a peace by any other name

... recalling the words of Walter Cronkite, urging us to "get that word, PEACE, out there" and repeat it again and again until people HEAR it.

... short quotes from Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Ph.D. Of Mexican mestiza and Magyar heritages, she comes from immigrant and refugee families who could not read or write. Estés is a certified Jungian psychoanalyst and her book, Women Who Run With the Wolves was on the New York Times Best Seller list for 145 weeks.

"We are all los immigrantes, the Soul is The First Immigrant: The Soul cannot be held back by any imaginary boundary drawn against it; not by mountain ranges, not by rivers, nor by human scorn. The Soul, goes everywhere, like an old woman in her right mind, going anywhere she wishes, saying whatever she wants, bending to mend whatever is within her reach. Wherever she goes, the Soul brings new life." --- from 'The Dangerous Old Woman'

''If you have never been called a defiant, incorrigible, impossible woman… have faith… there is yet time." --- from Women Who Run with the Wolves

"Do not lose heart, we were made for these times...Yes. For years, we have been learning, practicing, been in training for and just waiting to meet on this exact plain of engagement.

"I grew up on the Great Lakes and recognize a seaworthy vessel when I see one. Regarding awakened souls, there have never been more able vessels in the waters than there are right now across the world. And they are fully provisioned and able to signal one another as never before in the history of humankind.

"Look out over the prow; there are millions of boats of righteous souls on the waters with you. Even though your veneers may shiver from every wave in this stormy roil, I assure you that the long timbers composing your prow and rudder come from a greater forest. That long-grained lumber is known to withstand storms, to hold together, to hold its own, and to advance, regardless.

"In any dark time, there is a tendency to veer toward fainting over how much is wrong or unmended in the world. Do not focus on that.

"There is a tendency too to fall into being weakened by dwelling on what is outside your reach, by what cannot yet be. Do not focus there. That is spending the wind without raising the sails. We are needed, that is all we can know. And though we meet resistance, we more so will meet great souls who will hail us, love us and guide us, and we will know them when they appear." --- from Letter To A Young Activist During Troubled Times

I want to laugh.

David Hazen - DOP State Coordinator message board:

"It has been remarked by many throughout the ages that the core of life is joy. Many who have talked about being enlightened describe the state as blissful. At Kataria’s website, www.laughteryoga.org, there is a clip of John Cleese, the famous Monty Python comedian, visiting various laughter clubs in India. Memorably, he says that when people laugh together, it’s very hard for one group to exercise authority over another; it’s the greatest force for democracy.

"Allying our consciousness with this force, easily accessible through twenty minutes of whole-body laughter per day, we make transformation not only possible but easier. When, by contrast, we lose sight of this realization, we use futile means to effect change, for example, bombing terrorists or judging ourselves (making ourselves “feel bad”)."

From The Countless Laughter of the Waves By Peter Moore

The Gettysburg Address

The Gettysburg Address
Nov. 19, 1863

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal."

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of it, as a final resting place for those who died here, that the nation might live. This we may, in all propriety do. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have hallowed it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here; while it can never forget what they did here.

It is rather for us the living, we here be dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

This version of the Gettysburg Address has been verified against the version on display at the National Archives.

movie, "Playing for Change - Peace through Music"

Compassionate Listening

http://www.compassionatelistening.org/

"If we can change ourselves, we can change the world. We're not the victims of the world we see,we're the victims of the way we see the world. This is the essence of Compassionate Listening:seeing the person next to you as a part of yourself."
- Dennis Kucinich, U.S. Congressman

"God gave us two ears and only one mouth, that we should listen twice as much as we speak." - universal proverb

everyone like you

"If everyone was exactly like you, you would end up getting on your nerves."
~Homero Bayarena

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

An Open Letter to Barack Obama
http://www.theroot.com/id/48726
By Alice Walker TheRoot.com

Alice Walker on expectations, responsibilities and a new reality that is almost more than the heart can bear.

Nov. 5, 2008

Dear Brother Obama,

You have no idea, really, of how profound this moment is for us. Us being the black people of the Southern United States. You think you know, because you are thoughtful, and you have studied our history. But seeing you deliver the torch so many others before you carried, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to be struck down before igniting the flame of justice and of law, is almost more than the heart can bear. And yet, this observation is not intended to burden you, for you are of a different time, and, indeed, because of all the relay runners before you, North America is a different place. It is really only to say: Well done. We knew, through all the generations, that you were with us, in us, the best of the spirit of Africa and of the Americas. Knowing this, that you would actually appear, someday, was part of our strength. Seeing you take your rightful place, based solely on your wisdom, stamina and character, is a balm for the weary warriors of hope, previously only sung about.

I would advise you to remember that you did not create the disaster that the world is experiencing, and you alone are not responsible for bringing the world back to balance. A primary responsibility that you do have, however, is to cultivate happiness in your own life. To make a schedule that permits sufficient time of rest and play with your gorgeous wife and lovely daughters. And so on. One gathers that your family is large. We are used to seeing men in the White House soon become juiceless and as white-haired as the building; we notice their wives and children looking strained and stressed. They soon have smiles so lacking in joy that they remind us of scissors. This is no way to lead. Nor does your family deserve this fate. One way of thinking about all this is: It is so bad now that there is no excuse not to relax. From your happy, relaxed state, you can model real success, which is all that so many people in the world really want. They may buy endless cars and houses and furs and gobble up all the attention and space they can manage, or barely manage, but this is because it is not yet clear to them that success is truly an inside job. That it is within the reach of almost everyone.

I would further advise you not to take on other people's enemies. Most damage that others do to us is out of fear, humiliation and pain. Those feelings occur in all of us, not just in those of us who profess a certain religious or racial devotion. We must learn actually not to have enemies, but only confused adversaries who are ourselves in disguise. It is understood by all that you are commander in chief of the United States and are sworn to protect our beloved country; this we understand, completely. However, as my mother used to say, quoting a Bible with which I often fought, "hate the sin, but love the sinner." There must be no more crushing of whole communities, no more torture, no more dehumanizing as a means of ruling a people's spirit. This has already happened to people of color, poor people, women, children. We see where this leads, where it has led.

A good model of how to "work with the enemy" internally is presented by the Dalai Lama, in his endless caretaking of his soul as he confronts the Chinese government that invaded Tibet. Because, finally, it is the soul that must be preserved, if one is to remain a credible leader. All else might be lost; but when the soul dies, the connection to earth, to peoples, to animals, to rivers, to mountain ranges, purple and majestic, also dies. And your smile, with which we watch you do gracious battle with unjust characterizations, distortions and lies, is that expression of healthy self-worth, spirit and soul, that, kept happy and free and relaxed, can find an answering smile in all of us, lighting our way, and brightening the world.

We are the ones we have been waiting for.

In Peace and Joy,
Alice Walker