March 2025 – Peacemaker Priestess

Creating Safe, Peaceful Community

In the month of February, I was privileged to spend two weeks in Antarctica. During the lead-up to the trip we were coached on the things that would make our trip the most enjoyable and personally profitable. At the top of the list was Safety. Safety would guide all our movements. If at any moment a boat ride or a landing became unsafe, the outing would be aborted, and we would return to the boat immediately. When the boat rocked and rolled while crossing the Drake Passage, I really gained a visceral understanding of the meaning of safety. Passengers remembered to stay in contact with a wall, to latch doors after ourselves, not to leave precious objects unsecured. It’s a challenge to feel Peace when a ship is rocking and rolling, yet trusting the advice and skills of the crew make it a possibility.

Emerging into Peace: Creating Peaceful Community

“Every moment is a fresh beginning.”
— T.S. Eliot

For the last 40 years, I have marked time with the turning of the seasons. These dates have become even more important since I claimed my dedication to Peace. My work now is to discern and accept each season’s invitation to explore its particular Peace… the Peace of the cycle, the spiral, the Peace in which we dwell. The constancy of the Peace of the seasons is a powerful encouragement to me that if there can be Peace in Earth, there can be Peace on Earth.

An Understanding of the Peace of Living and Dying in Hospital Settings

To everything there is a season…

As a Peacemaker, I am most focused on Peacemaking within communities. It is rare for me to focus on a particular group. Recently, as a hospital chaplain, I was asked to have a second-year medical student shadow me as I went about my day. During that time, I began to suspect that, in the ways we teach our young upcoming doctors about their responsibility for curing patients how great a disservice we do them and ultimately the patients they will serve. I realized that my Peacemaking skills might be useful in supporting these soon-to-be practitioners. Let’s start before the students arrive.