Life is much wilder, sweeter, violent, heartbreaking, weirder, richer, more insane, awful, beautiful and profound than we were prepared for as children, or that I am comfortable with as a grownup. In my Sunday School classes after tragedy, we always spend extra time making art- cards for children in the towns where shootings took place, or for the people in the regular church whose hearts are broken. Someone said that art is the greatest expression of the human spirit; my kids are glitter glue cantors. We’ve made garlands out of coffee filters to string in our fellowship hall, to remind people of peace and buoyancy. The paradox is that in the face of our meager efforts, we discover that in the smallest moments of taking in and making beauty, in actively being people of goodness and mercy and outreach, we are saved.
~Anne Lamott
why am I longing for peace?
inquiry for today~ where will you create a home for peace?
All throughout these months
as the shadows have lengthened,
this blessing has been gathering itself,
making ready, preparing for this night.
It has practiced walking in the dark,
traveling with its eyes closed,
feeling its way by memory by touch
by the pull of the moon even as it wanes.
So believe me when I tell you this blessing
will reach you even if you have not light enough to read it;
it will find you even though you cannot see it coming.
You will know the moment of its arriving by your
release of the breath you have held so long;
a loosening of the clenching in your hands,
of the clutch around your heart;
a thinning of the darkness that had drawn itself around you.
This blessing does not mean to take the night away
it knows its hidden roads,
knows the resting spots along the path,
knows what it means to travel in the company of a friend.
So when this blessing comes, take its hand.
Get up. Set out on the road you cannot see.
This is the night when you can trust that any direction you go,
you will be walking toward the dawn.
~Jan Richardson
Make Believe Boutique 