Friday, March 27, 2009

Falling Off the Peace Boat....

Thanks to Ruth and Emily for inspiring me to blog more frequently!!!


I fell off the Peace Boat (similar to the Peace Train!) this week. Really it’s probably more accurate to say that I feel like I was getting dragged behind the Peace Boat for the past two weeks! There were moments I thought I might drown. I would lift my face up out of the water and try to swim to catch up and pull myself back on board but it was as if there was a barrier I couldn’t see, keeping me from climbing back on.

I find it very uncomfortable when I can’t connect with that Peace within myself. It’s something I’ve been working on for a while now, really anchoring in that connection and getting to know what it feels like so I could find it again in times of darkness.

I’m not sure what it was about this particular darkness that made it so difficult. It feels like lots of people were (and still are) moving through some darkness over the past couple weeks. Personally, I’ve had the opportunity (I try to see it as an opportunity) to look at a lot of old patterns and ways of thinking that I don’t really need anymore. In other words, I’ve been looking at a lot of my own junk. Not necessarily a fun process but the outcome of clarity and healing was worth the journey, as it always is.

I’m not exactly kicking back on the deck of the boat yet, but at least I’m back on board and making my way toward the sunlight. It feels awfully good to be back to where I can feel that anchor of Peace within myself. It’s this sense of knowing that no matter how rough the waters get, that anchor is there and I may get tossed about but I will not drift.

Looking around me now I can see that really I didn’t drift this time either. Did I get tossed about? Hell yeah! Lost at sea? Hell no, though there were times I couldn’t see the stars for guidance. Still, the anchor held firmly, even if it was too murky for me to get my bearings for a while. The thing is, working with has Peace paid off, because even though I couldn’t always feel it, most of the time I knew I would return to it. Most of the time.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Vision of Peace

I volunteered at The Peace Alliance Conference in DC this past weekend which was inspirational. Everyone should check out http://www.challengeday.org/ and the incredible work they are doing!

As part of the conference I was able to attend a breakout session about writing with writer and editor Bob Koehler. He used the term sacred voices which struck a chord with me. I feel that is where I write from and had not found those words for it before. I was grateful to find them! We did a writing exercise about Peace. This is the unedited version of what I wrote that day, I call it Vision of Peace...

A culture of peace. What does that look like? Feel like? Smell like? What would it be through my eyes? I know it would be different than through your eyes. I know there are people who cannot yet even imagine a culture of peace, children who would settle for a piece of bread or a peaceful night of sleep. How can I dream a world of peace for them? How can I see first through their eyes and allow them to see through mine?

We can’t share a vision if we don’t remember we are connected. My vision impacts their vision and theirs’ mine. We live far apart and yet there is no distance between us, nothing that can separate us. I hear their stories and feel their pain and want to hold them and listen. But I know I can’t linger there or I will not dream my dream of Peace. Their pain and stories though are part of my dream of Peace.

I dream for them, I hold the vision for them. I hold it as high as I can reach, and then I climb higher still so that vision will reach the light. For if we are connected, then if one can see it, all can see it.

I close my eyes and reach out my hands and my heart and dream the dream of Peace, knowing that it is not just a dream, knowing that I can make it a reality every day by first finding my sacred voice and singing my song of Peace. That voice comes from deep within, that voice speaks truth, that voice knows all the stories and from them creates a new story. I will share it with you and you can share yours with me and soon we will weave them together into a Universal story, a Universal song. Each sacred voice heard equally, each sacred voice filled with love, each sacred voice joined in harmony. Not just visioning Peace, Living Peace.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Feeling Freedom

Ooops, my Freedom is showing! I can feel it in my step and in the sway of my hips as I walk. I see it in the upturned corners of my lips. It shines from me and I see others notice it. They react to it with surprise.

Usually people don’t expose their Freedom in public. It’s something they take out in private to look at and hold, treasuring it secretly and then putting it away again. My Freedom is much louder than that! No bonds will hold it as it soars!

I don’t mind if you look. I don’t mind if it shows as I walk down the street. It’s not an exhibitionist, but it does share itself freely. How else could Freedom share?