I had a moment today while having coffee with one who is dear to my heart in which I found myself utterly overwhelmed by her beauty. It was no mere reaction to the artistry of her physical beauty (with which she is naturally gifted) for in that moment there was a luminosity that seemed to radiate out of the pores of her skin and surround her as lustrous aura. In an instant, I totally lost my sense of things and felt I was in some timeless space robust with joy. It felt heavenly, whatever that word connotes, in the sense of everything being uplifted to a higher realm of gracefulness. I became wholly rapt in presence, all of my attention focused as a singular reception of her loveliness. It was ecstatic.

“During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries all this was understood. The troubadour poets, instructed by the religious intelligence of the Muslims, wrote poems to the Golden Woman. They kept the planes clear by describing her as ‘the wife of the Lord of the Castle.’ By this device the poet also provided plausible reasons why he needed to the keep the mood of secrecy, and containment. The wives of the lords were savvy women and knew that soul desire was being served here. Some women of the time became troubadour poets themselves. When a woman troubadour, such as the Countess of Dia, who was a very great poet, praises a man, she looks through him to a luminous figure standing behind him just as the men poets do when they praise a woman.

 The kids are not alright. Neither are the adults. It’s endemic and if you don’t have it it’s hunting you down, mercilessly—malaise, drudgery, listless purpose, addictions, fragmented identity, boredom.

Wouldn't it be brilliant this weekend if nobody showed up to protest? If all them 'peace officers' fitted with their gamut of 'peace-making tools' (their 'peace-making' shields-tasers-batons-and let's not forget them 'peace-making' super-sonic gazoos) were left standing around with nothing to do but bask perhaps in the glorious sunshine of a luminous summer day?

Peace is something of an anthem of our modern humanity. We hear it as the call against the state of seeming perpetual war on our planet. We here it also as the call of the great spiritual revival taking place among us, calling on us to create lives of utmost serenity.

I was talking with my partner last night about a practice that we've woven into our life that has proven quite profound and that is the sharing circle.  It's a practice I learned during my years studying the ways of the indigenous of Turtle Island (or North America) up at Six Nations.