HALO Trust brings hope and healing

I just happened upon some haunting  photographs about the aftermath of war. The pictures are the work of Fiona Willoughby and they document the important work of HALO Trust, a NGO that dedicates itself to getting rid of landmines around the globe. Even though this exhibit is focused on landmines and those whose lives have been affected by them, it is both hopeful and inspirational. It shows not only the heroic work of those who risk their own safety to get rid of landmines, but also those who have been injured by landmines, or forced from their homes due to the risk of  landmines and unexploded ordances.

The new exhibition Getting Landmines Out of the Ground, For Good is being hosted by the World Affairs Council of Northern California. You can stop by their office at 312 Sutter Street in San Francisco to see the exhibit for free any time during their office hours. I just walked in off the street this morning.

If you want to hear the photographer and her husband, Guy Willoughby (founder of HALO Trust) speak, you can attend the reception from 6:00 to 8:00 pm, tomorrow night (April 3) Tickets are $15 for the general public and $5 for students.  You can get tickets online at www.worldaffairs.org

In case, like me, you have never heard of the HALO Trust, here are some pretty impressive stats about the work they have done in the 25 years since their founding:

• Over 1.4 million landmines destroyed
• Over 11 million items of larger calibre ordnance destroyed
• Over 208,000 cluster munitions destroyed
• Over 53 million bullets destroyed
• Over 3,400 heavy weapon systems immobilized
• Over 165,000 assault rifles destroyed
• Over 10,423 minefields cleared
• 33,460 hectares (82,682 acres) made safe from landmines
• 144,616 hectares (357,353 acres) made safe from unexploded and abandoned ordnance
• 14,491 kilometres (9,004 miles) of roads cleared
• http://www.halotrust.org/

Finding out about this organization makes me reaffirm my belief that even in the worst of situations there is always hope. As I looked at the very moving photographs I was reminded of two quotes from Anne Frank's diary:

“It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”  (This brought tears to my eyes the very first time I read it, back in 6th grade, and it has every time I have thought about it since then. To have such faith in the goodness of humanity in her circumstances is so incredible to me.)

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”  (These words have often reminded me that we can always try to make things better, whether in big ways or small, it is never the wrong time to help make the world a better place.)

I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this exhibition and to be reminded that there are many people who dedicate their lives to healing both the people and the land in countries devastated by war.

This I Know is True...

Just a gentle reminder....

QuotesCover-pic36

Dangling their feet off the edge of the world.

babypixtable

“They came to sit & dangle their feet off the edge of the world & after awhile they forgot everything but the good & true things they would do someday. ”

 Brian Andreas,  StoryPeople

I have this picture and quote by Brian Andreas on the table that is reserved for newborn pictures of my grandchildren. I think it has the perfect sentiment. I love each one of these precious humans so very much! Each so unique and with so much potential to do good in the world.

Let's do all we can to ensure a bright future for them and for all of the children in the world. Their future is in our hands, all of our hands, just as the future of the generations to come after them in is their hands.

The connection between generations is more than just a continuation of families. It is a sacred trust that is passed from one generation to the next and the next, even to those generations far removed from our own.

It is a trust that we serve and honor by doing our best to live now, while we are on this earth, in a way that ensures future generations will have access to the resources we have now. It is a way of living that ensures the wonder and beauty of the natural world will still exist for them.

It is a way of living that says, "I did my best to be a good steward of the environment because I want the very best for you, my grandchild, and you, my great grandchild, and you my, great great grandchild, and all those children who are born into a future far removed from my own lifetime."

It is a way of living, that says, "I have lived fully with love, a love that extends not just to those who live now; not just to those who will be descended from me, but to all those who dwell on this planet now and in the future."

It is our sacred trust and it is reaffirmed for us every time we look into the eyes of a newborn child.

It is a trust born of life itself.

I Call Myself Earth Girl, my first novel, is available in bookstores, online retailers, as an ebook in all formats.

Order from Amazon.com

http://amzn.to/19uhw1p

Order from Barnes and Nobles 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-call-myself-earth-girl-jan-krause-greene/1115388792?ean=9781782790495

A New Year's Dream

I had a dream of a hill with many trees - trees of every shape and size, with leaves of every color, and some with no leaves at all.

A voice in the dream told me that each of the trees had been planted by a different person and that each person watered and cared for their own tree. Each person, in fact, truly loved their own special tree. The trees were so well cared for that they grew to be large and magnificent to behold.

But in order for any tree to remain healthy, all of the trees had to be healthy. Eventually, there were times when someone was unable to care for his or her tree and it failed to thrive. As one tree became weak, other trees would also succumb.

The people who lovingly planted their trees were desperate to save them. They concentrated more and more on the health of their very special trees, hoping to save them from the fate of the weak and dying trees.

No matter how hard they tried to preserve the health of their own tree, they met with failure. More and more trees were dying.

Until .....

..... until, someone walked away from her own tree and started caring for all the trees on the hill. Gradually, as she lovingly watered each tree, even the trees that were furthest away grew healthy again.

From that day on, all of the tree planters, worked together to care for all of the trees. The trees grew to enormous size. People who could see this hill from a distance were amazed by the vibrant colors. Some even thought they saw the whole hill glowing.

Gradually, the hill of trees became known for its healing properties. People made pilgrimages to this amazing forest to be bask in its essence. They were filled with peace of mind and heart just by being there. No special prayer or ritual was necessary to make the healing occur.

When I woke up from this dream, it made so much sense to me. It was so simple, but to me it is about so many things. Not just our connection to nature and our connection to each other;  not just how the welfare of society as a whole is close related to the welfare of each individual, but also, about the peace that emanates from a place where loving care is giving freely.

Dreams are usually hard to put into words that make sense when we are awake. But this dream was so clear to me. It was a great way to start the new year.

Living with compassion

Today I signed the Charter for Compassion pledge. I have joined with over 100,000 people around the world. It makes so much sense to me. The more compassion in our daily lives, the more compassion in the world.

At this time of year, when millions of people around the world celebrate the birth of the Prince of Peace and the beginning of a New Year, it seems fitting to make compassion a priority. Learning about the Charter for Compassion and signing the pledge can be the basis for a truly meaningful New Year's resolution.

Of course, I have never really kept my other resolutions - exercise every day, lose weight, get organized, learn to paint, learn a new language, become a better cook, moisturize before going to bed... the list of ways to improve myself goes on and on, and has proven to be almost completely meaningless. Will I be any better at keeping this resolution?

I hope so, because this one is actually important. So to start, I should begin by understanding what compassion actually is.

The word itself means "co-suffering, or to suffer with." The common understanding of compassion is that it is an awareness of the suffering of another along with a desire to alleviate that suffering.

We have all felt this many times in our lives, particularly when we see the suffering of someone we know and love, or when we see the suffering of people to whom we can relate. But, the Charter encourages us to act compassionately to everyone with no exceptions:

"Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect."

                                

 This is not a simple task. Certainly, it is harder than exercising everyday or applying moisturizer before bed. It requires me to realize that I am not the most important being in my life...that everyone matters as much as I do. These words are easy to write, easy to think about, and yet, very difficult to live.

One of the characters in I Call Myself Earth Girl experiences a gradual shift in her worldview after years of trying to answer questions posed by her daughter about war, poverty, and why some people suffer so much more than others. When she realizes that she does not have much longer to live, she decides to leave a statement about her new understanding and how she wishes she had lived her life:

We share this planet with each other.  None of us own it.

Yet, all of us are responsible for its survival.

We are all connected by our humanity.

I know that every other human being is no less valuable than I.

I believe that love can overcome hate, just as light overcomes darkness.

I believe in peace. I will work for peace.

I will try to:

• Consider the impact of my actions on my fellow human beings and on the earth.
• Engage in no activity that deliberately harms another human being.
• Learn the impact of my choices on people in other parts of the world.
• Seek nonviolent solutions to the problems we face.
• Always recognize and protect the beauty of the earth
• Live with joy in my heart.

The character recognizes that writing a statement about how to live while on her deathbed is much easier than living that way for a lifetime. To have a philosophical ideal about how to live and to put that ideal into actual practice are two very different things.

One is about thinking.    The other is about doing.

         

I actually wrote this  statement years before I wrote the book. It is how I want to live. But, I  have failed at one or more aspects over and over again ever since I wrote it. I hope that signing the pledge and aligning myself with others who have signed the pledge will help me live up to it. It is truly the most important resolution I have ever made. I hope and pray it is also the most successful.

Please wish me success in this quest to bring true compassion for all into my life.

If you would like to join me and those 100,000 like-minded people, please sign the pledge and please share this blog so that others will sign too!

You can read all about the Charter and also sign the pledge at http://charterforcompassion.org/the-charter

Here are some other resources:

Raising Compassionate, Courageous Children in a Violent World by Janice Cohn, Longstreet Press

Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life, Karen Armstrong, Anchor Press

Popular books on compassion listed on Goodreads.com

https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/compassion

We Stood Together

Fifty years ago today, I set out just after dark with my mother and two friends to pay our respects to our slain president as he lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. It was a last minute decision. I had begged my mother to take us. She thought it might be dangerous, but in the end, she knew that we would be witnesses to history. We put on our winter coats and climbed into our Rambler American. As we listened to coverage on the radio during the drive from Wheaton, Maryland into Washington, D.C., we wept. I don't remember how my mother found a place to park, but she did. As we walked towards the crowd, I couldn't believe what I was seeing  - a huge mass of people of all ages. The line was so long that we couldn't see the front, and after we joined them, it was only minutes before we couldn't see the end. I still remember thinking how "wide" the line was - maybe as many as 5 to 10 people abreast. I expected it to be single file, just like all the lines I waited in to receive Communion at church, or to buy something in a store. We stood four abreast - my mother, worried at first about our safety, but now knowing she had made it possible for us to be part of something we would never forget - myself, and my two close friends.

I remember being cold and wondering if we would ever actually get to the Capitol building. At first, we were caught up in our own little drama of waiting, shivering, hoping they didn't turn us away because it was too late. But then something shifted for me. I began to notice what was going on around us. The crowd continued to grow and as it grew, I began to feel an intense solidarity with the people around me.

Local residents were arriving with blankets, hats, gloves to keep us warm. Others were bringing coffee and hot chocolate. People were singing. Strains of "We Shall Overcome" and "Bill Bailey, Won't You Come Home" kept starting up in different parts of the line. Near us people had linked arms and were swaying together. Someone was singing "Amazing Grace" in a soft, clear voice.

We stood in line until dawn, entering the Capitol Rotunda as the sun was rising. After the hours of waiting, our moment in the rotunda went by so quickly. As we walked by the flag-draped casket, I tried to connect what I was seeing with the president I had loved and admired. I couldn't do it. He had been vital, optimistic, inspiring. Now I was looking at a coffin and I just couldn't believe that he was in it. I was so completely sad.

The assassination itself took away my innocence. Indeed, it took away the innocence of many in my generation, irretrievably lost to something that we had never imagined could happen. My view of the world was forever altered by a gunshot in Dallas on that Friday afternoon. Writing this now makes me realize how naive and protected my life, our lives, had been. I had been able to get to the age of 15, safe and secure, mostly carefree and happy. I knew there were problems in the country and the world, but I saw them as something I would help to solve, not something that would ever cause me personal, gut-wrenching grief.

I was 12 years old when John F Kennedy became president. Even though I was a pre-teen, I was captivated by him...his message, his youth, his vitality. For the first time, I began to think of how to contribute to society. He tapped into my idealism and made me feel that I could really make a difference in the world. I campaigned door-to-door for him (something I have done for my candidate in almost every presidential election since that one so many years ago.)

I watched his inauguration with friends. None of their parents had voted for Kennedy, but mine had, and I was so proud as he took his oath of office. I was young enough and innocent enough to believe that he could lead Americans into an almost perfect era of social justice and peace in the world. I believed in the New Frontier and I believed in the USA. I knew we had our problems. There was no way to grow up close to Washington and not realize that black people had been treated unfairly in this country for as long as they had been here. Just as there was no way to live near DC and be unaware of poverty. But I believed that Kennedy wanted to solve these problems and that he could

I was too young to understand all the complexities of domestic policy and foreign affairs. There was so much I did not know. What I did know was that there were still injustices in our society and that there was a president who wanted to fix these things. Not just here, but abroad. Not only that - he actually wanted young people to help him, and I wanted with all my heart to be one of those young people.

He was so influential in shaping my values that all these years later, knowing all that I know now, I still have those values. I still want the same things for our country and I still want to be part of the solution. My scope of concern is wider now and the specific details are different - more mature, more aware of complexity, and yet, still framed by the idealism that he touched and nurtured. An idealism that couldn't be extinguished with a gun.

But my innocence was a different matter. It was gone. Never to return. It didn't have a chance. Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr., Robert Kennedy, Vietnam, the Democratic National Convention, Kent State ... and so much more. It changed the way I looked at the past as well as the present. When innocence is lost it re-shapes the way you see the world.

Yet, that night at the Capitol gave me something I never had before. I felt that I was part of something so much bigger than myself. I was part of a crowd that shared the same sorrow - that had shared the same hope for a better world - and I knew that some of us would want to keep working together for that better world. Seeing all those people come to stand all night in the freezing cold in order to pay their respects taught me something. We were there, not just to our honor our slain president, but also to comfort each other. We stood together because we needed each other even more than we needed to walk past his casket. All these years later, we are re-living those days because we still need each other.

That was always part of JFK's message - the New Frontier was about forging ahead together.  These are the last lines of the speech that he was to give the night he died:

"Neither the fanatics nor the faint-hearted are needed. And our duty as a Party is not to Party alone, but to the nation, and indeed, to all mankind. Our duty is not merely the preservation of politic power, but the preservation of peace and freedom.

So let us not be petty when our cause is so great. Let us not quarrel amongst ourselves when our Nation's future is at stake.

Let us stand together with renewed confidence in our cause - united in our heritage of the past and our hopes for the future - and determined that land we love shall lead all mankind into new frontiers of peace and abundance."

In the many years that followed, we may have picked the part of his message that resonates for us  each of us personally - I ended up being a pacifist, an advocate for social justice and environmentalist - but his message of working together is still one of his most important legacies. I hope this 50th anniversary helps us remember that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQxqpYs_JfQ    (somehow we all knew it was his favorite song)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/07/jfk-assassination_n_4233535.html

http://www.dailyherald.com/article/20131122/news/711229999/photos/

Blogging and world peace

I  just had a thought while I was reading some of the blogs I follow

BLOGGING CAN HELP CREATE A PEACEFUL WORLD

The blogging community is made up of strangers from different countries and from different communities within our own countries. We are different ages, genders, sexual orientations. We have different types of educations. We are probably from different social classes. Most likely, we have different views about politics, religion, music, entertainment, and family life. Most of us will never meet in "real" life. We know each other only from our blogs.

Yet, we share our thoughts, feelings and ideas with each other openly. Some of us even feel like friends.

By and large, we treat each other's blogs with respect, sometimes even with reverence. We disagree with posts occasionally, but we don't seek to dominate, invade, or destroy each other's blogs. Most successful bloggers share advice with those of us who don't have many followers. We want to see all bloggers flourish.

All of this makes me think that blogging may help us avoid war and conflict. If we can learn to bring the same collaborative approach to our geo-political interactions that we bring to our blogging, there may be hope for a peaceful future.

I know this sounds naive, ridiculously simple, even pollyanna-ish. I know it doesn't address any of the complex problems that we face. Still, I feel that because bloggers have created communities without geographical boundaries, a seed of peace has been planted. I believe it can be nurtured. I hope that it will.

If you want to know more about Bloggers For Peace, please check out http://everydaygurus.com/category/peace/

Engaging Peace!

As someone who believes in the possibility of a more peaceful world, Kathie Malley-Morrison of  Engaging Peace knocked my socks off  when she appeared as the featured guest on Oneness and Wellness, a local access cable show out of Dedham, MA.

(You  can view the segment by going to the show's website: www.onenessandwellness.com  Click on the "shows" link and  look for Engaging Peace through Book and Blog.)

Malley-Morrison has communicated with people all over the world hoping to learn their views on war and the possibility of creating a world culture that uses nonviolent means to solve conflict.   I was so impressed with the work of Malley-Morrison that I went immediately to her website (www.engagingpeace.com) after viewing the show, foregoing my usual practice of putting it on a list of sites to check out sometime in the future.

Her mission is to educate about alternatives to warfare, and to foster engagement and activism for the cause of world peace. Her blog, as well as the award-winning monthly newsletter, Choosing Peace for Good, offer articles that bring academic peace studies and stories of activism to the general public.

For me, this website is like a treasure chest of resources! It includes not only research and articles, but also books and films about war and peace. Even if you never read one book or article on the site, just watching the movies would give you an education on the place of war in our culture, in our national psyche, even in our hopes and fears.  Some of the films, most notably for me Beyond Belief (the story of 9/11 widows who go to Afghanistan to help poverty-stricken women and form a tremendous bond with them),  show the possibilities for peace through individual person to person interaction.

I urge you to check out this site if you are interested in any of their goals:

1. Promote optimism concerning the possibility of peace

2. Explore how people in power and the mainstream media persuade citizens that various forms of government-sponsored aggression, such as war and torture, are justifiable

3. Present examples of serious conflicts that have been resolved without warfare

4. Demonstrate that a major pathway to peace is through responsible activism

5. Translate into user-friendly language the best of relevant scientific and academic work contributing to the understanding of war and peace. In particular, we will periodically mention some of the major results from our own international research team.

6. Help readers find useful tools and important resources to support their own efforts to seek and promote peace.

7. Encourage readers to share their opinions and contribute their own stories and examples of “engaging peace.”

As a matter of fact, I urge you to go to this site even if you are not particularly interested in the topics listed above, because I am pretty sure you will find something on this site that peaks your interest if you happen to care about the future, the present, the environment, veterans, children, or families.

If for no other reason, I would go there just to see the ticker at the bottom right of the home page that keeps updating the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My enthusiasm for the work of Kathie Malley-Morrison and the Engaging Peace website stems from my beliefs  ~

I believe the world can and will move to a culture of peace in which war will be the rare exception.

I believe when people understand the environmental impact of war, the urgency of peace-making will become more evident.

I believe we owe our veterans a better life than the one so many of them face when they return home from military service.

I believe non-violent conflict resolution is a possibility at every level from individual conflict to national conflicts. We will never rid the world of conflict, but we can rid the world of war.

I believe each individual can and should make a difference.

I believe that none of this is simple or easy.

I believe in you and me and our power to make a difference.

Exploring the Capacity of the Human Heart

Welcome to the first edition of my blog. I will be exploring with all of you the incredible capacity of the human heart to hold within it love and hate, hope and fear, pain and joy, forgiveness and revenge....and much more. I hope that I will hear from all of you with your insights about what the heart can hold.

This blog will feature a variety of posts, including poetry, video, art and a readers' forum.

To get us started, here is a poem I wrote:

What I Would Have Said 

What would I have said to my children when they were born if I knew then what I know now?

When my first son was born, I sat awake in my hospital bed and wrote a long letter about all my hopes and dreams for him. 

 I wrote about how much we anticipated his arrival, about how much we loved him before he was even born.

And how we would always love him, no matter what. 

I wrote essentially the same letter to each of my new born sons. 

Many years have come and gone. 

My sons are men now and I have grandchildren.

My life is full. My heart is full. The words of love I wrote are still completely true. 

But if I knew then, what I know now, the letter would be different. 

Not knowing then, that my marriage would end in divorce, I neglected to tell them that all love is good...no matter what....having loved someone matters.

No matter how it ends, or changes, love is never wasted. 

Never fear a broken heart because the only way you can get one is by having loved deeply, and deep love enriches the soul.

Never think that once your heart is broken, you can’t ever love again.

Each time we love, we increase our capacity to love.  

The human heart is designed to love and it has the capacity to grow and expand until it is so big that it loves the whole world. 

Most of us run out of time before our hearts get big enough to hold love for the whole entire world, but many of us come pretty close.

Yes, there was a lot I did not know when I wrote those love letters to my children.

Not just about love, but about the incredible mystery of life. 

So many things I didn’t tell them, because I didn’t know then what I know now.

I would tell them that they are the stuff of stars....

That the very atoms that pulse and vibrate inside us come from the stars! 

We are in the universe and the universe is in us; in all of us, no matter when or where we lived.

I would tell them that they are connected to every being who has ever lived or ever will live.

That long after they have died, the atoms that were part of them will be somewhere in the universe, part of some other life...recycled in the air, the soil, a beautiful flower, a tree, or even another person. 

And because of this, we will never be separate from the rest of the world; from the earth that we live on, from the people we call enemies and those we call friends. 

I would tell them, because I do know it now... 

that everything they do really does make a difference.

 EVERYTHING.

 Really. 

Our actions have an impact far beyond our ability to know.

The choices we make about what we eat and how we live affect people everywhere....not just metaphorically or spiritually, but really. 

We share the earth with billions of people and there will be billions more after we die. 

What we use and what we conserve affect them all.

Wars we wage and wars we avert affect them all.

Discoveries we make and how we use them affect them all. 

They are us and we are them, only luckier.

I would tell them that we were chosen to be that accumulation of atoms that won the birth lottery; that we were born to a life of relative plenty.

That we have responsibility because of this.

And I would tell them this too.

None of us will ever make the whole difference; none of us can truly change the world,

Because each and every one of us is needed.

I would tell them “the power of one” really means the power of EACH one combined with the power of many other ones. 

And, although, they share the atoms from the same stars as the rest of us,

Each of us is a totally unique, unduplicatable individual person.

Within each unique individual lies the future of the world.

We are all chosen to use what is in us-

 that stuff that makes me, me and you, you -

 No one else has that to offer to the world.

 So, shine like the stars that are within you! 

Love so much that your heart expands until it can hold the whole world in its care. 

And know that as my heart grows, my love for you grows, every day.

Looking forward to our exploration of the varieties of human experience and how the heart grows to hold and honor all that we experience. I plan to write once a week, but in the beginning, I may write a little more often. So please check in now and then!

In the meantime, what do you think about the heart's ability to grow big enough to hold love for the whole world? Do you have any examples to share? Please leave a comment if you do!