Let There Be Peace on Earth and Let it Begin With Me

Today was such a good day. The kids and I are still here in Iowa and not doing too much of anything except drinking coffee, swimming at the pool, catching and releasing frogs, and eating too much.

My cousins and aunt and uncle came over today.  The kids all play and it feels like the next generation of cousins making their way.  We don't know what are kids are to each other--Robin has figured it out--they are second cousins of some sort we think.  As Calvin said--it doesn't matter, there is a place for everybody.

The conversation was very light today.  We have so much common ground.  Gardening, religion, music, the kids, education, our memories.  Great Grandma Hope would say that we were letting peace on earth begin with peace in ourselves.  (We sang her favorite song, Let There Be Peace on Earth, at every family function.) This was our first real get together without her.  There was a lot of peace. There was also a tender moment for me when my Uncle Dave was sitting in my dad's old chair and Mary never skipped a beat and climbed right up in his lap.  That is what you do when someone sits in that chair.  She was happy and Uncle Dave was happy.  And I was happy too.

I might add that it is really nice for families to get together even when nobody is dead or dying.

Today was good for other reasons too.  I'll say it again, there was just a lot of peace flowing around.

Tomorrow afternoon we go home.  Our little Sabbath is over.  I go back to being the axle of a many spoked wheel.  That is not my metaphor--it belongs to Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift From the Sea.  Without these little breaks in life our axle becomes uncentered and the wheel wobbles.  The forces of life fragment us.  Lindbergh suggests that we take time alone each year, each week, and each day to center ourselves--to realign.  For parents, that can sometimes seem impossible.  Days go by when I am with someone --child--spouse--student--from dawn to dusk.  There will be days when we must find the stillness within chaos--but still we are better equipped after a rest.  And, I recommit to taking that time each day in solitude to keep the wheels running smoothly.