Category: Substacks

In Hebrew, the word for sin translates as “missing the mark.” What a far cry from the first definition of I found when I consulted Mr. Bing: “an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.” (yuck!!!)

Continue reading “Peacemaking: Oops! Missing that Mark”

Peacemaking is hard spiritual work. It is hard emotional work. It is hard mental work. And yet the rewards of this work can be both breathtaking and Life-changing. For something that is a dance forward into Possibility, it takes immense courage and concentration, a lot of daring, and the willingness to miss the mark and begin again in Love. I know there are Peacemakers who don’t think of Peace as a Spiritual Path. For you and for every Peacemaker, I say thank you. We each come to our deepest values in various and sundry ways, and then we practice them differently. In Peacemaking our practices lead us to complementary work — to the making of Peace.  You have skills and knowledge that I may not.  Used in tandem, our unique skills and talents enhance our efforts in Peacemaking — and show the world how we can move Peace forward together.

Continue reading “Peacemaking: Our Private Searches and Practices”

Ah, welcome to summer. While there are delights to be shared with friends in every season, the juicy tastiness of a ripe peach may be my very favorite. How I love the fuzzy peach rubbing against my chin and the splurt of juice that follows. Oh, to celebrate fruits that cannot be contained within their skins for one. second. longer. Ahhh. How good is it to see the smiles of your friends savoring this full body experience and laughing at one another as the juice runs down our chins?

One of my fond family memories, is driving up Catawissa Mountain to buy baskets of fruit. Sometimes, during peach season we would make that drive twice a week and my parents would buy mixed half-bushel baskets of peaches. Whatever varieties were the “peaches of the week” filled those baskets to overflowing. We knew them all by name and waited with great anticipation for our favorites to come into season. Each peach had its distinctive flavor — sometimes subtle and sometimes wild, or winey — and they all tasted best bursting out of their fuzzy skins.

Peaches call for picnics. Picnics can be two or three people under a tree in the back yard; or they can be a great gathering under a pavilion or down by the creek. Tables or blankets are spread with all the summer vegetables and salads, cold meats, and peach delicacies- pies, dumplings, and shortcakes. We inhabitants of the Susquehanna Valley know that when you live rurally, you live by an agricultural calendar. Sometimes, if summer has been gracious, there can be a bit of a pause in the work that needs to be done. Making time for a mid-day picnic by creeks or light suppers under a pavilion somehow manage to sneak their way onto schedules. (Oh, and this is tomato season, so grandpa’s prized beauties with salt sprinkled from his pocket saltshaker are not to be overlooked.)

In Summer’s heat, with the bounty it offers, what if, rather than focusing on our differences, we simply chose to picnic together? What if the reason for getting together was as simple and as magical as enjoying the wonderous cantaloups ripening on the vine? In a world that is already cantankerous and uncertain, let’s build safety and community with a checkered table cloth spread with garden delights. What better way to make Peace than bonding over the shared sweetness of a juicy peach.

I live in the Bountiful Susquehanna Valley, we are offered the possibility of living in rhythm with the four seasons. Living this close to the earth, in our small communities, we are deeply linked by that rhythm. It is such a comfortable precious gift, why not welcome it and celebrate together? Our neighbors raise the same crops and eat the same foods. With only a minimum of employers, we often work where our neighbors work. We know each other. We sometimes allow our religious and political differences to divide us — but when we are in need, neighbors show up for one another. Why, I wonder, would we focus on unraveling the threads that may divide us, when there is so much that knits us together?

On the first of August I celebrate Lammas, which is the anglicized Celtic name of the day halfway between the Summer Solstice and the Autumn Equinox. When I think of this holiday, the first image that comes to mind is a bite from a ripe, juicy peace whose juice runs down my chin. Heaven. August makes me long for naps in a hammock strung between backyard trees or shared conversations on the edge of a creek (feet dipped in, of course).

Why work hard at the divisions, when we can turn to one another and offer a peach for Peace. What a difference this could make! Tell me, in the name of Peace, what’s your favorite Peach variety? What is your favorite way to enjoy them: pie, ice cream, shortcake, ice cream, canned for later, jams? There are as many ways for neighbors to make Peace as there are to serve your Peaches. I’m pretty sure that at least one of our local ice creameries is making peach Sundaes… Want to meet somewhere (even on line!) and indulge in the sweet, simple, shared joy of Peach Peace?

Salaam, Shalom, Peace, Blessed Be.

For all the differences between my brother and me, there are deep similarities that can take people a while to recognize. We’ve both lived away from home for much of our adult lives, we’ve lost the family members who made the bridges between us obvious. Now, at this stage of life, we are losing those who knew us when, those who totally understood how we are connected.

Continue reading “Ponds of Peace”

Slightly more than ten years ago, I dared to add a comma to my name followed by the word Peacemaker. Over the years there have been others, as I identified my gifts. Priestess became part of my identity in the 90s, as I began a communal liturgical ministry creating “Ceremonies Celebrating Your Life.” Poet was added when I realized that I had been writing poetry for the public daily for a few years — beginning to understand that Poetry is my way of sharing not only what I’m thinking, but how – and what – I’m doing about that thinking!

Continue reading “Peace: A Communal Practice”

After reading my column in our daily paper on helping soldiers to find Peace in our communities, a friend reminded me, “no one ever writes about the Peace Corps.” Of the many Peacemaker’s Ponderings columns I’ve written, I realized that was certainly true for me — despite knowing quite a few people who have served. This includes people in my life and people I’ve met in the course of performing weddings and other ceremonies. Peace Corps couples’ weddings are often filled with other Peace Corps folks. By the time I was doing weddings, the Peace Corps had been around long enough for me to celebrate couples whose parents had also been Peace Corps volunteers. Those were some story-telling weddings! That ability to tell stories, learned in the course of living in other lands and cultures, not only enabled the volunteers to understand other cultures, but also helped them make sense of the work they had done or were doing, allowing them to extend that way of working and teaching into the rest of their personal and professional lives.

Continue reading “Blessed are all the Peacemakers!”

Sometimes, when I come home from the trauma bay…
Sometimes, when I open the newspaper…
Sometimes, when I overhear a conversation…
I become dispirited. I just can’t.

Sometimes, the ugliness is overwhelming.
Sometimes, I’m tired.
Sometimes, I just don’t want to do this anymore.
But what else am I going to do?

Continue reading “A Peacemaker’s Grumble”

For many long years (gasp, nearly 50!) I have studied Tarot. Occasionally I cast cards for money, but mostly I’m interested in learning about Tarot and how people use and interpret the cards. When I retired from the ministry at a local Unitarian Universalist Church about six years ago, I decided I wanted to take a different look at the Major Arcana. The 22 power cards are the most interesting — and the most problematic for me. As a Peacemaker, the notion of hierarchy in practice is unacceptable. I find the archetypal images not only to be hierarchical, but also racist, sexist, ableist, and as well as out-of-date in the way I had learned them. I was also discomfited with the ways many depicted reversals, as the opposite of the good or the Possible.

Continue reading “Peacemaker’s Tarot Journey”

Welcome to my inaugural Substack article! I wear a lot of different hats, which you’ll see when you get to the tagline, and I’ve wanted a place where I can talk about all of them, and weave my work together. I’m a Peacemaker. It’s not where I started out, and there have been a lot of stops and starts along the way, but it is my soul work. Everything I’ve done has simply been honing focus, discerning my values, and developing skills to put my work out in the world. As I continue to post, you will see where my journey has taken me, and why Sacred Village is always home. Somewhere along the way, I turned into a Peace Bard — wandering the world creating ritual to form small sacred villages around people, family, communities and Nature and the World; experimenting with different writing styles, from Prose to Poetry; composing and performing Music; calling people’s attention to the Beauty and Wonder of this World; and exploring differing ways of creating communities of Peace.

Continue reading “Peacemaking for the Sacred Village”