Let Peace begin with me – let this be the moment now!
A line from the song, Let There Be Peace on Earth
Tomorrow is World Peace Day!
Also known as the United Nations International Day of Peace, September 21 is celebrated around the world as a time dedicated to global peace with prayer services, concerts, candlelight vigils, festivals, community events and conferences. (more…)
This weekend I went to see the new movie based on Elizabeth Gilbert’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Eat, Pray, Love. It follows a young woman’s classic New Age search for personal fulfillment, as she leaves her angst-ridden marriage, takes-then-leaves a lover and travels alone to Italy, India and Bali. Along the way, she re-examines her ideas about the pleasure of food, the way to enlightenment and the difficulties of relationships.
While enjoying the story, I left the movie theater struck the character’s self absorption and by our general American sense of dissatisfaction, including about religion. (more…)
Celebrate the Earth!
Forty years ago today, millions of Americans gathered in huge and glorious celebrations across the country to say: We Care about the Earth. It was a monumental event that by year’s end led to the establishment of the EPA, and ultimately the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act and the wise notion that, as stewards of our natural world, we can’t let profit come before the precious blessing of the Earth.
This week as I watched the PBS special, The History of Earth Day, I was reminded of one very special early Earth Day celebration— (more…)
“If there is any great secret to success in life,
it is the ability to put yourself in the other person’s place
and see things from his point of view as well as your own.” Henry Ford
As I worked on a poetry presentation this week, I realized that the the ideas I am presenting are not limited to writing — they are, in fact, InSpiritry ideas worth sharing! The workshop I have been developing is a lesson for poets about persona poems. For the uninitiated, the persona of a poem is the person speaking to the reader. In some persona poems the writer assumes an identity other than their own. That persona can be another person, an animal, a place, even something inanimate. In a persona poem, an alternate point of view means using an intentionally different way of speaking, to become that other voice. Enough about literary technique, though; back to my original reason for this post.
What drew me to widen my considerations about writing persona poems was my assertion that “persona poems compel us to consider how it feels to be someone else.” (more…)
2010 – Happy New Year!
Well, here we are. Ten years into the New Millenium. Post 9/11. Post Economic meltdown. Post Bush-Cheney. Several degrees into Global Warming. Several setbacks into Global Cooperation. The backside of the Great Recession. The end of a decade of decadence. Folks, straighten your chair backs, fasten your seatbelts and prepare for landing; somehow or another, we made it!
So – as we come to the end of this bumpy ride—what’s next for us?
I have no crystal ball to foretell the future, but my hunch is that, like so many generations of God’s people on planet Earth, we are about discover the consequences of having to collectively learn things the hard way!
Here are just a few of the tough lessons in store for us: (more…)
“Celebrate the happiness that friends are always giving,
make every day a holiday and celebrate just living. “
Amanda Bradley
On this clear cold day with the sun’s glow waking my winter world, December is a perfect time to enjoy a spiritual lift. The cloudless sky seems to open to heaven itself, and outside my wind chimes are ching-chinging a cheerful song. With sunshine glossing the frost, the trees and birds and rocks and water are rejoicing along with me!
I think about how the month of December is a gift for the spirit, full of holiday cheer and family gatherings. Around the world, it is a time of spiritual celebration: Jewish Hanukkah, the Winter Solstice, Christmas, the Muslim New Year, and the African American days of Kwanzaa, among others. I like to think about how, in places far and near, the world is affirming that God is good, people are worth loving and life is a gift. (more…)