Dona Nobis Pacem - Peace on Earth

We can talk about peace, wish for it, worry about it. None of that will do a thing to influence it coming into the world.....so what will make a difference?

Peace comes in baby steps. It starts deep within each of us. It's a tiny little seed that we need to identify inside of us. We need to nurture it and water it and encourage it to grow. Then when it becomes to big for our bodies, it needs to be let out into the world. PEACE in the universe comes from a little peace that is within each of us. We need to work for it, exploit it, and treasure it for ouselves, for each other, and for the entire world. Let us start, today, to spread the gift of peace.

What a beautiful world it can be!

OF BLANKETS AND BOOKS

Retirement brought so many options. How to spend my time, what to do, where to go. I hustled from one interest to another, usually following my love of social justice issues. Sometimes I felt like I was meeting myself coming and going and I was running as fast as I could.

I was getting weary. Then something happened that made me pause and ponder. A joy happened in my life that stopped me in my tracks. My first grandchild Elijah was born. My focus went from a priorty of run, run, run and do, do, do to slow down, you move to fast, gotta make the morning last. I sat on my patio and pondered. I listened to what the trees and the birds were telling me. I breathed. The insight that came to me was I wanted, more then anything, to watch Elijah grow, to establish relationship with him. That meant spending as much time with him as possible. I want him to remind me of that childhood gift of just be-ing, and he is such an example of the pure joy of in the moment be-ing!

That led me to looking around, at me, at the things I enjoy doing, right where I am. I watched for signs that are always given to us, and I grabbed at them. Social justice issues in my own back-yard type of things.

I started gathering paper-back books and taking them to the local detention center. Hardly anyone does that and I filled a nitch. I remembered well my time in prison was spent hoping for books to read and coveting every one that came into my hands. Yesterday,my husband Tom and I delivered book number 3,000 to the jail. The inmates have little to do to occupy their time. Having books to read helps.

And then there are the blankets. When I was working in public health I started a blanket drive. I would walk along the river and give blankets to homeless folks living outside in the cold Wyoming winters. Somehow people just started giving me blankets, and I distribute them to agencies and others who will see that they get to people who need them. And I still walk the river.

And so I am doing my little piece in my home-town to make things a little easier for some folks.

I still think big justice issues are imporant and I will continue working on them. I'm just not running as fast these days. Sometimes great revelations come in small packages. Thank you Elijah for coming into my life!

Pax Tecum

FROM THEN TO NOW

I haven't written since March 17th. I love to write, but my blog would never know it. I do have excuses, and I think good ones. And here they are......

I did indeed become a Grandmother. It was, without doubt, one of the most joyous events in my life. His name is Elijah and he is five months old. Full of smiles and wonder and love. My sister gave me a wall hanging that says, "I used to think I was too old to fall in love again, but then I became a Grandma." I thought I had all the joy my life would allow when I had my children. I have learned that there is more, and I am immensely grateful to be able to experience the "icing on the cake"! My husband and I relish the role of grandparents.

The summer months have flown by, as always. We have camped out and breathed in the beauty of Wyoming. I have re-connected with family and extended family in gatherings around the area. And I am pursuing areas of interest that have long been on the back burner of my brain. Things like starting a children's book, and doing research on TB Camps of the 1920's in the mountains of Wyoming. Social justice issues continue to interest me.

Spiritually I am trying to assimulate a balance between action and contemplation, and feel inadequate in both areas most of the time. The poor continue to haunt me, and I look for signs to determine my path of solidarity to them and with them.

I love this prayer of St. Teresa of Avila:

Christ has no body now but yours
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which
Christ's compassion must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet with which
He is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands with which
He is to bless us now.

Let us continue trying.....

Pax Tecum

WAITING.....

Patience has always been the least of my redemptive features. I can still recall how it felt on Christmas Eve when I was just a kid living on Wy Ave in Buffalo, Wy. It was agony to wait for Christmas morning to open gifts. This lack of patience has followed me through my life.

Three years ago when I was sentenced to prison for civil disobedience, I had to wait two months before I finally walked through that steel door. Believe me, waiting those two months just added to the time I spent behind bars. Last year at this time I was waiting to go to Haiti to work at a clinic. I knew a month ahead I would be going, however it took time to organize the team, and so I waited.

These recent examples of wait happened in March. Here it is, March again and I am waiting again. This time, perhaps for the most joyous, anticipated reason of all for waiting.....the birth of my first grand-child! This wait resembles the other waits. There is some anxiety, some reflection, some longing that my reality was not in a holding pattern but in full motion. ON WITH IT! But this time the wait is not about me. It's about an angel about to be. A new spirit deciding when to enter this world. This child of God who will change our view of life forever.

It takes my breath away to think about it. Perhaps this March wait time will be the one to teach me about the gift of waiting, in fact, I think it already has....

Pax Tecum