Ponderings – Page 5 – Peacemaker Priestess

What verb do you use with Faith?

People ask, do you have faith? Presumably they mean in something. Doesn’t that question seem lacking in ambition? It’s the “Yes, I believe in something and that something doesn’t require anything at all from me to take care of me,” answer to living life. It’s lazy.

Faith requires a far more active verb than simply holding. The verb that best suits Faith is keeping. We keep faith with the things we believe by doing work that models that in the world. If we believe Peace to be the utmost possibility, how can we, why would we keep from delighting in it, being grateful for it, pointing it out to folks when it shows up, and practicing it so that others might consider participation?

Your Beliefs: Where Your Heart Rests

At some point in your very young life, you believed in something wholeheartedly. It might have been your parents, the Divine, Santa Claus, Fairies, Trees, or Magic. Probably it was a heady elixir of all those things.

Hopefully you learned as you grew that they perhaps were not as omnipotent as you had thought… at that point, you began seeking other places your heart might be safe. All too often, someone takes it upon themselves to let us know that one or many of these entities were, shall we say, not as powerful as we had hoped.

The Call: Hearing Your Heart’s Whisper

February 1^st celebrates the seeds of the next section of our lives. In addition to its celebration of the light and the first new agricultural babies of the year, and the milk their mothers let down, in earlier times it was also a season of initiation. After several days of fasting and meditating, initiates would emerge from cells to claim their place in the community and the gifts they would share.

This makes this a particularly important week to consider your “call.” What is a call? I believe it is the thing the longing to do the one thing you are best equipped to do, the thing, which when undertaken, is not a chore to develop, and even when challenging, makes you know you are using you gifts to their deepest abilities. You’re where you belong to be, doing what you need to do.

Living a Peacemaker’s Life

Becoming a Peacemaker is an honorable goal. As with every goal, there’s quite a bit of work to be done before you are really living into Peacemaking. (Keep reading! It gets more encouraging!) You don’t have to have completed all the work before beginning your Peacemaking — but it’s a good idea to engage with all of the components I detail below so that your style of Peacemaking becomes a natural expression of who you are.

Each of us finds our own way into Peacemaking. Writing about Peace set me on the Peacepath. As many of you may know, I have been writing daily musings for 12 years now. If you’d like to sign up, you can do so here. Since October, I’ve also been reading them on TikTok, so if you’d rather listen, find me there at Tiktok/annkeelerevans. My current musings explore what comprises a Peacemaker’s life. They are reflective exercises on principles and values – the components I consider central to Peacemaking. I now have a list of fifteen components which are detailed below. They are mostly in the order I think makes sense to consider, but you may find you’ll want to reflect on them in the order that is most meaningful for your Peacemaking.

Haunted by a Hit to the Heart (and what it means)

On January 2, 2023, in a Buffalo Bills/Cincinnati Bengals game, Buffalo Bill Damar Hamlin tackled Tee Higgens. Mr. Higgens, running full-speed hit Mr. Hamlin in the chest and head area. In a weird, horrific accident, that hit caused Mr. Hamlin’s heart to short-circuit and stop. Damar Hamlin is now out of the hospital and back home in Buffalo. I have no idea what impact this will have on his career. I wonder what impact it will have on Tee Higgens?

This was a powerful moment to share.

I have been haunted by the fact that when struck just right/wrong, a heart, thought to be safe within its bony cavity can stop. Can break. Evolution has done what it can to keep us safe. But there are always ways around evolution, aren’t there?

Prepare for Peace in 2023

Becoming a Peacemaker requires us to make fundamental changes in how we comprehend the world. Only when we actually begin to consider Peacemaking as a way of life, do we realize how much work it is. Not to be discouraging, but let’s be realistic.

Because our conflict torn world has taught us to think of Peace as pie in the sky, we think of it as magic. Magic that we see, not that we do. Because anyone who does magic can tell you that magic is very hard work. It requires one to master many small steps that then must be folded into one smooth action. Wow! “Presto Change-o!” The Magician says that, but they know that they’ve performed steps A-Z to get there.

Peace entails mastering the small steps which then tumble into a gorgeous pathway. We are impatient about mastering the beginning steps and instead want to start with a major accomplishment, “Presto!” Peacemaking is the sum of all the small steps that only in retrospect look like a complete shift.

Throngs of Angels Singing and Bells Wildly Ringing

As a child, I cherished memories of candle-lit churches smelling of greens, filled with choirs and organ music and the pealing of the bells.

It’s odd, reflecting back, that so many beloved memories are of celebrations of sound that paid homage to the story. As soon as days become shorter and nights grow colder, my heart opens, waiting, waiting, waiting for proclamations and celebrations of Peace on Earth.

The Animals at Midwinter

Many traditions tell stories about how, in the deep of MidWinter, if we listen closely, we can hear the animals talking.

As a child, when I heard about this, I believed, hoping against hope, they would say something special to me — just me. Ah, the self-centeredness of childhood and the deep trusting faith. I believed, because I wanted to, that there was only one special night when they would call our names, rather than there being only one special night when we would deign to listen.

“The Dark, Sacred Night”*

On the first of December, in my little town, we celebrated the December sky and the encroaching Dark. Working with Fact, Story, and Music, we discovered stars, watched a grandfather assume the responsibility of being a revolving earth while a little one embodied the Sun with so much dignity and finesse. We learned how to find the North Star and wondered if it would help us find our way home. We heard the Gong whisper the night sounds of winter as together, we formed a tree and became a connected living entity that slowly transformed into a festival of lights.

The glittering sky was, in that moment, all the holiday we needed and everyone was invited.

Kerfluffles Are Not the Way of Peace

Kerfluffles are not the way of Peace.This has been a hard but useful lesson for me. What’s a kerfluffle you ask? According to Google, it is “a commotion or fuss, especially one caused by conflicting views.” Think of it as indirect or inappropriately directed complaints that cause an upset, but do to solve a problem. I am somewhat conflict avoidant, which might surprise people who don’t know me well. I easily speak up on behalf of someone else, but I have been known to complain indirectly, to the wrong people, about something with which they have nothing to do and no power to make a difference. Which, in essence, is whining and gossiping — kerfluffling. Ew.

Complaining and making a fuss are not Peacemaking activities. They are, however, very easily engaged in, human activities. How do you respond when you observe these behaviors in others? My reaction is to get huffy, most likely because they offer me an opportunity to gaze into a mirror at my own unlovely, kerfluffling expression.