death & life

This has been a weekend where much of my thoughts have centered on death.

Yesterday, we went out to the cemetery (although I like the term "Memory Lawn" better) and found the gravestone of my Grandma Bates. This may be wierd, but I have always loved memory lawns. I love to just walk through them and read all the stones, and think about the lives that were attached to those names and dates.

Today I found out that one of my favorite people in the world, my Momo, passed away this morning. (I'm still not sure how to say that out loud?... "passed away"?.... "died" has never felt right because I know there is still life on the other side... I don't know..." crossed over"? What is the best way to say that?

Maybe John Donne says it better...

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume;
when one man dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book,
but translated into a better language;
and every chapter must be so translated..."

However you say it,
I still miss her...

She was more than a grandmother.
She was my friend.

Pursuing Peace

We have a joke in our family where my sister and I always give each other the peace sign behind my dad's back. You see, when we were little (in the early 70s) flashing the peace sign was just as bad as saying a curse word. My father had some very strong opinions about hippies and the peace movement back then and didn't want his little girls showing any signs of following that path.

After hanging out with my sister last weekend, I learned a lot about an initiative that she has been volunteering with called The Peace Alliance. This grassroots movement has great ideas about establishing a Department of Peace (which ironically was first pursued by George Washinton's administration). And there is currently a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives (HR 808) to create this Department of Peace.

As I've been thinking about the whole idea of peace this week, I've come to several conclusions:

• it really takes a lot of time and energy to work for peace... it doesnt just happen...

• peace isn't just about international conflict and situations out of our control... its how we handle situations at work and in our relationships

• being a peacemaker doesn't make us flakey or "airy-fairy"... its an ancient and beautiful idea

silence and rhythm

As I started to write an apology for being silent for so long, I looked back at these entries and realized that I have already done that a couple times this year: last summer and the this time last year. And I thought, "maybe this is my rhythm.... to be silent/to absorb/to incubate every once in a while instead of always spewing thoughts" I guess that's more natural anyway, right? We have to breathe out... and in.

This has been a good time of questioning and exploring, and many of the ideas I've been wrestling with will be articulated here soon. If you are one of my good friends who happens the frequent here, I just want to thank you for the grace you have given me to be silent.