Exploring Ways To Make Peace Within
Ourselves & the World

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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

Sunday, July 06, 2008

Bird Philosophy

Is education possibly a process of trading awareness for things of lesser worth? The goose who trades his is soon a pile of feathers. - Aldo Leopold

On a planet that increasingly resembles one huge Maximum Security prison, the only intelligent choice is to plan a jail break. - Robert Anton Wilson

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart - Kahlil Gibran

Labels: Kansas, photography

posted by Carol at 1:58 PM 5 comments

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

Right In Front Of Us

There is a small lake nearby that I've walked around probably hundreds of times over the last 20+ years. One day last year, my friend pointed out some wild asparagus along a trail by the lake. It never entered my mind that asparagus could grow there, so I never saw it before. I hadn't slowed down to see what was right in front of me.

My friend also pointed out a "weed" that is really a medicinal herb and is prolific in this area. Now I see it everywhere I go and realize that the earth is a giant medicine cabinet.

I wonder if there are many things that we don't see because our mass consciousness doesn't have a concept for them; because we think that we know what we know so what we don't know can't make itself apparent to us. We don't slow down to see and hear what we haven't seen and heard before.

When we look at a snake, we may instantaneously give it all kinds of characteristics like evil, poisonous, and deadly. We may be so afraid that we don't take the time to really see the beauty of it. Sometimes we also do that with people.

Maybe the answers to our questions of how to stop war and how to take care of each other and our planet are right in front of us but we don't slow down and allow ourselves to see what is already here.

Maybe.

"We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize."
- Thich Nhat Hanh

Labels: Kansas, photography