Category Archives: Peace

A Place of Peace

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Have you ever missed something fascinating because it’s too close? Mentioned too often? Too unmysterious? This week I realized that in my years in San Diego, I had never visited the mission. I learned about it in grade school, but somehow never went to see it. So I did.

It’s the oldest in a string of missions winding up the coast of California. It was founded in 1769 by Father Junipero Serra. The original buildings are long gone, but those there now date from the 1830s. By California standards, that is historical indeed.

The mission is walled in with gates. The walls are high.

I wandered into the church. A caretaker locked the door behind me. I got the feeling it’s a protected, private place. But I was free to go through the church into the garden. Ah, the garden.

Here, inside the tall walls, I felt peace. Spring blooms scent the fresh air. Crosses made of bricks dot the grounds. The bells stand ready to ring. No noise, no cars, no hurry. Time doesn’t seem to matter.

My trip to the mission brought an unexpected respite from the hustle and bustle going on outside its walls. I plan to go back. Because I know it’s a place of peace.

How about you? Where do you go when you want to find a place of peace?

Linking up with Texture Tuesday, Sweet Shot Tuesdays,Tuesday Muse, and Communal Global.

Photos are processed with Kim Klassen’s textures History and 3003. Some of the photos have 2 textures, which is the assignment this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When You’re Feeling Spent

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Have you ever noticed that even a flower that’s bloomed some time ago is still a miracle? That a rose obviously not in its prime can be lovely if the light falls just so on it?

This pink rose, now spent, rests with dignity in an antique glass vase, lit by warm sun rays.

Here’s one that’s curled and frayed on the edges but still breathtaking against the light of day.

Even with petals askew, the rich texture and deep color of this bloom decorate the afternoon against the backdrop of sun sparkles.

This delicate bloom has opened and now spreads a bit far apart. We still marvel at its pale pink near-symmetry.

No longer able to hold up itself, this rose is gently laid on a table. Caught in sunlight, it is indeed a fragile creation worth beholding.

Some days we may not think we are in our prime. We may feel old, fatigued, befuddled, frayed on the edges. Our lives may be askew in some obvious way, or maybe only we see it as so. We may be spread too thin to handle everything on our to-do list. We may be so tired we can no longer hold our heads up and we collapse with the weight of the day.

In those moments — or days or years — look for the light streaming through, take pleasure in the sparkles in the background, bask in the sun’s warmth. Remember that you are a fragile creation with beauty and worth.

What does light in your life mean to you? Where do you look for it? In family, friends, faith in God, beauty? All of these?

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Inspired Tuesday, and Texture Tuesday. Photos were processed with Kim Klassen’s textures And Then Some and Waterstained.

 

 

 

 

 

Letting Gladness Win

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A rose, touched by the sun’s warm rays,
All its petals gently does unfold.
So you, when touched by God’s great mercy
Let joy and gladness win your soul.
– Jean Berger

This poem, set to a tender tune by a fine musician, just fit with the newly-opening roses, a surprise from my daughter for Mother’s Day.

When the light falls on us, we can turn to it and allow joy to win. Sometimes it’s a choice. We can choose joy or choose to remain in the shadow.

How about you? How can you choose joy this week? What can you do to let gladness win your soul?

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Inspired Tuesday, and Texture Tuesdays. Photo is processed with Kim Klassen’s Textures Chase and Happy Heart.

 

 

 

The Still Life

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Has your week been anything but still and peaceful? In my family, this week has included an auto accident resulting in a totaled car — but a son who is alive and very well, thank God. Unwelcome job news, friends struggling, a memorial service for someone I’ve known since my childhood. In the middle of the whirlwind comes the reminder: be still. Wind down. Look at priorities. Find the core of what matters.

Not a bad mantra as we head toward the weekend, no matter what it holds: Be still, be still.

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Project 52 at Kent Weakley’s blog, where the theme this week is Still Life. Photo is processed with Kim Klassen’s texture, Faved.

 

 

 

White-Bright Hope

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At first I was disappointed with my choice. My mission on a quick trip to the store was to pick up some flowers to decorate our home for Easter. I circled the display several times, enjoying the spring blooms for sale. Finally, I reluctantly bypassed the colorful tulips and mums and roses and chose the white lilies. Why? Because they are Easter lilies and this weekend was Easter. White, though, just didn’t excite me like the blooms of pink and red and purple.

Easter morning I looked at the “boring” white lilies again and saw them in a new way. These are regal, elegant blooms. They are simple, clean, not dependent on a hue to inspire us with their beauty. They are known as the flower of hope.

This week, when layer on layer of color and noise and busyness descend, I’m going to remember the lilies. Their message of simple, white-bright hope reaches up and reminds us to refocus on the pure core of life. The days filled with meetings, lists, laundry, dishes, and the rush of everyday dailiness — it can all fall away in the light of what will outlast everything else: faith, hope and love.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet….. Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

How about you? When life presses in on you, how do you regain focus?

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday , Inspired Tuesday, and Texture Tuesdays. Photos were processed with Kim Klassen’s Little Things and And Then Some.

 

 

 

 

 

Rescuing Emily

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The first time I met Emily my day was shrouded in trouble. A family emergency involving attorneys forced me to take the day off work. That afternoon, the crisis contained for the moment, I spent my free time venturing to the county animal shelter. A tiny gray cat huddled in her cage. She was so skinny that her bushy tail overshadowed her body, giving her the look of a squirrel. But her face and eyes shone with sweetness. A few days later, the soft gray bundle came home with me, and I named her Emily.

With a few weeks of nourishing food, Emily filled out and looked less like a squirrel and more like a cat. From the beginning, she purred. Look at her, she purrs. Talk to her, she purrs. Pat her, she purrs. Play with her, she purrs. She’s gentle and calm. She accepts everyone who visits. She has no darkness in her.

Last week I read a bumper sticker on a car with dog crates: “Who rescued who?” I rescued Emily from hunger and loneliness. I gave her a peaceful place to live. She fills my life with acceptance and light and graces my days with her peace. You could truly say we rescued each other that dark day years ago.

Today she enjoys viewing the world from her new red house. She sits inside and watches — and purrs.

How about you? Do you live with a pet who “rescued” you?

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesday, Inspired Tuesday, and Texture Tuesdays, where the assignment this week is “soft.” Emily is “soft,” yes?! Photo is processed with layers of Kim Klassen’s Shine and If Only.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building Your Neighborhood

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How are you doing on building your neighborhood, your community?

Here’s a picture of a community built on the sea by early settlers. Plimoth has been recreated so we can visit and get a sense of what it felt like to be a part of this long-ago neighborhood.

Winding dirt paths surrounded the houses so people could walk about and visit and work together.

They helped each other build their homes and fences.

They chopped trees and formed a community woodpile so they could all fight the cold of the New England winters.

They fashioned benches so they could sit in the sun and share a laugh.

The neighborhood contained people who worked hard, constructed things together, sat awhile with each other, talked, smiled, cared.

Our neighborhoods today don’t usually have wooden-stake fences. Some are online communities with no visible paths. Still, we can connect with others using invisible cords of friendship. As much as online interaction is maligned, it can be good. We can reach out to each other on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and other ways to form an ever-growing neighborhood not limited by land space. Our words, sent into cyberspace, can bring a smile, light up a face, prompt a laugh. We just need to be intentional enough to make it happen.

Who will you include in your neighborhood this week? Who needs a friendly hello from you? A chuckle? Who needs to figuratively sit and share a bench and just catch up on life with you?

 

 

 

 

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesdays and with Texture Tuesdays, where the theme this week is “black and white.” The photos of Plimoth are processed using Kim Klassen’s textures And Then Some and Crackerjack. Also linking up with Inspired Tuesday!

The wonderful Plimoth Plantation opened this week for the 2012 season. If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to visit! For a perspective on life from the view of the Pilgrims, here’s another post you may enjoy.

 

 

 

 

Picturing Peace

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How do you picture peace? Is your life peaceful on the surface but maybe not so
peaceful just below?

This is the tranquil scene I found recently in the countryside of Massachusetts.

Lexington Green

Trees turning red and yellow in early autumn, a white church steeple
punctuating the blue of the sky, a lush lawn laying a green carpet. A small
bench beckoning us to sit and enjoy. A picture of peace, right?

Yes, but here’s what this square block is: a battleground.

It’s been preserved more than 200 years now because here the first shots of the
American Revolution were fired. The colonists grabbed their rifles — the ones they owned
because they were farmers, not because they were trained military. They met
across the street in the tavern that still stands, waiting for the British
soldiers marching toward this spot.

The first blood shed in a long, gruesome conflict flowed on this patch of grass.

You could drive past this park and remain unaware of what happened here, except for
the large sculpture commemorating the rifle-bearing colonists. It’s worth
remembering Lexington because, from this violent encounter, an all-out war
resulted. The colonists won, against great odds, and today Americans live in
liberty unparalleled in the world.

Peace today covers the ground of battle at Lexington. Peace in my life is layered on
times of battle. While peace comes with no guarantees that it will last, I can
enjoy peace today more than if the battles had never happened. Sometimes peace
can be appreciated only because conflicts raged and resolved.

This is the whole picture of Lexington: guns and green together. Where are you right now? In a time of peace won through war? A time of conflict with peace still to come?

Linking up with Sweet Shot Tuesdays!

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