PeaceCorso
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Elise Boulding often said her path in life was determined by World War II. When she was a girl, she recalled, her mother had been homesick for Norway, and young Elise conceived of that country as a haven, a place to hold in reserve as a retreat, where she would always be safe. That vision was shattered in 1940 by the Nazi invasion of Norway.
“And that was when I realized that there was no safe place on earth,” she said. “And I knew that I had found my life’s mission.” Read more...
My friend, award-winning Rolling Around Heaven author, Jessica Maxwell, sent me this email.
Dear Friends of RAH!
First, a big thank-you to all who sacrificed our First Sunny Weekend of the Year last week to attend Molly's fabulous Roll Around Heaven Book Club Tea Party (Molly, please forward this to all book club members...Tea d'Esprit invite coming soon!) or our Mt. TaborSpace RAH! Talk in Portland, OR. And a special hooRAH! to Molly, Maggie and Carley for making all the arrangements. We have lots of RAH! Events coming up posted on www.RollAroundHeaven.com as we roll along. Read more...
According to this article by J. Kirk Boyd, it is. I found it on Alternet. I know it’s long, but the ideas are worth it. My editor tells me that Ode used the same excerpt in an article in March 2010 . If you didn’t see it, read it here. The ideas are so simple and so right. Read more...
Anton Chekov is one of the most dour of all playwrights. His plays have stock characters. He is a Russian living at a time of great need. His plays reflect that.
Imagine my surprise when I came across this quote: “We shall find peace. We shall hear angels. We shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds.” Read more...
Sometimes, peace makes me cry. Oh not peace itself. That makes me smile. It’s the dearth of peace that causes lachrymosity.
Lately, the lack of peace has been obvious to me in … Read more...
This is a blog post by my friend Elizabeth Cunningham. Elizabeth is the author of The Maeve Chronicles - at this time, three novels about her Celtic Mary Magdalen, Maeve Rhuad. Her blog has two voices: Elizabeth’s and that of her character, Maeve.
I have Elizabeth’s permission to use it here. Read more...
This is an article I saw on the blog One World, Many Peaces: Current Events Creating the Future. It seemed apropos for Independence Day weekend.
May 20, 2010 - The Learning Curve of Peace and the U.S. Department of Peace Conference in Detroit Read more...
In the Boston area, we have been quite literally deluged with rain. I know this is so because I cannot count the numbers of conversations I have both heard and overheard about flooded basements. When we needed our plumber for something entirely different, it took her three weeks to set an appointment with us. (We, fortunately, have not been flooded by Mother Nature.)
Paramahansa Yogananda suggested this as a way to balance activity with peace; “I shall perform all duties serenely, saturated with peace.” Read more...
Elizabeth Gilbert’s bestselling book Eat, Pray, Love touched me more than many books in recent years. I kept zillions of notes from it. Here is one of her quotes on peace:
“The only place the mind will ever find peace is inside the silence of the heart.” Read more...
For many years I have kept a file in my computer called "Peace Quotes." Anything I read, anything I find, things people send me. At this point, it’s over forty pages long in nine-point type!
Here’s one from a 2005 Congressional Letter of Support to the Seeds of Peace Camp. Read more...
I don’t know if you’ll be able to see it in the photograph but this is called a Love Hoodie Jacket and it’s from The Pyramid Collection. The URL will take you to their store.
I fell in love with the colors, and the heart imagery, and the tie-dye effect so I ordered it. I was psyched when it arrived until I really looked at it. Read more...
“Memorial Day is a United States federal holiday observed on the last Monday of May (May 31 in 2010). Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who died while in the military service. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War (it is celebrated near the day of reunification after the Civil War), it was expanded after World War I.” Thus quoth Wikipedia about yesterday’s holy-day.
Very few of us in the United States remember that this is a holiday to commemorate the deaths of those who served in our military forces. Instead, it has become a symbol of the end of school and the beginning of summer. Read more...
I have been a reader of Utne Reader for many, many years. It always makes me appreciate the alternative press.
In the April issue, there was a remarkable article by Jonathan Odell called "Coming Home: A gay Christian speaks to fundamentalists." Read it and weep. Mr. Odell’s article was originally published in Commonweal. Read more...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is always an inspiration. Consider these words:
If we examine every stage of our lives, we find that from our first breath to our last we are under the constraint of circumstances. And yet we still possess the greatest of all freedoms, the power of developing our innermost selves in harmony with the moral order of the Universe, and so winning peace at heart whatever obstacles we meet. Read more...
Those of you who are Seeds readers know that I have a thing for acronyms. So you know, Seeds is the spiritual email message I’ve sent every Friday for 12 years. If you’re interested in a free subscription, please visit the sign-up page.
So here’s a yummy acronym from Mike Dooley’s delicious book, Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams. Read more...
Russell Simmons, the founder of GlobalGrind.com, wrote an essay in April 16th’s edition of The Huffington Post, where I am also a blogger. Here is the gist of it.
“Two weeks ago, I went back to my old neighborhood of Hollis, Queens, to support the launch of the pilot program of the national Peacekeepers, an initiative that seeks to deter crime and violence by introducing a strong presence of community men into unstable neighborhoods to make their streets safe for women, children and seniors. I was inspired to fund the pilot program after the wave of youth violence that has engulfed our nation. I, like so many community members, am fed up. Read more...
Our cyberworld is so fun sometimes. When I got home from PeaceWomen, there was an email in my inbox from curator Joan Athey of Peaceworks Now Productions. She wrote:
Hi Dr. Corso:
I am the curator of an exhibition and author of a book on the 1969 Bed-in for Peace in 1969 in Montreal. So far it has been seen by over 100,000 people in Liverpool, in NY state and it opened at Coventry Cathedral last week in England. I am so proud of that. Read more...
Wow is the first word that comes to me from our PeaceWomen experience at Wheaton. Wow, was it fun! Wow, did we learn! Wow, we can’t wait to do it again!
My friend Clinton O’Dell sponsored us at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Wheaton is a small, beautiful college. We were given lovely living quarters in Austin House, a Bauhaus design, sprawling and gorgeous house. In the middle of a lush forest, we were surrounded by full-length glass walls giving us a soothing view. We were totally comfortable.
The first day we tore off to campus to do all the photocopyin
The magnificent four-ton Jade Buddha for Universal Peace is being exhibited around the world before it reaches its permanent home at the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Bendigo, Australia. Valued at approximately $5 million, the translucent Jade Buddha is currently on display in Tampa and will be coming to Miami in early April. Click here for world tour dates and locations. Read more...
I look for subjects for this blog all the time, of course. Most of them find me, but when I find myself, on a rainy quiet morning like this one, I love to go back and look at the things I’ve squirreled away for Ode posts. This one is yummy.
It’s called The Peace Company, and I love what it promotes about the quest for peace on its website. Read more...
Did you know that many of the papers and documentation on work for peace is housed at the Swarthmore College Peace Collection in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania? I’ve never been there but I’ve often wanted to create a project that means I need to go. Read more...
The prayers which appear below are to be found on the website of a remarkable woman named Myra Bonhage-Hale, Steward of La Paix Herb Farm in Alum Bridge, West Virginia. She has created an interactive virtual Peace Museum online.
The website has a most stunning page of prayers for peace. It was formatted inappropriately to include it here, but give yourself a gift and go visit www.lapaixherbfarmproducts.com/PeacePrayers.html Read more...
This headline from the online Palm Beach Post News caught my eye on Twitter.
10 naked people caught making a peace sign in Delray Beach
Cool, I thought, why not?
Well, it turns out that peacemaking nudity is not an option in the United States. Read on, MacDuff! Read more...
Lions clubs around the world sponsor the Lions International Peace Poster Contest in local schools and youth groups every year. The image above is the Grand Prize winner from 2008-2009.
Their story goes …
This contest encourages young people worldwide to artistically express their visions of peace. The theme of the 2009-10 Peace Poster Contest was “The Power of Peace.” Students age 11-13 by November 15 were eligible to participate. Read more...
I know, I know, it’s after Valentine’s Day, and I’m writing (again) about The Valentine Peace Project, but this is for a good cause. Federico Hewson, the founder, is looking to create the world’s first peace brand! Read more...
In the January-February 2010 issue of Spirituality & Health, Sister Karen Zielinski, OSF, writes about a special day of spiritual practice for peace: The World Day of Social Justice.
Now, ordinarily, I’m with Lao Tze on the justice front, but read Sister Karen’s first paragraph:
Rather than lose weight, read more books, or exercise more, why not resolve this year to share peace? Giving peace away is just what our troubled world needs (and what we personally need, too). It is a simple idea—but a challenging one. Giving away peace does not cost much, but it calls us to change our way of thinking and to respond to our planet and the people on it. Read more...
V-Day isn’t always a delight for everyone. Not everyone has drunk the koolaid of our couple society. More to the point, a lot of us are d-o-n-e with coupledom. What to do?
Tip #1: Acknowledge how you feel about Valentine’s Day even if it’s only in your bathroom mirror. Don’t dwell on it, but tell yourself the truth about it. There are as many responses to this holiday as there are souls. Your feelings are yours, and they’re legitimate. Read more...
I read about this on Amazing Women Rock.
Here’s a small-is-beautiful, grassroots community peace initiative request from De Whalen, of the Richmond Women’s Resource Center, in British Columbia, Canada.
To be a part of this cool 2010 Peace Project coinciding with the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, send your peace message today. I’ve already sent mine! Read more...
I just knew he was on our team!
Santa Claus is awarded for advocating for children.
Photo courtesy Joy StrotzSanta Claus has won the 2009 Peace Prize presented by The Santa Claus Peace Council in Antalya, Turkey. STCPC, founded in Turkey by Muammer Karabulut, presents a new example of citizen diplomacy that occurs when an individual citizen, or non-governmental organization, in one country develops a strong relationship with the same in another country. In this circumstance, a clear East-West bond has formed. Read more...
In their new book, Traveling with Pomegranates, Sue Monk Kidd and her daughter, Ann Kidd Taylor, co-write a wonderful coming of age metaphor for their relationship as mother and daughter. They take the writing in turns as they share a travel adventure.
It was Sue’s prose that prompted this post as it echoed my own journey through menopause and my fifties. Read more...
A friend sent me this article by Missy Comley Beattie. It has been reprinted in myriad publications on the Internet. Ms. Beattie’s bio: Missy Beattie lives in New York City. She's written for National Public Radio and Nashville Life Magazine. An outspoken critic of the Bush Administration and the war in Iraq, she's a member of Gold Star Families for Peace. She completed a novel last year, but since the death of her nephew, Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley, in Iraq on August 6,'05, she has been writing political articles.
“A few days ago, I was walking down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan when I noticed colorful ribbons, hanging from the iron fence in front and around the side of the magnificent Marble Collegiate Church. The green, blue, and gold streamers enticed me to cross the street and read the marker explaining the significance of the project called Prayers for Peace. Read more...
For people who want to get their bodies involved in peacework, and reap the exercise benefits as well, welcome to www.earthdance.org. It’s an event that takes place worldwide—a synchronized dance for world peace. Read more...
I’ve known that my mission is peace for 17 years. I learned this the hard way—in a domestic violence situation. For years, I looked for a peace organization that I could throw my abundant energy and resources behind. I never found one that matched my vision.
The reason is simple. Most peace organizations … fight (?) for peace. Most peace organizations … are against issues, not for them. Most peace organizations … focus on world peace. My 17 years in development, if you will, have made some things clear. Read more...
Sorry for the editorial comment, but, as you know, I’m not for any “non-“ sort of things. Much more committed to what we’re for than what we’re against. However, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence is a big deal. Read more...
I loved this! Newsvine's energy writer compiled a list of the best all time peace songs on You Tube. Check out the site to watch these individual videos. Read more...
So, here’s a sweet giftie for the coming holy days. Peace timepieces made by a company called Love and Pride. Here’s their company description from the website:
Our values Read more...
I found out about this too late to post it in time for us to attend, but since the Global Peace Film Festival has been going strong for seven years, there’s no reason to think it will stop now. Make your plans for next year! www.peacefilmfest.org
Click here to view the line-up for last year’s Central Florida festival: Read more...
The daughter of a client of mine has taken a semester away in Tel Aviv for her junior year in college. Part of her process is writing a blog. She makes me laugh with almost every post since she’s an avid foodie, and almost every post is filled with superlatives about what she’s eating.
Despite that, there are some solemnities in her posts. A recent one came after she witnessed checkpoint irregularities that made her so angry and hurt that I could feel the spitting rage in her words. Read more...
Many years ago, when I first began the study of meaning, I struggled deeply with prosperity issues. You have to understand how I learned about money.
When I was 28, I walked into my apartment one night in tears. My dear, blessed roommate asked me what was wrong. I wailed, “I bounced a check.” She asked me if I’d balanced my checkbook. My tears stopped momentarily and I asked, “What’s that?” Read more...
I saw this chant in a column by Queen Mama Donna Henes, urban shaman and dear friend to me. The words say it all. When you have time, give yourself a gift, and speak them aloud. Let their resonance soothe your soul. Read more...
It’s called “It’s Up To Us Alone,” and it’s a world debut radio play featuring Ed Asner. I’ve heard the first half of the piece, their sneak preview. Click here to have a listen.
It’s a little hokey, but so what? Asner is his wonderful, talented self, and a good point is made about peace. If we’re not cooperating with it, we’re against it. It’s that simple.
Read more...
A client drew my attention to this new book: Creating the Peaceable Classroom: Techniques to Calm, Uplift, and Focus Teachers and Students
Peace work happens. All the time. Every where. Every when.
I am a crossword puzzle fiend. Ever since the New York Times found/created Across Lite, I’ve done the puzzle online every day. I look at it as a way to wake my brain daily. Read more...
The simplicity of the words is what grabbed me. Do peace. That’s all. Straightforward. Simple. Clear. Unmistakable. Whatever else you’re doing, do peace.
I received an email about this just before Labor Day. Here’s what it really means:
Do Peace is the social networking site created by The Peace Alliance, that organization which works to create a Department of Peace in the United States Government. Read more...
This article appeared in The Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts University’s summer update. The Fletcher School is an outstanding graduate program in international affairs.
“Each year, as the spring semester winds its way to a close, Fletcher students prepare to head out across the globe to put their knowledge and skills to work in the field. From Nairobi to New York, Montevideo to Moscow, Fletcher’s finest find themselves in an array of meaningful internships—work that may help forge their career specialization. Read more...
The lovely and gifted Oprah Winfrey inspired this post. Oprah says:
"My prayer for myself, my friends and the world is that we become ever more conscious--aware of our meaning and purpose. I pray for peaceful pauses within ourselves to acknowledge our gratitude for life and all its complexities."
Pausing, whether peaceful or not, is always a good idea. Our world is on a headlong rush into, if nothing else, hurriedness. A pause can be the beginning of peace. Read more...
As someone who has had a "delicate" stomach forever, and as a peace advocate, this ad tag line caught my eye and made me laugh out loud.
Discover a world of digestive peace. Read more...
Ariane de Bonvoisin, author of The First 30 Days: Your Guide to Making Any Change Easier
In 27 years of counseling, I have found that what Ms. De Bonvoisin says is always true. Always. No exceptions. Read more...
A world flag -- wow! Isn't it gorgeous?
Aside from the brilliant colors -- something that always catches my eye -- this flag is a clickable fount of information. The flags represent all the members of the United Nations. On their website, you can click on each flag and learn a little something about the country it represents.
"The world flag was created in 1988 to raise global awareness, inspire innovative solutions and promote action toward challenges facing our world today. It serves as a powerful symbol to inspire action and celebrate the pursuit of positive change. The flag has flown from New York to Nepal and continues to make its way around the planet spreading its message of unity," says the website. Read more...
It's rare to see peace mentioned in Newsweek except insofar as peace is lacking so I was pleased to see a one-pager in Travel a few weeks ago about the 600-mile Israel National Trail. The Trail is a hiking path that crisscrosses the entire nation of Israel. It was modeled on the Appalachian Trail. It bears the markings of three stripes as guides, painted on the rocks in white, blue and orange. (It intrigues me that the mystical meanings of those colors are, in order, all light, creative expression and joy.) Read more...
Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all. ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
I thoroughly enjoy the daily quotes I receive on my iGoogle customized homepage. This appeared there some time ago, and I’ve spent a lot of time since then visiting it, and thinking about it.
Wikipedia informs us that “Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. Lichtenberg was the youngest of 17 children of pastor Johann Conrad Lichtenberg.
“As a physicist, today he is remembered for his investigations in electricity, for discovering branching discharge patterns on dielectrics now called Lichtenberg figures which are considered today to be examples of fractals. He also discovered the basic principle of modern copy machine technology.
“His ‘waste books’ (Sudelbücher in German) are the notebooks he kept from his student days until the end of his life. The notebooks contain quotations that struck Lichtenberg, titles of books to read, autobiographical sketches, and short or long reflections. It is those reflections that helped Lichtenberg earn his posthumous fame. Today he is regarded as one of the best aphorists in Western intellectual history.”
And so, to return to Herr Doktor Lichtenberg’s aphorism …
“Nothing is more conducive to peace of mind than not having any opinion at all.”
This is excellent advice. It represents the true spirit of intellectual curiosity, and even in Lichtenberg’s day and age, was almost impossible. Our educational system is predicated on the notion that we must form an opinion of our own.
However, dear Georg, was the last of a family of 17 progeny. I’d hazard a guess that his opinion was not only not much solicited, but even if it had been, couldn’t have been heard in the cacophony that that many children would generate. Besides, the idea is full of wisdom.
To form an opinion, one must learn about one’s subject. Most of us think we already know what peace is, what it means, and can even make a suggestion about how to get there. But what if we, like Lichtenberg, take the stance that we do not know what peace is? Wouldn’t we have to inquire about it? Learn about it? Learn from it?
This is what it would be to begin to address peace WITHOUT opinion.
We also would have to admit to ourselves that we don’t know what peace means. We really don’t. And, that we haven’t a genuine clue as to how to get there.
A.J. Muste was quoted in the New York Times many years ago as saying, “There is no way to peace. Peace is the way.”
Let’s follow Lichtenberg’s advice and let go of our opinions in the hope that we might meet and befriend true peace of mind.
Read more...
Brother Ishmael Tetteh is the Founder and Spiritual Director of the Etherean Mission in Ghana, West Africa, and he’s a person committed to peace. The Etherean Mission is a trans-denominational metaphysical organization dedicated to self-awareness and the study of the natural sciences. Read more...
"If man does find the solution for world peace, it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known.", General George C. Marshall.
I’m always intrigued by each day’s Google quote. Invariably, I find personal meaning in each one. Meaning is my stock-in-trade. Of course, whenever they include the word peace, I am doubly pulled to them as peace is my work here on the planet. Read more...
A quick blurb in the June/July Ode special advertising section caught my eye: United States Institute of Peace. Their website is usip.org. Their website says, “The United States Institute of Peace (USIP) provides the analysis, training and tools that help to prevent, manage and end violent international conflicts, promote stability and professionalize the field of peace-building.” Who knew there even was one? Read more...
Leymah Gbowee of Monrovia, Liberia was featured in the July issue of Guideposts, that lovely little magazine about Christian faith in action. For 14 years, Liberia’s military dictatorship along with the armed rebels against it had made the country a battleground.
Ms. Gbowee’s story begins on a steamy day in Accra, Ghana, during peace talks which were rapidly disintegrating. That was the day she ran out of hope despite the fact that it was due to her efforts that these peace talks were even occurring. Read more...
You know by now that I’m all for peace in any way I can promote it so it delighted me when I found Peace Cereal - an excellent way to start the day!
Their website informs us, "At Peace Cereal our mission is to serve you by making deliciously natural and healthy cereal, as well as to serve the community by utilizing responsible business practices and donating 10% of our profits to support community projects." Read more...
The year before I turned 50, AARP began its membership campaign on me. Invitations. Information. Enticements. Good deals. An automatic community. One of the fall-outs of membership is their wonderful magazine, AARP. The July & August 2009 issue featured a story called “The Flower of Positive Thinking” by Lynne Schreiber.
Iris Lee Underwood is a lavender farmer in Lakeville, Michigan, and she knows what it is to have a broken heart. Her daughter died of drug abuse and Underwood lived under a cloud of grief for seven years until... Read more...
You have read one of my favorite rants in these pages before: What are you for?
I’m only interested in what people are for in this world, not what they are against. Being against anything is a form of resistance, and what we resist persists, no matter what it is. When my dear Kasey sent me this website, a huge grin burst upon my face. Read more...
This article by Hadeel al Shalchi appeared in The National.
Guatemala is very far away if you live in Egypt. So far, that one probably would never think of traveling there - until, perhaps, one is invited to a conference as I was a couple of weeks ago by an organization called the Nobel Women’s Initiative. Read more...
My sweet assistant, Kasey, found this on her cybertravels-a peace sign veggie peeler. Peace is everywhere.
The other day I was exceptionally tired so I made a cup of caffeine tea to take with me to Visions Medical Center where I counsel one day a week. I used my travel mug from the World Peace Prayer Society. All around its edges, the phrase “May Peace Prevail on Earth” appears in many languages. Several team members noticed my mug and commented on it. Peace is everywhere. Read more...
As if the Aurora Butterfly of Peace weren’t beautiful enough just as it is, its history and creation make it even more stunning than just visually.
The substance of this dazzling artwork is diamonds! Real diamonds, assembled one at a time, from all over the world, over the course of 12 years, by two artists Alan Bronstein and Harry Rodman. There are rare and unusual color diamonds that make up the design including purples from Russia, blues and oranges from South Africa, lime greens from Brazil, violets and dozens of pinks from the Argyle Mine in Australia. Read more...
For some reason, my old license plate from New Mexico, the Land of Enchantment which sits on my altar in front of my desk kept drawing my eye, so let me be the first to invite you (again) to scout Peace license plates, snap photos and send them to me at susan@susancorso.com. We’ve got some swell ones, and I’d really like to have one from every state in the U.S.
That said, what was drawing me was the translation of the Latin words on the license plate: peace goddess. On a whim, I turned to the fulsome Wikipedia and turned up seven such deities. Read more...
This website made me grin for days. They don’t want our money. They don’t want our email addresses. They just want our participation.
Consider these wonderful words from Good Will Treaty for World Peace founder Bryant McGill on their home page: Read more...
I just discovered that the Japanese gave a Peace Bell to the United Nations in 1954! Did you know about it? I didn’t, but then I realized that if my mother were still alive, I probably would have. She was a tourist par excellence.
I’m planning to visit the United Nations on our mini-holiday to New York in May. Amazing, isn’t it, that I lived there for 17 years and never knew about the bell? I hope I’ll get to see it. Here’s a little background material. Read more...
Here’s quite a website for peaceworkers! The URL made me laugh out loud. International Peace and Conflict. Talk about a juxtaposition.
Yes, I suppose peacework is most often about conflict, but what I liked about this resource is its community. Here’s what they say about themselves. Read more...
Has it ever happened for you that you’ve picked up a book, usually a highly recommended one, read it and disliked it? It’s rare for me. Such was my first response to Eckhart Tolle’s original offering, The Power of Now
Interestingly, what I couldn’t do was read it all in a row. It’s structured in Q & A. Starting in January of this year, I read a question and an answer a day. Then, I’d sit with them. It took me almost four months to read the whole thing. Read more...
Do you read the ezine Greater Good? The issue that arrived in my inbox last week had two titles that intrigued me: “Why is there Peace?” and “You talkin’ to me?” Of course, I eagerly clicked on things till the first article came up. My reading slowed as I understood the topic. Same for the second article. Why?
Because they were both about nonviolence. Read more...
I loved this photograph I found on a blog called One Million Peace Signs. The commentary asks, “Who’s peacing who?” Reflections of peace in two mirrors, and one of the reflectors is also the photographer!
Peace, my friend, often requires reflection, a luxury for many of us whose lives are too scheduled to make time for such an activity of Being, not doing. Read more...
Through reviews of her lovely books, I have become email friends with one of our national treasures, Ruth Gendler. Part of the service she performs for humanity is in our schools. She brings her artistry into classrooms and inspires the talents and imaginations of our youth who, in my opinion, sorely need it.
One of Ruth’s delicious books is called The Book of Qualities
Maeve (rhymes with rave), the magnificent Magdalen, is back! She is ever so welcome.
The third novel of The Maeve Chronicles, Bright Dark Madonna
As part of the process of producing the reading of PeaceWomen, we needed a program that had the pictures of the Laureates. We also needed to give credit to the actors who were donating their time to honor World Theatre Day and these women. Because the pictures took up so much space, we had to truncate their bios, so I asked each one to describe their relationship to Tufts, and then to finish this sentence:
To me, peace is . . .
Twelve actors plus one director plus me, the playwright, equaled 14 completely different answers! How could it not? Read more...
Blessed Ode Family, I received this email from Avaaz today, and signed the petition. Won’t you join me to help free Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi from her many years of house arrest?
Burmese pro-democracy leader and Nobel peace prize winner, Aung San Suu Kyi, has spent 13 years detained by the Burmese military junta. She and thousands of fellow monks and students have been imprisoned for bravely challenging their brutal regime with calls for democracy. This week a glimmer of hope has risen for their release, and it's time for us to stand with them.
No, the title isn’t a typo. PeaceWomen is the name of a theatre piece I wrote about the female Nobel Peace Prize Laureates. Since 1901, twelve women have won the Nobel Peace Prize. Just twelve. Their writings and their lives fascinate me.
Because I, too, Nobel Laureate or not, am a peacewoman, I spent many years reading the words of these women, and because of my theatre background, it made sense to me to create a solo performance piece as an opportunity for a dedicated performer. So far I haven’t found that actor, but I will. Read more...
My title is the name of a video interview of Deepak Chopra with New Realities host Alan Steinfeld done on January 8, 2009. It’s long, and the first twenty minutes are the best. Give it to yourself as a lunch hour. Read more...
I was pleased to hear from Ode commenter Tim Collardey. He’s written a new ebook about peace called If Flowers Can Grow in Alaska... Creating a More Peaceful World One Person at a Time. His website is www.walkthepeace.com.
His free ebook asks the seminal question of the spiritual life: do I practice what I preach? Do my spiritual values shine through my behaviors? Am I living the spiritual life I say I want to be living? Collardey’s personal challenge centered on the issues of peace and non-violence.
Read more...
The thing I liked best about Susan Skog’s Beliefnet Gallery, 10 Ways to Bring Peace to the World, is the structure of her title. So often our thoughts about peace are about how to bring the world to peace. Instead, she flips that on its head. How can we bring peace to the world?
It’s a great question because lots of us feel that peace is too big a task for one person. The logic goes: well, it doesn’t really matter whether I do what I can for peace or not because it’s such a big job that what difference can little ol’ me make? A big difference. A big, big difference. And it’s a lot of little ol’ mes taking daily time and making daily choices for peace that will add up to the Big Peace on Earth.
Read more...
The economic doom-mongers have ceased getting to me at last. How about you? Are economic forecasts scaring you? Have the job losses in the U.S. gotten to you? Are you buying the collective scaredy-cat vision of the future? Has someone you know lost money in the market?
Relax. You’re not alone. The news is everywhere and it’s hard not to buy into it. Read more...
I learned about this from the World Peace Emerging newsletter, and it so struck me that even though I had planned another post, I pushed that one to next week in order to share this wonderful idea.
Here’s a little from their website: Read more...
Someone, no idea who, sent me this story via email years ago, and I seem to have kept it for just this moment.
There was a woman who wanted peace in the world and peace in her heart and all sorts of good things, but she was very frustrated. The world seemed to be falling apart. She would read the newspapers and get depressed. Read more...
The Sunday after the dawn of 2009, Beliefnet.com ran this wonderful gallery called Inner Peace on Earth. I loved the idea of the earth itself creating inner peace. I have often thought that the drastic weather phenomena we are experiencing all over the planet are Her attempts at reestablishing Her own balance, and what is balance but another name for inner peace?
Ruth Fishel is the marvelously inspired author of Peace in Our Hearts, Peace in the World: Meditations of Hope and Healing. On the eight screens of her gallery, she shares the affirmations below. Any one of them is a window into the magical house of peace within. Read more...
To my sincere delight, I received an email last week from The Peace Alliance saying that we, the change.org voters, had done it! The establishment of a U. S. Department of Peace was a whopping number two on the top ten list of recommendations that will be presented to President Obama on Inauguration Day.
I whooped when I saw it but probably not for the reason you think. Yes, I’m glad that Peace will have a front seat at the presentation, but the thing that really blew my skirt up is that I am not alone in dreaming peace into reality for our Earth. Thousands of people heard about the opportunity to vote for peace on change.org, and those same thousands took that opportunity, ran with it, and told their peeps. Read more...
Every choice for peace is really a vote for peace whether anyone is tallying the votes or not. I was so pleased to be able to cast my vote for peace where the results would be tallied. Change.org is the sponsor of this vote; its results allegedly go straight to President-Elect Obama.
The Campaign to establish a U. S. Department of Peace sent me this in an email: Read more...
I have gathered all my peace posts from Ode’s Readers Blog, and put them in a small PDF book, Dr. Susan Corso’s Peace Posts from Ode Magazine’s Readers Blog downloadable for free from my website..
Below you will read a list of people and organizations who influenced my thoughts, words and deeds toward peace since I started writing for Ode a year and a half ago. First, I was shocked at how many. 444! Then I realized—of course! I can’t be the only one thinking this way. We’re all connected. Read more...
The artwork you see above is by Ruth Gendler. She is an artist, poet, author and teacher based in Berkeley, California. Because of a review I wrote of her book Notes on the Need for Beauty: An Intimate Look at Essential Quality
The United States has a National Christmas Tree. Did you know that? I didn’t, and I probably would never have learned of except that in addition to the tree there are 56 smaller trees which make a Pathway of Peace.
The website says, “Since 1923, the United States has held a tradition of lighting a National Christmas Tree in Washington, DC. In 1978, a live 40-foot Colorado blue spruce was transplanted from York, Pennsylvania to its present site on the Ellipse, the grassy area south of the White House. In 1954, a "Pathway of Peace," 56 smaller, decorated trees representing all 50 states, five territories, and the District of Columbia were planted surrounding the National Christmas Tree. Each year sponsoring organizations from each state provide tree decorations that are encased in a protective plastic globe to shield it from the weather.” Read more...
I have been a big fan of the work and person of Barbara Winter and her Winning Ways newsletter for many years. I even had the joy of dining with her on one of her many visits to New York City. Barbara is a leading expert on fulfilling work.
If you are an entrepreneur or a wannabe entrepreneur or a I-might-want-to-be-an-entrepreneur-when-I-grow-up, Barbara’s work is for you! Read more...
We have, once again (and so quickly!) reached the natural season of the darkest dark which can herald only one thing: the return of the light. The holy-days of all spiritual practices at this time of year are about light.
For some reason, I am especially conscious of approaching the darkest dark this year. There are just under two weeks till the cycle of light begins to grow again and the darkness is somehow more pungent, more poignant this year.
Certainly, the world economy has something to do with it. I find that I am unwilling to buy “things” just for the sake of having gifts for friends and family. So I was thrilled to discover an organization called Changing the Present where amongst their wonderful Choose A Cause list, peace takes a prominent place. My eyes, of course, went right to it. Read more...
Since the early 80's, I have known many people who have both lived and died with HIV/AIDS. Working in the Broadway theater at the onset of the epidemic gave me a unique view of the effect of the virus within an industrial microcosm.
In general, those I knew and know who have had or have HIV/AIDS respond in one of two ways. Either they deplore both the disease and themselves becoming bitter, hurt and hurting people, or they use their diagnoses as a springboard for personal transformation. Read more...
I had a rough thing happen in my life this week. A friend I’ve had for 28 years radically, and unexpectedly, severed our relationship. It’s been a couple of days since it went down, and I’ve had some terrific insights since then which I want to share with you.
First, I felt the severance in my solar plexus. I felt like I’d been stabbed. And I knew what I wanted to create in the situation was peace.
Second, my own anger at the unfairness of the action arose. And I knew what I wanted to create in the situation was peace.
Third, the sadness hit me broadside. Sadness about my friend. Sadness about the loss of him. And I knew what I wanted to create in the situation was peace. Read more...
I don’t remember how I came across The Peace Arch, but I do remember wondering at the time what Peace Architecture might look like. Sentient beings are notoriously sensitive to the spaces they inhabit whether they know it or not.
The thing about the Peace Arch that touched me is that it’s all about space, empty, open space. Peace needs space in order to be itself. One of the reasons we don’t have a consistent peace on our planet is that there isn’t enough space for it. Read more...
Bloggers Unite called for posts on refugees. I thought about Darfur and Bali and Pakistan and Iraq and Afghanistan and the Sudan and then I realized that I’m really not qualified to write heartfully about any of these places or events. All I could write about is my own feelings of helplessness.
Then I realized why. Read more...
I’m halfway through This Week in [Peace] History and, to be honest, I’m shocked, genuinely shocked, at how little this valuable resource is about peace and how much it is about violence. I’m no stranger to violence. In fact, it was in the midst of a horribly violent domestic abuse situation that I learned that my mission was peace!
At a particularly drastic and dangerous moment, a soft whisper filtered through my mind, “You can have peace in the face of this.” I was struck dumb at the realization. One of the things that I allowed to create great suffering in me during this experience of violence was the silence I kept about it. I thought of it as our dirty little secret. Read more...
All We Need Is… Peace
Posted on July 14, 2008 by Marcus
In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck, snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced John to do an interview about peace. 38 years later, Jerry has produced a film about it. Using the original interview recording as the soundtrack, director Josh Raskin has woven a visual narrative which tenderly romances Lennon’s every word in a cascading flood of multipronged animation. Raskin marries the terrifyingly genius pen work of James Braithwaite with masterful digital illustration by Alex Kurina, resulting in a spell-binding vessel for Lennon’s boundless wit, and timeless message. Read more...
I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the headline caught my eye at once: Give Peace a Prance. Don’t you just love those clever wordplays? I do.
But then I thought about what it would mean to walk in peace, walk as peace, walk for peace, walk by peace, walk over peace, under peace, through peace. Pick your preposition. Any one will do. Read more...
October 14th is a significant anniversary. On this date, the Peace Corps was proposed by then-Senator John F. Kennedy. On Tuesday, the Peace Corps will be 48 years old. In its time, the Peace Corps has sent nearly 200,000 volunteers around the world to fulfill its three-point mission:
- To help the people of interested countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained workers
- To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served
- To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans
Muriel Lester, tireless peaceworker, wrote, “The job of the peacemaker is to stop war, to purify the world, to get it saved from poverty and riches, to heal the sick, to comfort the sad, to wake up those who have not yet found God, to create joy and beauty wherever you go, and to find God in everything and in everyone.”
Only that? Read more...
Is there a peace room in your home?
Is there a war room? (Check where you have the television.)
Alice Walker inspired me this week, “War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited.”
You know, of course, that whatever we praise increases. How much time are you spending praising war? We don’t mean to do it most of the time. It’s just what’s on the news, you say? Read more...
“Peace Day Magazine is brought to you by World Peace Emerging.” This is the first sentence I saw when I opened the online ezine.
Those last three words made my heart leap for joy: World Peace Emerging. Yes, oh yes, it is, it has to, we’re doing it was the not so subtle subtext. Also, please God, Goddess, Mother, Father and way too many other deities to list here. Read more...
It was just a tiny article in the Arts section of The New York Times.
Orchestra for Peace to Play in Jerusalem Compiled by Julie Bloom Published: September 9, 2008
The World Orchestra for Peace, which draws players from 70 orchestras in 40 countries, will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, in Jerusalem on Oct. 19.
I didn’t know that there was or had ever been a World Orchestra for Peace, did you? And what a wonderful metaphor for the process of making peace! Music, always inspirational, and more—players from seventy orchestras in forty countries. Seventy, or more, talented people gather in one play to collaborate and create something that has never had life before. Read more...
U. S. President John F. Kennedy called Dag Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century.” Mr. Hammarskjöld was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Not only was he a Swedish diplomat, but he was also a Christian mystic. His diary, Markings, is a wonderful taste of one man’s spiritual journey.
I don’t know where I read this quote attributed to him, but I believe it with every cell of my being.
“Unless there is a spiritual renaissance, this world will know no peace.” Read more...
Oh my, oh my, I cannot begin to tell you how delighted I am to introduce to you (unless you already know her!) the stellar, brilliant, inspiring, ever-deepening work of urban shaman Queen Mama Donna Henes. What appears below is excerpted from her Queen’s Chronicles newsletter. Her latest book, The Queen of Myself, is a daily inspiration to me. Find more or sign up for The Queen’s Chroniclesat her website.
Donna’s paean to one of my favorite peace sheroes made my heart sing. So to begin the school year, I invite you to swim in Donna’s wondrous prose on the subject of Peace Pilgrim. It is followed by a prayer for peace penned by Ellen Bass that had me weeping by its triumphant end. Read more...
The dots between the letters tell you, undoubtedly, that I’m using P.E.A.C.E. as an acronym—a word made up of the first letters of additional words that spells another word altogether. This one comes from the brilliant mind of the luscious Iyanla Vanzant, a spiritual teacher based in Maryland. It stands for:
Please Excuse All Crazy Experiences
Is that not phenomenal? I think it is. So very often when we hold out an ideal for our world, we dangle the ideal. Dangle it? Lambast with it is more like it, but we forget one vital piece of the puzzle. And that is the indubitable how question. Read more...
More than 300 colleges and universities give degrees in Peacebuilding and Peace Studies. The current spectrum of our peacebuilding expertise includes leading edge technologies in the fields of conflict resolution, peer mediation, post-conflict reconstruction and many other forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Regrettably, current policy-making tends toward reactive, not proactive, approaches to reducing violence. We typically wait until violence has occurred and then ask our already over-taxed police and military to address these symptoms of violence through activities such as imprisonment of offenders and engagement in armed conflict. While such suppression of symptoms is vital, it is incomplete and must be augmented by stronger preventative measures, with a specific focus on the identification and treatment of root causes.
Please join us in saying, "I Stand for Peace." Help us save lives, save money, and save our country for future generations. Read more...
This is a call for license plates from around the world! If you see a license plate bearing witness to peace in any aspect, will you send it to me please at SeedsDrCorso@comcast.net? We want to see if we can get them from all 50 states of the U.S.A. and all the countries of the world. So far, we’ve covered Virginia and Massachusetts. Read more...
When I gave motivational speeches to nuclear scientists many years ago, I used to ask them all a question.
Do you think world peace is a good idea?
To a person, they all thought it was rhetorical—every single time. I had to assure them that I didn’t ask rhetorical questions, and I always asked it aloud a second time.
Do you think world peace is a good idea?
A mixed alto and soprano rumble usually began in the room amongst the women present, those who carried into life the sons and daughters who might have to go to war in a world crisis. Then the men in the room would jump on the theoretical bandwagon and agree. The rumble got some tenor and basso notes. Read more...
Circumstances can seem to run the show in our lives. This happens so that happens. That happens so I do this. Circumstances can also supply the gift of boundaries to us.
My thesis project in college involved directing a play. As a senior, I had first dibs on whatever space I wanted to use. I was offered a black box theater that I could arrange any way I wanted. It could have been proscenium, three-quarter, in the round. I was paralyzed by the choices. Read more...
Who knew there was a merchant association for purveyors of peace-related paraphernalia? Not me. I found it on the Bark for Peace site and it made me laugh out loud with delight. Check out their members: www.peacemerchantsassociation.org
I found ribbons, magnets, mugs, t-shirts, bumper stickers, soaps, books, buttons and more. The genuine more isn’t more stuff though—it’s more people like me who have and are realizing day by day that what we all [all, no exceptions] want is peace. It’s a universal goal. We may not all agree on how to get there, but we can figure that part out. We are figuring that part out daily. Read more...
The video which appears below was posted on a friend’s Facebook page. It features British filmmaker Jeremy Gilley and his extraordinary journey to create one calendar day a year for peace. That day has been established as September 21st.
Watch Jeremy and then I’ll share my observations: Read more...
BarkForPeace.com is about people and their pets. It’s a sweet, whimsical website that serves as a tasty reminder of the absolute fact that there is no such thing as a small act of peace. Here’s some of their copy. Read more...
I’m a believer in broadcasting my message. That’s part of the reason all my Ode posts are peace-themed. This week someone sent me an invitation to link to his air shoes site. Air shoes? I checked it out and found the image above. Ah. Peace sneaks. That I can do. Here’s what he says about them:
“Vans recently released the “Peace Pack,” which features a Sk8 Hi, Slip On, and a Old Skool. This pack may remind you of their “Hippie Pack” from last year. But the “Peace Pack” is all about the peace sign logo. Read more...
Visions of calico dresses and poke bonnets, wagon trains, prairies and the wild, wild west? Me too. Pioneer brings that up. Bizarrely or not, the word comes from Old French and means a foot-soldier. I’m not too enchanted to link the idea of soldiers with peace, but consider this news from The Student Peace Alliance on the Web.
“We are so proud and excited to share this news! Ben & Jerry's, the Vermont-based socially conscious ice-cream maker, announced today at its New York City Times Square Scoop Shop that Aaron Voldman, Executive Director of the Student Peace Alliance (SPA) and Board Member of The Peace Alliance, is one of two nationwide winners of its "Peace Pioneer" contest.
Read more...
For ten years now, I’ve sent a spiritual email every Friday to a growing mailing list. I call the gratis publication Seeds. My Seeds were originally inspired by Emmet Fox, the great metaphysician. His books are compilations of his miniature essays. What I wanted to do was write a sort of reminder of the spiritual approach to life to get people through the weekend. Anyway, ten years is a long time, and I can’t imagine stopping now. Read more...
I like to know something about the sources of quotes I read so Wikipedia has become my best Internet friend. This quote came to me this week, apropos I think, for my one-year Ode blogging anniversary.
When we have done our best, we should wait the result in peace. J. Lubbock Read more...
Yippee! At long last, I am not a lone voice crying in the wilderness. There are others who take peace seriously—seriously enough to call for a National Peace Academy. It will be a place to investigate peace, to study peace, to learn to practice peace. And do we need it!
Here’s just a taste from their website. Their prose is below, my additions are in blue.
The Academy founders recognize that peace is serious business, requiring rigorous study and discipline. If done right, it will save America money and lives. Read more...
Patrick Ireland is dead! Long live the Irish Peace!
A Thursday, May 22, 2008 article in the Art & Design section of The New York Times tells the story of Patrick Ireland’s funeral. He was 36. Read more...
I am a tree person because a Giant Sequoia saved my life. Twenty years ago I was pregnant—delightedly so—and in my heart of hearts, I knew something was dreadfully wrong with my child. It was one of the hardest times of my life.
On a cross country trip wherein we stopped at almost every single rest stop, pregnancy being what it is, we stayed in Eureka, California and communed with the redwoods. There, despite my certainty that something was wrong, one of the mother trees made something right for me. Read more...
The well-known Peace Symbol was designed in 1958. This year is its 50th birthday.
Wikipedia says, “This forked symbol was designed for the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (DAC) and was adopted as its badge by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in Britain, and originally was used by the British nuclear disarmament movement. It was later generalized to become an international icon for the 1960s anti-war movement, and was also adopted by the counterculture of the time. Read more...
Practice makes perfect, we all know this. What it has meant to me as a spiritual counselor for the past twenty-five years is that I look constantly for things that make for conscious spiritual praxis. One came to me the other day.
What if every time you received, read, wrote, deleted or sent an email, you first said aloud to yourself, “Peace?” Read more...
Okay, I admit it, I’m up past my eyeballs in a new computer and things are not going as swimmingly as promised. Let’s leave brands and operating systems out of this equation. My situation prompted a question for me.
Does technology foster peace? Read more...
"Are you looking for peace and harmony on the Internet? Enter Seiwa-en where you can experience such quietude. This garden is a project of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, designed by 'Koichi Kawana, M.F.A, Ph.D., a native of Japan and Principal Architecture Associate and lecturer in Japanese art, architecture and landscape design at the University of California, Los Angeles. Kawana Sensei not only designed Seiwa-en but also supervised its construction and development until his death in 1990. Here's your opportunity to experience this 'wet strolling garden' in the solitude of your home and maybe even develop a few ideas of your own for recreating a similar masterpiece in your own backyard!" Read more...
Ernest Holmes was the founder of a scientific, practical movement of Christianity called Science of Mind. He was a prolific student of all religions, all philosophies and all ideas of his time. The practice was a synthesis of his thinking. He wrote the words below.
In this peace that holds me so gently,
I find strength and protection from all fear or anxiety.
It is in the peace of God in which I feel the love of a Holy Presence. Read more...
Rev. Jesse Jennings, writing in Science of Mind magazine, says, “The world is seeking to sow peace, not just as the ending of open hostilities, but as a durable, perpetual field of play in which mutual respect and understanding are the norm.”
I liked his idea particularly since it gives the world a soul. “The world itself is seeking to sow peace . . . .” Delicious. Read more...
Writing in Science of Mind, April 2008, Rev. Jane Beach, minister of the Conscious Living Center in Mt. View, California, says, “The presence of peace is in all things, awaiting our attention.”
Rev. Beach’s words made me think about how I make the choices in my own life. I determined many years ago that Peace was my number one value. The thing, idea, energy that is the most important to me. Other people use other values: love, joy, wisdom. Always intangibles. Read more...
As I write this, it is Easter Sunday in the Christian calendar. I was intrigued to read the ideas of Marshall Breger, professor of law at the Catholic University of America, reprinted in Utne Reader from Moment, an independent magazine of Jewish politics, culture, and religion, on statecraft, diplomacy and religion.
First I must cop to my own religious status. I would call myself an omnireligionist despite being an ordained minister with a doctorate in divinity. Translation: I don’t really care what you believe, I care that you believe. I believe that belief is a deeply personal matter and that it’s up to each soul to discover what works for her or him. Read more...
The email was innocent enough. Sent by a well-meaning and always interesting friend, I opened it. Here is part of his text to me . . .
Hi Friends, Read more...
I have recently written on my personal blog about North America’s consumer societies, and my wish, instead of being a consumer, to be consumed. Consumed with fire, passion, and energy to do what I came to Earth to do.
Tony Kaye, creator of a documentary about both sides of the issue of abortion called Into the Fire, is quoted in the newest edition of Utne Reader. Read more...
When I first read these words, the word love replaced peace. A love which overshadows. How big would that love have to be? I tried to imagine that big a love emanating from me. It would have to cover George W. Bush, Darfur, fundamentalists and extremists of all kinds, AIDS, politicos of all stripes, liars, murderers, drug dealers, all the things I have, upon occasion, judged as “wrong.” Who am I to know what’s right and what’s wrong for every individual on earth? What I know is that my personal ability to love sometimes has judgment attached to it.
Then I had an idea: what if there were a peace which overshadows? A peace SO BIG—like the arms of a toddler swearing how much she loves her mama and papa—that it would cover all those judgments and that puny personal love. This same piece is characterized in Christian Scripture as “the peace that passes all understanding.” Read more...
The exhausting quest for inner peace
AARP has a terrific magazine with the largest circulation in the world. I was delighted to read a travelogue by Melina Bellows in the March & April 2008 issue. Ms. Bellows, employed fulltime and the mother of two children under four, is offered a five-day jaunt to an Ayurvedic spa in India called Ananda. She accepts. Read more...
The hundred and forty-eighth Mary Magdalene book in my library is by Betty Conrad Adam, and is called The Magdalene Mystique. In it, she chronicles the establishment and growth of a spiritual community based on the person of Mary Magdalene. To my surprise, she is an Episcopal priest. Read more...
I did it! Last weekend, I finished my sixth spiritual adventure novel, sent it to my editor, and he started sending me suggestions immediately. We have a meeting scheduled for Monday, so I needed time to consider and make the changes. Well, I did it! Finished about an hour ago and does it feel great.
It got me thinking about deadlines and how so many of them are self-imposed, stressful, and really unnecessary.
Deadline is a word with a dismaying etymology. It comes from prison guards drawing a line in the dirt. If a prisoner stepped over that line, instant death was theirs. Yikes! Are you sure you want deadlines in your life? Not me.
In order to make peace with commitments I�ve made related to time, I�ve upgraded those agreements to timelines, not deadlines. The thing about timelines is that they feel to me like they can be revised, renegotiated, adapted vis-�-vis deadlines which feel . . . well, deadly. Time, that fickle mistress, is elastic and it will work with us if we will work with it.
How real are your deadlines, dear one? Really real? Or are they really flexible?
Allowing time to be elastic and to support us is a choice we can make for peace.
Read more...This arrived in my email box this week.
“When you understand, Susan, that your disappointment in another's behavior or choices always stems from their immaturity, or yours, rather than their unkindness, or yours, it becomes much harder not to keep skipping through life, giddy with joy, smelling the flowers. Read more...
The presidential primaries are on in the U.S. and are making news. This has to be the longest presidential election cycle ever. I have a preference for who I’d like to see win the nominations, and I’m not going to tell you who.
What I’m going to do instead is ask a question. Read more...
I believe that all the world’s religions can get behind peace on earth. It’s just that their scripture doesn’t always address it directly. Consider this quote from Confucius.
To put the world in order, we must first put the nation in order; to put the nation in order, we must put the family in order; to put the family in order, we must cultivate our personal life; and to cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right. Read more...
Conscious creating has reached the mainstream. Use those two words in any group and it’s likely that there will be at the least recognition. I’ve been working with conscious creating for more than half my life. In that time, I’ve arrived at the same bottomline over and over again.
The subconscious mind. Read more...
Tama J. Kieves, writing in the September 2007 Science of Mind magazine, completes her quote, “Peace is a better friend than excitement.”
As a younger person than I currently am, I lived for excitement. Life was either absolutely stupendous or absolutely the pits. In a way, I lived in fear of the grays. It was black or white for me all the way. The seasoning of time has grown different values in me, and I’m grateful for it. Read more...
Mostly my venues are grocery stores. My target audiences are pre-verbal. I have more fun than they do. I am the world’s greatest peek-a-boo player.
It started almost twenty years ago when my own bundle of preverbal love decided to leave earth for greener pastures. To heal my broken mother heart, I began to connect with children sitting in grocery carts. I’d pick up whatever box or can was nearest and peek around it. They almost always respond, we have a little fun, and I go on my merry way.
Read more...
I’ve formed a book policy for my life. Basically, I wait till a book is recommended to me three times before I check it out. Ask And It Is Given was recommended to me three times in one day! I visited the Amazonians and bought it. In it, Esther Hicks channels a group of nonphysical energies known as Abraham. Wisdom is wisdom say I.
The first half of the book is about who we are, why we’re here, and the laws that govern our reality. The second half is twenty-two exercises designed to deal with our reality when it doesn’t match what we want. Read more...
Sometimes just thinking about world peace is enough to make me want to take a nap. It’s such a big job and, I know this is an illusion, but sometimes I feel like I’m carrying the ball all by myself. Anyone else feel that way?
Enter Blog Catalog on my Sunday morning email telling me that there’s a movement in the blogosphere called Bloggers Unite: blogging for hope. http://unite.blogcatalog.com/ Its purpose is to use the sheer numbers of the blogging world for good works. The latest date we are invited to join together is today, December 17th, 2007 to do some Act of Kindness and write about it. All of us, on the same day. Read more...
The Season of Light is upon us. Hanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Solstice. This is the time of year when the light returns to earth. This year its official return is marked on December 22nd at 1:08 AM (EST), 6:08 (UT).
In the Christian calendar, these next few weeks are called Advent. Christians welcome the advent of the light each week by lighting candles. One of the precious memories of my childhood is my grandparents’ many-windowed home each with a single lit candle at the time of the holidays. Read more...
Is it me or does anyone else feel like they’re standing in a cornfield in Kansas eying The Scarecrow from Oz? “He went that-a-way.”
The lead article in the Week in Review in Sunday’s New York Times flabbergasted me. It was called “Peace? Sure. I’ll See What I Can Do,” and it detailed President George W. Bush’s non-engaged engagement in the peace process in the Middle East. Read more...
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The first wealth is health.”
In this week’s Huffington Post, I read a blog entry by former Assistant Surgeon General Susan J. Blumenthal, M.D. and Elise Schlissel called “Health Diplomacy: A Prescription for Peace.” Her words struck me upside the head with their practicality and their wisdom. Read more...
Why don’t we have peace on our planet? I believe we don’t have peace because we don’t allow ourselves to have it.
Who schedules your life? Who makes your commitments? Who says yes and no for you? Who allows everything that happens in your life? Read more...
My spiritual life has a rhythm all its own. There are times when it’s all I can think about; there are times when I don’t think about it at all. Lately, my spiritual life has been rich in imagery and even richer in healing.
I’ve been fifty for less than a month, and in that time wild pieces of my past have surfaced in dreams, in meditations, in prayer. Pieces of the past are queuing up for healing. For those who are astrologically-minded, you will recognize the pattern of a Chiron Return. Read more...
Andi McDaniel wrote in the August issue of Ode about a new kind of school near Copenhagen. It has architectural zones based on three learning concepts. They are:
- Peace and Absorption
- Discussion and Cooperation
- Security and Presence
I am still wildly enamored of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love. The title alone is a good formula for creating peace on our lovely Earth.
At one point in her journey, a poet gives her the words which appear below in italics under the rubric “INSTRUCTIONS FOR FREEDOM.” My commentary for peace is in Roman type. Read more...
I got a lovely email this week from a man who is a Peace Tax Resister. In it, he suggested I spearhead a new website called Peace On. His idea is that our various and sundry War(s) on various and sundry themes—terrorism, drugs, obesity—aren’t working and he wondered about the notion of throwing a little peace on these matters to see if that might work better.
Not so coincidentally, I’d been thinking about ways to use the worldwide web for peace. His idea made me smile. Read more...
Is there room in your home for peace? I’m really asking.
How can we expect to create peace on this blessed orb if we don’t or won’t work to create peace in our own homes? Read more...
By the time Katie posts this, I will be just days shy of fifty years of age. Like many of you, I’m sure, people have always asked me the standard birthday question: Do you feel different now that you’re X? I’ve been feeling different about this birthday for a long while.
Half a century. My paternal grandmother is thriving at the one century mark as I write this. She makes me wonder what I want my next fifty years to be about. I’ve been dreaming about it, daydreaming about it, brainstorming about it, wondering about it. Read more...
Journalists this week didn’t even know whether to call the country Myanmar or Burma. Tens of thousands of citizens and monks rose up at last in response to the SLORC, the State Law and Order Restoration Council, the military regime that has been in charge of that country for decades, to demand the establishment of the democracy they voted for. Read more...
Is anybody else dismayed at the United States Senate and their voted censure of MoveOn.org’s ad about General David Petraeus and how the White House used him to foment a political (not military) strategy? Followed quickly by yet another fruitless vote to end the war in Iraq? Read more...
There is no greater disaster
Than enemy-making
For then you lose your treasure,
your peace.
Tao Te Ching, 69
The Tao Te Ching fascinates me. I have four translations of it in my library. Each of them takes today’s text into a different place. One mentions peace by name—the anonymous translation above. The others focus on enemy-making. Read more...
The long-awaited report from General David Petraeus on the ground in Iraq is due in the U.S. capital this week. Does anyone else hear his name as Betray Us?
I don’t think that’s his intent. I think General Petraeus wants to tell the world the truth about the surge strategy in Iraq. He may not be allowed to do so. In recent weeks, much has been made of White House speechwriters tackling the General’s report to make it fit for public consumption. The truth doesn’t need spin-doctors. Read more...
Peacemakers come in as many varieties as there are people. On this holiday weekend, I decided to have a look at how different signs go about making peace. Try this. Read more...
“Peace—the word evokes the simplest and most cherished dream of humanity. Peace is, and has always been, the ultimate human aspiration. And yet our history overwhelmingly shows that while we speak incessantly of peace, our actions tell a very different story.”
Javier Pérez de Cuéllar is a Peruvian diplomat who served as the fifth Secretary-General of the United Nations. The words above are his. I agree with him. I truly believe that peace is the most cherished dream of humanity. I also believe that we are tired of dreaming of peace. Given the state of our world today, we’re not sure peace is reachable let alone actionable. Read more...
I had a rough night last night. It happens sometimes. What it meant was that I slept in this lovely summer Sunday morning. Part of the previous evening I’d spent reading the new Ode. The words of my title are the title of a lovely article about Sesame Street and teaching peace to Middle Eastern children (see Exchange article).
Then I thought, as I lay half in and half out of sleep, what if we all could live on Peace Street? What would Peace Street look like to you? Better, what would it sound like? Read more...
Heretic is one of my top ten favorite words. When I was in seminary, several of my professors called me a heretic to my face. In the 1990’s! I was asking questions outside the quite tiny box of their dogma and it enraged them, but that’s another story.
Heretic is a variation on a Greek word which means able to choose. Able to choose. A heretic is someone who knows that choosing is the principle activity required of a human being. A heretic doesn’t take the conventional wisdom as truth. A heretic knows she has a choice. A heretic looks at theory, dogma, concept, idea, everything and asks about it. A heretic is more often than not thought of as an eccentric. Read more...
Creating peace on this planet requires risk. Did you already know that? It surprises me that so many of us think we know what peace is. I’m not sure we do. I’ve been working with peace as a spiritual priority in my life for more than fifteen years, and I’m not sure I know what peace is.
On the other hand, I definitely know what a chocolate chip cookie is, and I also know how to create one. Peace isn’t the same thing as that. There is no recipe, and its form morphs as soon as we think we have it pinned down. Peace is the biggest umbrella idea I know other than God. God, bless Her, as a word, puts off enough people that I’m sticking with Peace in this entry. Read more...
Many years ago, my life reached something of a drastic crossroads. My then husband and I had a son who died the day he was born, and we had some life-changing choices to make. The paths that we’d thought were going to be ours, it turned out, weren’t to be ours at all. We decided, in those inexpensive gasoline days, to take a drive. We found the vista of the open sea at the beach near our home relaxing and insightful. Our little red Subaru seemed to know it; she took us right there. Read more...
I’m seeing it everywhere on the planet. All sorts of people are catching a bigger vision in all sorts of arenas. The most personal one I’ve had recently was about health insurance.
A friend left her job for better opportunities. Because her last post was in academia, her insurance lasts till the beginning of this school year. She’s spent a lot of this summer getting all her various physical details checked, measured and serviced before her insurance runs out. Read more...
This morning's news headlines brought word of a new video of Osama bin Laden that has been posted on the internet. I didn't seek it out nor did I watch it. I didn't need to. The press had done it for me.
What I did instead was conjure up an image of dear Osama--not exactly hard to do--and I prayed with him. He's the general of an armed militia and he and his men need prayer. Read more...
“21 Solutions to Save the World” in this month’s Foreign Policy intrigued me so much that I bought the issue. Twenty-one of the world’s thinkers were asked what ONE thing they would recommend to change our world for the better.
The first, Garry Kasparov, was a shadowy genius figure in my younger days. He was the world chess champion for twenty years. His suggestion is for a global Magna Carta. He says, “When democracies make nice with dictators, the world’s worst regimes get away with murder.” Read more...
“They’re not saying the iPhone will . . . bring world peace, but that it will do everything else,” Roger Entner, of market-research firm IAG. Apple’s new cell phone debuts June 29. The quote above is from this week’s American edition of Newsweek.
I’ll need to apologize to the technowizards right away—this entry is not at all about the iPhone which did indeed debut this Friday. What intrigues me more is Mr. Entner’s pithy quote which, to my ear, pits “world peace” against “everything else.” This is a big part of the problem of creating world peace. Mr. Entner is not alone in holding world peace away from himself; lots of us do it. I’d venture to say that world peace sometimes feels as far away as the demi-planet Pluto. Read more...
"To think we can live without beauty is part of the craziness of our time." So writes J. Ruth Gendler in her luscious book, Notes on the Need for Beauty. When I read that sentence, I immediately paraphrased it in my mind, "To think we can live without peace is part of the craziness of our time."
The author of the worldwide bestseller, The Book of Qualities, Gendler's new book is a paean to Beauty. In it, she goes deep, deep into beauty, what it is, what it isn't, how we get there, how we see, who we are in relation to Beauty. Read more...
I may as well cop to my not-so-hidden agenda. I am here on earth to help create peace. I've been working with personal peace for a long time. Peace is my mission, my passion, my fun. I have files of peace quotes. I've written a theatre piece about the women who've won the Nobel Peace Prize. I'd love to make a big enough difference for peace on this planet that I could win it! So you can imagine my delight, I'm sure, when the Global Peace Index (www.visionofhumanity.com) was rolled out all over the world.
Basically, the Index rates 121 countries on 24 variables that contribute to peace in a nation. Norway is #1. Iraq is #121. (These two make sense to me.) The Netherlands (Ode's original home) is #20. (Bravi!) The United States, where I live, is #96. (There is no other way to say this: I am appalled.) Read more...
