October Post For Peace

This month’s Bloggers for Peace Challenge:  Let’s visualize what a peaceful world will look like.  What is your dream of peace?

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

As much as I love this guy, don’t worry, my vision of world peace doesn’t have Neil Patrick Harris running the show and calling the shots.

Ruler of the World would be an impossible job, unless we could all miraculously agree on some universal ideal and be okay with having that enforced until someone comes up with something better.  Everyone on earth happily following all ‘the rules’.   But we’re human, and we all know that’s not likely going to happen.  There will always be rule breakers, no matter how well-intentioned the rules may be.  Some of us would get bored in a hurry and decide to stir things up.  Some of us thrive on chaos.

And then we’d simply end up with a brand new mess.  Have you noticed that has happened before?  There are as many reasons for our lack of peace and happiness as there are individuals on this earth.  We’re a very unpredictable assortment of characters,  because each one of us has some inner battle to fight, insecurities and fears to face, wants and needs and goals to attain. Who wants to try to contain and control all of that?  Not me, and probably not Neil Patrick Harris either, if he stops to think about it for a minute.

My dream of peace is simply that everybody tries their hardest to learn to get along.  I just want all of us to stop fighting, have fun, and be happy.

And yes, I DO have some helpful hints.  I’ve been a MOM, after all, and what mom doesn’t wish for that kind of blissful family life?  I believe that these are some of the things we need to do to live more peacefully, teaching our children by example.  And then maybe we can spread the love around and reach all the “children” of every age all over the world.

1.  Love and be kind to yourself first. Be your own best friend, happy with exactly who you are.  You are worthy of love and acceptance and you deserve to be here.

2.  Never be afraid of what comes next.  Things over which you have no control are going to happen. That’s life. You will be okay. You will probably come out a better and wiser person on the other side of it all.

3.  Be grateful every day for what you already have in your life.  If you’re not, what makes you think you’ll be happy with more?

4.  A meaningful life is not made by becoming rich, popular, highly educated, powerful or perfect.  Emptiness cannot be filled by someone else or by many possessions.  Look after the spiritual you by staying real, by being strong, and by sharing yourself and touching the lives of others.  Money can’t buy you love, is what I’m trying to say.

5.  “People aren’t either wicked or noble.  They’re like chefs salads, with good things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.” (Lemony Snicket)  Be kind, respectful and tolerant of others.  There is something good and worthy of love in every person you meet.

6.  “We are all going to die.  All of us.  What a circus!  That alone should make us love each other, but it doesn’t.  We are terrorized and flattened by trivialities.  We are eaten up by NOTHING.”  (Charles Bukowski)  Don’t get eaten up by nothing.  Life is much too short to waste even a minute of it.

7.  Don’t get so caught up in making a good life, dealing with life, or just floating through life that you forget to actually live it.  Stop chasing better tomorrows.  Today is yesterday’s tomorrow, and today is really all you’ve got. Make it marvelous.

8.  Give unconditional love to the earth and all of its inhabitants.  We are all in this together.

9.  All of your ancestors are right there behind you.  You are the result of the love of thousands and you are never alone.

10.  “Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it.  If we’re frantic, life will be frantic.  If we’re peaceful, life will be peaceful.” (Marianne Williamson)  Breathe the air, feel the love, share the joy.

Live a full, contented and happy life.  You can do it.  Love and peace are all you need.

Delightfully Different Life

Terry Kinden Bullying Prevention

Tomas Heartflow 2013

February Post For Peace

Every day I am amazed when I sit down at my computer to connect with people from all over this planet in some small way.  They are simple, brilliant, funny, complicated, emotional, practical, talented, angry, happy, bewildered, kind and beautiful.  And so much more.  They are my extended family.  I like to share their joy, sympathize with their problems, marvel at their creations, laugh when they’re funny, shed a tear and send a virtual hug when they’re sad.

I’m trying to be a better blogging friend but because I’ve spread myself so thin and followed so many incredible people, there are days when I don’t have enough intelligent comments in my brain to go around.  I’m lucky to make two or three passably interesting observations a day.  But if I click that LIKE button, I’m not joking, I’ve done it because I LIKE you and I like what you have to say.

The other thing that amazes me is how I can get inside so many heads, and project into the feelings or state of mind of so many people.  And then I think maybe that’s not so amazing after all, because despite all the ways we’re different, we’re also all the same.

We want an end to violence, oppression and injustice.

We want to eradicate ignorance, poverty, intolerance and discrimination.

We don’t want the earth to be destroyed before our children grow up and discover better ways to look after it.

We know (although some of us won’t admit it)  that waging wars will not solve our problems.

We hope and pray that a positive affirmation of peace will start the creative process and that mankind will find solutions leading to peace and prosperity for all.

We hope to build worldwide relationships based on compassion, empathy and love.

We all just want to be happy and stop the insanity.

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by all these lofty ideals, and to shrug our shoulders and wonder what in the world one person can do when so much needs to be done.  But if it doesn’t start with me and you, where is it going to start?

“Ultimately we have just one moral duty:  to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it toward others.  And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will also be in our troubled world.” –  Etty Hillesum

“World peace must develop from inner peace.  Peace is not just mere absence of violence.  Peace is, I think, the manifestation of human compassion.” – Dalai Lama XIV

We are all connected, and we are all interdependent.  Our individual survival depends on the survival of this earth and everything on it.  It’s time to stop competing with each other to see who can amass the most money and the most possessions.  It’s time to start co-operating and sharing, being grateful for what we have, learning how to live a simpler more joyful life by celebrating and appreciating each other.

If I am deeply committed to peace, and you are deeply committed to peace, the idea will spread.  I know it already has.  Peace on earth will be more than just a dream, it will be our new reality.

“In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace.  When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities.  Only when this really happens, when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men’s hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.”  – Albert Schweitzer

Bloggers for Peace Website

Hoping For Good News

Nope, not gonna tempt fate by saying what the best news I could receive right now might be.

Because then Fate might say to me – really?  Is that all you want?  You could have wished for a halt to global warming or world peace or no more holes in the ozone layer, but instead you have won the lottery but the world ends tomorrow, so I’d say you pretty much blew that one all to hell.