could start expanding that space for others.

Want to resolve something? Resolve that you’ll be as kind as you’re meant to be. As generous. As observant. As happy. And then make it so. You’re already a wonder! Peace in 2014.

(and how about Deb’s opening photo? Pretty great, eh? Here’s to Deb Slade and her challenges to appreciate the beauty where we are.)

Wonder at Advent Peace

This is a night of wonder: Whether you’re awaiting the birth of a babe or the flight of reindeer or a moment of quiet, let heaven and nature sing…

I’m in a tough place right now… missing my sister, too many deaths around me, people living in impossible situations, it’s a bit overwhelming. And yet Christmas comes. For me, there’s the sweet familiarity of carols and ancient stories that remind us of great possibilities… and things that happen that we can’t even begin to understand…

don’t wonder at babes in stables, talking animals, angels in the heavens, reindeer in starry skies, fat guys in skinny chimneys, and presents under the tree? you’re missing a lot. how about the sweetness of friends and their generosity? all pretty wonderful. and a day of peace… can you let it be that and can you let it be wonderful?

Have I said in this blog that a bishop at a recent ordination meant to say we need to become apostles of the truth… and he said impossibles of the truth and I thought: brilliant!!!! Let’s be Impossibles of the Truth. and here’s the Truth: Peace is Possible… there is much to wonder at in that!

the awe is palpable on this night of Love… Happy Everything!

Acknowledge, Hope, (Wonder), Peace

How did we get so frozen?

We can’t accept things the way they are. We can’t forgive ourselves for our screw-ups and missteps… what hebrew calls “missing the mark,” even though religious traditions all call for that, but ah, right, most of us aren’t part of a religious community. And then, we have a hard time acknowledging the things that are right.

What have we done to ourselves? Everything gets so strapped down, no place for the wonder. Because it seems that might grow on acknowledgement of things that are going along the way they should. If we acknowledge what’s right, at the same time we accept and forgive, BOOM! there they are Possibilities — and aren’t they beautiful.

Right here, right now, in this holiday season… Life, Potential, Possibility, Peace, growing by leaps and bounds and we get to wonder at the Beauty. Let me just tell you how grateful I am for all the amazing things you have done. You’re really quite talented. (Now say thank you!)

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.

A Peace of Convenience

When I want to decouple from my busy and intense life, I tend to read fluff. Nothing shuts your brain off at the end of the day like a romance, mystery or fantasy novel. Some people like TV; it doesn’t work for me. So, in all of the regency romances (man, I’m REALLY baring my soul here!), there’s conversation about marriages of convenience.

So how is a trip to Alaska like a marriage of convenience you might ask? And what does that have to do with Peace exactly? Well, as I said, it’s not so much a marriage of convenience as it is a village of convenience. 50 people getting to know one another in 10 hour stretches. You find out a surprising amount about people… maybe not so much what they do back in the real world, but how they treat one another, how much they laugh… those things.

Well, Alaska is like Love, it seems, and conquers all. There we all were, hanging out the window oohing and ahhing at every little moose and caribou. We were joined together in wonder… and that made for a very pleasant, Peaceful village. Alaska triumphed and we all lived together Peacefully and happily, with generous offers to trade seats for great photos. It was a short-lived village, but it prospered.

Wonder. Beauty. Nature. It changes us. It helps us make Peace. Why, we wonder, don’t we let that happen more often? Why won’t we do it in the villages where we live and love everyday?

Peace of Wonder vs Fear

The last couple snows around here have been composed largely of those flakes the size of the palm of your hand. They’re the ones that are large enough that you can actually decode their beauty when they land on you.

And yet, I find myself, as they fall, rather than standing and staring, head back in wonder, squinting instead at the thermometer, worrying about what will happen when the mercury inches up a bit. Because late winter storms often turn to icy rain.

When did this happen? When did I turn into a woman fretting about what might be rather than one joyfully noticing what is? Perhaps my premature timidity is more of body at the moment than of spirit, but where the body goes, so must the spirit follow. I quail at the notion of skating, and yet as a child, we routinely picked up an 85-yo to take along to the pond with us and he would skate majestically too and fro. We hesitate to leave the house (is it that the appropriate footwear isn’t attractive?), and yet entire northern nations hop on their bikes in this winter and toddle off to work. They’re actually rejoicing in the notion that spring is coming when the flakes get large and wet.

Hmph. I think I’m going to have to mull on this a bit — and take some action. Because soon it won’t be just snow that circumscribes my dreams. Fear is a soul eater. Living in the present, pulling out the good, focusing on and magnifying it, offers the senses a banquet.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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