Meg, Tova, Julie, Harrison and all.... It is most interesting how many people — including students I've been privileged to work with, when they think of peace an image of passivity comes up — someone sitting in a state of meditation — the picture of calmness. When I explore my personal innerpeace it includes all states within. Am I at peace with my anger, loneliness..... I look for cheerfulness rather than happiness. I have found true beauty in sadness and great clarity in anger. Can I be myself with no apologies, and bring the self whether sad, glad, bad or mad to situations — and be at peace as others own their own minds and form whatever perceptions they have of me?
In my experience there is also a quality of integrity to true peace. After years of war do average people really want peace — especially if we don't have a shared vision of peace? How much integrity is there in Colin Powell's peace mission after the unbelievable damage done in Afghanistan? I am a true student with more and more rich questions.............. more valuable now than answers perhaps? When asking youngsters to "draw" peace most drew a picture of calm, a few used vivid colors with plenty of movement on the page — they saw peace as more active than passive. wishing all a cheerful day. J >>> owe...@mindspring.com 04/14/02 10:45AM >>> At 02:57 PM 4/13/2002 -0400, Meg Salter wrote: >And yes, it begins in my own being, with as much acknowledgement of and >non-resistance to all that I see in myself as I can manage [the good, the >bad and the ugly!] and than naturally extending that out to others - >close.. further.. further still. Being able to provide a container for >peacefullness in myself helps me to provide such a container for others >too. Some of these "others" are clients; but it is also children, family, >friends.... ultimately and hopefully everyone we come in contact with. For >me peace is not just the feeling of peacefulness, kindness, friendliness. >It is the place which is able to contain that AND it's "opposite" - anger, >fear, jealousy.. and hold them until a resolution naturally appears. Meg -- I think the point you make about the "inclusiveness" of Peace is critical. As I have been slowing moving along in the creation of what might be a new book (or not) -- the following showed up on the screen... How shall we understand Peace in ways that allow the inclusion and transcendence of the harsher realities of our lives? Peace without chaos, confusion and conflict is no peace, not because we would not prefer it that way, but because each member of this unholy trinity makes a positive contribution to the process of living. Equally, peace without ending and death is productive of an idealized, static life, stuck in its ways – precluding the possibility of any sort of evolution. Had the Ruler of the Universe taken our council at the start, perhaps we could have suggested a better way. Indeed it seems that He or She almost had it right in those halcyon days of The Garden of Eden (or whatever primal/primitive vision of our initial utopia). But then something happened. Some folks will see the departure from that happy place as the beginning of the end, and the source of all our problems. Personally, I see it as the end of the beginning, the starting place of the incredible human journey. In a word, we were kicked out of the nest and forced to fly. Like young eagles, we have been screaming ever since, and for sure our initial wing beats were frantic, verging on comical. But we have learned. Not without a multitude of rough landings, ill advised take-offs – to say nothing of more than a few “crash and burns,” but we now know something of the joys of flight. For those who desire a return to that idyllic state, I say lots of luck, and have a nice day. And when the going genuinely gets tough in this thing we call life, I can certainly see their point. But at the end of the day, and indeed on most days, I choose to celebrate the rich heritage of Homo sapiens, crash landings and all. The flight of the human spirit is, for me, truly awesome. But you do have to leave the nest, and that departure has its consequences. As for peace – I like the metaphor of flying – all of flying, including first flights, last flights, and bumps along the way. Peace then is a process, not a thing, a journey and not a destination. It is flow and not a state. Peace is the dynamic interrelationship of complex forces productive of wholeness, health and harmony. The Practice of Peace is the intentional creation of the requisite conditions under which Peace may occur. Peace, as far as I am concerned is infinitely more than the cessation of hostilities, which recently has taken the form of bombing the offending parties into submission until they can no longer fight back or each other. And Peacemaking neither starts nor ends at the negotiating table, for the objective is not just a set of treaty terms acceptable to all parties, but rather the renewal of meaningful and productive organizational life for the nation, business, social institution or family. Harrison >Harrison Owen 7808 River Falls Drive Potomac, MD 20854 USA phone 301-365-2093 Open Space Training www.openspaceworld.com Open Space Institute www.openspaceworld.org Personal website http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hhowen/index.htm osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html * * ========================================================== osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu ------------------------------ To subscribe, unsubscribe, change your options, view the archives of osl...@listserv.boisestate.edu, Visit: http://listserv.boisestate.edu/archives/oslist.html