Life on the Edge

I was serving up stacks of pancakes this past weekend to a house full of children, dogs and happy parents when it dawned on me that this is the work I do best: being in service. Don't know much about geology. Don't know much trigonometry. But I do know that I love to serve. And wouldn't it be a wonderful world, indeed, if I could continue to do thus.

Aside from being arranged in a similar pattern to the pancakes, the second group of nine objects are not for eating. Instead, these are the block forms that are presently being shaped to create the second Windgrove Peace Mandala. Eight of these will be gifted to people around the world whose peace activism revolves around environmental and social justice. (See archives: 18 January 2003) Not exactly a Noble Peace Prize, but it is one way I can honour and serve those who are dedicating their lives to creating a more sane world. One such person is Bev Reeler who brings rape and torture victims to the healing forests and rivers of Zimbabwe. Her work is hard. It is also important. Her candle of compassion most often burns brightly, but I have also heard of it becoming dimmed by the unrelenting onslaught of government policy towards any opposition to its power base. I wish I could give more.

And me? How am I supported by others? Clare, doing yoga before the pancake breakfast with daughters Kate and Brook in the window seat, wrote the following email to me this morning: "I left Windgrove Sunday with an overwhelming sense of gratitude. Thank you so much for opening your home, heart and vision to us. Witnessing you living as you do, consciously, openly, inspires me to deepen my practice, opening to the magic, the mystery, the intangible element of beauty. Opening to grace." "I thank you for your kind attention to Brook and Kate, for it is through experiences of people and place such as you offer, that I believe they will form intentions to live by from their own goodness inside, from their feeling of connection with the mystery, with the forces of heaven and earth."