Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within
Ourselves & the World

Women In Black Denver, Colorado

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Why Do I Write This Blog???

The easiest (and probably the most honest) answer to that question is: I don't know. It all started in the summer of 2005, when I went to Crawford, Texas ( a.k.a. the home of the prez's ranch, a.k.a. the home of Camp Casey) to support Cindy Sheehan. I wanted the world to know that, contrary to what one could read in the mainstream media, the peace movement was alive and well and large numbers of Americans did not support the war in Iraq. I wanted people to know that thousands of Americans were willing to travel to Texas and tolerate the heat, humidity, and bugs in order to support a grieving mother whose new purpose was to shine a light on the lies that led to the war and to bring home our troops so that no other mother would have to know the pain that she felt.

Over time, this blog has become more of an exploration of who I am, my spirituality, and how life works. I love life's complexities, exploring the shades of gray. I want to, as Rainier Maria Rilke said,

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

Maybe my blog is just one big question about what is needed in order for people to take the time to love and cherish each other and our earth. Maybe someday, I will "live along some distant day into the answer."

In the meantime, thank you for joining me on my journey. I welcome you to share yours with me

 

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Of Plane Flights and Peace Activists and Other Things

Standing with the Peace Women in Duxbury, MA










It only took us 16 hours to get home from Boston yesterday. I now know Logan Airport intimately.

Even though we had a really nice time in Boston, and I fell more deeply in love with Michael's family, it is good to be home in the DRY Colorado air. And I loved seeing my kale (which has revived itself since the hailstorm), the tomatoes that are beginning to ripen, and the itty bitty pumpkins forming.

While in Boston, we stood with a group of peace vigilers on a hot Saturday morning. This group of women has been standing in front of the Duxbury post office since before the war began. The oldest member is 88 years old and she sits in the HOT and HUMID weather and the COLD and HUMID weather for an hour on Saturdays. Makes it kind of hard to hear younger people have excuses for not participating.

I have to admit that I am feeling somewhat depressed. The affairs of our country and the rest of the world can seem overwhelming. I haven't been able to write about any of it, because I didn't know where to start.

Since I've been home, I have gone back to reading Gandhi. Even though I have studied his work for years, I feel I'm now reading him for the first time. I want to reflect on just what my work is here and how to approach it. It is not useful to allow myself to be overwhelmed by the violence, pain and suffering. If I act out of anything but love, I am not acting consistently with my beliefs, and I am no different from the people whose methods I don't support.

From the Foreword written by Michael Nagler in Eknath Easwaran's book, Gandhi the Man:

When she is asked, "What was Gandhi like? Describe the dominant impression he made on one," she sums up the secret of Gandhi the man in three words: "His great love." Then, a little later, the interviewer voices a doubt one often hears in connection with a person of Gandhi's stature: "Don't you think that he was a bit unrealistic, that he failed to reckon with the limits of our capacities?" It is hard to convey the joyful twinkle in Asha Devi's eyes as she answers, "There are no limits to our capacities."

posted by Carol at 12:54 PM

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