Blessed is the Source of Life, the Fountain of Being
the wellspring of goodness, compassion and Kindness
from which we draw to make for justice and peace.
From the creative power of Life we derive food and harvest,
from the bounty of the earth and the yields of the heavens
we are sustained and are able to sustain others.
All Life is holy, sacred,
worthy of respect and dignity.
Let us give thanks for the power of heart
to sense the holy in the midst of the simple.
We eat not simply to satisfy our own appetites,
we eat to sustain ourselves in the task we have been given.
Each of us is unique,
coming into world with a gift no other can offer: ourselves.
We eat to nourish the vehicle of giving,
we eat to sustain our task of world, repair,
our quest for harmony, peace and justice.
We eat and we are revived, and we give thanks
to the lives that were ended to nourish our own.
May we merit their sacrifice, and honor their sparks of holiness
through our deeds of loving kindness.
We give thanks to the Power that makes for Meeting,
for our table has been a place of dialogue and friendship.
We give thanks to Life.
May we never lose touch with the simple joy and wonder
of sharing life. —Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro
Leave the world a better place.
Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. —Dalai Lama
The only true guardian of peace lies within: a sense of concern and responsibility for your own future and an altruistic concern for the well-being of others.
—-Dalai Lama
As we are together, praying for peace, let us be truly with each other.
Let us pay attention to our breathing.
Let us be relaxed in our bodies and our minds.
Let us be at peace with our bodies and our minds.
Let us return to ourselves and become wholly ourselves. Let us maintain a half-smile of our faces.
Let us be aware of the source of being common to us all and to all living things.
Evoking the presence of the Great Compassion—–towards ourselves and towards all living beings.
Let us pray that all living beings realize that they are all brothers and sisters, all nourished from the same source of life.
Let us pray that we ourselves cease to be the cause of suffering to each other.
Let us plead with ourselves to live in a way which will not deprive
other beings of air, water, food, shelter,or the chance to live.
With humility, with awareness of the existence of life, and of the sufferings that are going on around us, let us pray for the establishment of peace in our hearts and on earth. Amen —Thich Nhat Hanh
I had a blog planned for today. But the world has changed what I have to say right now. The negativity and darkness which has been lingering over the world is exploding much like the missiles exploding in the skies. So here we are once again and innocent people are being injured and killed. Children are losing their lives or their parents. We must learn to live without war and violence. When will human beings learn that violence produces nothing but more violence? Where are the clear thinking leaders of our world who should be talking to each other and doing what is best for all peoples of all countries? We are all the same. Our hearts beat to the same rhythm. Our legs move in the same way. We all have those we love and those we don’t know. Does that make the “other people” wrong or is it all right to kill them? The answer is a gigantic NO!
Whether you believe in God or not, whether you are a Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Zoroastrian, Sufi, Agnostic or Atheist, whether you believe in a Goddess or in Divine Energy or nothing at all, we are made from the same matter. We are star dust. We are killing each other once again. God is not supporting anyone in these wars. God does not belong to any one nationality. God doesn’t favor anyone more than another. God loves all of us, no matter who is participating in war, God loves everyone the same. There is only one God. Despite the fact that we have many religions and spiritual paths, there is only one God and all are loved. It is not my God against your God, there is only one God. Call it whatever you want, there is only one God.
A Malaysian airplane has been shut down over the Ukraine. Three hundred human beings, innocent human beings from a variety of countries have been taken down by surface to air missiles. Why? Which country took the airliner down? What did these people do wrong? Nothing. They bought a ticket and boarded an airliner that was shot out of the sky over the Ukraine. How can decent and reasonable people do this to the human beings on the plane? Were they involved in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia? Some of them, maybe, and but most were probably not. These were human beings who got up this morning and packed their suitcases to take with them on their flight and now they are dead. Maybe they were running late and forgot to say goodbye. Perhaps they were on their way to see someone they loved. Is there an excuse for these unnecessary deaths? There is not. No matter who shot it down, they killed innocent people for no reason. They committed murder. They must be punished, by law, but even this horrible act is not an excuse for war.
That war is not a solution is not a new concept. Edwin Starr put it very well:
Hate isn’t the answer
The problems between Palestine and Israel is not new. Iuntries believe that hate is the problem between these two peoples. I believe that both countries are in some ways right and in some ways wrong. So with hate in their hearts, they continue to war over a strip of land. It isn’t even a great piece of land. But the Palestinian people need a place to call home and to develop their lives. Israel needs to be safe from attacks and worry they will lose their country. There are non-Israelis living in Israel. Israeli hospitals have even treated Palestinians in their hospitals. So I am convinced if the leaders of both countries would stop their accusations, their selfishness and insensitivity to the pain of the other people, peaceful coexistence is possible.
The Israeli people need to allow the Palestinians to live unmolested in the Gaza Strip. The Palestinians need to have free access to the provisions they need and to get to jobs in Israel (which many Palestinians hold). Israelis need to be secure in their homes without fear of suicide bombers coming into their country from Gaza. They both need to forgive each other and show each other compassion and gentleness. God, whether called Allah nor Adonai or by any other name, does not want this horrific suffering.
Today, despite the prayers from people around the world, Israel has launched a ground attack. The only result will be the loss of more innocent people. I want to declare that innocent people are not collateral damage. They are human beings who have parents, siblings, loved ones, children and friends, just as we do. We all lose when war is unleashed upon our planet. There are no real winners. One side may be declared a winner and think it is done. But what is produced is more hatred and suffering and pain.
WAR MUST END! WE ARE GOING TO DESTROY OURSELVES AND OUR PLANET.
There are good, compassionate people living in both countries. There are nasty, thoughtless, mean people in both countries. We have had two World Wars. Innocent people are killed, tortured, imprisoned and suffer. Egos and greed are not reasons to take human lives. There is no reason to take human lives, If leaders could only remember that, we would have no more genocide, no more suicide bombings, and ultimately no more war.
So I hope many people are praying for peace today. I know I am. There is nothing that makes war worthwhile. Nothing that gives human beings back their lives and their futures. How many mathematicians, authors, artists, future Mozarts have we destroyed? What wonders could we have accomplished if war hadn’t ended their lives? Let us stop war now. Let us discuss peace, find a way to co-exist, and work together for the benefit of our planet and all human beings.
I look around the world and what do I see? I see unrest and I see intolerance. I see people who want to kill other human beings for looking different or believing in a different God. I see people praying and they are being killed. I see our children living in terror because there is no where safe here on Mother Earth. I hear lots of yelling and screaming and I don’t see much peacemaking. I believe we are on the Eve of Destruction again. While we have managed to sneak out of the reality of destruction so far, that was dumb luck. We may not be so lucky the next time. Walk away. Save this world for our children and grandchildren.
There is much we have to lose. Think about it. We may lose the beauty of the world. We are in control here. We can change all of this and keep this beautiful world without war. It will just take our belief in and actions for promoting peace everywhere in the world. Let’s talk about it. Write me and tell me what you think. Namaste.
The simplicity of a sunrise.
The sunrise this morning from my front porch. Photographed and copyrighted by
Barbara Mattio 2014
Magnolia tree in bloom Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2010
The Blue Ridge Mountains. Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2010
Holden Beach at twilight Photographed and copyrighted by Barbara Mattio 2010
For a pacifist, dealing with the concept of soldiers is difficult. When I was young and protesting the Vietnam War, I learned that though I object to war it is not the fault of the soldiers. We abandoned the Vietnam soldiers when they came home. We didn’t get what they had gone through and that they were doing the best they could in the circumstances. When Bush Sr. began the Gulf War, I sat on the floor in front of the TV crying. I was crying for all of the innocent people who would be victims of this war. I cried about all sons and daughters who would give their lives. All the parents who would be devastated.
Now, I see our children coming home and I see the damage that has been done to them. I can’t think about the purpose of these wars. I now know that we have to take care of the injured. The innocent citizens and our children. Today, the Wounded Warrior Project is a wonderful way for us to help the young people who are coming home damaged in body and mind. I don’t think about what happened but what they are dealing with now back at home.
One of my dearest friends’ sons did two tours in Iraq. I was freaked of course. He was shot and the Army called and told his parents, but also mentioned they didn’t know where he was. I am sure every parent would understand their emotions at this news. I contacted a university professor I am good friends with and she contacted a Colonel she knew. He explained that they probably knew but weren’t saying. In reality, he spent days at the Iraqi airport. He was then sent to Germany for surgery. He is home now and is doing well, but will not talk about what happened to him.
So keep an open mind and heart towards all the young people as they come home. We sent them away after teaching them how to kill. Now we are asking these young men and women to come home and pick up their lives as workers, husbands, wives, parents as if nothing had happened to them in the middle years. Our young people are damaged and they need to know they are appreciated, They need to know that we are here for them. And that America is willing to help them heal and that their healing is important to us. You can help with the Wounded Warrior Project if you want to. You can help someone’s son or daughter heal physically and mentally.
Yesterday, I told you all the story of Ms. G. a teacher in the Freshman and Sophomore classes at Long Beach California. She was one of those people who came along and wanted to make a difference. She was officially an English teacher. She worried if they would like her or if she would seem too preppy to the kids. Last night I began wondering if there was a book the movie was based upon. Well, there is. Please be patient as there is a point to all of this.
She decided they were going to read the Diary of Anne Frank. After an incident in class, she asked who knew what the Holocaust was. Not one hand raised, not one child knew. That was when she made her decision that they would read Anne Frank. As she began to read to them, they heard familiar words, war, shooting, dying. This is when she made the suggestion that they keep a journal. She bought, out of her own money, one for each student. They could share what they wrote with her, or not. No one else would see or read them. At the end of every day she locked the cupboard that they kept the journals in. They decided, after finishing reading Anne Frank that they wanted to meet the woman, Miep Gies, who hid Anne Frank and her family during the Holocaust.
So their teacher Ms. G helped them do fund raisers until they had earned enough money to bring Miep Gies to California. She was a very old lady. She told them all about the Nazi’s and the horrors she had seen. She told them of the night the Gestapo came and took the hidden Jews away. How a gun was held to her head. Hiding Jews meant you were to be shot. A high price for being a compassionate, caring human being. For this reason, she was very surprised when the Gestapo left and she was still alive.
The kids told Miep Gies she was their hero but this gentle, kind woman looked at this classroom of Asian, African-American and Latino kids and told them they were the heroes. Thier teacher Ms. G. had told her about their journals and some of their stories. Miep Gies didn’t see a class of mixed colored kids, she saw them as brave because they knew so much of what Anne Frank had suffered and yet they went to school everyday, they learned to open their hearts to Ms. G. and the other kids. They even were beginning to trust each other. So damaged kids from every race, color and creed were beginning to understand each other and accept each other. They chose to break the cycle and make their positive experiences a lesson for generations to come.
Now, the story becomes amazing. In the 1990’s, there was another little girl, named Zlata and she wrote a story. Now I own the diary and have read it. Zlata was in Kosovo and there was a war going on. Our students in Long Beach California read about a girl who wrote out her heart to survive the two years she was in the war. Her diary, quite like Anne Frank’s diary was full of the horrors of war. What human beings are capable to doing to each other. Zlata wrote to save her sanity and cope with the terrible war conditions. She feels there is a parallel between herself and the Freedom Writers because they had all been subjected to being felt that they were victims. They all understood that life brings good things and bad things. Zlata feels that it is easy to become a victim of your circumstances and to continue to feel sad or angry. She continued to say that someone could continue to stay angry and scared or that people could choose to deal with injustice humanely and break the chains of negative thoughts and energies. She told the Freedom Writers that writing helps you look objectively at what is happening around us.
Zlata left the former Yugoslavia knowing what a bomb sounds like,what it’s like to hide from bombs in a cellar and what the absence of water feels like. She wants American kids to rise above what they have had to live through and not let the hate, violence and sadness become the focus of their lives, so they can make rich lives for themselves.
The Freedom Writers kept Ms. G. for their Junior and Senior years. Then they all went on to college. What they overcame and accomplished is very important and must be respected. They escaped the damage of the anger and hate that surrounded them in their neighborhoods. The seeds of hatred and fear that was beginning to grow. They stopped history from repeating itself. Ms. G. is still teaching on the college level toda;, though divorced she has had many children and these children will never forget her. They would have remained “underachievers” if she hadn’t walked into their classroom on her first day of teaching. I encourage you all to remember this true story and the two girls who inspired a classroom of American kids to save their lives and make the world a better place for everyone to live.
Happy Veteran’s Day to every woman and man who has served to protect our country. I have a story. It is a surprise to me. It is about my paternal grandfather. He brought his family here to America for freedom and for a better life. He was born in 1880. I had recently put Ancestory.com app on my IPad. I figured I would play with it and see if I could find anything or anyone for free. I have been working on my grandfather. He died before I was born. It was two years before I was born. I would stay at grandmother’s house and I would sleep in his twin bed and would think about him. My paternal grandmother died when I was nine. I remember no photos of my grandfather but I am sure they were there. Grandma and I would have tea in the afternoons I was there visiting.
I knew two facts about grandpa that he was born in 1880 and died in 1948. He had a window washing business and tried hard to support a wife and six children. Now this is not an ad for Ancestry but it is involved. I put my grandfather into his spot on the family tree. I immediately got a leaf. I felt excited like I was in a commercial. I clicked on it and there staring at me was a photograph of my paternal grandfather. I was speechless. He was handsome and I could see my father in his face. I was so excited I called friends to tell them. I figured this was just wonderful. There was also a photograph of my grandparents grave stone. Wow, I had struck gold. As time went by, I found out that the family had come into America via Nova Scotia. Again, excitement and happiness.
A day to reach out to a homeless, injured or hungry vet
Then Ancestory found his mother, Jane. A pretty common name but the story I had always heard was that he had grown up in an orphanage. So now I knew his mother was living. Months went by and no information about his father. I had never thought of my great grandfather because he must have died since grandpa was in an orphanage in London. Months went by and suddenly my great grandfather appeared. No picture, but now I knew that he had died rather young. Then they found his sibling. It is so cool. I feel like I was given a gift than can never be taken away. I got busy adding photos of my children and grandchildren, all nine of them. And I worked on in laws and cousins.
TAPS is played at military funerals
Yesterday, I decided to join for a month and see if they could find anything else. I noticed that the photograph of their gravestone had a holder for an American flag. I got a magnifying glass and was pretty sure he was in WWII. But if he was born in 1880, how could that be true. Then I discovered the Wall of Honor which contains photographs of servicemen. Again, excitement. I decided that he must have fought in the Great War. I did the math and it had to be the war he served in. So I plugged in the required information, no grandpa. So I figured they were wrong and maybe he never served.
Then my friend who was here suggested that I should look at the servicemen who served in WWII. So, with frustration, I changed wars and entered the information. And I found him. But how could that be? He would have had to be in his sixties. So it was time to do more reading and research. I found “the old men’s ” draft. I am a history buff but never heard of that. It was the fourth draft but people called it the “old men’s” draft. They drafted the older men to help on the home front. This draft called men forty five to sixty four years of age. So now I knew about my paternal grandfather but I couldn’t figure out the orphanage aspect. Then I found that my great grandfather’s date of death had been added. He died rather young and left my great grandmother with four children to raise alone.
Women were very limited in what they could do to earn money. Ancestry has not given me any hints about how she survived and fed her children. Rationally, I think they might have been in a debtors’ prison because of debts or she put one or more of the children into an orphanage because she couldn’t afford to feed and clothe them. Kind of a Dicken’s type of thing, but it was the late 1800’s. Women back then were really really not equal. They weren’t trained for a job and this financial dependence made them need a man. They also did not yet have the vote. There is human courage and bravery in every families story.
Marines in Iraq. No one is left behind
So today, I say thank you to all who served in any war or police action. Especially to the old men who served well past the time they should have been serving. I am still a Dove, but the two World Wars couldn’t have been avoided by the United States. So my grandfather served in the Army. This has been quite a journey and I am grateful that I have found out so much about my family. I think the quest is still continuing.
” This is how love is: So what if your head must roll,
What is there to cry about?” —-Kabir
“In proportion as one simplifies one’s life,
the laws of the Universe will appear less
complex, and solitude will not be solitude,
nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. —Thoreau
If we were to remove all mention of women from the history of the world’s major religions, the history of these religions would not undergo the slightest change. Removing all male’s names would destroy religion. The presence of feminine mystics and holy women has never altered the course of religious history or changed its direction at all.
Most people assume that our religions were equally representative of the feminine psyche is an assumption that finds no footing in our religious histories. To change religions and spiritual paths to be inclusive of the female energy and spirit. Women need to continue to take the forefront of spiritual experience in our modern world. We need to take the lead in making spiritual paths more accepting of women and protective of women and children.
Gulf of Mexico, Photo by Barbara Mattio
Women at the head of spiritual paths and walking along their own spiritual journey can begin to change some of the horrors women and children find themselves living in. I am speaking of Human Traffeting in children, genital mutilation, marrying 10 year old children. We as women need to teach more about love and acceptance and less about hatred and violence. Women have the ability to look at the big picture of what is happening in our world and to make the needed changes.
Things like micro loans, education, feeding a village buy buying the villagers a goat or seeds to plant to grow their own food. Women need to take the lead in the global climate control. It is our time to step forward and speak up. It is our time to make the haters, the greedy, the ones’s who take advantage of the poor, elderly and homeless pay for their crimes. We need to step forward to show that our priorities are more than monetary. They are people, peace and the end of wars.
We are now, once again dealing with another war on our planet. There is pain and death and blood and despair. Palestine and Israel are fighting. More accurately Hamas and Israel. Hamas has been shooting rockets into Israel. Now Israel is defending herself. This is of course, an over-simplification.
I am not writing to take sides. I am writing because Adonai’s children, Allah’s children, are killing each other again. Many women and children are being left homeless and injured or dead. Diplomacy and compromise is what will bring peace to our world. Not war. War teaches people to hate. It teaches people to hate who and what has hurt them.
Hamas is considered a terrorist organization. They say Jews are the enemy yet they launch missiles from sites next to the homes of innocent Palestinian people. A returning missile could totally destroy this home, but Hamas continues to use civilians as human shields — a policy which is against both international law and all the laws of common decency.
Not that Israel is blameless. There are those who believe that Hamas is defending itself, and all Palestinians, against what they see as an unjust occupation. I am not going to argue that point, on either side. That is not what needs to be done here; there are many who can argue either side more eloquently than I can.
What I am going to argue is peace. We cannot continue to fight one another, to hurt one another, to kill one another. We cannot continue to destroy each other, and this planet, with our hatred of the mythical “others”. We must learn that we are children of this Earth. We are brothers and sisters, all children of Adonai, of Allah, of The Beloved, The One from which we all come. We are all the same, we are all One, like the One who created us, who watches over us, who gives us peace, and wants us to have peace.
Peace is in our power, but we have to want it and we have to work for it. The most important work we can do is to just love each other, whatever our religion, appearance, language, or national origin.
Mother Teresa stated, ” Works of love are always works of peace.”
When and where there is God, there is peace. He/she pours their love for us and peace flows over us and within us. Divine love always pours joy and peace into our hearts. My prayer is to be led from despair to hope, from fear to trust, from hate to love, and from war to peace. Our world, our universe is Peace, Peace, Peace.
It cannot exist with war, hate and violence. Every day, we make choices about the world we create around us.
We all have the right to be at peace and happy. We were created to have this life of peace. We can each have peace in our world without causing pain or suffering to others. We each have a responsibility to use what we have been given to create peace. There is no other higher pleasure than to create peace and have that peace in your life create a ripple effect and flow out to touch others in positive ways.
We need to love one another as The One loves each of us. Accepting that love and using it to bring peace into your life will bring peace to those around you. As they feel covered and immersed in peace, it will flow out of their lives and will touch an ever larger group of people. It is a beautiful thing to see and experience.
Peace Plea
Please, protect my child.
Please, protect other mothers’ children.
Please, give me peace.
Please, give other mothers peace.
Please, give the world peace and justice.
This is the peace only you can give.”
Mensen maken de samenleving en nemen daarin een positie in. Deze website geeft toegang tot een diversiteit aan artikelen die gaan over 'samenleven', belicht vanuit verschillende perspectieven. De artikelen hebben gemeen dat er gezocht wordt naar wat 'mensen bindt, in plaats van wat hen scheidt'.
idealisticrebel 