International Day of Peace

“When I think of peace, I think of a world where human beings are no longer brutalized on account of such accidents of birth as sex, race, religion, or nationality. For me, peace is a way of structuring human relations where daily acts of kindness and caring are tangibly rewarded. It is a way of thinking, feeling, and acting where our essential interconnection with one another is truly honored.

I pray for a world where we live in partnership rather than domination; where “man’s conquest of nature” is recognized as suicidal and sacrilegious; where power is no longer equated with the blade, but with the holy chalice: the ancient symbol of the power to give, nurture, enhance life. And I not only pray, but actively work, for the day when it will be so.”

Riane Eisler

“Cleaning and cleansing through movement is the pattern of earth’s nomadic peoples. They do not remain long in one place for many reasons, but chief of these is that the land on which they have rested becomes “worn out”. The act of moving on, then, is for them an act of renewal and care, allowing the earth to rest and recover from their occupation.

The spring and autumn cleaning of the house that many people favour is but one side of an orderly life. The visible clutter in our homes reflects a corresponding clutter in our internal lives. The wise lesson of nomadic peoples is to leave little trace of our passage upon the earth, to leave no mark that mars the wider world. By cleaning up after ourselves, we help life the impress of our presence upon the earth.

With attention and intention, clean at least one room of your house this week. As you restore cleanliness and order, be aware of the corresponding spaciousness within yourself, so that your autumn cleaning becomes meditation in itself.”

Caitlin Matthews

“Spiritual practice is not just sitting and meditation. Practice is looking, thinking, touching, drinking, eating and talking. Every act, every breath, and every step can be practice and can help us to become more ourselves.”

Thich Nhat Hanh

“How can I get to know myself? Not by thinking, for thinking only reflects my conscious being, but by meditating. Meditation goes beyond the conscious mind into the unconscious. In meditation I can become aware of the ground of my being in matter, in life, in human consciousness. I can experience my solidarity with the universe, with the remotest star in outer space and with the minutest particle in the atom. I can experience my solidarity with every living thing, with the earth, with these flowers and coconut trees, with the birds and squirrels, with every human being. I can get beyond all these outer forms of things in time and space and discover the Ground from which they all spring.”

Bede Griffiths

“The earth is mother,
she is mother of all that is natural,
mother of all that is human…
The earth should not be injured.
The earth should not be destroyed…
All nature is at the disposal of humankind.
We are to work with it.
Without it we can not survive…
With nature’s help,
humankind can set into creation
all that is necessary and life-sustaining.”

Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179), abbess, composer, healer, mystic, preacher, and visionary, who died on this day

“I’m trying to get people to see that we are our brother’s keeper. Red, white, black, brown or yellow, rich or poor, we all have the blues.”

Riley B. King (better known as B. B. King), born on this day in 1925

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF DEMOCRACY

“Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.”

Rigoberta Menchú Tum, K’iche’ Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

“The leaves are turning and change is in the air… As the palette of nature changes and the fall colors grow more intense, embrace your own changes. That which does not change is not fully alive. As humans in chaos, we sometimes long for stability, but flux and ongoing evolution bring us to our fullest selves. In the words of Carl Jung, “Only that which changes remains true.””

From Earth Bound: Daily Meditations For All Seasons by Brian Nelson

“Nothing is too wonderful to be true, if it be consistent with the laws of nature.”

Michael Faraday, who discovered the ‘Faraday effect’, the influence of a magnetic field on polarized light, on this day in 1845

“It was early,
which has always been my hour
to begin looking
at the world

and of course,
even in the darkness,
to begin
listening into it,

especially
under the pines
where the owl lives
and sometimes calls out

as I walk by,
as he did
on this morning.
So many gifts!

What do they mean?
In the marshes
where the pink light
was just arriving

the mink
with his bristle tail
was stalking
the soft-eared mice,

and in the pines
the cones were heavy,
each one
ordained to open.

Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.

Little mink, let me watch you.
Little mice, run and run.
Dear pine cone, let me hold you
as you open.”

Mary Oliver