We all Need Safe, Peaceful Community

On my way into a restaurant the other day, I interrupted a middle-aged man who was leaning in to talk to the young hostess. The situation made me so uncomfortable that I walked around him and stood where she could see me. She immediately slipped into business mode, and asked me questions about seating. As the man started to walk out, he said, “well, if I don’t see you, I hope you have a great rest of your life.”

After lunch, I asked the hostess if he had been hitting on her. “Oh, ick, I’m 17.” “Exactly,” I said. She looked a little troubled and then confided she no longer felt safe going into some stores and visiting certain areas of the Valley. She and I then had a conversation and did a little role-playing in the empty entrance about occupying her space when there were bullies around.

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A Reading on the Peace that Violets Offer

On Earth Day, I decided to do a Peace reading, leaning on the beauty of my beloved violets. They absolutely delight me as they slowly unfurl and then begin their electric Spring scamper across the lawn… I thought: What if I were to ask the Major Arcana from my deck, Peacemaker’s Tarot for the 21st Century, and see what the violets wanted us to think about and, how in this season, we can be most deliberate, but also sassy about Peace and building Peaceful Community. I spent time with the violets, then I laid the reading out in the shape of a violet and named the value each petal would represent. And then I pulled my cards.

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