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Friday, November 4, 2016

Dona Nobis Pacem ~ Gather Your Tribe

Welcome to BlogBlast For Peace 2016. We look forward to seeing your peace globe and reading your blog post or social media post! Please add your name to the Links in the sidebar so that we may read your contribution. NOTE: If the Linky function doesn't appear at the bottom of this post, please leave your link in the comment section. Tag me on social media. Most of you are there for this launch! This is the tenth year of peace blogging! Thank you so much for keeping this movement alive and blessing me with your tales of peace and inspiration. It's a launch.
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Grant us peace. The next Blog4Peace day is November 4, 2017.


My 2016 peace post is called
Gather Your Tribe

She's been pulling things out of the closets and attic for weeks. My mother. 
Clothes, pottery, pictures, memories, toys, albums. She has not been well and well....I guess she felt it was time to get some things in order. Have you noticed that when people physically slow down their words get longer? And deeper.  Measured. Transparent.

Maybe it's all about the struggle.
Ain't nobody got time to blog for peace. Really, Miss Pencil Skirt? You want people to plop down a rosy picture on the subject of one of the greatest mysteries in life in the middle of the one of the worst years for strife we've ever seen? Really, Mimi?

Peace bloggers everywhere (myself included) are finding it challenging to come up with even one reason to be hopeful or optimistic in the world we live in today. I don't need to reiterate the obvious.  Just check your newsfeed every hour and you'll see all manner of inhuman atrocities, filthy immoral scandals, rumors of war in the newest of places, and people teetering on the edge of not being able to cope anymore.

"Go on, Mimi...try on this scarf. I wore it when I was in high school," Mama said.

Mama's scarf

    Money rules the world in every direction I look; lack of it or abuse of it for power's sake. We are seeing whole tribes of people being uprooted and moved to the next nation until somebody figures out what to do with them. Children never sleep while the hovel around them crumbles. And on our side of the planet, I see unspoken concern and despair on the faces of people. Worry. Sickness. No health insurance. Jobs are scarce and underpaying. People are stressed beyond anything I've seen and hurting with no end in sight. 
While we're forced to watch the vileness of the most shameful American election I've ever witnessed,  families are using and losing all they have just to pay the bills. They still manage to get up and go to work to make $12.00 an hour to feed a family of six while two billionaires banter back and forth about who contributed the most to charity on their tax returns.


Everyday average people don't want to hear that. 
They just want a fair shot at the kind of prosperity given to the wealthiest among us. 
We need a government that understands how average income people are struggling and set about to correct the inequalities and injustices. People are tired of constant stress.

But back to the closet cleaning.
My mother told me of a lingering memory she has of her own mother.  She remembers seeing her walk to work down the middle of the railroad tracks in the early morning and back home again at night - sewing in a hosiery mill to feed five children. It didn't matter if she was sick, she'd still go to work. And there was never enough to eat.

Women know the sacrifice and the value of work and that is why we
 keep things.
 It's in our DNA.


Women treasure things that belonged
 to another female member of their tribe.
Because we know the value of things is not things.

So when she pulled out a bag full of scraps, scarves, jewelry and wedding lace, it felt like a sacred moment between us and all who walked before.  Another torch of strength passed from her hand to mine. 




The gloves

These were her gloves.
 Given to my mother.
And now given to me. 
It's almost like I have her hands.

So,  I put them on.

And suddenly I felt my grandmother's touch.  Hands that braided my hair into French braids over and over at night. I would mess it up just so I could feel her strong and gentle hands again. She tried to teach me to do it myself, but I secretly didn't want to learn.

My great-grandmother's handmade monogrammed handkerchief is to the left, along with a set of emerald green jewelry that I saw my grandmother wear from time to time - a gift from Papa.
Given to my mother.
And now given to me.

My beautiful grandmother, who gave me the wrinkle in my nose, never told me about the railroad tracks or the poverty. She wouldn't talk about it. But I saw a strength and a dignity in her that could only be carried by one whose weary body and soul sought to feed hungry children with all the might she had. 

The gloves and the jewelry came later when Papa walked into her life. 
And oh, she knew the value. Stitched with love. Chosen with love. Worn with love.
Cherished through three generations.


Great-grandmother's monogrammed handkerchief
If I could talk to that girl on the railroad tracks, the one with the heaviest of hearts, I would tell her to watch and wait...for you're about to be blessed by the hand of love. Not only you, but your children and their children and their children too. It will only take one. Just him. But he's enough.
And he will give you the gift of gloved hands and jewels.








And tonight, just for you Grandmother, I will wear them.


Tribe

If there's power enough in the seas
and power enough in the waves
to land upon feet 
of Giants and Fleets
then there's power enough
 in the least


For man is a jewel

man of sandstone and lime
fashioned headlong thru tumbling brine
designed by a Hand
that shapes trellis and tribe
each one molded
thru eons of time


Gather your tribe

and don't let go
No matter the trouble it brings
When the world is askew
and all's said and done
Wait for love
It only takes one


Goodnight Grandmother





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It's a stressful night in the United States. Brew some coffee. Have some peace.
1.Blog4Peace Official Site2.Facebook Blog4Peace Fan Page
3.Peace Bloggers Group Facebook4.Peace Be With You...
5.Infinte Sadness... or hope?6.Dona Nobis Pacem Butterflies - CrowsFeet
7.Moments of Introspection8.dona nobis pacem
9.Dona Nobis Pacem - Gather Your Tribe10.The Cat on My Head's Kitties Blue Blog 4 Peace
11.Infinite Sadness... or hope?12.Lui In Heaven
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55.Dona Nobis Pacem56.Clooney's Num-Num Fund
57.Sanni58.Dona Nobis Pacem - Bertram's Blog
59.Just Ducky60.Last Night I Had The Strangest Dream
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82.Eastside Cats
83.Carmela Snelbaker84.Cat Blogosphere Links!
85.Zoolatry86.Margs Animals
87.15 and Meowing88.Friends FurEver
89.Cat Chat with Caren and Cody90.BROKEN TEEPEE
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93.Artist Alicia M B Ballard94.15 and 

18 comments:

Bing Yap said...

Hi Mimi. Here’s my peace post for 2016:

http://pinklady-bing.blogspot.com/2016/11/dona-nobis-pacem.html

I have no more time to blog but I try not to miss this annual event of yours. Thanks so much. ;-)

Much love,

Bing
(Davao City, Philippines)

Mimi Lenox said...

Bing! So lovely to see you here.
I will be over soon to read. Thank you for blogging peace with us today. Love - Mimi

Durward Discussion said...

Beautifully written as always. Here's mine for others to find https://jamiesplace.wordpress.com/

Anonymous said...

Another beautiful story and you honored your Tribe so well. I'm particularly fond of your closing line, "Goodnight grandmother." The name of my blog will explain why. 😊 Wishing you peace.

Cathy Keisha said...

Beautiful writing. I know you saw my post but I'm leaving the link here as I couldn't find the Linky. http://www.stunningkeisha.com/2016/11/dona-nobis-pacemvote-peace.html

Mimi Lenox said...

Jamie - I will place the link in the Mr. Linky. I will be over soon to read.
You always inspire me to think outside the box. Thank you for blogging for peace...
xxoo

Mimi Lenox said...

Gram - I look forward to your post each year. I will brew more coffee and be over later tonight. Smile

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Mimi, I always love your stories. And resonate with this one especially, as I spent many years trudging to work and back to feed hungry children myself. It is hard to maintain hope during the acrimony of this most horrible of elections. Yet hope we must - for the beasts and the children. Thanks, Mimi, for ten years of activism for peace.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Friends, I have come across several sites where there seems no way to make a comment, or else your site wont accept a comment from me. Please know I am visiting all of you, and admire all of your peace globes and writings for peace.

ShannonW said...

My post for 2016...
http://www.momentsofintrospection.com/2016/11/today-is-blog4peace-2016.html

Mimi Lenox said...

Sherry - It has been a difficult year for the finding of hope. I've heard several peace bloggers express how they've struggled with optimism during this launch. But I'm finding the deepest and truest expressions of hope anyway, all over the blogosphere, from all over the world. That in itself gives me hope....

Thank you for sharing this day with us and for your kind words.
Your writing is an inspiration to me.

Anonymous said...

Hi there Mimi. We had a hard time finding where we could comment, but now we did :) We have made a post for Peace again too. Pawkisses for a Happy Peaceful Weekend :) <3 https://angelswhisper2011.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/peace-begins-with-me/

Michelle said...

Beautiful... I'm sure grandma is proud to know her hands are now your hands.

I LOVE the tribe poem. It reminded me of something I found last week. I'll send it to you on Facebook.

And THANK YOU to whoever added me to the list. I completely forgot... came here and found... i'm already listed!

Mimi Lenox said...

Michelle - I added you. We had a technical issue with the List and I wanted to make sure you post was included. Trying to do that for others as well. But catching all the globes on FB is a little difficult!! LOL A good problem to have.

Your post was very thought-provoking and timely.
But I'd expect nothing less from you.

xxoo

Mimi Lenox said...

Cathy - Your peace post was epic!! The globe a delight.

Travis Cody said...

I'm sorry I missed it this year. There were reasons. I was thinking about you.

Peace.

Mimi Lenox said...

We miss you, Travis! But you are always here in our hearts on peace day.

Mimi Lenox said...

Janice Heppenstall Facebook link:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1276928832368362&set=a.101785846549339&type=3&theater

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