Long Night Moon

 Caroline and Joni and I made our way to Beale AFB yesterday afternoon. (There are photos of them below... looking beatific.) In the late afternoon the sun was warm and I met this young man for the first time. His signage about the vastly under-reported murder of a wedding party in Yemen by drone strike this week carries the weight of our most recent anger and grief about these weapons systems.

 Basically, human needs continue to go unmet and the service people streaming out of the base at the end of their work days have dour faces because the military industrial complex is such a Lose-Lose for our country at every level. When the Beale folks leave work you can see the flatness of their days in their faces. I wish them their lives back and good civilian jobs. We outlined a huge sign with Christmas tree lights that says May All Your Missions Be Humanitarian.

 As the afternoon wore on the sunset gloriously distracted us from the full moon rise. Watching the face of the "Cold Moon" I was filled with wonder and absolute joy... I am grateful for that happiness. To be with people I admire, to be in nature, standing up for those who haven't discovered their voices, to be in my body wrapped in the warmth of my warm coat.... it was Good.

 We stayed into the night having a candle lit potluck of delicious unseen food in a sharing circle by the side of the road. Some pitched their tents in the stubble there between the road and the ditch but our little contingent, shivering and happy, turned for home. In my case, back to my dear Michael.

 I'm appreciative for the work of Occupy Beale. Each beating heart and willful mile and sun, wind, rain swept attendance at the attention of the military passerby. There is nothing else we can do so we do it with devotion and the dearness of the human spirit longing for peace.