Feeding for Peace, llvl

It’s pretty bottom line. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, food and shelter come first. It’s astonishing and awful that we live in an abundant world where too many don’t care that so many go unfed.

If we move farther up the pyramid do we become incapable of imagining hunger? Is that why we’re so callous? It’s hard for me to comprehend that people are just mean. But certainly people find it hard to think beyond themselves…

Someone mentioned recently that happy used to mean that you had those basic needs met. Now we hear we can’t be happy until we have x or y or z.

But right here, in River City, people are hungry. $2 a weekend to feed a hungry child. $80 for a school year. $104 for a whole year if there were summer weekend feeding programs. It’s no money at all for a weekend. And a lot of money to feed the children who are hungry.

Other people will worry about how we got here. Or at least I hope so. I hope they’ll push and push and work to change it. It’s why we have a community, because I have another job to do. I’m going to walk around and ask for money. A little money and a lot of money. Because children are hungry. I’m going to ask you to become my ally in this and maybe a sponsor. Because children are hungry. And if you don’t live where I do, I’m going to ask you to look around. Same reason, hungry children.

There are so many reasons why hungry children are a terrible idea. Again, There are others working on that. But right here, right now… hungry children. No Justice no Peace. I hear you, Bob. Hungry children are injustice of the bitterest sort. You can go here, if you want to help locally. Pretty soon you can go there if you want to set up a weekend back pack program anywhere, because we’re going to have lots of good information about how to do that, working with the Food Banks. It’s a lot of work. But it’s important and fulfilling.

There is nothing more local than the people who live where you do. We’re aware that if we don’t tend to all of Nature, the World suffers. The same thing is true with society — we need, perhaps to become Deep Societal Ecologists. If the children aren’t fed, there are all sorts of implications down the line. Break in where you can. Feed local kids, become a local Peacemaker. Living la vida local. Living your Love locally. Peace.

Head Start Peace, llvl

Steve and I played and read yesterday at a local Head Start. Pennsylvania chooses a book every year to give to the kinds and local people are invited in to read it to the kids. Yesterday we got to be the guests in the classroom. (Year three for us and counting!)

It’s a fun day for us, once we get past the bothersome figuring out of who’s going to do what… play this, read it this way. But the joy of doing what you love and are good at with the one you love, we’re aware not everyone has that opportunity and we’re so grateful and flat out happy. And when you add in little ones and then Head Start the Happy Stew just gets richer.

When you’re privileged to walk into a Head Start class you can almost see kids stretching and growing through the patient love and skills of the teachers. When we talk about heros, it’s so often the folks who walk into burning buildings. But I’m telling you, it’s also the people (all women in this case) who, day after day, walk into a class full of youngsters and make a monumental change in their lives. Some of them are excited newbies; some of them are seasoned and constant. And always, there’s a class grandma with a lap full of contented child.

We were guests not only of the teachers, but also of people who train and evaluate those teachers. Their dedication to and faith in the Program is astonishing. When was the last time you went to a workplace where no one was jaded? It’s being present to a miracle.

Head Start matters, my friends. There’s talk about gutting it or getting rid of it altogether. Head Start helps to level a wildly inequitable playing field. It helps to make a difference at the beginning of children’s lives, starting them out to become strong and powerful adults. We need to take very good care of such an important process. Head Start is a constant reminder that magic is the result of very hard work.

Our keeping faith with Head Start is an important step in keeping faith with Peace. However you can help, from voting to lobbying, please do. Let’s make giving thanks an active verb, shall we?

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…

Team Peace, llvl

I read a great (and depressing) article in the Atlantic the other day that said that no one’s giving Venture Capital to people over 35. While I know I may have had good ideas at that point in my life, I would never had been as daring or as far sighted. And, you know, good ideas are not grand dreams!

And I was far more competitive.

And thanks to some great therapy and some great years, I’ve moved to a far more complementary working style, a collegial one, wherein i’m responsible for my work and I look for the ways your work props mine up (and my work props yours up) and then we go calmly (and sometimes excitedly) about changing the world. I’m excited that you’re so smart rather than being worried about your being smart in areas that I’m not. (although I continue to be jealous maybe envious of your talents in those areas in that wow how does he/she do that kinda way.

But when team work works? It’s amazing. And I’m grateful and pleased and proud. And happy to acknowledge the places you make life different and better and wonderful. And I don’t have to stew about the things I can’t do, because you’ve claimed them. You toss them off and it would take me 12 years to get them done. Thank you for being you and for letting me be me..

Not only Peace happens, but progress… and wow, isn’t that what we’re looking for? Let’s keep the water flowing over the dam, shall we?

Serendipitous Peace, llvl

What makes these things possible? Presence? Discipline? Sheer, unadulterated Luck? All of these? I don’t know.

I know I am humbled and grateful.

I would love to believe it’s my little village, but it’s not. Villages and Cities are filled with wonderful interesting people everywhere. It may be true that it’s easier to see one another in small towns… I can believe that. And I don’t know that it matters.

I’m here and for whatever reasons, I’m connected to amazing people. People who when we notice that children are hungry step up. I’m grateful every day for the team I get to work with. Caring people and very, very smart. And not just smart, but ingenious. There we are… making things happen. Things that need to happen. Things that matter. You don’t have to be the best at what you are, what you dream… you do need to be disciplined and consistent. You do need to be, dare I say it, earnest about your dreams and your determination. Earnestness translates; it sells. And selling is what we’re doing.

No one is going to feed hungry children unless you offer them the opportunity and give them a place to pay. It’s that simple… I didn’t always understand that, but there it is.

I believe fervently that we can do work that makes our hearts explode in our chests wherever we are. Yes, sometimes it’s that overwhelming. Yesterday was one of them. I adore this artist. If you’ve followed my work, you’ve adored her as well… She’s the woman who did the Peace mandalas for last year’s musings. A wonderful artist. She lives here. We show up at the same events — last night at Steve’s Musical Mash-up. She’d been there last week and we’d talked about mandalas, about the LOVE project, about doing a project together. We brainstormed words and phrases (while listening to our neighbors play astonishing music).

And then this week she came back. She’d played with words and found three that work. She taught me how to look into her designs and then she told me how her designs move. In and out; around. The designs are gorgeous and her explanations completely germane to the work we are doing. And so we will go to work… And this will be one more way to step up, to be socially active, to feed children… and one more way to think about what matters. And for us, it will be one more way to use our arts… to explore them… to apply them… to collaborate… for good, for community, for Peace.

Oh may your lives be this joyous and filled with magic! I am awed and grateful that mine is.

Home, Peace, LLVL

In the last year, I’ve had to pinch myself several times… I can’t quite believe my good fortune. I am living in a place that every part of me considers home. I love the landscape, I love the seasons. I love the communities. I love the opportunities. I love the Music and Art that get made here. I love that I get to be part of all of it.

In addition I am doing the work of my heart. All the pieces of it. I have good colleagues and fellow travelers on this Peace Road. Wonderful People keep walking into my life and We keep making connections.

I have to credit my husband with some of this drive toward joy and fulfillment. Until I met Steve a little more than years ago, I don’t know that I’d ever gotten to know anyone well who was as involved as he is in his Work and his Art. I’ve always been driven, but I don’t know that I’ve always reveled in the achievement of dreams… But here, it’s possible… Or, here I’ve figured out how to make it possible.

It feels like magic sometimes that I can love my life so much. But then I remember that magic (and life and love) are very hard work. and so is Peace. But… let’s do them anyway!

Peace Dawn in La Vida Local

It is that time of year when you get up just a bit earlier. The light calls. And it’s worth answering its call because it’s gorgeous if you can get yourself out of bed. But there’s more than Beauty waiting, there’s Possibility.

It’s time. Goodness knows I’ve put it off long enough this winter. I’ve been sad, I’ve been sleepy. I’ve been shoveling snow. And all those things are fine… they are what they are.

In addition, the project I’m working on has been too big to get my arms around until now… It’s still too big, but there are little moments of clarity. Little things are getting done (shout hallelujah!) that are making it possible to understand what it might be. The team is lining up and finding their feet… and we’re off tripping and figuring things out. (I’m not trying to tease, the minute I’ve got a website for this baby, you’ll hear from me!)

This is the time of year for figuring it out. It’s time (Ann, are you listening?) to set the alarm and get up and get going. Because the world needs just the brand of Peace you have to offer. Wake up, wake up, wake up, you sleepyhead. Sometimes waking up is the prayer you need to offer the world. Get up, get up, get up, get out of bed! You’ve got your work cut out for you! Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red! live, laugh, love and be happy! Joy is waiting for you. And Peace is made of Joy.

Holding out for Peace, llvl

I’m not sure whether things are actually worse than they were or whether I’ve just gotten an eyeful. But I’ve been astonished by the hate recently. Our government will not ratify a UN agreement on the rights of the disabled, even though it is built upon our own American Disabilities Act, because they will not pass anything. And they believe they are governing. In state governments, women’s rights are being narrowed, hatred toward our GLBT brothers and sisters is being codified, and someone has just introduced an act in a state legislature that allows parents and schools to “spank” (oh why use beat???) a child until a bruise is raised without any fear of reprisal. And around Christmas some fool governor posited that if only the child welfare/work laws were relaxed we could compete with other countries’ manufacturing prices, because you know, you don’t have to pay children the already unliving wage we’re paying/not paying adults.

I know, I have learned, that for me, the only useful response to what I find wrong in the world is to take action on what I can.

We all make Peace from where we stand. We contribute our gifts to pave the path.

But action is required. It worries me that we begin to believe that being outraged on Face Book changes life. Some of us go a bit farther and click through to petitions, and then we go back to posting charming distractions. And the dissonance continues to build.

I read recently that the distance separating the haves and have nots creates different mental distress. The have nots become depressed, which works to keep them from asking for what they want and need. The haves become narcissistic which encourages them to feel exploited (i know, difficult to quite get there, eh?) and protective, believing that, i don’t know, children should be beaten, women controlled and one fears to consider what they believe should happen to GLBT folk. Hidden under all this is racism.

There’s a delicate dance to be done of noticing the evil and not being beaten down by it. Of looking at the problems and rather than being overwhelmed, choosing the one small piece with which you can use your gifts and getting to work making a difference… Peace needs us… and we need Peace, but we’re only going to get there together… and by working very hard.

Neighborly Winter Peace, llvl

It’s a lovely thing, living in a town that’s small enough, at a pace that’s slow enough, that you can come to know your neighbors and what they’re really up to.

Suzanne is collecting coats to send to a reservation out West. The winter has been so cold and the poverty there is so extreme. And as she says, who doesn’t have a coat in their closet that they don’t wear all that often. She’s sent five boxes so far. She’s thinking about books next, because they don’t have enough books in their school libraries. And we have books by the truckload. Oh, said someone, they’ll be expensive to ship. Could they be more expensive than hungry minds? Probably not.

It was wonderful to talk to her and to hear not only what she’s doing, but why. To begin to understand what moved her heart and then moved her to action. It is good to sit with someone who is moved to action, even when they’re actions very different from ours, you understand the movement and it encourages your own. Hearts on the move toward Peace. However small the movement, however small the Peace. It’s what we need.

But living la vida local is also about the dailiness of life. And so, in Suzanne’s beautiful room, on a bluff high above the river, we sat as the day lengthened into evening talking about Big Hopes and little ones, her painting and my writing, people we knew and loved… just two women, living la vida local, doing the best we can, loving the community, and enjoying our lives to the fullest.

There we were: finding the moments, enjoying the Peace and the connections that’s already here, and then going back to work.

Baby, It’s Peace Out There, LLVL

or it could be. If we decided to make it so.

We not only need to dress for the weather (because it IS cold out there.), we also need to begin working for climate change. There have been other winters with cold weather no doubt about it, but when you put our chilly temps next to Australia’s boiling ones, you have to look pretty hard in the other direction to ignore that the world is changing. The news as always is this: We are the Ones we’ve been waiting for. (dammit.)

And Mother Earth needs us. Nature just responds to the cues it gets. We’re sending the wrong cues. Bottom line the Government, Big Business, the people in power are not going disrupt their plans unless we make it very clear what’s needed. I don’t know what that means; I don’t know what that looks like; but it’s not something we can just forget when it finally gets warm. Or warmer. Peace is our calling — it doesn’t break out on its own.

Has Mama’s thermostat broken? Does that mean cool summer or warm. Either. Both. Who knows. Probably.

Lots of things in this world, weather, hunger, war that need our support. Is life different now, harsher? Are we just better able to see it. Am I just old enough to be horrified? Or have we just gotten better information with a quicker spread… hard to say. But here we are.

And yes, in addition to everything else, you have to wear your warm clothes. It’s too darned cold for a fleece. And there’s work to be done. Time to step up; better wear your no-skid boots.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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