Peace from Madison County
This weekend is the Covered Bridges Festival in Madison County, Iowa. It’s always held the first weekend in October and, true to this transitional month, the weather can be unpredictable. It doesn’t matter if the temperatures lollygag in the 80s and impatiens are still in full bloom, if snow and sleet fall on the displays of pumpkins and hay bales in the vendors’ booths around the town square, or if the trees forget it’s autumn and remain a stubborn green. The festival goes on.
We live on one of the two main highways going through Winterset, where the festival takes place. And judging by the traffic yesterday, this could be a banner year for attendance. Sweater weather. Blue skies. And sunshine that lights up the golds and oranges, turning trees into works of art.
I’ll find out in a couple of hours, as one of my college roommates and I are spending the day at the festival in honor of my birthday this week. Jude and I may go months without seeing each other, but we never miss our birthdays.
It’s a tradition we started years ago, when she was a mom and wife with two children in western Iowa, and I was divorced, had no kids and was living in Des Moines. We’d “trade” weekends every couple of months. She’d come to my house to enjoy a peaceful, quiet dinner without cutting up anyone’s food. I’d go to her house to find a different kind of peace—the kind with dirty diapers and swingsets and Disney movies on Saturday afternoons.
That’s the thing about peace. It can look a lot of different ways. I’ve found that, if I wait for it to come to me, I’ll be standing at the bus stop for a very, very long time. But if I plant and cultivate it inside myself, I can harvest it any time. Kids or no kids. Sunshine or sleet.
With some intention and support, we can live with more peace.
Even in a world that seems to get more chaotic by the moment.
Even in an election season.
Even when we’re alone or feel like the world forgot we’re here.
Peace, actually, is something I care about a lot, and I'm guessing you do, too. So I want to share a few resources that might help you plant a few more seeds of your own.
A more peaceful world, piece by piece. My friend Beth Howard, who I met at the Okoboji Writer’s Retreat last year, has a brand new book out: World Piece. Beth has a history of baking pies—including during her time living in the house in eastern Iowa that was the backdrop for Grant Wood’s painting American Gothic.
A few years ago, she took her pie-baking skills around the planet, where she made pies to find her own peace of mind, and to connect with people in other cultures. This book is her memoir of that time. Peace and pie—it’s hard to imagine a better combination, and Beth brings them together with grace, honesty, humor and inspiration.
Birthing a new world. Years ago, a group of individuals presented an idea to the U.N.: to designate a global oneness day, inspired by the first photos of the planet taken from space. Leaders at the U.N. liked the idea but told them, “You do it.” And so they did.
Now known as Humanity’s Team, they created a global summit to celebrate oneness in philosophy, religion, indigenous traditions, art, and science.
This year is the 13th annual Global Summit, called Birthing a New World. It includes more than 100 speakers, scientists, musicians and others, all engaged in discussions or inspiration about peace in one form or another. And it’s free. Full disclosure: I’m part of one of the panel discussions, along with Adam C. Hall and Alan Cohen. There’s something for everyone, and the intent is all about bringing us together rather than finding more things to divide us. Highly recommended.
My favorite quote from the Dalai Lama: “We need to encourage an understanding that inner peace comes from relying on human values like love, compassion, tolerance and honesty, and that peace in the world relies on individuals finding inner peace.”
More on that, and photos from the Covered Bridges Festival, next time.
Until then, I’m sending you peace from Madison County.
Iowa Writer’s Collaborative
The Iowa Writers Collaborative is offering a special feature for paid subscribers. Those subscribers will be invited to participate in the “Office Lounge,” a monthly Zoom gathering of the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative members. The Office Lounge call will be on the last Friday of the month unless it falls on a holiday. This month the Office Lounge will be on October 28. It will run from noon to 1 p.m. The week before the last Friday, we will send the Zoom link to all paid subscribers.
It’s going to be fun. Interesting. Educational, and did I say fun? There will always be free content, but a contribution is most welcome and comes with the Office Lounge bonus.
Please invite your friends to join. We are the Iowa Writers Collaborative: Iowa Writers Collaborative
Here we are, in alphabetical order.