International Day of Peace 2013 Wish for Peace...Work for Peace

Wish for Peace
On this most glorious late summer day, which is also the International Day of Peace, I am writing to you with a wish for peace.
I wish for peace for all of you, for all of us, and for our world with all its brilliant beings.
I wish for peace for the air we breathe, for a reprieve from pollutants that dog it every day.
I wish for peace for the soil we tread, for wise and gentle hearts and hands to preserve the land which lends us food and beauty.
I wish for peace for the waters of our Earth, that they may be free from man-made contaminants, and revered for the life they offer us.
I wish for peace for our creatures, that they may be treated with loving respect, and granted the dignity they deserve.
I wish for courage for all to take a stand that speaks for life in all its varied and unspoken forms.
My wish for peace includes a great desire for respect: for all that we have to offer each other in our hearts, and for the courage to willingly share that openness.
I wish for the ability to be present to the silence within and open to that presence within others.
I wish for recognition for all. For everyone to be lovingly revered for the simple fact they exist.
I wish for all to have a sense of spaciousness in their lives surrounding issues or challenges they may face.
I wish for an elevation of awareness about the ways in which we are unsuspecting oppressors towards ourselves and others in our daily lives.
I wish for freedom from the ideas which control us and constrict our souls from a true experience of wonder and love.
I wish for voice for all who have had their voice taken away.
I wish for joy for those whose hearts are filled with hatred.
I wish for peace for those whose hearts are filled with fear.
I wish that we would look at ourselves and others with eyes of love.
I wish for all the experience of a heart soaring with delight at the hopeful possibility each moment offers us.
I wish for bravery for all to break the barriers that separate us from each other.
I wish for courage for all to remove those walls that tell us peace is not possible.
I wish to meet you all on the road that leads to peace between my heart and yours;

freed from judgments,
freed from competition,
freed from comparisons,
freed from the burdens of regret
freed from the need to be right,
freed from a sense of lack…Freed.

As we are emptied, so too shall we be filled;
Filled with a grateful heart, I will know you when we meet upon our journey.
I will feel the abundance that you carry within you.
Our footsteps will echo with receptivity despite the many miles that may lie between us.
Peace sweet world…begins within.
Much peace to you as you journey…The Creativity Project

Naming the World- Language as a Tool

The other afternoon my three children and I brought my young niece to the seashore to celebrate the first decent warmth and sunshine we’ve had in weeks.

We played a short while on the playground equipment before making our way down to the south shore beach. The tide was high and there were cumbersome banks of seaweed which meant that there was very little beach exposed. This made walking difficult so my niece and I decided to sit a moment or two on a fallen tree, the sun bleached trunk of which had been positioned by some previous visitor as a bench of sorts.

Sitting there as my three children aged 13, 10 and 8 years old all beach combed, enthused by the first visit warm enough to beckon thoughts of summer nearing, my little niece, not yet two years old, looked out upon the wide expanse of sparkling blue sea in front of us. She then thoughtfully cocked her little head to one side peeking up at me from under the brim of her pink ball cap and said:

“I don’t know what that is Aunt Jill-ah?”

I sat for an instant, caught in the moment of innocent wonder. Without my really noticing, so many years have passed since my own children were new to the naming of their world. We’ve long since moved on to different sets of questions with more complicated answers such as the one our youngest recently asked regarding whether “you can get a baby without a man being involved?”

To be quite honest, although endlessly inquisitive and earnest acquirers of language skills, I do not recall any of our three breaking the world down into the sum of its parts in quite the same manner as my niece does.

“It is water Lily”, I meekly answered, “you know the ocean, the sea.” I furthered hoping to satisfy her need to name.  Seemingly settled with my response she sat and gazed out to sea while I was left wondering if I did justice to the vastness, the beauty and utter import of both her question and what we were looking at.

Perhaps language is only a mediocre tool for chopping up the grandeur of life so that it is more easily digestible, ponderable. Maybe the best way to drink in the largeness of such moments is one sip, one simple, incomplete answer at a time?

As we left the shoreline to head back to the car my niece turned around and waved goodbye.

“Bye ocean!” I said. She turned, smiled and chirped “Bye blue water” making the farewell her own.

When our oldest child was my niece’s age, instead of asking us when she didn’t know what something was, she simply made up the names of things. Thanks to her unusual naming practice we had a list of words as long as my arm which made sense only to her immediate family. Tookashish meant cookie, hackashish was water  and so on. We thought it was cute and creative at the time, but didn’t really take much pass of the fact that she was actively naming her world as she saw fit.

Still an avid lover of words and now a brand new teenager, she often struggles with the inadequacy of language to describe the emotional roller coaster she’s recently been hit with. We are hoping that she will continue to tap into that creative resource she has mined so many times in her young life thus far, applying imagination to the gap when words fail.

My young niece has no qualms about asking when she needs help naming her world, at those times when her repository of words doesn’t match what she sees or experiences. Teenagers on the other hand have more difficulty asking for help.  Our thirteen year old has mountains of words, but the terrain she is trekking is so unfamiliar, is such uncharted territory for her that most words feel awkward, trite and render themselves ineffectual at communicating a depth of feeling or experience of confusion which is so deeply personal. Probably this is where words such as “whatever and “this sucks” enter our vocabulary and become so widely used by certain age groups.

So at the moment I have two young gals in my life who are actively trying to name a strange and beautiful world, a world which for different reasons feels foreign much of the time. Each girl bound by the constricts that language presents us with at various stages of childhood development.

Yet, as my oldest said to me just the other day, words used well can give us the perspective we need sometimes. What she actually said was:

 “You know mom, I know why I appreciate a really good book so much- it just gives you perspective.”

 I couldn’t have said it better myself…what that perspective is and what constitutes a really good book are of course, purely subjective but I totally get what she means. Another perspective is very grounding for us when the vantage point we most often peer from wears thin, or when we ourselves don’t seem to have the words that match our experience.  Language applied well can both transport and tether us, granting us both oars and gills with which to navigate the often tumultuous sea that we call life.

Happy Sailing!!

Jill

How to Prepare for Your Death...and Deathday Celebrations

Just recently two older people I knew and admired passed away. One of the deaths was very sudden, as the result of a traffic accident, and the other as a result of failing health. Both of these people lived thoughtful lives according to the call of their hearts which is why I admired them so. 

The woman who died in the accident was a much valued member of a discussion group which my husband and I belong to. Although her conservative, meticulous physical appearance would lend her the allusion of being rather formal, she had a very open mind and heart and would always leave her highly articulate, thoughtful contributions open ended. She had a wonderful questioning way about her and a smile that radiated warmth.

At the first meeting following her passing we spent some time reflecting on her beautiful ways, and followed up with a discussion of how we each are preparing for our own deaths. How do we prepare for our own eventual deaths? It's not a question that typically arises in everyday conversation and not something many of us discuss unless faced with death's stark reality. There were many wonderful ideas shared by people for whom the thought had evidently arisen before and the responses were as varied as the group itself. Some focused on the details of the final celebration of their lives such as having a traditional burial vs cremation,  while another laughed about the type of visitation they would want (lots of music and laughter). Someone mentioned not wanting people to be commenting on whether the undertaker did a good job on their makeup. A lot of the usual comments came up, which was to be expected. Yet it didn't take long to cut to the heart of the matter, it never does with this group.  

"It's our ego that is afraid of ceasing to exist. Any real fear of death is deeply rooted in our ego as our ego comes from our drive for survival." was a much echoed response. 
   
Another group member told of witnessing the way that love can transform even the most desperate of circumstances  surrounding a death  when the deep sadness and profound sense of loss that often goes hand in hand with losing a loved one serve as a means of  greater connectedness. Being present to that sense of connection helps us truly realize that in the end, the sum total of our lives comes down to how we have loved in the world. And we all know it is easier to love when we feel connected to another.

 A mystical understanding of death recognizes that what has come from dust returns to dust. Beyond our ego's neediness there lies a peace like no other, a peace that is always available to us when we relinquish notions of a limited self, letting go into a larger sense of awareness and connectedness. 


We all left the meeting that evening feeling a little lighter, having openly shared the weight of sadness over our friend's passing by celebrating her living. "We come and we go." was the thoughtful response that I left with that night.

So after considering our recent discussion group following our friend’s death, I realized that the one comment I most held onto  "We come and we go..." comes from the Buddhist idea of recognizing the impermanence of all things.

From the site Urban Dharma:
Thus early Buddhism declares that in this world there is nothing that is fixed and permanent. Everything is subject to change and alteration. "Decay is inherent in all component things," declared the Buddha and his followers accepted that existence was a flux, and a continuous becoming.


 In preparation for my own death whenever that may be, I try to recognize the impermanence of all things, the ten thousand little deaths which occur every day in my own life. Whether it is allowing my hair to go grey rather than trying to mask it with hair coloring which is so hard on the environment, or being willing to smile as I sit in the doctor’s office while he diagnoses what I thought was a worrisome mole as an age spot, the longer I am on this Earth, the more I recognize that there truly are ten thousand ways that I can prepare for my own death. Yet all of them require me to acknowledge my life as it is presently unfolding and asking for my participation in it. 

When our kids were very small I had a difficult time with this notion, but tried my best to acknowledge that as each little stage of development passed something was gained and something lost. I still try to apply this to each stage that we go through now as a little growing up family. Gain and loss are not concepts which occur independently, nor are living and dying, although in the western world our culture tries to deny this at every turn. Our unwillingness to acknowledge the aging process, the glorification of youth and the way we try to sanitize natural processes, shutting the aged  and infirm off in nursing homes, our never ending desperate attempts at keeping up with the Jones' all represent a lack of willingness to take pause and watch as the processes of decay and new growth constantly reveal themselves to us. There is great beauty in embracing life as it unfolds but it demands of us courage and a willingness to accept our own mortality. The Japanese with their concepts of  Wabi Sabi demonstrate a deep understanding of the value of seeing beauty in imperfection, and decay.


The less rigidly we hold onto things, the more easily we can let them pass, as come to pass they inevitably will. We will be better able to navigate life’s ups and downs and constant changes. By less often grasping onto things, we open our hearts and minds to the beauty that the present holds for us all. A life lived in full acknowledgment of the impermanence of all things, guided by a heart capable of holding all things lightly, grants us a power that death cannot quell. Even death, although a permanent change to life in this bodily form, continues  to represent new beginnings for the one who has passed as well as for those who are left behind.

 A friend of a friend of mine recently decided to have a deathday celebration for his birthday calling on all his artistic friends to write a tale of his deathday. I must admit that at first I thought it was a rather morbid idea, unjustly questioning the guy’s motives. But the more I thought about it, and after seeing some of the amazing, thoughtful and hilarious contributions, I've come to think of it as a highly creative and unusual way to go about acknowledging that each birthday does represent our moving towards that inevitable moment we each will have to face.  In fact, each moment of our living takes us closer to our dying, and we live many little deaths along the way. For those involved in the deathday writing, they turned our cultural aversion to death on its ear…made death into a cake and blew the candles out in its face. 

There are many ways to go about thinking on death, as many ways as there are people. To say that thinking about death is an easy task would be unfair. I personally know of people considering this with much more grace and humour than I, yet I do believe that it is a consideration worthy of our attention, as part of a thoughtful, examined life.

 

Prince Edward Island- The Organic Island?!?! Raymond Loo, a remarkable person who has given so much to PE Islanders...

I was very saddened to recently learn that Raymond Loo, a leader in the organic farming movement on PEI, has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing chemotherapy. Here is a link to the notice for a benefit to be held on May 4th for outstanding Island farmer Raymond Loo.
benefit for Raymond Loo

I met Raymond at the farmer's market almost ten years ago when I first bought beef and vegetables from his family. Their farm is called Springwillow Farms and theirs is a very inspiring story of how we can learn new and gentler ways of being in our world. 

Raymond himself is an industry leader in the movement away from large scale conventional agriculture to organic farming.

He has been recognized both locally and internationally for the great strides he has made in this regard and has a seemingly endless enthusiasm about how to care for the land (and therefore waters) that nourish our bodies and souls. This enthusiasm was present in spades every single time I ever spoke with Raymond. His smile is as wide as the great big dream he has for seeing PEI become a leader in North America's movement towards wholly organic farming.

Honestly, the way that Mr. Loo has led the local movement towards a more sustainable, non-toxic method of growing food and raising animals is as good and example of living the proverb "seek and ye shall find." He personally sought out how to shift his entire way of farming (and thereby way of living) through reaching out to others and self teaching.
Here is a link to an article written about Mr. Loo:
 Raymond Loo PEI Organic Farmer
Just imagine if we all opened our hearts and minds in support of people who give their lives to make the world a better place to live. 

Raymond is truly a remarkable guy and I  wish him  much courage and wellness!

Love Jill

Dear World, It's Time We Make Some Real Changes

Dear World,  
                                                                                                       

I want to let you in on part of a conversation that happened in my own living room earlier today. My father in law, a man of few words, was over for a short visit. Through the course of the conversation yesterdays 2012 Symons Lecture with David Suzuki came up.  My father- in-law, summarizing the gist of a newspaper article on the lecture says, "so in the paper today it says that by 2100 things might be over". Two of our three children were sitting in the same room as us. He didn't actually say the word "over", rather he just hand jived it. We all went on to the next conversation as though he said nothing. And why not? A big part of the reason we have got ourselves into this mess is because we can't truly understand the world we are living in or the consequences our daily purchasing choices exact on all systems: social, environmental, economic.  In all actuality, we are living lives alien to our life support, engaged in "Lifestyles "that are highly unsustainable and extremely toxic.  

I personally have had a mighty hard time living in this strange and wonderful world. Since my teens over twenty years ago I have suffered a great deal of pain trying to understand the reasons behind the toxic way we are choosing to live. I've become depressed and anxious many times considering my own role as a modern consumer who buys into a toxic lifestyle. Sure I buy organic and local as much as I can, but I still buy imported fruit, eat things wrapped in plastic, throw away whatever can't be recycled (with the painful knowledge that it will either be burned or buried) and buy into the notion of gift giving seasons of excessive consumption and so called "celebrations".  As a mom of three I've ranted and raved over ways we "should be living" and frustrated my family greatly because of my negativity and griping.  In time I came to practice the  gentler way of "quietly making change and letting others go on with their choices" but have found I still tire of the snail's pace at which our society changes. I frustrate easily over the choices our governments continually make "on our behalf" which allow the continuation of our destructive path. At other times my own choices  contradict my strong beliefs and I become confused and disappointed with myself. 

While in my mid teens I wrote a lot about the collision course I thought our civilization was headed on. My parents said I was depressed. I wrote about my confusion over our civilization being considered technologically so advanced, yet somehow in our never ending search for bigger, better, and more refined, we missed  the fact that our advancements do not come without a cost, a cost that inadvertently has set up our own demise. In my parents defense I was depressed. How could I not be? I was diagnosed by a psychiatrist at age seven as being able to intellectually understand much more about the world than I was able to emotionally deal with. Thirty years later I feel like the same train wreck I was then. But now I can better ask "Does anyone have the emotional wherewithal to handle all the bad news about the very grave direction we are headed in, in fact already experiencing?" Wait a minute, some of our elected officials seem to. Maybe I should have been wired a little more like they are. Without question many of us are choosing the distractions of mind numbing reality TV and technology, mindless consumption of goods and services, and extreme busyness over a  clearer view of our current trajectory and the true toll our course is taking. 
What kind of change do we really need to make to make a difference? Are you happy and healthy living the way you are currently living or are you, like me, feeling more and more exhausted just trying to make ends meet when the ends just keep seeming to get more frayed and further and further apart? Would it really matter if we just decided to buck the systems that are no longer serving us well? If we said "no" to some of the current models of living such as the way we school our young people would it actually hurt anyone? It  would seem to me that we are using our public education system as a public warehouse for insemination of ideas perpetuating the current outdated model of living. In so doing we are wasting precious resources to inefficiently teach our kids to read, only to have them learn so that they can open today's newspaper and read that some believe that within this century we will see a partial collapse of the human species. See today's actual headline from The Guardian, our local newspaper: "Suzuki delivers dire warning, cautious hope over future of humankind". View here
Perhaps it's time to make some real changes that represent viable hope in tomorrow and just as importantly, in those tomorrows that we ourselves will never see. Doing what we know in our hearts is the right thing can't be as wrong as popular culture would lead us to believe, can it?
What if we each bought less stuff, went far places less often, Loved the world more, fought less, learned to make do, ate less processed food, bought local, Forgave ourselves and others, Shared more and Smiled often? Just imagine! Or better yet, Let's give it a try? What do we have to lose in trying?
The last two summers I had the fantastic opportunity to manage a collaborative project I created to engage the public in thinking about how we are living. I called it The Creativity Project. Probably, no definitely, it was a gentler means to the same end as this blog post. You might have enjoyed it more. I did. Here's a link to it online: thistownissmall.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/the-creativity-project/ . You can also look it up on thistownissmall under Art in the Open P.E.I. 2011 and 2012. Our project link is under the Victoria Row location. 
The willingness of the general public to take part in our fully interactive exhibit both years was awe inspiring. It proved to me that not only do we still have the capacity to think creatively about problems we are facing, we also have the heart required to make creative solutions a reality!
Yah. What else can I say?  At times it seems as though we are human animals living like alien robots. Continuing to buy into a disposable lifestyle and preserving every moment of it in photographs and scrapbooks will only ensure that our species becomes disposable with much of our demise preserved in plastic memory books and hard drives. It's high time to make some changes in our world! What say YOU?
Love Jill
Postscript
January 2nd, 2013
I've just read Gwynne Dyer's  2012 year end article The key moments of 2012 and although I do generally take his words with a grain of salt due to their endlessly "dire" nature and the negative focus he writes with, I concur that his highlights largely are grim due to their factual nature.
 The following paragraph caught my eye:
The world's drift towards global catastrophe due to climate change is becoming impossible to deny. This northern summer saw droughts and heat waves ravage crops from the U.S. Midwest to the plains of Russia, and soaring food prices as the markets responded to shortages in food supply.
He certainly uses dramatic language to get his points across, yet clearly his points are difficult to deny.
Happy New Year 2013... This year I remain hopeful because I know that the possibility of change, although difficult, is ever present so long as we have hopeful hearts!