A lesson on never crossing the finish line...

My lesson for this moment: The work is never done. The goal is never achieved. The finish line is never crossed. This is because of the ever-expanding nature of our universe and our human experience. When I work on or work towards something, the work I have done to this point affects the nature of what I am doing. My work then expands and becomes something else, something new, something brighter, something bigger. As much as my deep desire in life is to be able to check things off a to do list, this is not the nature of life. Sure, we can complete small tasks and bucket list items but even those "items" we've completed have changed the nature of everything else in our life - everything about ourselves. And we are prismatic - even holographic - there are so many facets to each of us that can be changed and affected simultaneously by one tiny movement in life. Even our thoughts change things.

So, I am challenging my belief that I *should have* achieved something else or completed something in particular by now. When I stop and think about, with each step I have taken to build what I am building in life, I have significantly enhanced, strengthened, altered and expanded my work - and my life. It is ever growing. I cannot feel badly about not being "done" by now. Because there is no done. When my work is done, I am done. The nature of life allows me to feel that crossing one finish line was only a step in being prepared to cross the next finish line.  All these finish lines take us to the final finish line of a life well lived.  By that time, and only at that point, will I be done.  And when I'm done, when my work is done, I return home to the other side. And I'm far from ready for that.

Our tribe...

Some indigenous cultures have a tradition of embracing and loving the member of the tribe who causes harm, pain or suffering to others. This is an act of treating pain (the wrong doer acted from his own pain) with love. They tell him he is loved. That he is made of divine love and he belongs. He may fight back but eventually the love (which never tires) wins. The community does not give up the battle to reclaim his goodness, no matter how long it may take. To give up on that member of the tribe is to permit darkness to infect the tribe.

We are facing the same battle today in many corners of our lives. It may seem that there is more darkness now than ever but that is not true. There is more love and light now than ever before because of all the hard work done by the generations that have gone before us and the work we are doing today. We, the light bearers, have brought so much love to the world that our planet has shifted and darkness can no longer hide. What seems like an endless series of scandals and injustice and war is the darkness bubbling up to the surface and into the light so it can be healed. It's overwhelming at times but we can bring love to all of this darkness. We are having the conversations, making stands for peace and learning how to have compassion in new and powerful ways. We must not give up, even if it takes generations. 

We heal this world every day with our acts of compassion and as we do, that energy ripples through the world and heals people we will never know. We are the wings of the butterfly and the hurricane is love. 

Just as the tribe does not give up on the evil doing tribe member, we cannot give up on humanity. Keep up the good fight. We are winning. And we are healing the generations before and after us by changing the story of our ancestor's children and our children's ancestors.

Namaste.

10 truths: Picking up the pieces...

Ten truths worth telling:

1. That thing you really don't want to do is the one thing you really need to do.
2. All suffering ends.  You'll always pick up the pieces and build a stronger YOU in the aftermath.
3. Honor your impulses - if you don't, the energy builds up inside you and becomes something else you really don't want.
4. The time you spend in indecision changes the circumstances surrounding the things you must choose from.  You may have lost a very good thing by waiting to know if it was good enough to choose.
5. Real love never looks the way you thought it would.  Stop looking for it and starting feeling for it instead.
6. Don't allow someone else to choose for you.  They'll never be right.
7. When you don't feel good, put on your hottest jeans, your biggest earrings and pretend that you feel like a million bucks.  Even if no one else bears witness.
8. Dancing cures all ills, soothes all hearts, rids a mind of worry and translates emotional energy into joy, which is the fuel for the beautiful flow of life.
9. All joys and pains, friends and foes, triumphs and failures are meant to teach you something.  Pay attention - and love the painful moments as much as the blissful ones.  The greatest gifts lie in the darkest corners.
10. Falling in love is always worth it.  Always.  Don't tell yourself the old stories of heartbreak.  Heartbreak is only a memory.  Love is what is real, and it is waiting for you to open the door now.

A tree grows in the concrete.
It knows its odds of growing old are not great.
It cares not if its time is short,
rather it cares only to say "I'm here."
"This shadow is mine."
"I've earned what I've accomplished."
"I grew here to teach you a lesson, and
I'm happy to have had the opportunity to help you grow stronger."

3 ways to release, surrender, let go...

There's too much.  Too much of everything.  And for those of us who are sensitive, we are brimming over, swimming in the overwhelm and in need of release. I wish I had a manual for letting go, but I do not.  It seems that no matter how much I let go of, there's always more.  Some days it feels like a bottomless well... but something deep inside of me knows it is not.

We come here, to these lifetimes, to learn, to love, to lose and to let go.  We know we take nothing with us in the end yet we sure live like we do.  In fact, we take as much as we possibly can.  We hoard it - most of the time without even knowing.  We take all of the joys, all of the pains, all of the bliss and all of the sorrows.  Of course we want only the good things so we soak those up eagerly without cause for thought.  We adamantly reject and detest the bad things though because they feel so awful.  But in refusing and hating the bad, we make it grow bigger inside of us.  We focus so much energy on not wanting the pains of life that we sow such a fertile ground of Not Wanting Bad Stuff that we inadvertently attract more and more of it, over and over.  The law of attraction is real.  We really do get back from the world what we send out and when we are consumed with not wanting more of the bad (when we are neck-deep in the bad), that's all we're asking the universe for... and we get it.

This is where The Art of Letting Go comes in.  I should have a post-doctoral degree in this fine art by now.  I once purchased a book on Letting Go at a used book sale and treated it like my bible.  I carried it with me and read the analogies and thought about them over and over (red flag:  I was hoarding letting go).  I believed that the book Who Moved My Cheese was written for me and I had to own a copy after reading someone else's (yeah, there it is again...).  I needed to know *how* to let go and I wasn't going to stop until I figured it out (spoiler alert:  I don't claim to have figured it out, but I have donated most of my books and I have a few approaches I recommend trying).

Most of the time we know instinctively that we need to let go of things that no longer serve us (the knowing becomes clearer the more times we've faced the challenge of letting go - or, in some cases, when a close friend simply refuses to hear the story once more).  [So, Recommendation #1:  Get a good friend.  And be real honest with said good friend - ask for real honesty in return.  Buy good friend a drink and show up when good friend needs you to do the same.]

We need to let go so that we can focus on what we *do* want in our lives in place of the bad.  But those bad moments can be so insidious that they get stuck inside of us, refueling the automatic delivery system of exactly what we don't want any more of - so we get more bad, over and over, creating a seemingly bottomless well of hard, challenging, painful experiences.  Letting go of the thoughts, energies and (understandable) hatred of the negative stuff in our lives then becomes so challenging that it seems impossible to get out.  We feel as though we can't even remember what the good moments look like anymore.  The typical advice to "think positive" and focus on what we truly want becomes an irritating reminder that David is smaller than Goliath and he can't possibly win.  But what if the art of letting go happens in surrendering to the monster?  Can we love it enough to turn even our darkest moments and deepest worries into parts of ourselves that we can't help but love?

I believe so.

I believe that the brightness of love can shine its loving (and joyful) light precisely in the places we can't seem to escape.  By turning to face the monster and giving it love, we can shine our own light on the thing we want so desperately to let go of.  By loving that which we hate, we take away its power and we have nothing to avoid any longer.  The scary parts become the parts of us that are craving love and tenderness - something we have within us to give and feel much better than when we hate them.

Therefore, Recommendation #2:  Love the bad stuff, all of it, see it as part of yourself - a part that really needs a hug, to be held, to be told it's dream job is coming, it's beautiful and smart and has great hair... you get the point.

And because I'm a big fan of journaling - and writing in general, here's a third suggestion for your letting go journey, for good measure:

Recommendation #3:  Write a letter to God/your higher self/your guides/your angels/the person who hurt you/your future self/Santa Claus and tell him/her/it your deepest secrets, hopes, fears and desires.  Beg, plead, pray, bargain.  It doesn't matter what you say or how you say it, just that you are honest and that you are releasing some of the energy that is wrapped so tightly around what you need to let go of.  Then seal it up, burn it, hide it, shred it, bury it or read it back to yourself and hit delete.  It doesn't matter what you do with it because the message was delivered the moment you wrote it and acknowledged its existence   You've simply empowered your own ability to release (i.e. leg go) in the simplest of forms.  After all, it's all energy.  The fears, the hopes, the intentions, the messages in your letters, the worries you carry - all of it is just energy.  Release any small amount of that energy you no longer want and you will feel freer to start asking for and attracting what you do want.

I honor your strength, courage and determination in the battle of letting go.  ...And I have no idea who would own a necklace that says "let go" - not a clue.

The famous speech... MLK still speaks...

Have you seen it?  

Have you learned from it?  

Have you been absorbed by it?  

Have you made choices in your life to live by it? 

I've been to Selma, Alabama.  I've stood at the church.  I've traveled the fateful road that saw so many march for what they knew to be their true and God-given rights.  And, I've seen the segregation so obvious to the eye and heart which still exists in this place where the movement began.

"This situation can and will be changed."

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Watch it. 

Listen to his voice. 

Feel it in your heart.  

Live the truth.  

Know this speech and it's important moment that opened a door of change in our collective human history.

Today is not just a day off from school.  

It is a day to reflect and see how much has and has not changed since 1963.

The Speech that woke humanity... Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Let freedom ring!

The un-shared ideas of quiet souls...

I've realized, over a recent period of self-directed disconnection from most of the stimulus happening in our world that so many people matter whose names we will never know and and so many solutions to problems in our world exist that will never be brought to light.  These inspired ideas and peaceful solutions won't even be brought to a level of consciousness other than that of the mind that thought it.

I've realized that our thinking, hurting, angry, over-communicative, over-stimulated and frustrated minds are so full that the quiet space needed for the gentle souls among us and peaceful solutions contained within them have nearly no place in our world right now... but it is precisely those souls and those ideas that are so needed.

The news bombards us.  The talking heads talk.  The angry politicians act without thought and fight without concern.  The egos are bigger than ever.  Acting on impulse, from anger and without thought - it's everywhere.  The injustice is ripe and rotting in our own front lawns but we can't seem to clean it up.  We can't seem to even call attention to it anymore because it is everywhere.  In fact, the stories that seem to capture and hold our attention are those rare stories of change and hope in the world - those are the ones that stand out from the rest.  Those are the stories we are truly seeking, but our pre-programmed and muddled minds always seek more and more stimulation and ultimately they forget the story of hope.  They turn back to the terror, the fear, the desolate reality of a world gone wrong.  We swim in it.  We are desperate for change and peace but we can't find it.  Too much gets in the way five minutes later.  The hope which seemed so palatable is once again gone and we are left seeking, knowing it is somewhere in the chaos of the rotten injustice.

The hope must be held on to.

Those of us with the hope, the ideas, the solutions, the programs, the generous hearts... we must dig deep and find all the courage we can possibly find to speak aloud those truths which we know can change the tides in our world.  It's hard, doing such a thing, because it requires strength and courage that come from a place which requires a loving fuel to keep us going... but such loving, hopeful energy is so hard to find right now.  Yet still we must try.

And keep trying because that's why we are here.

Just remember that when all of the noise and chaos around us becomes deafening, it is in that space that we can be heard.  We carry the story of hope so many are seeking - and the courage to do the work.  There will be times when we - when you - will need to be your own fuel.  When attentions wander and people forget that your ideas, your courage, your work of change are indeed valuable and are indeed changing the world, you must become your own fuel.  It was in the very same space of great pain and injustice in the world that the quiet and humble teachers throughout human history - Jesus, Gandhi, Buddha - walked quietly through the hells that surrounded them to tell their stories of Love, Peace and Hope.  Those teachers became leaders, those leaders became prophets and those prophets became spirits who guide us still today.  Call on them in your time of great need, but remember that you too contain the same courage they had.  You have the same kind of thoughts, the same space for hope, the same earthly body and the same calling to "be the change you wish to see in the world." (Gandhi)

You may be one of us, you may be that peaceful teacher and I tell you now that I  hear you... and you are not alone.  For it is in the time of great imbalance that true balance can be found.  It is in our destitution that we can so clearly see what hope looks like.  And it is in a world that appears devoid of love for our fellow human that we can recognize instantly what love looks like.  While many may become distracted and forget that they've seen the love, somewhere deep inside them their soul remembers what it looks like and they will keep seeking it.  Stand firm in the love and peace you bring to the world and those seeking it will find you.  God's plan is greater than any of ours and he has sent us to remind the world of that.

Be strong.  Be faithful.  Be courage itself.  Be what you were meant to be.

Eye of God

What about us?

This is so well done.  

What are we doing to our world?  

When will we stop?

The greatest dichotomy...

It isn't black versus white.
It isn't good or evil.

It's the cavernous and almost endless stretch of pain, injustice, abuse, neglect and power that extends the distance between poverty and wealth.

Poor versus Rich.
Give versus Take.
Life versus Death.

It is no longer a catchy and kitschy theme for a Hollywood television show or comedy a la the rags to riches variety.  It's a terrifying and ever worsening two-headed dragon that humanity has single-handedly created.  It's a beast that has been fed  with the blood, fear and lives of countless human beings.  And it is a beast that is killing hundreds of millions of people around the world.  Tens of thousands while you read this.

You know the headlines.  You've seen the pictures.  But it's worse than you think.  It's worse than even I can imagine.  The "causes" themselves are the new players in the game of wealth versus poverty.  We believe that good people and organizations are doing their best to address the needs of those trapped in man-made poverty/war/starvation all over the world, but more than you can begin to imagine, we are led to believe something is happening (with, perhaps, our own money) but in reality, we're being lied to about what is really happening.

In this article in TIME, an employee who works for one international aid organization admits:

"Western aid agencies aren't reaching many of the starving. Some, incredibly, are pretending they are. Oxfam is one agency raising money for Somalia and claiming to be reaching hundreds of thousands when, as a spokesman admitted to TIME, it doesn't actually distribute food and has no staff in the famine area. Less disingenuous agencies will admit the emergency operation is not going well."

This, sadly, is one admission to the crimes being committed in the world by the very people we put our faith and home in to do the work we cannot do ourselves.  Or can we?

It doesn't seem impossible once you begin to consider that the starving child in Somalia is your child.  When you look at another human being as yourself, as your loved one, as your own child then everything in your heart changes.  What you pay attention to changes.  What you advocate for changes.  What you can do grows bigger.  You grow bigger.  And it is in the growing bigger that you do within yourself where the change in the world begins to happen.  Your single consciousness can ignite a fire powerful enough to spread across the globe - and change the hearts and minds of people you'll never know as it catches flame between you and your friends - to their friends and their friends' friends.

It's the pebble in the pond.  It's one small change in your world that can make a change and bring balance to the dichotomy between extreme wealth and poverty-disease-starvation.  It's your heart - and your informed mind - that can and must insist on fairness and equality in the world.

One day, we can and WILL live in a world where hundreds of thousands of human beings don't die of starvation mere miles from stockpiles of food.

Don't get distracted...

Pause, breathe and listen.

There are so many things surrounding us right now that are designed to distract us from what matters.  So much simply does not matter and adds nothing to life or the world.

You know what matters.  If you don't think you do, take a moment, close your eyes and listen to your heart.  Pause.  Take a deep breath.  Exhale and listen. What is your heart telling you to focus on?  What deserves your attention?  What needs your effort?  Who are the people you should be spending time with?

Get rid of all the things that are not worthy of your precious time and energy.  Now, more than ever, it is important to focus, get grounded and do what you are here to do.  There will always be distractions - that's the world we live in.  But we don't need to multitask at every moment and we don't need to do everything that calls upon us.

Own your space in the world.
Embrace your role in the world.
Empower yourself to give your unique gifts to the world.

Don't get distracted.
Don't be distracted.
Go, change the world!

It takes Courage...

Courage is found deep within us, in a place we can't name or recognize - nor do we even believe it exists sometimes.  It can sometimes be seen by others but rarely do we see it in ourselves.  How do we find it then when we need it most?  How do we gather it up and put it to work lifting us up, moving us forward or getting us out?  Not a simple question to answer and not an easy thing to do.

Too often there are situations, adversaries or individuals who would like for us to stay precisely where we are, keeping us from growing or living our truth.  We've all experienced it.  All the "isms" in society, all the ways people are discouraged, all the moments we didn't stand up when we felt we should have - they are all part of a system of oppression that exists in so many shapes and forms around us all.  That these systems exist at all calls us all to stand up and overcome them as individuals and members of the greater human family.  So many people throughout history have lacked the courage and turned a blind eye or participated in the oppression themselves out of fear of becoming oppressed themselves.

Individuals throughout our human story have subscribed to the notion of "if you can't fight 'em, join 'em" and it has caused so much suffering in the world and delayed so much healing.  When an individual acts from a place of fear, he strengthens the oppressive systems that must be challenged and overcome.  When an individual acts from love, employing courage from his own heart, then the world can be changed and humanity can begin to heal.  Because these acts of courage are often taken by individuals, they can feel quite lonely and isolated but rest assured, so many are watching.  So many are aware and so many are looking for those who can lead the way.  This solitude in courage makes having it all the harder to muster but all the more important to find, employ and act from.

Courage is living according to your own truth, standing up for what you know is right and staying true to your unique path.  Since we all have different paths in life, only the Self can recognize the need for courage and then have the strength to make the move that must be made.  Others may tell us what needs to be done and their motives can range from pure love and concern to manipulation and power but only the Self can employ true courage and make the change, take the step or leave the situation.

No one else will ever tell you to become who you are.  No one else can help you become who you are meant to be.  Most people won't even bother to help another grow into who she is meant to be.  It's because of all of this that courage is one of those traits we most admire in one another.  We revel in the stories of those who overcame the greatest odds.  The stories that show us examples of humans living to their fullest human potential.  We need these stories so much that they become the lore that propels us to find our own truths and to fight for justice.  If courage weren't hard to gather within ourselves, we wouldn't retell stories of Joan of Arc and Jesus and Ghandi.  We wouldn't read books about heroes and we wouldn't define our history by a series of wrongs that have been righted and individuals who have done the impossible.

What is quite possibly the greatest thing in the story of Courage in our world is that once one person has found the courage to do what is best, right, good and honorable, we realize that we all benefit from that one individual's inner strength.  The story of human courage is as permeating as stories of long-lost loves found and deserving people who win in the end.  The difference is that while we all may not have long-lost loves to find or babies to save, we all have a truth to live and doing so takes courage - courage that is within us at all times.

Getting to that courage is something only some people do, but I believe we can all find it.  It's just a matter of believing in ourselves, digging deep and then standing up for something true in ourselves.  That truth, as long as it is based in love, is greatly needed in the world.

Stand - and act - from your courage.  Become who you are truly meant to be.  We all need each others' greatest Selves in order to heal so much in the world.  It's why we are here.  And we're all here for each other.

When life shows up....

Sometimes it's subtle.
Sometimes it's overly avert.

Sometimes it's a shock.

Sometimes it's been there all along....

Photo of artwork in a coffee shop, name unknown, message received.

Life brings us so much each day.  Just sit, quiet and look.  Can't see anything?  Close your eyes and look within. It is in the moments when you think God has forgotten to deliver that He is doing his greatest work within you.  Be sure to pay attention to these quiet moments because they are preparing you for the moments that will arrive around the corner when everything you need outside of yourself starts to show up.  Your tools, your relationships, your challenges and your opportunities.  All yours.  All for your work in the world.  It all shows up for you to use in delivering upon your unique, divine mission in life.  

Don't miss it.  Odds are that it won't look like what you expect nor arrive when you're ready, but it all comes.  For you.  And only you.  Are you opening the door?

Knowing it to be true...

Have you ever had a gut instinct that proved to be right?  A feeling about someone or about a situation that was exactly what you thought when the truth came out?  Have you ever felt that you were inexplicably familiar with someone despite only just having met them?

These are all examples of the Spirit being alive in us and actively working with us... and evidence that we are fully present in our lives.  When we are open to our own Spirit (or God), this kind of knowing happens for us.  I've learned that when I feel most alive, most comfortable and most in the flow in my own life with someone or something, it is a sure sign that I am connected to a deeper knowing within myself.

There's a terrible affliction in humankind - one that keeps us trapped, living life in our heads all the time, trying to make sense of things, or worse, trying to make the world fit into our understanding of it. Too often too many of us forget to let go and let life happen.  And more often than not, people don't even realize that this is happening - that they are living life through their thoughts.  We've created our routines, our sense of right and wrong and our ways of seeing the world but they leave little room for seeing the world anew day after day.  There's so much beyond what we thing we know and see each day but it is so easy to miss it.  We forget, in a way, to get out of our own way.

Being open and letting life happen shows us a much more beautiful reality than one we could have written for ourselves in the first place.

I've practiced this openness to life and awareness of my own intuition for years but it's very easy to fall off the wagon.  Fear of loss, worries about the future, shocking information - it all throws us off balance in an instant.  That delicate and hard won balance is worth paying attention to and maintaining because it allows us to experience life in greater dimension.  It's a combination of living in the moment, listening to (and for) our own intuition, and believing that we are each a unique part of a larger story and that our role is critical to that story's success.  No one else can live our lives for us - we are here to live them fully and intentionally in the starring role.

Apathy toward your own life creates disappointment, lost opportunities, sadness, loss, regret - all terribly undesirable things!  So why not be engaged fully in your own story and fully open to all the story lines and walk-on characters that show up?  Only you can experience and share all those wonderful moments in the story of YOU.  And in that story of you, you are the superstar, the director and the producer - fitting indeed since only YOU can know all there is to know... and know it to be true.

The moment before serendipity happens...

What does it look like?  

What does it sound like?  

Does the world get brighter?  

Do your ears buzz a little bit?  

Do you get hints?

I'm left asking myself all of these questions today.  Serendipity happened last night.  Divine intervention happened last night.  I was sent to a place to meet a person I'd never met who was sent to give me some very important information.

Where and what don't matter here.  But because I am human - and you are too, and because humans are curious and need context for a story to take root, I'll give you a bit of the story.  I will tell you though that what I am truly in awe of is how and why it happened as it did.

Yesterday afternoon's much awaited sun beckoned me to go for a drive - a drive which took me to one of my favorite places on the planet.  I wound up at my friend Corey Tevan's art studio - a lovely, imaginative human being who, when I'm in his presence, always brings me a sense of love and magic - and who opens a part of me I didn't realize needed opening.  Upon entering his gallery, he poured me a glass of wine and we began to talk.

I thought nothing and everything of the things of which we spoke - our conversations are always esoteric and like a dance without choreography but with a rhythm all their own.  This was mentioned, that was mentioned.  A person I'd never heard of was mentioned - and as such, I thought nothing of it.

My friend Corey Tevan and his art.

That person I'd never heard of and who my friend mentioned off-handedly, just happened to be the person I was meant to meet last night.  I drove an hour to have a poignant and incredibly serendipitous conversation with someone I never knew existed.  Someone who, most significantly, had no reason to show up unexpected as he did.  In fact, he had reason not to appear on this day and time as he did.  The list of evidence that shows that we were meant to meet is astounding - and terribly personal so I'm going to have to leave it at that for now.  But this person I'd never met is a messenger and a man of God - and he had a very important message for me - a message I had been seeking with great intent in recent weeks.

So you can imagine that I'm now asking myself what happened - what existed in the moments leading up to this providence that I can recount?  Is there something palpable in that space that I can use to be more aware of an impending kismet moment in the future?  Or is serendipity so magical precisely because we never know when it is going to happen?  Or can there be both?

Thinking back on my drive North, my mind was full of questions and my body was full of emotion.  I felt as though I was shedding something I no longer needed - but in order to do that, I needed it to all bubble to the surface.  Every song on the radio spoke to me.  The ride seemed both longer and shorter than usual.  My mind was elsewhere - I don't know where it was but it was not freely open to the unknown as it might have otherwise been on a random afternoon drive.  It was processing something and I now think that it was processing and working through things that needed to be brought to a level of consciousness as I grew closer and closer to my fateful encounter.

Somewhere between my divine thought of "Hey, it's so nice out today, let's go for a drive" and the moment my answer arrived in the form of Reverend Joe in his big black coat... somewhere in that divinely choreographed afternoon was a moment of "before" my serendipity and I am beyond curious to find it and recognize it for future use.   I am wise enough, though, to know that the mysteries of the universe are far greater than my linear, organizing mind is capable of understanding, so I am comfortable with the the reality that I may never be able to satisfy my curiosity.  But there's something to be said for being aware of the wonder that comes from a glimpse of divine magic when it happens.  It is that which I revel in at this moment.

My messenger, Rev. Joe.

(Part 2) Peace is always the answer...

This is Part 2 of a two-party entry I began this morning.  There was much, much more to say.

My belief (click to read the previous post) is this:  War is never the answer... Peace is.  I have countless reasons why I believe this but only a few thoughts were shared in my previous post.  The reality of saying things out loud (or writing them out loud, as the case may be) opens me to other's opinions.  I love that about humanity.  I also love that I live in a free society where I am free to believe in Peace.  Specifically, as it turns out, the freedom of Peace.

Peace does not cost anything - and even someone living without freedom can embrace, embody and spread Peace.  Consider what Nelson Mandela has achieved through Peace, as a prisoner for 27 years of his life.

“If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work 
with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

- Nelson Mandela

Peace is made of love and when love is given, it multiplies, it heals and it is returned ten fold.  Peace is harmonious with our most basic emotional needs and the way we would treat a newborn baby or a child.  Peace is the only way to end suffering in the world even if you see the issue as a simple matter of physics.  Yes, physics.  While I am a very spiritual person, science supports what I am about to explain about Peace.

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction (Einstein - another Peacemaker speaking of a "universal truth", if you will) and matter will not change on its own unless external conditions such as temperature, or internal conditions such as chemical content, are changed.  And a tiny, simple, almost imperceptible change can completely alter something from one form to another, like combining 2 Hydrogen atoms (H2) with one oxygen atom (O2) makes an entirely different compound every human needs for survival:  H20, or water.

We also need oxygen but, like hydrogen, when it is combined with other elements, entirely different and often deadly substances are created that are nothing at all like water. So, now that I have used almost all of my high school chemistry on you, you can begin to see why I will argue that bringing more Peace to the world has the potential to change things significantly simply by introducing it somewhere where it does not currently exist, if you only look at it from a scientific perspective.

If we go one step further and consider that quantum mechanics has shown us that things happen beyond our scientific method's ability to measure, then we can be even more open to the unknown impact of Peace on a world full of suffering.  And consider, for a moment, a mind-blowing discovery within quantum mechanics called Young's Double Slit experiment that illustrates how the act of observing a thing changes it (this fascinating discovery is also called Relational Quantum Mechanics).  If even passive observation can change the behavior of particles then I implore you to consider how prayer and intention for Peace by millions and millions of people can, indeed, change the world.

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding"

- Albert Einstein

Here's a video illustrating Thomas Young's Double Slit experiment - worth the watch.  But stick with me on this Peace business...

So, since I am not a scientist (though I did love my high school physics class!), and because I do believe in the great power of the mystical and metaphysical, I will implore you further to consider just how powerful Peace has been on this planet and will continue to be.

The most famous peacemakers in history are household names - Jesus, Buddha, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, The Dalai Lama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Yes, the greatest terrorists and murders in history are also household names but it is because of the pain and suffering they have caused, not the love they brought to the world.  When you hear the name Hitler, you instantly feel the impact of that name.  The fear, the violence, the unconscionable destruction of human life on a massive scale.  You heart sinks.  You sigh. Your shoulders drop or your muscles may tighten.  You would prefer not to have heard or read the name at all.  It is a name with a low, sinking, painful feeling.

But go back to the list of names I wrote in blue and read those again.  Pause on each one.  You gaze may rise, your face may relax, you may take a cleansing breath, you feel stronger, more hopeful, you might smile.  You might even nod or breathe audibly at the recognition of  a powerfully loving, giving, compassionate human being.  You may see pictures of each in your mind - Mother Theresa holding a dying child, Jesus healing the sick.  You may hear "I have a dream" in Martin Luther King's own voice in your head.  You may feel the sacrifice Gandhi made of his own body.  And all of these names together, emit Peace.  A strong and sturdy Peace that each has left here on Earth for us in moments like this.

I was challenged by a friend today on my statement that war is never the answer.  My friend challenged me not on the issue of Peace but on my insistence of "Never."  My friend argued that had we not gone to war against Hitler, he and the Third Reich would have succeeded with the extermination of the Jews.  As Gadhafi is now killing his own people, is war not a possible solution to allow his people to be free?  My friend doesn't like war either but argued that opting for peace and hoping for the best outcome, while desirable, is not preferable to war when there are instances that seem to have no other solution.  I understand this, but I still take a different view.

I respect my friend for making this statement as it planted the seed of what you are reading right now.  What I said in response was this:   Stopping Hitler was one thing, the world war that surmounted was something else. I believe that we are advanced enough as a human race to learn from thousands of years of war and death and destruction that war is never the answer. I think that something could have stopped Hitler years and years before he grew a following. Turning a blind eye was as much of the fertilizer for the Third Reich as Hitler himself was. And I still think that we are at a point in human history where we risk greater damage to the world and humanity than ever before if we do not find ways beyond war to address all of these issues that are arising and will continue to arise around the planet. My belief is that every Hitler, every Gadhafi, rises to power as a challenge to all of humanity to find a New Way to combat hatred. In order to find that new way, we must look outside the war "box" and see what else we have in us to employ. If we just keep turning to war, we'll never find that something else. Nothing changes if we keep doing the same thing over and over. So in order to turn hate to love, we must employ more love, more peace - and it is going to take ALL of us to do this.

Suffering around the planet is our opportunity to engage in the act of Ending Suffering.  After thousands and thousands of years, we have evolved as a human race to a global community with responsibility to each other just as we are responsible to our family, our neighbors and our nation.  There are no borders, there are no lines.  There is no difference between you and me and someone we've never met 7,000 miles away.  Our task as a human race is not to wage war, not to have more [money/food/possessions/power] than others, not to pretend it doesn't matter because it's happening to someone else born somewhere else.  You could have just as easily been born into the body of a suffering orphan in Africa.  And so could I.  Because we are now all connected, we must feel empathy.  And once you do, even for just a moment, you will also feel the innate need to replace the feeling of suffering (Hitler) with compassion (Mother Theresa).  Hatred with love.  War with Peace.

We were not born with a single cell in our tiny bodies that knew of hatred or violence or war.  These are man-made things.  We were born only with cells knowing of the need for food, human touch and love.  Think of the number of times a day a baby smiles or giggles.  The number of times a child laughs in a given day in comparison to an adult.  It is not until we achieve adulthood that we begin to incorporate fear, pain, suffering, abuse, trauma, neglect into the psyches of others.  And yes, we do it to others, just as others did it to us.  That baby was not born knowing these things - the world in which he grows up exposes him to it.  And therein lies the problem:  The cycle of suffering from one generation to the next by being born into a world that solves problems with fear, not love.

We must now solve the problems we face with love in order to end the cycle.  The time has come and we each have everything within us we need to become ambassadors for Peace on this planet.  And if you can begin to live your own Peace and then send it out to the rest of the world, imagine the power it might contain.  I won't try to convince you that I know it to be true (and I do), but the power of Peace, when spoken, when shared, when employed as a habit in your daily life, feels just as loving and powerful as the names of Ghandi, of Jesus, of the Dalai Lama, when they are spoken.  Those humans are not in the same room with you, nor are some even some even alive on this planet, but the mere mention or thought of their names can be uplifting.  That is the very same universal positive power that exists in prayers of Peace, conversations about Peace, and Peaceful action in your daily life.

And, just like love, when given, Peace comes back to you tenfold.  So bring Peace to your life today and see what happens. Choose to not engage in road rage tomorrow even if you are late for work and someone cuts you off (while it is not about what you get in return, pay attention to what begins happening around you - you might find that someone else lets you cut in front of them in traffic - or a parking spot opens up just as you need it).  Look for an opportunity to give something small to someone else - let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store, or give a dollar to a beggar and look him in the eye and smile while you do.

Perhaps, just like the electron in the video above which acted differently once it was aware it was being watched, we too can affect different behavior all over the world by becoming aware that everyone is watching us.  You're watching what I'm doing right now, who is watching you and how might knowing that someone is watching you change your behavior?  If you think about it for a moment, you'll find yet one more reason to act in Peace because whether you think you are being watched or not, the universal laws that govern our world will bring us more of that which we give.  So give Peace.  Today and every day.

“As I have said, the first thing is to be honest with yourself. 

You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself... 

Great peacemakers are all people of integrity, of honesty, but humility.” 

- Nelson Mandela