Category: Sabbatical

Abundance Continuance


Arts Live Here: Celebrating Joel Simon – Troop 276

Celebrating Joel: Arts Live Here

This is my world today. This is a sacred place within a sacred space within a community within a neighborhood within a city.

It’s a pretty cool place. Thanks to a Boy Scout named Joel Simon.

For my story, this place was completed on August 13th, 2021 – one day before the 18th birthday of the very man who created it.

It was completed on Friday the 13th. 13 is my lucky number.

Yes, Virginia. Great things are possible every day – even on Friday the 13th.

Thanks Joel for creating this place for us to enjoy!

Bloom where you are planted

Joel grew up in this community where we celebrate abundance, where we look for abundance, where we find abundance, where we shine a light on abundance.

I grew up in this community as well. Rather, I am growing up in this community.

So it made total sense for Joel to pick this spot for his final project in his journey to become an Eagle Scout. Because he quite literally grew up in this building. Well, at least one day a week. Sundays. A day of rest.

So Joel created a place to rest.

We bloom where we are planted.

Abundance Continuance Wide Shot
Our Community Fire Pit: A Place of Abundance

The Abundant Community: Broadway

This new community fire pit and art space is part of a magical space – The Abundant Community: Broadway. Inside, there are many rooms. And there is even a magical hallway called the Magical Arts Corridor! Come check it out sometime! It’s pretty rad, as my husband Brandon likes to say. I tend to agree.

There’s a lot more going on here DURING the week than there is on Sunday. Just saying.

Shining a Light on What is Already Here

When Joel Simon had to decide on a project for his Eagle Scout badge, he chose this place because he grew up in this church — in this community.

Because of that experience, he wanted to shine a light on what is already here today: abundance.

Seek and ye shall find.

Come, sit with me. Let the world be.

SRkian Haris

Thanks for listening.

Keep tellin’ the story.

Signed ever faithfully,

The Right Reverend Lord C. August Peacock III

Returning to The Rooms


Born Again. Again.

Yesterday was another milestone in my recovery journey.

I returned to The Rooms. And found God. Again.

If you know a little of my story, you know God has been in and out of my life. Lately, I’ve been a little angry with Her. But, I didn’t realize how deep that anger was until yesterday, sitting in another church basement with a bunch of recovering addicts.

Community Room - Broadway UMC
The Church Basement – Broadway UMC, December 2017.
The Community Room (its common name) is used today to host a weekly Queer NA meeting.

I didn’t realize how deep that anger was until I heard another addict talk about how angry he was at God for something in his life. That’s when I realized that I had been keeping score. And in my newly appointed position as The Right Reverend Lord C. August Peacock III, I felt like I had earned the right to be Divine.

Are we Divine?

In one sense, I’m right. I am Divine. As are you, As was Jesus. As was Buddha. As were all the great prophets and teachers and guides. That’s the Truth that I’ve come to believe in my journey of life. I am even working on a little ditty that tells that story!

I have decided to abandon Jesus.

He’s just a prophet like all the others.

His book’s just stories for livin’ life right

No turning back, no turning back.

Sung with Ukulele to the tune of “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus“

It’s all about CONTROL!

But in accepting my Divinity, I also took back Control.

If I can change my thoughts, which change my feelings and emotions, then by God, I must be in Control. I believed for a moment that if I was good enough, kind enough, loving enough – that I could control the Outcomes! I could fix the past and stop hurting. I could fix the future and stop the anxiety.

And then I heard another addict share about Letting Go, and Letting God.

Pin drop.

At the end of the day, all of these things are true.

I am Divine.

I can change my emotions by more carefully changing my thought patterns.

And yet, as the story goes, I am NOT in control.

Now we can debate about the existence of God, of the Son of God and even the Blessed Mary, Mother of God.

Or we can accept our Divine Humanity, and accept that while we are wonderfully rich and complex human beings with souls, we are NOT in control of anything other than our thoughts, actions and beliefs.

And in that acceptance, comes great Peace. Or as they say, Serenity.

Serenity

So just for today, God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I can not change, the Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.

These little things matter.

These little things work.

These expressions are mantras.

Does God exist?

Yes, Virginia. God does exist. And yes, there is a Santa Claus. But that’s a different story for a different day.

Who is God? What is God?

GOD. Good Orderly Direction

GOD. The Doorknob.

GOD. The Universe

GOD. Energy

GOD. The Golden Rule

GOD. The Golden Ratio

GOD. You and Me and Jesus.

GOD. Love

GOD. Take your pick. Whatever works for you. But pick something!

Your peace depends on it.

And for God’s sake, give Her back the wheel! She knows what She’s doing.

Thanks for listening.

Keep tellin’ the story.

Signed ever faithfully,

The Right Reverend Lord C. August Peacock III

Courage 2.0


So that was a dick move.

The “Featured Image” from my last post!

I mean, that last post was a dick move. No not THAT way! Come on, get your mind out of the gutter. [Note to self: future blog topic on sex shaming. Why is a sexual reference dirty or ‘of the gutter?’]

And actually it WAS a dick move in THAT way on purpose! I chose to NOT cover myself with a fig leaf or otherwise hide my penis. There is nothing to be ashamed about or cover up…and IT IS ART for god’s sake! Get over your midwestern tight ass false puritanism. Unlike my page and don’t look at my art. And NEVER GO TO CHURCH IN EUROPE! (Thanks Thom Rouse!)

I mean I posted some of my art without any of my back story! That was the dick move ;). Sorry gentle reader.

Yes, the art is there to invite the viewer into a story – and each viewer will find their own meaning in whatever is created. That is what I am learning to accept and love about art!

But, I also feel drawn to tell my story. To once again find my voice again in the world. I want to create art in photographs and digital imagery as well as in spoken word or song. For now, it’s a blog. A journal. With the occasional picture. A lens into my world. And yes, into my ego!

Welcome. Hope you enjoy the ride and take something away with you. If not, maybe next time or the next person! If not, I’m ok with that. Because I’m writing this for me not you ;). (Mostly 😉 (Thanks Big Magic)

Another Case of the Closet Cases

I guess I’m also a closeted writer. Or, I’m allowing myself to admit that I like writing. I always have. I’ve often said I write better than talking “off the cuff.” I like giving prepared lectures or talks or powerpoints or proposals because I slow down enough to think about what I’m saying. And of late, I slow down enough to feel what I’m feeling. Or figure out what I am feeling, so I can figure how to actually FEEL!

Spent a LOT of money in therapy over the years to be able to write that sentence. It’s like getting a liberal art degree. Probably cost about the same 😉 (Thanks Obama!)

Why Courage?

The word came to me this week among various interactions and experiences. So I played with it, let it percolate – see what surfaces.

When I think of my friend Harold Brown and his passion for activism that quite literally landed him in the hospital but he still keeps fighting for a better world, I think of courage.

When I think of my friend Dorothy Pettet, who just announced to the world on Facebook that she is starting her medical transition, I think of courage.

When I think of the transgender bartender at The Sportsman in Lafayette, IN in the early 90’s when I hung out there and her stories of starting HER medical transition – LONG before it became safe enough for more people to come out of the gender or the binary gender closet – I think of courage.

When I think of my dad, who grew up in racially segregated Kentucky and worked hard for most of his adult life to earn enough to pay for all three of his children to go to college if they chose to, I think of courage.

When I learn more about my Polish grandmothers’ side of the family through my aunt-who’s-not-my-real-aunt Joan and the life they lived as immigrants in south philly at the turn of the century, I think of courage.

When I think of a 53 year old man trying to heal from a life of shame and trauma heaped on by religion and American society while also learning how to love and be loved by a beautiful human being who happens to be another man, I think of courage.

When I hear your story and the loss, love and pain you’ve lived through, I think of courage.

So that’s why that image came to be. Because of our collective courage.

Thanks for listening.

Keep tellin’ the story.

Signed ever faithfully,

The Right Reverend Lord C. August Peacock III