Tag: Peace

“You Tell Me That It’s Evolution!”

The second line of the John Lennon’s “Revolution” switches from revolution to evolution. Wise man. This is what will take us to Peace rather than confrontation.

As we begin to turn our faces toward Hope, we change, we soften, we look forward to expanded possibilities. When I say we change, I mean that our outlook changes, and our abilities to look for new solutions that have everything to do with softening barriers and building bridges expands. 

What would mean to us to live in invitation rather than response? How much easier, how much more Joyous would our lives be? 

At the beginning of the summer, I was allowed back in the swimming pool as part of my healing from my left knee replacement. For the first time in forever, I was able to move easily. More importantly, I was outside, immersed in cool water under blue skies, surrounded by canopies of tall trees — in short, I was completely in my body and in my Joy. 

After the first couple days of being present to that, I realized that I was spending at least a half an hour a day in Joy. It was delightful. What would it be like, I wondered, to live deliberately in Joy? 

I’m a water baby, so while the pool was open, it seemed fairly straightforward to exercise my new knee and my Joy. As the season drew to a close, I needed to reconsider. I chose to move from water-walking in a pool to water-walking in a lake. That offered a different kind of heaven. And this week, I was swimming in the ocean.

The weather will change and I will find my joy somewhere else. I have a bit of time to ponder, because the weather will be warm enough for me to swim in the lake. But Joy is seductive. I’ll find my next joy. As I indulge the Joy, my face lifts easily toward Peace. 

What brings you great Joy? How do you make space for it in your life? How do you allow it to fuel your life and lead you toward Peace? Have you even considered such a thing? Let me suggest that you do!

Salaam, Shalom, Peace. Blessed be.

Why I got here from there!

Welcome Fellow Peacemakers!

I love talking about what I believe Peace means, but you deserve to know why it matters to me personally. Partially because I care about you and partially because I believe that telling our stories helps others envision their own ways in. My story is one filled with privilege, joy, and a lot of challenge. I had a wonderful family and childhood. In those times, I grew a trusting and reaching heart.

I grew up in a faith tradition that was healthy and formative for me. I was always a child who worried about fairness — since no one had taught me about equity — and I grew into an adult who continued to pay attention to what worked and what didn’t in societies. I traveled a bit and I began to understand how other communities made sense of things and built deeper relationships. As a young adult I lived in New York City and wept as AIDS ravaged my community of friends and despaired of the world’s response. That deepened my understanding and commitment to acting on my deepest values. Although I have left my faith tradition of origin, I am still seeking the beliefs that support my soul. My journey enabled me to see the places where things worked and didn’t for different groups of people.

I married a complicated and larger-than-life man. One of the great gifts of our marriage were his two amazing daughters and their families. Both my grandchildren are a quarter Chinese. My niece married a man from Kenya, her children are mixed race. A picture of a dear friend from college with her beautiful, bouncing, black baby boys in fuzzy slippers jarred me into action. I read and took workshops in racism and other isms. I was challenged, and I accepted the challenge to become an activist for the work of a Just world.

Today, I’m a Priestess and Peacemaker. I’m a different kind of activist — one that is perhaps not what most understand as activist, but one fiercely committed to change for the better. I’m a thealogian (which is to say, I find my deepest meaning in relationship with the Divine Feminine.). There will be more about what Peacemaking means to me in a later blog. However, in my Peacemaking is both the obligation and the privilege to care for and about the world, critters, creatures, planet, and all. Another crucial component of this is deepening and celebrating my relationship with my own health, well-being and joy. What is your story that leads to your deepest values?

Peace, Shalom, Salaam. Blessed be.