Summertime Reflections

Submitted by luyen - July 2, 2008 | Add a Comment

I've often heard it said that how you experience life depends on your perspective. In fact, it's almost a cliché to say “it depends on your point,” unless you really, really try to understand what that means. I can't say I really understand what it means, but recently, certain events have helped me examine that idea more closely, and how it relates to peace -- more specifically, peace inside of me.

Parenthood

Roughly two weeks ago some friends visited from Montreal. They had been trying to conceive for a number of years, and had given birth to a beautiful baby boy a few months ago. I was extremely happy for them, and I looked forward to seeing them, and expressing my joy for their newfound family.

They stayed for four nights with me, and I took them around town, showing them the sights. Everywhere we went, the logistics were a bit different with a baby; stroller, diapers, feeding time, sleeping time. I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed at what it might mean to be a father, but I was duly impressed by the patience and compassion that my friends radiated towards their newborn; what would normally seem like an obstacle to me, such as getting somewhere on time, wasn't a big deal to them.

Of all the baby emergencies, feeding time was the most difficult for me. It rolled around precisely every two hours and it was like taking a forced break...
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The Olympic Flame

Submitted by peacemaker - March 30, 2008 | Add a Comment

The Olympic Flame, the iconic symbol of the International Games, will be brought from Athens to Beijing on March 31st, and will then begin the most ambitious round-the-world torch relay in Olympic history. The Torch will be passed from runner to runner on a 130-day trip that will cross all five continents and even scale the summit of Mount Everest, before it arrives at the National Stadium in Beijing for the August 8th opening ceremony.

Imagine if the Olympic Flame were truly a Torch of Peace, setting people’s hearts aflame in every country it passes through, inspiring them to reach out to family, friends, neighbors, even strangers, in ongoing Acts of Peace!

Imagine if everyone who saw the Torch really felt its heat, its message of hope, and then did something about igniting Peace -- without waiting for politicians to make deals, or armies to fight it out -- by starting immediately with the circle of people right around them. Imagine if all over the world, we lit our own flames of Peace directly from the Olympic Torch.

What if the five colorful Olympic Rings, that symbolize five continents of the world, were truly open circles -- like the three half rings on the logo of this website – so that the Bird of Peace could fly straight through the rings of anger, hatred, and revenge that separate families, neighborhoods, tribes, states, religions, and nations?

What if everyone who stood in line to see the Olympic Torch pass by, then turned around and committed an Act of Peace toward the person right next to them – or someone in need at home, in school, at work, at play? Imagine if all of us could catch the peace fire in our hearts – and become vibrant men and women and children of peace? Not tomorrow or the next day: but right NOW! What would change? Very Little? Or a lot?

We know Peace is not a magical thing...
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Wellsprings of Peace

Submitted by peacemaker - February 28, 2008 | Add a Comment

Rujul Zaparde is a typical 13 year old, living in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Except for what he's doing. He's committing Acts of Peace far beyond what we adults usually try to do...even at our best. And they're already making a big, big splash. A year ago, Rujul traveled to his father's village - Paras, India - for the first time in his life. He knew his mother's former city, Mumbai (formerly Bombay.) But that was nothing like Paras, which is very, very poor. Mud and tin-roofed houses, no electricity, no running water, cows and buffaloes roaming the streets -- everyone steaming in 120 degree heat. Women walk two miles each day along dry, dusty roads to get water from the nearest well, wait in long lines, and then have to carry as much water as they can manage in clay jugs on top of their heads all the way back home. Every day. And this is all the water they have to cook with, bathe in, AND give to the animals on the farms where they labor. The villagers are themselves landless.

Rujul had never seen poverty like this, 7,840 miles from his Plainsboro home. According to a recent New Jersey Times article, he compared it to his life in New Jersey and just "couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like living there", where his uncle and grandfather still live. The stark differences really got to him. And then he DID try to imagine how he could "change that..."

He came back home to Plainsboro, and with his friend, Kevin Petrovic, both eighth graders at Princeton Day School in Princeton Township, set to work: they washed cars, had bake sales of pizzas and cakes, held sports tournaments with fifteen other friends -- all to raise money...
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"And I shall have some Peace there..."

Submitted by ShelliJoye - February 20, 2008 | Add a Comment

Peace can be elusive in our 'each day' world, unless we find a way to consciously, choice-fully, overtly practice an 'Act of Peace'. We find ourselves so easily being but observers: sometimes angry, sometimes shocked viewing the 'news', numbingly indifferent at best. Which is why this idea, this movement toward peace actions, is so refreshing, practical, powerful in its simplicity.  It reminds me of something that all the religions should include in their primer for daily right action: Three Acts of Peace.

I'm finding lately that one or two of my daily Acts of Peace are simply to let the aggressive driver to my left or right go for it, to have my spot in the lane. In fact, whereas I used to find myself becoming irritated, if not downright angry, when someone tried to 'cut me off' in an aggressive manner, with no turn signal whatsoever,  in a dangerous way, I now smile, realizing, "Here is an opportunity for an Act of Peace!" And I gently tap my brake and motion for him to move in with an authentically friendly gesture (as opposed to previous gestures I might have used) to have the place ahead of me. Wow, does this change my mood!  I feel at once that I've defused a source of potential disturbance in my emotional heart and at the same time have been able to interject a little bit of peace into the world, rather than anger or resentment.  Instead of clenching and becoming a bit uptight at the unfairness and aggressiveness of the world (of the person "trying to cut me off"), I smile at the thought that maybe my unexpected action has also had a peaceful effect on the other driver...
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Peace Rain in New York City

Submitted by michael stanley - February 15, 2008 | Add a Comment

Hey all - I looked at my last entry's date and saw that it was almost a month ago. Either time flies or I'm very lazy, or a combination of both.

My topic is NYC. I visited last week. What a great city, I believe. A light of integration among the craziness of daily life. What a wealth of cultures -- I went to a restaurant last Friday night, I think every race and religion was present. I notice it more now than I used to. Where I currently live, the great majority have my color skin, and believe in the same religion that I believe in (and yet, sometimes I feel we are more different). I truly truly miss the diversity. NYC has MANY things to improve on, but it can be proud that so many different backgrounds walk the same streets.

Nonetheless, NYC is thirsty for Acts of Peace. The rhythm is so hectic, so fast paced -- that a few Acts of Peace a day would make such an impact. It was a Tuesday, it was rainy and cold. My pants, from the knees down, were soaked, thanks to a small umbrella.  I had a cold. I was miserable. All I wanted to do was get a cab, go to my brother's and faint on what at that time seemed like the most comfortable, luscious sofa-bed ever. Around the corner, I could see an empty cab at the red light. I raised my arm, and he saw me waiting for him, and as the light turned green, the cab turned and stopped where I was standing. I could also see a woman running for the cab, probably hoping to try and catch it before the light turned green...
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A Parcel of Peace

Submitted by Robert Englund - February 12, 2008 | Add a Comment

It was over a year ago, on a cold wintry night in early January, that I gathered with a circle of friends in the home of the inspirational person who brought forth the concept for the work of One Thousand Acts of Peace. The concept of committed Acts of Peace that start individually, bringing about a change in our lives, and thereby spreading to the lives of others through daily acts of peace, intrigued me as a revolutionary idea that could be a template to start a grassroots movement for peace. And to change a world so full of hatred to a world moving toward peace. The evening lifted all of our spirits, filling us with a hope for this opportunity to be seized, and to make a positive change in our world. 

After that evening, I considered how I could implement One Thousand Acts of Peace in my own life. I have often grappled though many layers of disbelief and the seeds of doubt that negative thoughts will sow in a person’s mind. How can I possibly bring about peace in my own life let alone cultivate peace in other people’s lives? I am not strong enough, and I am too selfish a person, were some of the many intruding thoughts discouraging my spirit from acting. I believe that inner peace is a lifelong endeavor, but have been reminded through instruction that staying with a discipline can bring about results. 

When I thought about how to create an environment for peace in my life that would positively impact others, I thought about my travels...
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Peace in a Bottle

Submitted by peacemaker - January 30, 2008 | Add a Comment

Taha Nawa is a fourteen-year-old Sunni boy living in Fallujah. He lost his father and uncle to sectarian violence. Has he turned inward to thoughts of hate and revenge? Is he volunteering to be a suicide bomber? No, he’s drawing beautiful, colorful  pictures of a united, peaceful Iraq because he considers all Iraqis – Sunni, Shia, Kurd – to be his brothers. He wants Iraq to be one. He writes messages on his drawings such as: “To whomever picks up this letter, please help in unifying Iraq.”

According to a recent CNN report, Taha and thirty of his friends – a veritable Army of Peace – draw pictures of peace and write messages on them in their schoolyard. Then they roll the pages up tightly, place them in old plastic bottles, twist on the tops. When each teenager has completed four bottles, they all walk – arm in arm – down the embankment of Fallujah that used to be a dangerous war zone. They cross onto the bridge that was only recently decked with burnt bodies. And then, from the middle of the bridge, this little band of brothers throws their bottles over the edge – 120 at a time –  into the Euphrates River that flows through all the sections of Iraq...
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Michael Stanley goes south

Submitted by michael stanley - January 9, 2008 | Add a Comment

Happy New Year!

I was in Argentina these past holidays with family and friends. I did the usual things I do when I go back to my adolescent home. Party, Eat and Sleep. I eat another piece of meat, and I guarantee you I will turn into a cow. Which probably wouldn’t be a bad thing, perhaps then I will learn to eat less of it. Barbecue…mmmmmm….

Anyway, I found a project worth talking about. Talk about a Peace project. I discovered it because a cousin of mine runs the project. It’s called Mediapila. This literally means “half a battery”. In Argentina, it is used when you tell someone all they need to do is apply just a little energy. A few years ago, a group of friends, my cousin among them, got together and pondered the dire economic situation surrounding this beloved country. They thought of donating money, of helping food kitchens, you know, the typical things we all do (and should).

Yet, one of them, pounced on a brilliant idea. The idea was life changing, LIFE CHANGING, for 38 women. These friends decided to pitch in some cash, about $5,000 in all, and buy some sewing machines, materials, rent a space to start a t-shirt business. But they only employed women who they found collecting garbage.

Only women off of the street. I've seen these people myself. After the economic crisis, thousands of people rummaged through the city trash to find recyclable items, which they would in turn, get money for...
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The Power of Peace

Submitted by peacemaker - December 29, 2007 | Add a Comment

Osama bin Laden – or one of his mouthpieces – again demands ''blood for blood, destruction for destruction.'' Benazir Bhutto and dozens of others are killed by a suicide bomber intent on the destruction of the democratic process in Pakistan. And Pakistani people riot in anger, destroying cars, banks, police stations, setting fire to anything and everything. Over and over again the cycle plays out, ever more deadly, ever more despairing: “blood for blood, destruction for destruction.” Is this any way to effect a cause or solve a problem, however horrific? “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?” Have we learned nothing?

Yet we know there is another way. There is the Power of Peace that is greater than all the suicide bombers and madmen bent on perpetuating violence and suffering and death. There is the Power of People who come together committed to finding solutions to the enormous problems and radical disagreements of cultures, religions and politics. There is the Power of Persistence that is committed to effecting a workable compromise instead of another war, by allowing both sides to benefit, and refusing to give in until the violence stops…

We are that Peace, that Power, that Persistence. If we choose to be. Every deliberate Act of Peace we make – hour by hour, day by day – thwarts the voices of violence and revenge, the “blood for blood, destruction for destruction” mentality, in a real way...
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Peace of the Puzzle

Submitted by peacemaker - December 20, 2007 | Add a Comment

 It’s the holiday season. Everyone is short on time, space, energy, patience, and temper. It takes an hour to cross a ten minute bridge, half an hour standing in line to check out at the grocery store, even online takes longer – your server’s down and order processing is backlogged. So much for speedy technology.

 

You thought this year would be different. You planned ahead, made lists, even shopped early. Or didn’t. Either way, it’s always a last-minute rush with unforeseen circumstances that stretch your nerves to the breaking point. Three cars were broken into in our neighborhood two nights ago. Windows smashed, computers and cell phones taken. And now, instead of last-minute trips to the mall, the owners have to get their windows replaced before they all freeze to death. Happy holidays!

 

Ever think what an opportunity this season is? Just when you and everyone else has given up on getting through the holidays with any kind thoughts about Peace on Earth, good will to one’s fellow human beings, here’s this outrageous new website reminding you: Three Acts of Peace a day can change your world. And we’re not talking about heroic deeds of any kind...
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Michael Stanley 1st entry

Submitted by michael stanley - December 15, 2007 | Add a Comment

So I start this blog on a somber note. Another teenager, in a moment of raw and blinding desperation, takes the lives of innocent people in a shopping mall in Nebraska. On my side of the ocean, two police officers are shot outside of a coffee shop by Basque separatists. Pause.

I noticed a peculiar pattern to my response to the Omaha shootings. I didn’t want to read about it. It is on the front page of my web searcher. I clicked on all the news but that one. This morning, they even have picture of the kid (yes, at 19 you are still a kid!), with the juicy news of the suicide note being made public. I didn’t click on it. I saw the 911 transcript link. Didn’t click.

Then I went into my email account, and saw the email from my, well, I’ll call her “The Peace Sherpa”, with my login details. I blushed and my avoidance of something else turned into a physical experience. My face felt warm, my mouth tingled. I knew what had to be done. I had to write something. Now.

What a perfect moment to write for a Peace blog. Both shooters (the kid, and the organized group) have causes, have genuine intentions. They will argue that their cause is justified. They all have a “true reason or a cause”.

But I don’t want to argue. I don’t want to sit down and talk about it with them, if I could...
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Wildfires Spreading Peace

Submitted by peacemaker - October 23, 2007 | Add a Comment

In the midst of the hundreds of thousands of acres of burning and fear and worry and homelessness, volunteers at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California, are spreading their own wildfires – of PEACE! They’re giving welcoming hugs to thousands upon thousands of evacuees, walking on stilts and making twisted balloon animals to entertain the children, giving free tutoring lessons for kids who can’t go to school, offering free massages, acupuncture treatments, and spiritual counselling, friendly reassurance...and hope. They’re also unpacking and dispensing mountains of food for Food Banks that just keep growing and growing and growing. There’s even kosher food available and of course, aspirin and antacids for all. Catholic Charities have set up their own tent as have insurance companies. In other areas, food, blankets, pup tents and baby formula are being offered.

If anyone ever wonders: “What IS an Act of Peace?” just consider the response of ordinary people reaching out to bring some peace and comfort and friendship – free of charge – to others in a crisis like this. Volunteers are actually being turned away, there are so many of them. They say that volunteer teachers outnumber kids three to one. Donated food and water are being stored in tents in the parking lot. There’s so much food, it’s like the multiplication of loaves and fishes – the more people eat, the more is left over!

What a different scenario from the debacle at the Stadium after Hurricane Katrina when there was neither enough food or water or medical help or sanitary conditions or emotional and financial support...
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The Monks of Myanmar

Submitted by peacemaker - September 26, 2007 | Add a Comment

The Monks of Myanmar. We have watched it build over the past month: barefoot monks in maroon and saffron-colored robes with shaven heads, begging bowls turned upside down in protest, marching through the streets of Yangon, in Myanmar (formerly Burma.) They have walked in peace, chanting…bearing witness to their cause of democracy and free speech in a country living under extreme repression and economic hardship.
At times, these monks used bullhorns to exhort onlookers to join them. Hundreds of thousands of civilians did join these protest marches against the military junta that has ruled the country since 1988. Today, a foreign diplomat said, “It was ‘an amazing scene’ as a column of about 8,000 to 10,000 people flooded past his embassy following a group of about 800 monks.”
Now the inevitable has happened – the junta called a curfew and forbade gatherings of more than five people at a time. The monks and protestors defied the restrictions, the military cracked down. It is a familiar scene: troops in riot gear out in full force, tear gas, shootings, beatings, reported deaths, trucks carrying off monks and protestors to prison. Government soldiers have even surrounded the monasteries, preventing thousands of monks from marching.
Earlier uprisings in 1988 were brutally crushed by the mighty hand of the military junta, killing an estimated 3,000 people. For the past nineteen years, the citizens of Myanmar have been intimidated, arrested, tortured, and killed in an effort to quash all political opposition...
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Real Peace is not Passive

Submitted by peacemaker - September 8, 2007 | Add a Comment

Peace doesn’t get much good press. It doesn’t make big headlines; “PEACE BREAKS OUT!” No ad would dare promote a new film as: “No violence, No anger, No guns, No rape, No war…Just a love story about Peace.”
Yeah, Peace gets a bum rap. Peaceful non-aggression still sounds wimpy, weak-kneed, spineless, definitely not the preferred approach for the macho guy or competitive woman. Yet how many times have the strongest world leaders been men and women of Peace – from Mahatma Ghandi and Martin Luther King to Mother Teresa of Calcutta?
We’re often told we’ll be healthier -- even happier -- if we learn to be more peaceful. Or that we need some kind of peaceful stability at the center of our lives if we’re to grow and thrive as human beings, much less hold onto our sanity.
But how can we begin to make Peace a priority – when most of us haven’t a clue what Peace feels like, or how to acquire it?
First, I think, we have to get over this idea that Peace is somehow soft, mellow, spineless, tranquil, quiet, dreamy, non-active. That’s passive peace: call it pleasure, relaxation, contentment, feeling good, giving in, giving up, whatever. This kind of peace may simply mean a temporary lack of conflict or crisis in our lives. But we all know it won’t last. It can blow up at one thoughtless remark, one angry look, one personal rejection, one rude gesture...
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Shock and Awe

Submitted by peacemaker - August 26, 2007 | Add a Comment

Peace is a lot like the weather: everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it. Now don’t get defensive. Just think a minute. When was the last time you gave up your long-awaited parking space at the supermarket to a total stranger as a simple Act of Peace -- with a wave of the hand and a smile? Or didn’t make a rude gesture or mutter a choice word to the guy in the 4x4 who tailgated you all the way up the hill at night with his headlights blinding your rearviews, then zipped around you on the curve and cut you off in style? Most recently – yesterday – did you call that person who really needs to hear from you, even though you just didn’t have (or didn’t want to make) the time? And did you take out the garbage without complaining?Fact is…we can blister all we want about those guys (male and female) in our governments who louse up the world with wars and rumors of wars, and then turn right around and knife each other at the office, on the street, or around the kitchen table. We nurse grudges for years (like tribal feuds), spread nasty rumors (to rile up the enemy), or deliver blistering one-liners (like inept politicians), that -- in another country -- could start a war. It’s gotten cool to be rude; savvy to be cutthroat; clever to be cruel. It doesn’t take much – either to make peace or to make war. I suggest a global campaign of SHOCK AND AWE: Acts of Peace that blow people’s expectations right out of the water...
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