Monday, September 16, 2019 \u00a0\u201cWage Peace\u201d \u00a0(1st posted December 2, 2013)<\/p>\n
Friday, November 29, 2013 was the anniversary of Bill Pauly\u2019s sudden death at 59 of a heart attack while taking a lovely sabbatical after years of demanding pastoring on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation in western South Dakota.\u00a0 Before Pine\u00a0Ridge,\u00a0Bill was pastor in a South Milwaukee Hispanic parish. Bill is a soul friend and I miss him whenever he comes to mind, often. \u00a0This Mary Oliver poem to which he introduced me captures his earthiness and urgency and his passion for the sacred ordinary.<\/p>\n
Welcome to this mid-September week of 2019 while my 3+ weeks on Pine Ridge, remembering as I walk or drive these roads and taste the stunning vistas of the Black Hills, c. 70 miles away. \u00a0The vistas frame what are to me still soul-stopping moments of stillness. \u00a0 This year, after one year away from this home of c. 50 years I am living a sabbatical, like Bill lived one in 2013.<\/p>\n
You are still one of my deep soul friends, Bill. \u00a0I miss you when I taste the flavors of this space which we shared for a while.<\/p>\n
Best to read the poem outloud, with pauses. \u00a0 Have a blest week.<\/p>\n
john sj<\/p>\n
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\u201cWage Peace\u201d \u00a0\u2013 \u00a0Mary Oliver<\/p>\n
Wage peace with your breath.
\nBreathe in firemen and rubble,
\nbreathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.
\nBreathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and fresh mown
\nfields.<\/p>\n
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
\nBreathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
\nWage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.
\nRemember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
\nMake soup.<\/p>\n
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
\nLearn to knit, and make a hat.
\nThink of chaos as dancing raspberries,
\nimagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.
\nSwim for the other side.
\nWage peace.<\/p>\n
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
\nHave a cup of tea and rejoice.
\nAct as if armistice has already arrived.
\nDon\u2019t wait another minute.<\/p>\n
Mary Oliver <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Monday, September 16, 2019 \u00a0\u201cWage Peace\u201d \u00a0(1st posted December 2, 2013) Friday, November 29, 2013 was the anniversary of Bill Pauly\u2019s sudden death at 59 of a heart attack while taking a lovely sabbatical after years of demanding pastoring on … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/170\/2015\/01\/Mary-Oliver.jpg\")
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\nSeptember 10, 1935 \u2013 January 17, 2019<\/p>\n