The Voices of Peace

I found this poem lurking in a notebook I was about to throw out...there are lots of these little gems I have scribbled down in moments frozen in time. They are little nuggets of preciousness I unearth in my fits of organization...this one was obviously written several years ago when Isis made its first noxious appearance, but the message and the question are as relevant today as they were when I penned this...

Where are the voices of peace?

While Isis roars with fright and might

Shaking its fist and killing on sight

While tempers roil and protests boil

Where prejudice reeks and fills our streets

Where are the voices of peace?

The Dali Lama’s of the Christian faith

The voices of Islamic peace and harmony

The spiritual leaders who call for truth in the inward parts

We watch the voices of war and military might roar across our screens

And fill our sight

Looking to leaders to join the fight, protect us from our fears

Injustices, terrors and fright

But where is the spiritual guidance that calls us to look within

Take responsibility for our own hates and fears and sin?

Where are the leaders to guide in prayer, meditation and spiritual care?

Where are their public voices for all to hear?

The voices that remind us who we are

That power resides in spirits united in love

That peace is worth praying and acting for?

January 17, 2017                                          

Two heads

Four hands

It’s so much better when we understand

We are meant to work together

Yesterday I asked my husband to put up a couple of levoler shades in my rather tightly fit computer workspace. I took the laptop and stayed nearby “just in case”.  Often at work someone will ask me for help and as soon as they have asked and I come over, they solve the problem themselves. I jokingly call this two heads. Just asking for help, just offering help, often creates the energy needed for a solution by re-directing our mental/emotional state to one that sees the possibility of resolution rather than the frustration of the problem. Mom always quoted the saying “two heads are better than one” to us growing up. As yesterday was her birthday it was fitting I should hear her gentle, motherly voice in my head.

My husband hit a frustration point of things not going well when he dropped a hardware piece and was having trouble locating it in the rather foreign and tightly packed surroundings of my space. I walked in to help even though he said he just had to find this piece and didn’t really need any help and of course, he immediately found it. From there we learned that when I held the window treatment up out of his way in one hand and the flashlight so he could see clearly in the other while he used both hands to install the hardware, everything went smoothly and well. It was then my two heads line expanded into two heads, four hands. I think this will be our mantra for the week.

And its message completed itself this morning as I look forward to the events of this inaugural week. A time when so many are filled with trepidation and others with expectation. A time that began with a Peace meditation Sunday evening and will end with a peaceful gathering for equality and love in Boston this weekend after Donald Trump is sworn in as our next President.

Two heads and four hands, all of us working together, will be our strength and purpose as this political term unfolds. Archangel Michael also gave a clear message yesterday as I pulled cards for the day, one I thought was just for me seems very appropriate for us all this week and in the weeks ahead: “Positive thoughts create positive results.”

We will put our heads, hands and hearts together as we go forward into this year. 

Achieving the dream  (so rightly recalling Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy after celebrating his day yesterday) of equality and prosperity with consideration and opportunity for all, takes hard work, will hold frustrations and fears in its future path, but will go much more smoothly as we work positively together to create the kind of country and world we want to live in.