DECEMBER 13: OUR MONTH TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD by Colleen Keating

Monday 13th December

  

   

Day 13

A day in the garden.

We planted out 4 new mandevillas, dark red,   checked out and marvelled at our two Kangaroos Paws, Bush Bonaza, and Bush Blitz,  our lettuce and herbs

. . .  all doing so well and our soft pink rose opens each new bud with a gentle sigh .

When we come to peace with our own limitations, we come to understand and accept

the limitations of others.

“As we learn to have compassion for ourselves,”

the Buddhist nun Pema Chödrön writes,

“the circle of compassion for others becomes wider.”

 

DECEMBER 12: OUR MONTH TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD by Colleen Keating

Monday 12th  DECEMBER

Day 12

Poetry is a life-cherishing force. For poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry – Mary Oliver from  A  Poetry Handbook

1.When you feel conflicted    read Wild Geese

You do not have to be good. 
You do not have to walk on your knees 
for a hundred miles 
through the desert,
repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal
of your body 
love what it loves

2. When you are feeling down or grieving   read Starlings in Winter

I want to think again
dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbable beautiful
 and afraid of nothing, 
as though I had wings.

3. When you want to put up boundaries  read Lead

I tell you this to break your heart,
by which I mean 
only that it break open 
and never close again
to rest of the world.  

4. When you feel you are living without purpose  read The Summer Day 

Tell me, 
what is it you plan to do 
with your one wild and precious life?

5. When you are too caught up in your own thoughts and worries   read  I Go Down to the Shore

I go down to the shore in the morning
 and depending on the hour 
the waves are rolling in or moving out, 
and I say,

Oh, I am miserable,
what shall 
what should I do?
And the sea says in its lovely voice,
Excuse me, I have work to do . 

On a practical level we had one of our youngest grandchildren staying with us for the weekend. 

Today, Sunday morning, began with reading of books in my bed, a game of banana using the letters in patterns, then building, then finding a target to shoot foam bullets , then he needed the plank set up and to play cars with Pa. And it was only 9 oclock. so setting out on the adventure slowed us down a little, except the weather was wild with blue sky changing to a wild windy storm gone as quickly as it arrived.

We took him on an adventure  – three train, one train took in 4 stations to Beecroft with an awesome childrens park . Then train  with 5 stations to Hornsby and a visit to the library with a great childrens section for reading, and train three of one station and walk home. We were all very tired at the end of the adveneture.    Back home it was playdough then  colouring in a monster.  (for about 10mins. ) coits , and then we stopped . Then his dad arrived from an appointment he had in city and they set back off for Coffs Harbour,

    

  1. Playing cars on Pa’s special ramp.  2. Adventure a train ride to the Hornsby library .

DECEMBER 11: OUR MONTH TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD by Colleen Keating

 

Sunday 11th DECEMBER

Day 11

And the miraculous comes so close   (Written in Russia in 1921)

“Everything is plundered, betrayed, sold, 
Death’s great black wing scrapes the air, 
Misery gnaws to the bone. 
Why then do we not despair? 
By day, from surrounding woods, 
Cherries blow summer into town;

At night the deep transparent skies
Glitter with new galaxies. 
And the miraculous comes so close 
To the ruined, dirty houses—
Something not known to anyone at all,
But wild in our breast for centuries.” 

-Anna Akhmatova (1921)
A young Russian poet writing this in 1921 in a country at war with itself. And yet she could write this hope . . . 

When we use violence as an answer to violence, all we manage to do in the end is to become what we hate. “Actions initiated in anger,” Sylvia Boorstein wrote, “perpetuate suffering.”

I remember my beautiful Aunty Tess who would be 90 today. Since I was young we have shared our birthdays. And I miss her friendship and her wisdom very much. 

 

And Master D arrived with his Dad to stay for a few days with us. His Dad has a funeral on Monday so we are having him. So far great fun looking for our frog, feeding Mr Kooky, counting the cockatoos

 

DECEMBER 10: OUR MONTH TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD by Colleen Keating

Saturday 10 th DECEMBER

Day 10

You are encircled by the arms of the mystery of God.   ~ Hildegard of Bingen

These words of Hildegard came to me when I saw the duckling being protected across the bridge . If a mother and father ducks protect their babies like these two did how much more would are we protected by a great Spirit of love? (Father is just ahead, leading the way)

 

Peace is not a noun;

it is a verb.

It re- quires us to spend ourselves in its pursuit. 

Our seasonal walk called a Ginko. Today it is the second Saturday of summer and we gathered as a group of haikuists to walk in the Japanese gardens in East Gosford  and write down our reflections and share our observation and drafts  as we work them into haiku. Our group called White Pebbles included meeting, coffee, walking and then our work together. This is the 10 th day of my birthday month and it was lovely the group sang Happy Birthday to me and surprised me with a birthday card. (How Beverley remembered I am not sure).  

The Edogawa Commemorative Gardens and  Gosford Regional Gallery is the venue for White Pebbles 

December is unfolding as a very special birthday month. Every day is special.

garden

harmony of  magpie song

and sözu

 

     

A sōzu is a type of water fountain used in Japanese gardens.

It consists of a segmented tube, usually of bamboo, pivoted to one side of its balance point.

At rest, its heavier end is down and resting against a rock.

A trickle of water into the upper end of the tube accumulates and eventually moves the tube’s centre of gravity past the pivot, causing the tube to rotate and dump out the water. The heavier end then falls back against the rock, making a sharp sound, and the cycle is repeated.

These fountains were originally intended to startle any herbivores, such as deer or boars, which might be grazing on the plants in the garden, but shishi-odoshi are now a part of the visual and aural design of gardens, and are used primarily for their aesthetic value.

 

DECEMBER 9: OUR MONTH TO BE AT PEACE WITH THE WORLD by Colleen Keating

Friday 9th DECEMBER

Day 9

The Swan

Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air –
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music – like the rain pelting the trees – like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds –
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?

– Mary Oliver

How did I feel , in my heart, today as I met my dear friend and confidente and school friend from many decades back and as I received a text from another dear friend with her sharing of a tree she saw on her morning walk . . . its leaves in the light, breathtaking? 

And have I finally figured out what beauty is for ? 

I can only say I have come a little closer to those questions and as one poet says I am living into the answers. 

One thing I do know  Nature  for my friends and I is saviour . And with my friends we both agree from our deep spiritual awareness, Nature speaks to us   as the one who helps show us the way and nature is our chapel, church and cathedral.

Buildings where we once felt secure do nothing now for us compared to  the shape, colour, texture, smell, story, feel of  nature especially a tree.

And in this beauty  is peace. Peace for all the world??

Each of us cannot make that happen. We can only work towards it in the place where we stand.

We can only make it in the person we are and let it radiate out from there and hoping  there are enough of us that feel and act that way so that  it hits the tipping point  for peaceful ways, peaceful answers, peaceful solutions rather than always falling back into fighting and wars.  Peace can reign and life is happy for both sides of any conflict when resolutions are worked on. 

Paperbarks on my Lake Walk

speak in theirs tones of browns and cream and buff
their conversations stance all unique, feminine and real,
their rootedness, grounding and sense of place

reminding me to be present to every moment of the day 
their texture that encourage me to race home and write
and in the sound of their leaves rustling in the breeze

DECEMBER 8: OUR MONTH TO BE THE PEACE WE WISH FOR by Colleen Keating  

Thursday 8th DECEMBER

Day 8 

Very little grows on jagged rock.

Be ground. Be crumbled.

So wildflowers will come up

where you are.

You have been stoney for too many years.

Try something different.

Surrender.

by Rumi

                                 

 Surrender . Be at peace. How many times do we feel power force strength are the way forward. We shoulf say every morning ‘SURRENDER’

The philosophers know that simply being tough enough to subdue an adversary– physically, emotionally, verbally— does not guarantee peace. It only assures me that the situation will continue long after the initial struggle ends. “Soft is stronger than hard,”Hermann Hesse wrote, “water stronger than rock, love stronger than force.”

Christmas parties are the thing this week. One special group the Women Writers Network WWN met as it has every year (weather permitting) Under the Magnolia tree and we met  – some of us for the first time since covid. We shared poems that made us laugh, we popped a few bottles of Champas and shared  special treats and chocolate,  Later the same day in the evening we met the Norm’s Poetry group and again shared  our work and a party. 

 

DECEMBER 7: OUR MONTH TO BE THE PEACE WE WISH FOR by Colleen Keating

 Wednesday 7th DECEMBER

Day 7

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing 

and rightdoing there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass

the world is too full to talk about.

Rumi

Early this morning I refound a poem titled Loud by poet laureate  (2009-2019) Carol Ann Duffy. It begins with a quote from the news,  violent enough that today they would add the disclaimer if this has disturbed viewers they can ring Lifeline.  

A woman screams so loud her voice  rips out of throat like a firework. It responds to global conflict and suffering, shouts in its effort to get control,  in the spit on the tip of her tongue . . . it roars,

bawls, howls, shieks  and those in the news cowered in the noise.

I reflect on how daily news drums into our lounge rooms, fills our personal space with impending doom, darkens our minds, bombards our hearts and it is easy to get caught in the hype that peace is impossible .

This can be depressing, deflating and our memory can be smothered. It is easy to forget 

 to look for the light

 be in the light  

be the light 

knowing the darker the world 

the brighter will  be our light

as we move beyond the wrongdoing  and rightdoing

into the field

 where WE ARE PEACE.

DECEMBER 6: OUR MONTH TO BE THE PEACE WE WISH FOR by Colleen Keating

 Tuesday 6th  DECEMBER

Day 6

 Humanity, take a good look at yourself. 

Inside, you’ve got heaven and earth, and all of creation. 

You are a world—everything is hidden in you.

-Hildegard of Bingen

Olive Pink was a woman who spoke for all humanity. She used her life to call for social justice for the Indigenous people, the First Nations people. She fought the ideas of Missions, of assimilation, of the Stolen Generation,  of the over crowding in the prisons.  Only when we realise our commonality: how all peoples whatever race, culture or creed  or colour want the same things for their families, clean water, food, shelter, happiness and safety for their loved ones. Here in Australia we must work towards that outcome.   This is the only way to have peace in our country and peace in the hearts of our people.. . all our people.  

Very affirming for me this morning to realise Olive Muriel Pink is listed in the Top 10 Poetry books for 2022. I feel so proud my epic poem  

Olive Muriel Pink: her radical & idealistic life 

stands by the side of the talented Stella Prize Winner Evelyn Araluen’s book Drop Bear which I  have read over and over and  which has been included as a study book for our U3Aand the other books including  Leni Shilton ’s poetry collection Walking with Camels: The Story of Bertha Strehlow.

Thank you to Red Kangaroo Book Shop and Ginninderra Press  for their support in the Australian story of poetry. 

DECEMBER 5: OUR MONTH TO BE THE PEACE WE WISH FOR by Colleen Keating  

MONDAY 5TH DECEMBER

Day 5

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Rainer Maria Rilke

Finding paradox while watering the garden

under the lower shady leaves
it hides
wanting only time
cycle time
clues left in the nibbled holes
on my green osmocoted leaves
on my  salmon rose that makes me sing
Mary Olivers words –
Sunshine and showers . . .
its morning and again
I am that lucky person who is in it .

i spent yesterday mesmerised
by white butterflies
somersaulting around the garden
in intoxicated revelry
and they too made me sing –
Mary Olivers words
its morning and again
I am that lucky person who is in it .

today  I find my rose
caught in time cycles
cocoons  pouches of eggs
i say   not on my rose
and it reveals itself
humbly like a koen
in my searching hands
still making me sing
Mary Oliver words –
I am that lucky person who is in it

Also a  family birthday for our 11 year old grandson with family, food and fun. Lovely to watch the grandchildren growing up so beautifully under the guidance of our children.

 

DECEMBER 4: OUR MONTH TO BE THE PEACE WE WISH FOR by Colleen Keating  

SUNDAY 4TH  DECEMBER

It was fun having two of our grandchildren, 10 year old cousins, one from Coffs Harbour and one from Sydney with us. Our lego table is always popular for play and  catching up with each other what ever age.

Day 4:  It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it.

And it isn’t enough to believe in it.

One must work at it. 

Eleanor Roosevelt from 1951 Voice of America  broadcast

Working at peace is an every day work. . . believing in it when the day seems dim and allowing each new day to be a magpie dawn,  feel its joy and begin again.

Peace is not something we achieve , somethong we win, it is something that is always ‘a becoming ‘  something we need to believe in  and work at.  In a family peace is rewarding because it means you are more relaxed and more joyful .

Peace in a family is something to sing  for and about with gratitude  each new day.

Children sit and play lego, and chat together but they are listening to the adult talk the whole time. That is how they learn to become adults.

 

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