Dear Readers, this is a special post. Some of you know that I am a charter member of the Ode Magazine Readers Blog. This is the post that will run on Ode tomorrow. If you're a blogger, dash one off for Kindness, will you please? SusanActs of Peace
Sometimes just thinking about world peace is enough to make me want to take a nap. It’s such a big job and, I know this is an illusion, but sometimes I feel like I’m carrying the ball all by myself. Anyone else feel that way?
Enter Blog Catalog on my Sunday morning email telling me that there’s a movement in the blogosphere called Bloggers Unite: blogging for hope. http://unite.blogcatalog.com/ Its purpose is to use the sheer numbers of the blogging world for good works. The latest date we are invited to join together is today, December 17th, 2007 to do some Act of Kindness and write about it. All of us, on the same day.
What, I asked myself and the universe, might be a good work, an act of kindness, an act of peace?
What I heard might surprise you. It did me:
Take that nap you want.
Naps for peace?
Not really, just do the things you do with peace in mind.
My teacup, really more a bowl, sits to my left right now, even as I type. I have a cup of Earl Grey tea every morning liberally laced with hazelnut cream. It’s divine. I don’t know exactly how many sips I get out of each bowl, but I’d bet at least fifty.
What if, with every sip, I held a thought for peace?
May peace prevail on earth.
May there be peace in the Middle East.
May there be peace between my fighting next door neighbors.
May there be peace in the middle school down the street.
May there be peace in City Hall at the top of the hill.
May my brother, David, find peace in his soul.
May my mother be at peace wherever her soul took her when she died.
May I be at peace within my body.
May my sweetheart be at peace within her job.
May all financial need be met everywhere with supply.
That’s ten. 20% of my tea sips.
Thoughts, dear one, specifically your thoughts are actions. Dedicate your thoughts to whatever you choose. I’ll do peace seven days a week. Just like I do tea seven days a week. Do the math: 50 x 7 = 350 thoughts per week x 52 weeks = 18,200 thoughts per year radiating from me alone, and that only during tea time!
Think of what we could do if every time we swallowed, or chewed, or exhaled, or inhaled, or scratched, or smiled, or stepped or whatever, we added a thought for peace! I propose an act of kindness, an act of peace for every one of the over six billion souls with whom we share this planet. Take one activity in your day—one you do every day—and tilt your thoughts peace-ward during that activity.
I googled world population just now: 6,602,224,175 (July 2007 estimated)
18,200 thoughts per year x 6,602,224,175 = Plenty to create peace in our world. (And more than my puny calculator could handle!)
To quote the latest Citibank ads: “Let’s get it done.”
Sometimes just thinking about world peace is enough to make me want to take a nap. It’s such a big job and, I know this is an illusion, but sometimes I feel like I’m carrying the ball all by myself. Anyone else feel that way?
Enter Blog Catalog on my Sunday morning email telling me that there’s a movement in the blogosphere called Bloggers Unite: blogging for hope. http://unite.blogcatalog.com/ Its purpose is to use the sheer numbers of the blogging world for good works. The latest date we are invited to join together is today, December 17th, 2007 to do some Act of Kindness and write about it. All of us, on the same day.
What, I asked myself and the universe, might be a good work, an act of kindness, an act of peace?
What I heard might surprise you. It did me:
Take that nap you want.
Naps for peace?
Not really, just do the things you do with peace in mind.
My teacup, really more a bowl, sits to my left right now, even as I type. I have a cup of Earl Grey tea every morning liberally laced with hazelnut cream. It’s divine. I don’t know exactly how many sips I get out of each bowl, but I’d bet at least fifty.
What if, with every sip, I held a thought for peace?
May peace prevail on earth.
May there be peace in the Middle East.
May there be peace between my fighting next door neighbors.
May there be peace in the middle school down the street.
May there be peace in City Hall at the top of the hill.
May my brother, David, find peace in his soul.
May my mother be at peace wherever her soul took her when she died.
May I be at peace within my body.
May my sweetheart be at peace within her job.
May all financial need be met everywhere with supply.
That’s ten. 20% of my tea sips.
Thoughts, dear one, specifically your thoughts are actions. Dedicate your thoughts to whatever you choose. I’ll do peace seven days a week. Just like I do tea seven days a week. Do the math: 50 x 7 = 350 thoughts per week x 52 weeks = 18,200 thoughts per year radiating from me alone, and that only during tea time!
Think of what we could do if every time we swallowed, or chewed, or exhaled, or inhaled, or scratched, or smiled, or stepped or whatever, we added a thought for peace! I propose an act of kindness, an act of peace for every one of the over six billion souls with whom we share this planet. Take one activity in your day—one you do every day—and tilt your thoughts peace-ward during that activity.
I googled world population just now: 6,602,224,175 (July 2007 estimated)
18,200 thoughts per year x 6,602,224,175 = Plenty to create peace in our world. (And more than my puny calculator could handle!)
To quote the latest Citibank ads: “Let’s get it done.”
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