Monthly Archives: December 2012
Peace is Possible in Our Everyday Lives
Working for Peace and Harmony in Our Time
It is difficult to think about ending the strife and war in the entire world. But it is possible for each of us to live in the present moment every day. There are countries building up munitions and creating super weapons. It is difficult to handle all of this and believe in the goodness and love of people.
What we can’t do is to live in the past, no matter what happened then, nothing can make it better. The events of the past must remain there or you will be living in the hurt and pain and perhaps even looking for revenge. We must let go. We must walk away from the past and then it looses its power over us. Then we can make our lives be what we wish them to be. The future is a siren who calls us, but it never arrives. Its song is enticing but futile. What we can do is live in the moment and help others to live in the moment.
The present is the beginning of peace. All around the world are people who have lived under oppression, have witnessed horrors, lost parents to violence, survived malnutrition or lived in refugee camps where they know they really aren’t wanted. They have watched friends killed in cold blood or seen a bomb destroy their home and all that they owned. The photos, their toys, their food and their hopes and dreams.
It is in the present that we can create our happiness. Each single moment, we have the opportunity to show by our actions that you love others. That what they are experiencing at that moment, matters to you. That they are not alone and someone cares that they are struggling in that moment.
We all have the right to be happy and peaceful. We have been created for this and happiness and peace only comes when we are in love with God. When you do an act which brings happiness to another, you create peace within yourself. Peace and joy pours into our hearts and we have more to give to the next person we come in contact with as we go about our lives.
We must all understand that happiness and joy come to us and so does suffering. Facing the suffering is not ever easy. It can make you feel as if you were being torn apart. Have we done something to deserve suffering. I don’t believe so. I believe that if we never suffer, we can’t understand another’s pain. We can’t appreciate the joy, love, peace and happiness that comes with the suffering. When someone has not ever suffered, they are only experiencing part of life. We are here to live life to its fullest.
If I suffer, then I can understand another’s pain, hunger or fear. If I love them with all the love I have and then love them some more, then I will be filled with more love. The qualification is that love is given without expecting anything in return.
“Knowledge of yourself produces humility, and knowledge of God produces love.” —-Mother Teresa
It isn’t how much we do to help others, it is how much love accompanies our acts of assistance that really counts. If you give to a charity because you need a tax deduction, it won’t have the energy of your love. It will help but not in the same way. Perform acts of kindness with love and they will lead us to peace.
Peace Plea
Please, protect my children and family.
Please protect the children of other Mothers.
Please give peace to other parents.
Please give this beautiful world peace.
Only you can give this peace to the world.
–Barbara Mattio
On a Gray Monday
My Pond in Autumn. Avon, Ohio. Photo by Barbara Mattio
On days like this, you can get depressed or you can fill yourself up with beauty. It isn’t always easy. The branches are bare and the Gardens are empty. Darkness comes so early in the day.The grayness feels unending. What I do is visit the inner landscape which is always bright with color, filled with scents and filled with the love of the Divine.
I turn also to color; happy memories; warm, savory food. I often try to paint but my creativity seldom flows on these days. More’s the pity! Balance the gray with what is joyful and happy in your life.
I advise reading poetry; dancing around your house to your favorite music. Meditation and chanting is a good counterbalance to gray days. Looking through old photo albums; perhaps learn something new. I also like to stretch and move my muscles around to get the blood flowing and raise my metabolism up which also makes you feel better.
I am going to share some of my photos which brighten my spirits.and puts a smile on my face. I hope you enjoy some of my photos and I wish everyone a wonderful day.
June roses
Climbing roses
Costa Rican Rainforest
Photo by Barbara Mattio
Sunset. Photo by
Barbara Mattio
Eagle poses. Photo by
Barbara Mattio
Western North Carolina
Photo by Barbara Mattio
Western NC. Photo by Barbara Mattio
Cedar Point, Ohio
Photo by Barbara Mattio
Ww
Downtown Houston, Tx.
Photo by Barbara Mattio
Have a wonderful week everyone!
Possible weather danger
Happy Hanukkah
This is the festival of lights. Eight nights and eight days that bring us right to the magic and beauty of this festival. It is a holiday of warmth, candlelight, songs, games, presents and delicious foods. It is also the remembrance of the first war for religious freedom.
The Hanukkah menorah, or candle holder, has eight separate places for candles. The flames of the lights must never touch. It also contains one place is for an extra candle called the Shammash. This candle lights all of the others. It combines the earthly strength with heavenly light.
This time of year, Jews are celebrating a battle, fought against the Syrian king Antiochus IV, who was trying to force Jews to worship the Greek gods. A Jewish man and his sons won this battle. Mattathias and his sons were called the Maccabees. They were a small group of men who won the battle against an enormous army from Antiochus. They fought with farm tools, stones,and sticks.
How the Maccabbes actually won is a mystery and magic. They knew Syria much better but they were desperate to fight and save their people and they felt that Adonai was with them. This is a true story of magic and is cherished by the Jewish people.
When the Maccabees returned to Jerusalem, they were looking forward to a celebration and they found the Temple. It was filthy with blood and debris, dirt and ashes. All of the candlesticks, Torahs and books had been stolen.
Most importantly. there was only enough oil for the seven-branched Menorah to burn for one day, when the Menorah was meant to burn continuously, as an eternal light illuminating the way to God. Even worse, it would take eight whole days to make more oil for the lamps . The Jews did the only thing they could think of — they used the last bit of oil. And they prayed. The end of the first day came, and still the lamp burned. The oil kept the lamp alight for a second day, and a third. In all, the oil lasted for eights days and nights, enough time to make more oil. For the Jews, it was a miracle, and that miracle is remembered each year on the eight days of Hanukkah.
Hanukkah means Feast of Dedication, and the Maccabees rededicated the Temple to what is supposed to be. It was a holy place in which to celebrate great days.So each year, we pray, light candles and remember the miracle that happened once a long time ago. Jews laugh, eat, play Dreidle, sing songs and give gifts to others.
The Menorah is lit at nightfall so the lights will shine in the darkness and even the babies will see the ritual. The lights of the menorah are not to work by but to remind everyone of the miracle of the oil. (Source: The Family Treasury of Jewish Holidays by Malka Drucker; Little, Brown and Company”)
A Blessing Over the Candles
“You abound in blessings, Source of Light, Our G-d, Ruler of All Worlds,
Who has made us holy with Your Commandments,
And has commanded us to kindle the festival lights.”
When Friends Connect
Three Small Songs For the Muse
1
My oldest friend looks for me
On a dark road
Nights I can’t sleep,
We are lonely together.
We are yellow jackets in late summer,
Beating at the screen
We are two old women holding hands
At the funeral of a friend.
We are two children playing
“Who Am I?”
You put your hands over my eyes
And in their darkness,
I know for sure
That at the end,
The playful stranger who appears
Is not death
But love.
2
So you’ve come again
With a new face;
An unsettling thought
In my settled life.
You’re a woman, a man.
You change the names for love
Each time you come.
3
We walk in the ocean
Not Far from shore.
We walk on the bright shore
And you call me over
To show me something: a shell.
You name it, and we laugh.
We spend days talking,
Doing very little.
For so long I’d been praying,
“Come to me.”
“I’ll find you,” you said
And you did.
——————–Kathleen Norris
The Reflections of the Love of Dearest Friends
The One and Love
My Heart has Become Capable of Every Form
My heart has become capable of every form;
For gazelles and a retreat for Christian monks,
And a temple for idols, and the pilgrims’s Ka’ba
And the tables of the Torah and the book of the Koran.
I follow the religion of Love, whichever way his camels take.
My religion and my faith is the true religion.
——Ibn al–Arabi
“Fact is intelligible, but truth is beyond comprehension, for truth is unlimited.” ——-Hazarat Inayat Khan
“Love in reality creates harmony in one’s life on earth and peace in Heaven.” ———Hazrat Inayat Khan
“The principal work of the prophet is to glorify the name of God, and to raise humanity from the denseness of the earth,
To open the doors of the human heart to the divine beauty
Which is everywhere manifested, and to illuminate souls
Which are groping in darkness for years. The prophet brings
The Message of the day, a reform for that particular period in which he is born.” ——Hazrat Inayat Khan
Bless her soul
idealisticrebel 