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1-12-12 An invitation to cultivate peace in 2012...
January 12, 2012
I hope you're having a good beginning to this New Year...
Amidst all the many predictions about 2012, we find ourselves at a crossroads in time, where the past and the future are converging with extraordinary speed and impact. Many of our outdated social structures are rapidly breaking down. At the same time, new and more sustainable structures are just beginning to emerge. We're living in the transition between the old and the new.
Transformational times are characterized by intensity, polarization, and radical change. Stress is high, and we're forced to dig deep to find new resilience and resources to embrace both our challenges and our opportunities.
Peace will continue to be a core focus for many of us this year. I'm starting the year by renewing my commitment to a daily focus on peace, and I hope you'll join me in this effort. I firmly believe that one way to navigate successfully through the challenges of this year is with a steady, thoughtful, and wholehearted focus on our highest values.
The best way to predict the future is to create it...
R. Buckminster Fuller
All of us who care about peace will contribute to the momentum that will make 2012 a fertile year of innovation, creativity, and collaboration. I have faith that our efforts, large and small, are making a difference.
I wish you all the best as you travel your path to peace in 2012...
Director
Rhythm of Peace Project
Northwest Center for Health Promotion
12-1-11 Remember peace during this holiday season...
December 1, 2011
Let's join together to affirm peace throughout this holiday season...
Each year we create a Rhythm of Peace holiday intention to support us in keeping peace alive in our awareness during the busy activities of the holiday season and into the New Year. Our holiday intention for this year focuses on a vision for the future.
The vitality of a vision influences our thoughts, feelings, and actions each day to move us closer to its realization. It becomes an anchor and a source of hope during times of challenge and change.
Will you join us in affirming the vision of a healthy and sustainable future during this holiday season and into 2012?
2011 Holiday Intention
During each day of this holiday season
I will join with others around the world
to affirm a healthy future:
...a sustainable global society founded on respect for nature,
universal human rights,
economic justice,
and a culture of peace.
The Earth Charter
***
Wishing you a season of giving and receiving peace...
Happy Holidays!
9-17-11 Celebrate the International Day of Peace on 9-21...
September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 21st, is the 30th anniversary of the International Day of Peace! The theme for this year's event is "Make Your Voice Heard." It will be celebrated by millions of us around the world representing all generations, all nations, and all faiths. It's a special day to experience the vitality and strength of the global community that is committed to peace. This community is growing, both in numbers and in the skills that are necessary to bring about healthy change. As we grow, we are an ever-present declaration that peace is indeed possible...
Will you join us in helping to raise awareness of this day of global unity by sharing about it with family members, friends, and co-workers? Here's a short video that's a helpful way to introduce the International Day of Peace.
An important peace-building tool...
Heart-centered meditation or relaxation practices give us access to the wisdom of the heart. They remind us that expressing empathy, compassion, gratitude, and love will bring us closer to peace within ourselves, and foster peace in our relationships, near and far.
Here's a simple and very effective practice that you can use often during the day to reduce stress, cultivate peace in your heart, and support the daily actions that nurture peace.
The practice is called "Quick Coherence." It was developed by Doc Childre at the Institute of HeartMath, and there are 3 steps:
1. Bring your attention to your heart. Notice what's most alive in your heart in this moment.
2. Take a couple of deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling slowly through your heart. This helps to balance your breathing rhythm and your heart rhythm, and reduces stress.
3. Focus on a nourishing feeling that would be supportive for you today (appreciation, peace, gratitude, compassion, etc). You can recall the feeling or imagine it, whatever works best for you. Breathe that feeling throughout your mind and body, and exhale tension and fatigue... Next, extend this feeling to those around you, especially into situations where it's most needed.
Use this practice for 1-3 minutes to maintain heart-centered awareness and well-being any time during the day.
The "Peace Wave" at noon on September 21...
You might want to use the "Quick Coherence" heart practice during the minute of silence at noon in all time zones worldwide on September 21:
12:00 pm on September 21, 2011
30th Anniversary of the International Day of Peace
A day devoted to global peace and unity...
9-5-11 Make 9-11 a day of peace...
September 5, 2011
As the 10th anniversary of 9-11 approaches, the media will be re-playing the events of 10 years ago. Most of us will remember exactly where we were, who we were with, and what we were doing. The images and feelings of that day have made a deep and lasting impression.
As each of us considers how we will acknowledge this anniversary, there's a call from many voices throughout the culture to honor the remembrance of 9-11 with a strengthened commitment to peace--personally, locally, and globally.
We hope you will join with the many individuals and groups in the U.S., and around the world, to stand for peace:
to maintain a resilient, heart-focused commitment to compassion and wisdom in the face of challenges,
to revitalize the vision of a healthy and sustainable future for the world, and
to participate in ending the tragic cycles of violence, fear, and retaliation.
In a world so torn apart by rivalry, anger, and hatred,
we have the privileged vocation to be living signs of love
that can bridge all divisions and heal all wounds.
Henri Nouwen
Noon observance on September 11...
Join with others in a shared focus on peace:
12:00 pm (in your time zone) on September 11, 2011
Visit Rhythm of Peace on Facebook
6-15-11 Dedicate this Father's Day to Peace in the Family...
June 15, 2011
We all need empathy, compassion, appreciation, and forgiveness. For a healthy family life, we need to know how to give these gifts, and we need to know how to receive them.
The Season for Peace in the Family (from Mother's Day to Father's Day) highlights the need for parents to develop these relationship skills to nourish each other and nurture their children.
As fathers everywhere grow in their abilities to express empathy and compassion to their children, they will more fully embrace their potential as peacebuilders in their families. Peace begins at home.
This week we invite you to offer empathy and compassion to fathers, young and old...
Throughout the world, teachers, sociologists, policymakers, and parents
are discovering that empathy may be the single most important quality
that must be nurtured to give peace ... a chance.
Arundhati Ray
Compassion begins at home, and it is not how much we do
but how much love we put into our actions.
Do not think that love has to be extraordinary.
What we need is to love without getting tired.
Mother Theresa
Could a greater miracle take place
than for us to look through each others' eyes for an instant?
Henry David Thoreau
***
This year, give a Father's Day gift that contributes to peace.
Send your empathy, appreciation, and forgiveness to fathers...
May this Father's Day be a day of peace in your family...
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