reunions

Tiny People and Wise Elders

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment


Oh my. This was a year ago today. We’ll have to try this this week. After we finish the leftover mac and cheese and veggies from the family reunion potluck.

Gratitude List:
1. Family. Family reunions. Family circles. Laughter. Stories. Food. Cousins. Aunts and Uncles. Little tiny people and wise elders.
2. Chimney swifts. Such aerial acrobats with such unaerodynamic little cigar-shaped bodies.
3. Kate DiCamillo. An author who expands the heart.
4. My classroom is, for the most part, organized for the coming year! I know where almost everything is.
5. Deep, long sleep.

May we walk in Beauty!

“. . .my grandmother would get very annoyed when anyone would talk about “the power of love.” Love, she insisted, is not power, which she considered always coercive. To love is to be vulnerable; and it is only in vulnerability and risk—not safety and security—that we overcome darkness.”
―Madeleine L’Engle
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“Stories beget understanding,
Understanding begets respect,
Respect begets justice,
Justice begets peace,
That is the power of story.”
―Antonio Rocha
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“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.

“A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.” ―Vincent van Gogh
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“When we share our stories and dreams, we are accepting help in the shouldering of responsibility and despair. By extension, our windfalls and triumphs belong to us all. In witnessing each other, we are cross-pollinating our wisdoms and broadening our storylines, moving the locus of our attention from competition to collaboration. No longer governed by personal lack, we begin to make decisions as an ecosystem would, from the appreciation of our indivisibility.” ―Dreamwork with Toko-pa
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“Sometimes in order to be happy in the present moment you have to be willing to give up all hope for a better past.” ―Robert Holden
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“The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” ―Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Blue and Gold

/ Beth Weaver-Kreider / Leave a comment

AZ_BlueGoldMacaw02  macaw 1  macaw 2    

Gratitude List:
1. Macaw feather.  The feather appeared in my path one day as I was walking up the hill from the pond, and disappeared as magically as it appeared.  Parrots are symbols of communication, of knowing when to speak and when not to speak, of using language for healing, of ritual and ceremonial language.
2. Berry season.  Strawberries and vanilla ice cream.  Mulberries staining the fingers and mouths of small children.  Wineberries swelling on the briars.  The hard green nuggets of blackberries preparing their sweetness.  And the cherries from the ancient cherry tree by the old spring by Cabin Creek–a little wormy, but sweet, so sweet.
3. Reunions.  With friends on Friday night, we let the children stay up until 11 because they were having so much fun with each other, this second generation of the College Gang.  They made a whirlpool in Abby’s swimming pool, and played themselves dizzy and exhausted.  I think they might remember that evening for the rest of their lives.  I might, too.  One boy slept until two the following afternoon.
4. School.  I’ve written this and written this, how grateful I am about this work, these fine young people, these kind-hearted colleagues, Words and Language, and now the Completion of Year One.  I just don’t want to take any of it for granted.  I have so much mulling to do in the coming weeks about how this has changed my life, what it is calling me to become.
5. Silence.  Tomorrow I go on Retreat.  Three days of silence at the Jesuit Center in Wernersville.  It comes at the perfect time.

May we walk in Beauty!