Peaceful Delay?

This is the longest I’ve gone without posting since starting this blog and realizing that people actually read it. For some reason, while in the peak of other life busy-ness, I was more inspired to post. Right now I’m in the post-frenzy lull. Here’s a great quote that appeared in the program of the big event WF and I helped coordinate last weekend, chosen by committee member Donna:

The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace. It destroys her own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of his own work because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
-Thomas Merton

Donna continues: “There is a desperate need for us to put all our strength into changing the world for the good. But the frenzy of doing wears us out. The grief of seeing tragedy wears us out.

Every year I have left (this event) renewed, because the art and celebration of peace give me the joy and hope to carry on. We need to do the hard work of peace, and we need to do the dancing of peace… We need to see the horror, and we need to see the beauty.”

Good words, Donna… and applicable to many other parts of the “struggle” as well. I even see this blog as a very small effort to reach out, share what I know and do, learn from others (ie reading their blogs), and try to make the world a better place. It can also be another thing that adds to the “frenzy of doing.”

Some of my early blog “models” (Liz, etc) are either taking a break or wondering about this practice- is it worth the time spent when there’s such limited time to get everything done? What is this blogging for?

I think for now, this is still a good practice for me to maintain. Besides the fact that it prompts me to write coherent sentences again, I think it helps me to look outward, to look at my life with a different eye. I’ve kept paper journals for years, but they can become places to wallow, to gaze too intently upon my navel. While that can serve a purpose, there’s not been much documentation of the outer life- the garden’s progress, our learning curve with the chickens, or the slow process of learning to be more self-sufficient.

I have no idea who all is really reading this, but I know someone’s out there, reading and sometimes commenting (hint, hint). I’ve heard that some of my fretting has made others think- about lead, etc. I’ve learned good things from other bloggers, stories I’ll tell WF as if we know the people involved. Weird, maybe, but still a connection. We don’t know enough people who are doing what we’re trying to do. If some of us can connect via computer, I think the time is well spent.

Plus, if I didn’t blog, what would I do with all of my random pictures?! Here is one to complete the cat pic trio; they are now all equally represented. Lutsen enjoys some good peace and quiet:



More thoughts to come!