Peace One Day?

This Friday, September 21, 2012, commemorates World Peace Day, set aside by the UN over 10 years ago for celebration and observance of an international day of cease fire and non-violence. It got me thinking , what are we really doing in our lives to foster a more-peaceful world? Is this world in fact a more peaceful place than it was 10 years ago and if not why and what can we do about that?

For what seemed like a no-brainer, it took the organizer, British actor Jeremy Gilley, 15 years to bring together enough nations to back and proclaim the resolution. I doubt if you were to interview men and women on the streets, in refugee camps and on the front lines anywhere in the world there would be more than 5% saying that they wanted anything less than to live their lives in peace. Why do we have such a difficult time doing this?

I have been involved in a week-long string of events sponsored by Return to Honor that helps bring awareness to ways of creating a culture of peace. We have shown the movie Peace One Day, involved the schools with movies about bullying and writing essays and expressing in art what peace looks like to them. Sunday spiritual leaders from various religious persuasions came together in a forum where we looked at our concerns and beliefs about creating a more peaceful world. We sang together songs of peace, signed the petition to make Sedona a City of Peace and the mayor has proclaimed Friday Peace One Day in Sedona. On Friday, the high school will form a peace sign on the football field to be filmed from a helicopter for inclusion with the YouTube promotion of the event. There is a live benefit concert and even a community campout in the park. We say we are all about peace.

If we are all in this world together and all looking to live in peace, what is preventing us from behaving as peace-loving people? I believe it has a lot to do with our focusing on the things that separate us than those bring us together. We all view life through our own filters of experience and preconceived ideas.

Case in point – As part of the preparations for Peace Week in Sedona we engaged a local artist to design a poster to publicize events. He did a beautiful painting of a family raising a white flag with a peace sign on it over a tank with flowers in the barrel. Many, because they had been through the 60’s and 70’s, understood the symbolism and thought it expressed their sentiments beautifully. Given my past experiences, I thought “Oh no, the fundamentalists are going to be offended and not join us because they consider this to be a satanic symbol”. My friend, an ex-military man, thought immediately that this was a sign of surrender.  We are all a product of our experience and conditioning and see life through these filters.

I see little chance of coming together as One in Peace if we are not willing to start from this point forward and to begin to find the cords that connect us and weave together a future that honors and celebrates our differences rather than raising our hands in anger to those that knowingly or unknowingly offend us. If we are not mindful in dealing with others, we will not be able to avoid the mine (mind) fields that can derail even the best of intentions. It is only by dialoguing about the things that pain and offend us in respectful ways that we will be able to foster awareness and come together in mutual respect and peace. One Day…

Namaste, Penny

Healing Injustice

Why do I feel the pain of injustice so deeply? Why do I feel the need to speak up when I see things that reek of fear rather than Love? If I am not being personally threatened, why do I feel I must step in rather than to allow their Karmic dance to play out?
Once again I gave advice where it wasn’t wanted or appreciated. Once again I stirred the waters and caused others to go deep into their own inner reserves for answers. Is anything accomplished by dislodging others from their righteous stance? We all feel we are “right” or “justified” in some way or we wouldn’t be doing what we are doing. We want someone to be accountable for our pain and suffering. Does shining a light on perceived injustice really accomplish anything?

In this case I was placed in the middle. I heard and understood both “sides” and could see both the real and unreal in each. But then the only thing that is REAL is Love – anything else is part of the illusion. How do we heal the unreal? I also believe that thinking there are sides is the unreal. 

I went deeper with this to track my motivation and response.

In a past lifetime in Poland I was a child of six. We were shunned, ostracized and banished. No one spoke up in our behalf. I died of starvation in Dachau.

I also was present when He said “As you do this to the least of these my brethren, you do it to Me”.

So these are the soul lessons I bring with me into this lifetime to help guide me and others through the fog of illusion.  I know that there is NOTHING anyone could do that would make me subject another to what I have experienced. I know I would be willing to die rather than go there but others have not had the lessons I have and would probably not understand as I do.

How do we heal this wound in the body of God?

Again I invade everyone’s space and call for compassion, Love and understanding. Everyone is polarized in their woundedness so they resist but perhaps some begin to come into resonance.

In the stages of grief and dying enumerated by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross we go through the denial and anger, the bargaining, and depression before we get to the acceptance and therefore the peace. Perhaps this is what is necessary as we die to the old ways of being together. Do we need others to “get” their lessons or is it really about our experiencing our own? Is it enough that we tried and “failed” or is this all part of the process of coming together as One.

In the movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” the young man kept saying  ”All will be perfect in the end and if it was not perfect, then it was not the end”. So evidently it is not yet the end. I am assuming that by my causing all to go deeper in their own process and examining their own motivations and assumptions this will be healed in ways that are incomprehensible to my linear mind. That is certainly my intention. Sometimes it is necessary to lance an infection in order to affect healing. It is my hope that being the “thorn in the side” of those in conflict that I have served some purpose in affecting a more conscious outcome. But of course it is not “over” until we are all Home.

Namaste, Penny