Allergy Peace

I’ve been having that lovely allergy feeling where you’re about 3 feet behind your brain. If I focus really hard, I can get things done, but… i have to be reeeeeeeeeeeeally focused.

But the fact is that whether I’m focused, whether it’s raining, whether I can’t seem to catch the attention of the angels who are supposed to be aligned and on my side, I am still called to work on Peace. Some days it goes more easily than others, but it is what it is.

But It’s spring, make sure you put some tissues in your bag when you pack!

Clinging to Peace

In the midst of Spring’s hope and promise is the cold reality of the volatility of the natural world and the hatred some people live with and impose upon the world.

It is challenging not to lump everything together into an overwhelming whole. It is important not to confuse our fears with other people’s realities. It is vital we keep doing the work we are capable of doing. There is Hope. There is Peace. There is Spring. We just have to rake the leaves away from all of them so the world can see and believe. It is slow and painstaking work. But it is the work to which we are called. All of us. Because we’re here in the midst of Life. What can we do but work for peace?

Peace on the Cusp

Well, I was up bright and early this morning. Well, actually, I was up early. The weather was a bit grumpy and so was I. But the weather… is bringing rain, wonderful rain. So Spring will feel so much springier at the end of this… And how can I resist… and why would I? I’m really hoping to convince folk that it takes far more energy to be grumpy than it does to just sit back and notice what happens… and appreciate it for what it is.

Although we can really see the cusp at this point of the year… a couple at the coffee place where I was meeting my wedding couple showed up: him in shorts and flipflops, her in a long sheepskin coat with hood. It’s that kind of day.

But you and I, whether in sheepskin or shorts, must opt for the good… The more of us who do, the more who will join us and the greater the odds we’ll reach the tipping point. So, c’mon, rain aside, early morning easing into the day… let’s go change the world. What’s your doin’ good thing today? I’d love to know! Back to (Peace) work!

(wish me luck and that I reap the benefits of my hard work at my recital tonight! Think of me at 7pm with notes floating out of my throat. Try not to laugh imagining me as a 19 year old Asian girl… but hey bigger and far better women than I have tried to convince you of the same thing!)

Peace of the Everywhere Extraordinary

I was at the funeral of an extraordinary woman yesterday. She was a doctor, an incredible trailblazer, out leading the way for women and having a wonderful time along the way. Until she got dementia, and even there, her partner and her partner’s sister, gave her care that we wish all people could receive.

I knew her only with her dementia. But at her funeral there were pictures of her life as a strong and vital woman. In her casket, she looked like the woman in her pictures and no longer like the woman living far back in her mind and body. So for me, for once the presence of a body at a funeral was very reassuring. She lived to a ripe old age. Before her disease claimed her, she delivered babies and babies and babies and cared for women who needed her help. (while flying planes, and hiking trails!)

I was brought up short in my, don’t I live in the most extraordinary place thoughts by the realization that everywhere and always, there are extraordinary people in our midst. Wherever we live, someone’s doing great work. And we can know them and be inspired by them; maybe even mentored by them into our own extraordinary selves. People like Dorothy Grace Wilson remind us that there’s no reason not to be the best you can be. And if you’ve done that that will linger in people’s hearts and souls… Apparently when Dr. Wilson was far into her illness, if you plopped a baby in her lap, she’d count its fingers and toes, check the shape of its head and the length of its limbs. “That’ll do,” she’d say. “That’ll do.”

Find a mirror and take a little stock yourself of the strength of your heart and power of your smile and the curiosity of your mind. Look yourself in the eye and proclaim, “That’ll do!” Then get on your way doing what you’re best at. Lead the world. No reason why you shouldn’t be the extraordinary person down the street. Peace grows from the hard work of being present and doing your work.

Peace of the Present

It’s so easy to want to move forward more quickly than life is ready to. Our wants and our passions and our willingness to work hard say that change ought to come quickly, now, in fact. But change comes as it does.

Leaning too far forward only makes us tumble headlong into puddles. The present isn’t always comfortable, there are often things that need to be worked out, sticky things that take time. But the future has its own problems — and we take our own problems along to it. Sure it looks glittery and easy, but that’s only because we haven’t brought ourselves and our stuff into it.

And what’s hilarious, well in that awful sort of way, is that most of us hate change because it’s hard. So why would we be leaping into it? Ah, because we don’t think we’ll have our same problems in the future. But that only happens if we work out the problems now and leave them in the past. And if we don’t get that done, and just leapfrog over things, then we’re going to spend way too many hours recovering from our premature forays into the future. (ok, get to the good news, Ann!)

The good news is the present is the crucible for the change we want. We’re the people stirring the pot… and we’re also in it, becoming the changed, alchemized metal that will build a new world. But we have to be present to be changed… and we want to leave as many of our “issues” behind as we go into the present. It’s in the crucible that we’re purified. Life doing its work. It’s hard work, this present. It’s amazing that future we’re envisioning… But it’s the path between them that is our Peace work. Happy Trails!

Visions, Transitions, Peace (Paradise!)

Most of us hate the neither this than that, which is always more accurately both this and that. But we? like one thing or the other. Evolution and Change are demanding partners.

So we complain when Spring gets sunny but not warm. We hate when the sky fills with Spring clouds and spits snow. And while we all relish the longer days, we also want to be done with our winter coats. (The dry cleaners are just waiting for our coats to show up!)

One of the hard things in the midst of the transition times is holding tight to the Vision. We’ve made plans and initial essays, but we need the full vision if we’re going to implement it. And it’s almooooooooooost time to implement it. In the meantime we keep preparing. Putting on our coats and taking them off. But if you can, find a protected corner and turn your face up to the sun. That rush of joy is what Peace feels like when it spreads across the land. It’s what Paradise feels like when everyone can participate. Grab those little reminders. They’ll give you (me!) fuel for the continued slog. Inhale. Exhale. Begin again with your Vision like a flag before you. We can get there. I have no doubts about that. But getting there means being present in this instant. Because remember, Audre Lorde reminded us in Litany for Survival, “This instant and this moment, we were never meant to survive.” So her advice was to thrive in the moment, to count your blessings and enjoy it, because tomorrow will be different and how stupid if you’ve just wished this away.

Paradise Peace

In the old myths, Paradise is created, we’re placed in it and then we’re chased from it. These days we point to all sorts of tragedies in the world and say, see? see? See how we’ve mistreated the gift?

No question, we have. But what if paradise is just a bit more resilient than that? What if Paradise is creeping back, all the time, working, working, working to inspire us? Helping us to remember. If Paradise is working to break out, can we inspire it, coax it, encourage it? Can we make more space for it? Can we aid it and do what’s needed to see that it flourishes here on Earth?

Living in Peace means beginning to make the Earth Paradise. You can’t live in Peace and ignore the environmental degradation. You can’t live in Peace and ignore the prisoner or those shoved to the margin by the world’s greed and left there by our indifference or hopelessness. Nope, every little shoot of hope you uncover, whatever your work, you are helping Paradise to thrive. This is our work, folks… creating Peace, uncovering Paradise!

Peace-abilities, Peace-ibilities

Is that too corny for words? I can’t tell you… I’m probably not the first person to consider these things — just because i haven’t seen it before, doesn’t mean it’s not out there. I did find I couldn’t decide between a word that meant I was capable and a word that meant things were possible.

But imagine: we could even have a PQ Peace-ability Quotient that we could improve, or classes in increasing the number of Peace-ibilities we can envision. I’d better stop, I’m beginning to build a Peace-ibility Empire! (and why not?) Whatever it is, we should give thanks and get to work!

(ps… i looked and there is some stuff… so, no empire, just a post!)

Big City Peace

Of course it’s not only in small towns that Peace is being made, we make it wherever we are. When I think about my life in New York, in particular, I think about the buzz. I was young and filled with restless energy and New York was a spectacular place to be for that. It was astonishing how many people you’d meet at a party or in the park doing fabulous, fascinating jobs. If you knew the right people, you could start a wave that moved across the boroughs and sometimes then out across the land and made a difference simply because it attracted a lot of attention. You can’t deny the importance of Star Power. And when I was working on things in the cities, it was always a goal to to grab some attention as you did the work because that would make the difference in whether or not things got the momentum they needed.

Wherever we are, we have to fit our Peacemaking skills to our context. But that’s the nature of Peacemaking isn’t it? So we work it in cities or in small towns and then find ways to connect our efforts to those of our cousins-in-spirit. Whether you’re a supercollider kinda Peace girl or boy, or a slow and steady wins the race one, Peace is waiting for our hearts to go to work.

A Civil Peace

Here’s the thing about high ideals. They require a lot of step-by-step on the ground work. So just when you’re thinking about buying the champagne and Peace bunting you realize that you have to be making Peace in your local community… and helping them to become Peace makers.

It’s one of the reasons we need to team up on this journey, because some of us work well at blue sky levels, some of us work better on the ground… and then of course there are those who work in between and some who just like to work behind the scenes, they’re all necessary.

But just as the Sandy Hook tragedy underlined the necessity but also the opportunity of working together, this spate of violent gang rapes while teens stand idly by and then text horrific pics and threats offers us the necessity and the opportunity to talk about public responsibility and public discourse. We’d all better take the opportunity. This isn’t a case of those kids over there. This is all of us. We’ve failed those kids. All the “don’t make them come along, sit at the table, participate in group activities” leniency we’ve offered our children has taught them they don’t need to participate. Technology is both an incredible opportunity for widening our world and a removal from first person experience.

I’m not sure what the answers are, but I do know we’re the folks to work on this. We need to relearn and to teach the arts of civil discourse and engagement. Life is a conversation in which there are exchanges and silences. If it’s about violence and threats and disinterest, that’s our work to repair. We need to look in the mirror and indulge in some moments of self-reflection. We need to be stepping up to the challenges, because our children need us. We need to be working on the Peace Conversation.

Sacred Village

Building a World of Peace, Village by Sacred Village.

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