Compassion in Times of Unrest

 

In the most challenging of times, when anger, hatred, even simple mean-spiritedness seem to be all around us, it's important to remember that humanity is kind at heart.  Those who are the angriest, the ones with hatred in thier hearts, the loudest, the meanest, are oftentimes also the most unhappy, the most afraid.   We don't have to agree with their ideology, their rhetoric, their actions and deeds, but we should still try to find compassion in our own hearts - even for the haters.  Choose love.  Always.

50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love

Yes, the hippie in me still believes in peace, love, equality, inclusion, justice, and kindness.  Universal values, to be sure.  And I still believe in the goodness of humankind and the healing power of music.  And friendship and compassion.  And flowers.

This summer marks the 50th Anniversary of the Summer of Love, when more than 100,000 hippie peaceniks descended on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood in San Francisco.  It was a revolutionary social movement at a time of great unrest in the U.S.

A movement whose impact is still being felt today.  Whose values are as appropriate to solving the great issues troubling the world today as they were back then.

As the late great Jimi Hendrix said, "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, then the world will know peace."

Yes, I believe in that.

Always. 

We live in tumultuous times.  When fear, anxiety, stress, and uncertainty are on the rise, anger and hate often follow.  And where there is anger and hate, there is also fear and anxiety, creating a vicious circle.  It’s hard to know how to break the cycle.  

But break the cycle we must.  And there is only one place to start – with yourself.  Examine your own beliefs and assumptions, your own behaviors and actions.  Weed out that which is toxic and feed that which springs from love.  Anger, hate, fear, and anxiety are defeated with kindness, common courtesy, and respect for others.  It may seem simplistic but the truth often is.  

Choose LOVE.  

Always.

Celebrate the International Day of Peace!

“A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser.”  

                 - William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 2

In 1981, The United Nations declared each September 21^st to be an International Day of Peace, an annual day of worldwide non-violence and cease-fire.   Since the first commemoration of the day in 1982, Peace Day has grown to include almost every community and nation in celebrations worldwide. 

This year’s Peace Day events begin with the ringing of the Peace Bell at the UN headquarters in New York City.  A moment of silence will be observed at noon and there will be a 24-hour global broadcast of Peace Day events around the world.  The Peace One Day celebration will include performances by internationally acclaimed artists in front of the Peace Palace in the Hague.

Check our website for a live broadcast of activities around the world.

Join in the festivities by locating a Peace Day celebration in your area or creating one of your own.  And maybe, just maybe, one day of peace will grow into 365.  

You can call me a dreamer ....

For more information:

• International Day of Peace
• Peace One Day
• United Nations: Peace Day

Welcome!

So. What do we call this thing, this blog? I wanted a catchy name that would encapsulate the topics I would cover here: getting back to priorities, simplifying your life, being happy with what you've got, not always chasing after more, more, more. Oh, and re-connecting with nature. Very important, if you've lived as I have, without a garden for so many years, surrounded all day long with gray walls and fluorescent lighting.

You get the picture. Somehow we've (I've) lost sight of who we really are. We are not the things we accumulate, the spouses we marry, the jobs and careers we work so hard at, the children we give birth to and raise. Certainly these things are important and they have their place in a happy life, but they are not the sum total of who "I" am.

And, to some extent, all these things can be so distracting, feeling that we need to work harder in order to have the perfect house, better cars, a nice vacation, to send our children to the best schools. We spend so much of the short time we have on earth in all these activities that are not "I" that there is no time left to spend on really knowing who we are, re-acquainting ourselves with ourselves.

And there's a certain dissonance in that. A feeling that even though all these things, these activities, these people we surround ourselves with and fill up our time with may indeed be pleasurable (or not, as the case may be), still they're not enough. There's something missing, a vague sense of incompleteness, a feeling that we can be so much more than just the sum total of what we have and what we do.

And after we've eliminated - figuratively if not literally - all the things that are not "I," then what's left? How do we re-prioritize, re-focus, re-acquaint? Simplify, pacify, restore, and re-energize? Calm down and de-stress? Un-busy ourselves. It's not so much the gaining control over life as the letting go of needing control.

So. We come back again to the beginning. I hope in this blog just to present some ideas, not necessarily to come to any definite conclusions, about re-prioritizing, de-stressing and un-busying, learning how to nurture ourselves as well as the people we care for, re-connecting with community and nature. Ultimately, learning how to live in peace and harmony.

Welcome to Harmonious Living.