Pivoting Into Autumn

Our Ancestors

The wise leader solves the problem of water first. Lao Tzu

The question before us, then, is not only how we will mobilize to redress the immediate harm done by the current militarism and violence. The question is also how we will plant the seeds of a peaceable economy. There is no more fundamental place to start than with how we grow food, how we feed ourselves and one another, how we relate to and care for the land. Woody Tasch – A Call to Farms

You’ll learn how to be a good ancestor. The answer is in the land, in the mountains, which are the sources of life. Dr. John Hausdoerffer

Tomorrow, September 21 is the International Day of Peace and day 1 of Campaign Nonviolence 12 Action Days (check it out here). I think of this as I reflect on the threads woven into this week past, threads that carry forward from last week’s post about living into a desired future (find it here).

Last week we were approaching a new moon, a time to set and renew intentions. In the wake of that new moon, I experienced two long-held intentions stepping forward with opportunities for attention and action.

The opportunities rose perfectly timed to redirect me from stepping into a commitment of time and energy that was interesting, but around which I felt little excitement or passion, and which, in hindsight, was only minimally aligned with my values.

Food and water. Now we’re talking passion and alignment. Both water and food are ingredients for building a culture of peace. They go hand in hand as elements of Nature that our culture all too often views as resources to be tapped.

The desired future that I want my daily choices to create includes sustainable, just, and accessible to all food systems, along with clean, pure water that sustains ALL Life. I believe that future will rise as we repair and restore our relationship with Nature, as we listen to that which sources Life and align our choices with our planet home.

Ancestry is a related thread in the fabric of life this week, inspired by Dr. John Hausdoerffer in his webinar, Kinship with Mountains, (enjoy it here). If you’ve been with me for a while, the title alone clues you into why I was drawn to the event. Hausdoerffer speaks beautifully, questioning how Life could look when we “recognize Earth as our kin and Mountains as our ancestors.” I wonder, as does Hausdoerffer in his forthcoming book, What Kind of Ancestor Do I Want to Be?

Are my choices aligned with that? What pivots are indicated?

As summer gives way to fall here in the northern hemisphere and we approach the autumnal equinox with equal hours of daylight and darkness, I feel myself musing these heady questions from a deep, heart-centered place. What do I value and what actions align with that? As my priorities shift what old habits, beliefs, ways need to fall away?

It seems a different pattern to be in these questions in the season of harvest. Perhaps my harvest of opportunities this week is nourishment for navigating what lies ahead and the questions are integral to receiving that nourishment. Perhaps they will linger and be the focus of winter morning musings by the fire.

Perhaps I’m experiencing the speeding up of time in a changing world, on a changing planet. Perhaps I feel an age-related urgency.

I pause to observe Zadie Bryd licking her paws, then rubbing her face, as she lays nearby. I wonder what she’s experiencing in her body and whether there’s something I need to know or to do to support her.

The observation and questioning in that pause brings clarity that, no matter the project or priority, my prayer is that I step into the flow of Life with heart-felt love and care, being the kind of ancestor that will leave this world a better place.

Our Kin

Bigger Than My Small Self

Zadie Byrd & Me - Our Bigger Selves

How exactly to act in particular situations is a matter of waiting on God. The answer comes straight in response to prayer from the heart. Such prayer carries with it the anguish of the soul. Gandhi (December 8, 2021 quote from This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey - Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

THIS clay is mine to mold. Mine is not to mold another into what I wish they would do or be. Mine is to sculpt me.

Gandhi’s quote leapt off the screen this morning, immediately resonating as part of an answered prayer I found myself speaking this past week. It feels a bit like the icing on a cake, an added breath of fresh air, and a reminder that there is more to unfold in my awareness if only I ask AND (the hard part for me) patiently allow the unfolding in its own divine time.

So simple. And, not so easy. The Muse nudges me move along and share a disappointment that I experienced this week …

The event reminded me of the importance of being aware of my expectations, especially what I expect of others, and of distinguishing expectations from promises. My initial response was not of the highest order. Yes Muse. Yes, I reacted. And in my reaction, I discovered a gift: a desire to be ‘bigger than my small self’. That was, indeed is, my prayer.

In hindsight (and, yes, Muse with your help) I see that my prayer rose from deep within. In recognizing my desire to respond differently, I thankfully didn’t go to a self-loathing place of criticism and judgement, but rather, after a few tears, to the realization that I was more disappointed in myself and my reaction than I was in the expectation that hadn’t been met.

Bringing the event and my reaction home to me placed the responsibility right where I needed it to be. THIS clay is mine to mold. Mine is not to mold another into what I wish they would do or be. Mine is to sculpt me.

A slow walk in the labyrinth and a saunter around the woods listening to the quiet settled me like salve on an angry wound. I let go of any desire to keep my disappointment alive as fuel for … for what? Like the fossil fuels we must continue to move away from, the fuels of disappointment, of anger, of hurt are not the energy with which I want to fuel this vehicle in which my soul walks upon Mother Earth. If there is future action to be taken, I will wait, sans expectation, for the Divine to show me the way.

This little event showed me other places where I hold hopes and expectations that others will be a particular way or do a particular thing. It reminded me of the lesson I came to learn on this sojourn: Everyone has their story. We are different. We are all the same. With nudges from the Muse, I see what clay is mine to sculpt and I’m reminded that there is a time and place and guidance for all that I am to sculpt.

May I be bigger than my small self, for when I am, I’m content to wait on God.

Grandmother Moon, Venus, & Orbs in the Early Evening Sky

Boundaries and Bridges

Full Moon Rising Over the Woods Out Back

I DESPERATELY want a movement space that knows that compassion is not a zero-sum game. Where we have compassion for people’s ignorance. Where we are allowed to be messy and to make mistakes. Where accountability is an act of love and the word “holding” is the key word in “holding others accountable.” Where the sanctity of all life and our interdependence to everything that exists is so deeply known and felt that no person will ever question their sense of belonging. Where no matter what any of us has done, that we all know that there will always be space for us here. That no matter what we have done, we will trust our circle enough to grieve the harm that we caused and to say “yes, I did that” and know that we will not be cast out of humanity. Where we can learn to respond to even the most egregious harms without letting our sights off of the North Star of healing. Kazu Haga (quote of the day for May 5, 2021 – Pace e Bene’s This Nonviolent Life)

With one hand I say, ‘stop.’ With the other I build a bridge. Veronica Pelicaric (Pace e Bene’s podcast exploring Kazu Haga’s words - https://paceebene.org/soul-of-nonviolence-podcast/2021/5/4/soul-of-nonviolence-north-star-of-healing)

Violence against the Earth and interpersonal violence are two sides of the same coin. We now unite as a planetary community to stand together for the sacred; to midwife a transition to a world in which humanity will no longer dominate but cooperate with all life. Though it is difficult to see, there is an emerging and different vision for humanity. This vision foresees a world without violence as the next chapter of our collective evolution. It shows a future humanity inhabiting this planet as a network of interconnected, autonomous communities of trust. LaDonna Brave Bull Allard (quote of the day for May 12, 2021 – Pace e Bene’s This Nonviolent Life)

On this full moon eclipse day, I find myself reflecting deeply about my relationships with others and with Gaia. My reflections extend beyond the field in which I operate to the whole of humanity – our relationships with one another and how we relate to the global being, Mother Earth. Today’s quotes resonate deeply both personally and globally. They hold the essence of what I want to share, so my words will be brief, hopefully interweaving how these wise expressions are emerging for me.

I’m overjoyed that a recent encounter with neighbors to be (that is, folks who will soon be building a home nearby) offered up an opportunity to preserve the beloved ‘woods out back’ and added two lovely humans to my community of friends. The chain of events reminded me of the rewards – inside and out – of following my instincts and ‘going with the flow’. In this case, both hands building bridges. This is how I want to contribute to birthing what Charles Eisenstein calls “the beautiful world that our hearts know is possible”, a world where we live from the truth of our interconnected nature.

In other situations, as a friend poignantly reminded me a few days ago, we need to establish, honor, and yes, even enforce boundaries in our relationships with others and in our relationship with the planet. At these times we are called to consider ‘what is acceptable in my life?’ and ‘what is not?’ Integrity calls us to speak our truth, even at the risk of loss, since what is unacceptable to me may not be unacceptable to another and, using one hand to set a boundary may foreclose the opportunity to use the other hand to build a bridge. Navigating such events with conscious awareness of our interconnectedness, I don’t lose my mind to the frenzy of whatever I’m experiencing or observing. The hand saying ‘stop’ may simply invite a pause, open a heart, and with it a look to a bridge wanting to be built.

As the potent energy of this full moon eclipse lingers with us over the next several days, I invite you to pause and imagine the world you want to call forth moment to moment, day to day and to align your thoughts, your words, your actions with that dream.

The Flow of Life in a Mountain Creek

Practicing The Way of Love

Champions for Love (PHOTO CREDIT: Bob Fitch Photography Archive, Department of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries)

Nonviolence is based on the assumption that human nature … unfailingly responds to the advances of love. … An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.  Mohandas Gandhi

Nonviolence is an absolute commitment to the way of love. Martin Luther King Jr.

Many threads and thought bubbles dangle in my awareness this morning as I sit with the muse: endings and beginnings when, in the reality of Universal law, all life is a continuum; how the planet is responding to our oh so human choices; my own oh so human choices; grieving destruction in the woods nearby; the power of language; transforming self and beyond with the practice of love.

Of all these, the transformative power of love and making love a sacred practice in life are the threads I want to weave this day as the 23rd Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence nears completion.

My heart is filled with gratitude for having discovered this annual ‘season’ beginning on January 30th (the anniversary of Gandhi’s death) and ending 64 days later, April 4 (this year, the 53rd anniversary of Dr. King’s death).  Sixty-four days each with a theme to consider and incorporate into creating a culture of peace, of love, of nonviolence.

Seven weeks ago at the outset of the ‘season’ I suggested making life a sacred journey of nonviolence. Today I invite us to make life a sacred journey of love, of peace, of truly transforming ourselves and our culture with the power of love.

Each of the 54 themes bringing us to the final 10 days offers a clue, a path, an idea to weave into daily life. The final 10 themes do the same: responsibility, self-sufficiency, service, citizenship, intervention, witnessing, release, peace, commitment, celebration.  

Of all the daily themes, love and peace are two that come forth as overarching elements. Without love, responsibility can become blame (others) or burden (self). Without love, service, intervention, witnessing can be acts of butting in.  Without love, citizenship can become battle for who is right; release, an act of insincerity; and self-sufficiency, a path to greed and fear of not having enough. Without love, peace is ever elusive.

Love is the power, the transformative energy that both Gandhi and King called forth in their words and their actions. While the idea is simple, using love’s transformative power is not always the easy choice.

As I was reminded while listening to Josh Reeves, Lead Minister at Mile Hi Church in Lakewood, Colorado, in a beautiful talk this weekend: love is a practice that requires practice.

In his talk, Love Like That: Love That Reveals, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5sl5HeeSg0&t=70s] Reeves shares his personal mantra for practicing love to transform what life brings your way: 

I experience fear, but I practice love.

I experience anger, but I practice love.

I experience hurt, but I practice love.

Life offers events and experiences that give us opportunities to pivot, to choose differently. As I reflected on experiences that can bring me to thoughts, words, even actions I’d prefer to shift, I added some pivot points of my own:

I experience irritation, but I practice love.

I experience those whose views I loathe, but I practice love.

As I look beyond this Season for Nonviolence, I celebrate these seven weeks and 64 themes of reflection and focus toward creating a world where love is understood and practiced in its purest form. I make a commitment to myself to deepen my understanding and to add new pivot points to peace into my practice.

Mother Earth Speaks. Are We Listening?

Taming the Beast

Spring Snow Cuddles the Grasses

The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts. Think only those things that are in line with your principles and can bear the light of day. The content of your character is your choice. Day by day, what you do is who you become. Your integrity is your destiny – it is the light that guides your way. Heraclitus

That war is an essential part of life is a point of divergence between my views and those of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. His quote however aligns with my belief that we become what we think. We experience where we focus our attention. If we hold the belief that war and violence are necessary in life, our thinking will follow that belief. Then as our actions follow our thoughts, war and violence are the reality we create. The key is that we are at choice as to whether our ‘soul is dyed’ the dark colors of violence or the brightness and light of nonviolence.

Choice was one of the themes this week as I continued to follow the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence and to reflect each day’s theme in terms of my own life and life experience. Each week has deepened my understanding of, appreciation for, and commitment to contributing to the seismic shift that seems needed to have nonviolence be humanity’s default operating system. Remembering that I am always at choice in what I think and how I be is key. I’ve needed to bring that understanding to the fore often this week as I experienced feeling unsettled and even agitated, as if picking up the disruptions of both humanity and the planet.

In the wake of two mass shootings in a short six-day period along with significant earthquake and volcanic activity, I’m grateful to engaged in the Season for Nonviolence during this time when it both Gaia and humankind are erupting. I feel a personal connection to both mass shootings. My daughter-in-love is from the Philippines and my grandchildren carry that lineage. While all violent targeting of others lands heavy in my heart, the events in Atlanta brought them closer to home. The shooting in Boulder, the community where I lived and worked when I first moved to Colorado, likewise felt personal as I sometimes dined in the shopping area where it occurred.

On some level, the simple themes for each day seem inadequate to support a collective shift to nonviolence. Yet no brick is insignificant in building a home and no act of caring is too small to matter. As I’ve so often written, EVERY thing matters. Every thought. Every word. Every deed. EVERY one!

Like choice, each day’s theme in its own way is an important thread (yes, I’m mixing metaphors!) in the fabric of nonviolence: giving, action, equality/equity, advocacy, honor, and ecology. Strengthening one builds others. Giving, whether ‘things’ or oneself in service puts attention on our interrelatedness each as one of the One. Taking heart-centered action no matter how small it may seem ripples far beyond where your eye can see and lives forever in the Universe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m challenged to see and hold some of those with whom I strongly disagree as equal. While my heart desires to cross the vastness that divides us, I hold back unless I know that I have an adversary whose heart is likewise open. How and where might I open more dialog with those whose life experiences and views are so different from my own? How can we advocate nonviolence in the face of those whose ways are violent, honoring the words of Thich Nhat Hanh: When someone stands up to violence a force for change is released. Every action for peace requires someone to exhibit the courage to challenge violence and inspire love.

In his words I notice themes for earlier days in the Season: courage, inspire. A reminder that no thread stands alone in weaving nonviolence into the ecology of our culture and of the planet. Every choice we make creates the environment in which we live. Our daily habits determine much more than we dare imagine. How willing am I to look ever more deeply at my choices?

The beasts we meet are many on the path of nonviolence. May we meet each one with the loving desire to tame whatever deters us from being the nonviolence we wish to see in the world.

Fuzzy Buck Agrees! Nonviolence Please!

Mastery on the Path of Nonviolence

Snow Bird

One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. Leonardo da Vinci

Mastering nonviolence is not a destination. Rather it is a journey of commitment to practicing the diverse qualities that counter the learned violence in so much of our culture. I’m discovering that one may never truly master nonviolence; rather, you commit to it as a way of life.

I was reminded this week that nonviolence is not separate from life’s events nor is it a task to be completed and forgotten. Nonviolence is a way of being in oneself and in the world. My canine companion, Zadie Byrd, was puny and caring for (and about) her distracted me from attention to the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence theme for several days. I noticed however that her condition didn’t deter me from awareness of old patterns of unkind, violent thinking as they attempted to creep in. That awareness felt like progress on the path.

When I finally turned my attention to the themes, mastery was the first to catch my attention. Mastering nonviolence, like mastery of anything, is a commitment to its ways.  Practice. Experiment. Learn. And, as you honor that commitment you begin to master some of those ways, laying to rest the learned violence of your past.

Begin to live fully into any one of this week’s other themes: compassion, cooperation, accountability, uniqueness, openness, or disarmament, and you will travel far on the road of nonviolence. It is that simple, and, as the saying goes, not necessarily easy.

In choosing nonviolence as a way of being in life and putting attention on the daily themes during this year’s Season for Nonviolence, the interrelatedness and connection of nonviolent qualities becomes clear. Each is an element of the whole, the way of nonviolence. Evoking and practicing just one strengthens all others and builds nonviolence from the inside out.

While I may not be able to disarm the world of its weaponry, I can envision a weapon-free world. I can choose guitars over guns and to disarm myself of words used as weapons of attack against another. I can withhold support for companies and organizations that benefit from violence and war.

While I may not be out on the street demonstrating compassion for those in need, I can recognize the pain of the world that we all carry and greet everyone whose path I cross with a caring smile. I can gently touch my hand to my heart and radiate compassion in all that I do.

Though my expressions of who I am may not rank as best sellers or front page news, I can honor my uniqueness as an instrument playing the grand symphony of life, where expression of our individual YOUniqueness is all that the Universe asks of us.

With spring on the horizon, I feel myself emerging from winter’s inward focus, desiring to connect with others, and looking forward to opportunities for cooperation in strengthening community.

For these and for all my choices, I can be accountable to how my thoughts, my words, and my deeds reflect the nonviolence that I wish to see and to be in the world.

Trickling Beneath the Snow - Spring is on the way!

Graciousness in the Face of MIMEO

Woke to a Surprise Snow This Morning …

There is hardly a more generous gift we can offer someone than to accept them fully… Elizabeth Gilbert

To which I would add: that includes fully accepting YOU for who you are. But I digress from the exploration of graciousness that I experienced and the insights of this sixth week in the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence.

The theme of graciousness moved me most deeply this week among the many beautiful threads being woven into the fabric of nonviolence during this 64-day period marking the dates between when Gandhi and King were each assassinated.

‘Am I willing to make gracious concessions on things that do not matter while I also stand firm in my convictions about those things which do?’ was the essence of the question posed on day 37, graciousness the theme.  Doing so invites (indeed requires) me to detach from my opinions. Say what!?? ‘But my opinions are my armor, my protection …’ I reacted. Then, taking in a breath I realized ‘… and my opinions maintain the illusion that I am separate from, maybe sometimes even better than, another.’

For me that can take the form of stewing in unspoken words of criticism or popping off a snarky comment for what I perceive is someone else’s mistake, a MIMEO: Mistake In My Eyes Only. And, although whatever I observed may indeed be in error, it is unimportant in the grander landscape of life. When I detach from my opinion, letting go of my need to be right, I open the door to allow graciousness to enter. I embrace that grander reality that we are not separate and, although we are each unique, we are all the same.

This is not in any way to suggest that we look the other way and maintain silence in the face of those values and convictions that we hold dear. Graciousness is not about sweeping under the rug or ignoring injustice, inequality, racism, poverty, dishonestly, etc. It is about speaking to those very things from a grounded, clear place with care.

To me, Meghan and Harry demonstrated graciousness in their interview this week with Oprah – speaking their truth, sharing their experience, and revealing aspects of the Royal Family and the British Monarchy that are generally hidden from view. Such revelations about influencers and institutions are likely to continue and to point us to changes needed to sustain human life on the planet. May we reveal with grace.

A commitment to graciousness invites us to speak and act on what we wish to change in the world from a place of love not fear; dialogue with rather than spewing our views at another; choosing mindful kindness over unconsciousness animosity; and seeking understanding instead of our own sense of righteousness.

This week’s themes or threads – love, kindness, mindfulness, dialogue, understanding and graciousness – add to the strong and beautiful fabric of nonviolence. Each are concepts and ways of being that model how I want to participate in life and how I dream life can be on the planet and we move step by step toward creating a world that works for all. And they point us to the theme for today: unity.

And Had a Beautiful Warm Fire to Break the Chill - Grateful!

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Hazy evening in the Sangres

Peace cannot be achieved by violence, it can only be attained through understanding. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Here we are one day beyond the mid-point of the 64 days in the Season for Nonviolence. The muse is curious that I’ve stayed with a theme and carried it forward each week, a different experience in these weekly musings, starting from a not quite blank slate.

The themes this week led me to wonder if there is a point beyond which too much of a good thing becomes an obstacle. And, if so, what is that point?

Take patience, one of this week’s themes, for example. Do I want to be patient with injustice? With inequality? Poverty? Hunger? Degradation of the environment?  Can we take patience too far?  Perhaps patience has a pivot point: being patient with self, with others, and the process while not allowing that patience to become indifference or giving up. That point we must each determine for ourselves. No wonder Pema Chodron’s words ring true: Patience is not learned in safety.

The week’s other themes included generosity, listening, forgiveness, making amends, conflict resolution, and acknowledgment/appreciation.  Is there a point beyond which too much might get in the way of creating a nonviolent culture?

Acknowledgement seems an especially important ingredient for nonviolence given our current political culture and the violence that occurred as a result of the failure of a candidate for president to acknowledge defeat. From my perspective (and I acknowledge that some will disagree), this lack of acknowledgement reinforces the wedge that perpetuates our ‘us vs. them’ political and social culture.

But admitting the reality of something is only one aspect of acknowledgement. Recognition and appreciation are equally important. What if we would recognize the good in another’s point of view or in their way of being? What if we would recognize and appreciate the fear that many have toward others who are different?  What do I need to acknowledge that will contribute to nonviolence? Who/what do I need to recognize and appreciate?

Our capacity to acknowledge and appreciate grows from generosity in our listening, in being willing to forgive and make amends and in our willingness to engage in resolving our differences using nonviolent approaches.

In reflecting daily on these themes, I continue to be reminded that the journey of nonviolence starts within. Perhaps that factor is the root of our challenge to create a culture of nonviolence. We have yet to reach the point where our collective will pivots toward nonviolence and peace. While the journey starts within, it ripples beyond to the village required. How I contribute to that pivot today?

Nonviolence in the Woods Out Back

Discovering Fire Anew

A Home in the Woods

Some day after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. And then, for the second time in the history of the world, we will have discovered fire. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Stillness. I was called to stillness this week. Quiet. Stillness. Inward. Outward. Expressionless Expression. Thoughtful without thought. Within. Without. Fullness. Emptiness. Rest. Deep Rest. Body rest. Mind rest. Spirit rest. Rest to restore. Rest for reset. Rest for the new. Rest to renew. Stillness. Quiet. Rest.

In quiet stillness, I continued to follow and reflect on the theme each day in the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence. The themes included self-forgiveness, inspiration, mission, prayer, harmony, friendliness, respect. As in the themes leading to this point each resonated to different parts of my being.

Harmony, my personal ‘favorite’ this week, found me exploring acceptance and tolerance and recognizing just how violent unjust criticism of both self and others is.  I saw that each theme is not a goal to reach but a quality, a way of being, to be built from the inside out. Moment to moment. Day to day.

From that insight, inspiration found me wanting to celebrate those moments where I meet what nonviolence asks of me, while self-forgiveness reminded me to be gentle when I fall short.

Somewhere along the way, I saw (in a blinding flash of the obvious) with crystal clarity that LOVE is the essence in all of nonviolence and in the themes offered each day in the Season. Without love, the themes are simply words and any action stemming from them without love is dull, empty, impermanent. On the other hand, with love our words and actions are everlasting, full, and bright. Imagine a world where we each embrace ‘harnessing the energies of love’ as our mission. Imagine yourself and others navigating life with the respect and friendliness that the energy of love commands.

I’m imagining that I’m building my capacity to harness the energy of love and to pour that love into every person, every event I encounter (and, yes, I have a L O N G way to go to meet that high standard of ‘every’). But taking on that as purpose and mission reminds me of the truth that we are all one of the One. We are not separate from Source or from one another. Violence toward another is violence toward self just as love toward another is an expression of self-love.

My prayer for humanity and for our planet is that we ‘let peace be on the earth and let it begin with me’. Give yourself a few moments to allow this beautiful version (click here) to wash over you and to enter your being.

A Snowy Day at the Ziggurat

The Fabric of Nonviolence

Nature’s Art: The Beauty of Fresh Snow

To bring about peace in the world, to stop all wars, there must be a revolution in the individual, in you and me. What will bring peace is inward transformation which will lead to outward action. There can be right action only when there is right thinking and there is no right thinking when there is no self-knowledge. Without knowing yourself, there is no peace. Jiddu Krishnamurti (Daily Inspiration for February 2, 2021 from Pace e Bene - Campaign Nonviolence)

Perhaps this is what is so difficult about creating a culture of nonviolence: ultimately it is up to each of us, to our personal commitment to create peace within so that the threads we weave in our lives are threads of nonviolence. That concept is what drew me into my commitment to explore nonviolence each day during the 64 days of the Season for Nonviolence, honoring the legacies of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. https://gandhiinstitute.org/season-for-nonviolence/

While the themes for some days inspire me more than others, I recognize each as an important thread in the fabric of a nonviolent culture. This past week, I made the decision to watch much of the impeachment trial live. I revisited the shock, disbelief, and sadness I felt when violence broke out that fateful Wednesday just as I finished my weekly post. I wanted to witness the proceedings rather than rely on some reporter’s summary. I was curious and I felt a sense of civic duty to engage in that way.

In the wake of the trial, I began to question our system of justice and how it may discourage, even act as a block, to nonviolence. What threads might that system, indeed each of our public systems and structures, contribute to building a culture of nonviolence? What threads need to be dropped? These bigger, systemic question provided a backdrop for my personal musing on each day’s theme.

Today (day 19) the theme, acceptance, offers the opportunity to reflect on that which we find difficult to accept both in ourselves and others. I wonder how I might go beyond my judgements and resistance to fully accept the true essence of others, especially those whose words and deeds I experience as offensive or wrong.

I consider this as I look at the decisions and actions of political leaders and activists on all ‘sides’ as well as when I encounter a disheartening post on social media, especially those written by people I know. How do I/we accept ‘what is’ while holding the possibility for change as well as advocating and participating in bringing change about? Isn’t this what a commitment to nonviolence asks of us?

Other threads likewise offered points of reflection, questions to explore within. Reverence (day 15) brought me to a question that I’ve mused before: how can I deepen my reverence for ALL life? What do I most deeply revere? What is sacred? I began to imagine a world where we speak and act from this place.

Creativity (day 13) reminded to be aware of my ways of being, my thoughts, words, and deeds. What am I creating with them? Humility (day 14) and Gratitude (day 16) offered opportunities to reflect on my willingness to acknowledge when I err, to be humble in the face of life’s opportunities (often disguised as problems and challenges) AND to be grateful for those circumstances and people who offer up such opportunities.

Freedom (day 18) had me continuing a long-held question about the true source and nature of freedom. On day 17, integrity offered up the opportunity to explore how to live more fully aligned with my heart, what it knows to be true and its desires for the future I want to contribute to.

These seven threads, the 12 before and the 45 that remain are points of exploration and possibility for imagining a world where I/we speak and act to weave a culture of peace. May our weaving continue!

Nature Highlights Art