Have you ever felt a loss? Not the conventionally defined ones like the loss of health, a loved one, or money. I mean, a loss of self.

Have you ever felt this pesky feeling of being away from your own being. Feeling like a stranger who has lost his way and is standing at the precipice of sanity, in danger of plunging into deeper dungeons of the horrible demands of life?   Read more...

Is there a peace room in your home?

Is there a war room? (Check where you have the television.)

Alice Walker inspired me this week, “War will stop when we no longer praise it, or give it any attention at all. Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited.”

You know, of course, that whatever we praise increases. How much time are you spending praising war? We don’t mean to do it most of the time. It’s just what’s on the news, you say?   Read more...

I recently attended the 25th Conference on Shamanism and Alternative Modes of Healing which took place on Labor Day weekend. The conference was founded by the late Dr. Ruth-Inge Heinze, who died in 2007, at the age of 88. Heinze was a long-time faculty member at Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center, and was a close associate of Stanley Krippner. The path of shamanism came to her late in life when she decided to return to school and train as a social anthropologist in her 50's. Eventually her studies led her to explore the psychology of shamanism, shamanism in Southeast Asia, and complimentary and alternate medicine.

In keeping with Ruth's personal exploration, she initiated the conference in San Rafael California 25 years ago to explore a wide range of practices and topics within the shamanic realm and beyond; topics such as reiki, qi gong, yoga, wiccan ritual, spirit mediums, comparative religions, quantum physics, ethno-medicine, bio-physics, psychology and vibrational healing among many others.   Read more...

I've always had a problem with my thoughts and emotions. I identified with them, as 99% of us do, and that brought a lot of worries, frustration, desires and fears. It was practically my whole life. Through time I learned that what they said was wrong and then I learned to fight with them, which wasn't much fun either, but in general it meant an improvement.

Now I believe I'm doing the next step: not fighting...   Read more...

Ask this question and most people would prevaricate and flounder with their answers. I have observed that people don’t hesitate when they are admitting to being satisfied with their job, life, and marriage. They would readily admit to having fun. But happy in the true sense? Well, it could always be better…a guarded look follows the shrug.

Why is it so hard to admit that we are happy?   Read more...

I found something very interesting, true and straightforward on Tim Ferris's blog (the guy who wrote The four hour work week - I highly recommend it by the way.). He quoted a speech that Martin Luther King gave and i believe it to be very inspiring. See the quote below, enjoy ...

By the way, i decided to not write "i" anymore with a capital letter unless it's at the beginning of a sentence.

"I say to you, this morning, that if you have never found something so dear and precious to you that you will die for it, then you aren't fit to live.
You may be 38 years old, as I happen to be, and one day, some great opportunity stands before you and calls upon you to stand for some great principle, some great issue, some great cause. And you refuse to do it because you are afraid.

You refuse to do it because you want to live longer. You're afraid that you will lose your job, or you are afraid that you will be criticized or that you will lose your popularity, or you're afraid that somebody will stab or shoot or bomb your house. So you refuse to take a stand.

Well, you may go on and live until you are ninety, but you are just as dead at 38 as you would be at ninety.

And the cessation of breathing in your life is but the belated announcement of an earlier death of the spirit.

You died when you refused to stand up for right.

You died when you refused to stand up for truth.

You died when you refused to stand up for justice."

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
From the sermon "But, If Not" delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church on November 5, 1967.

“Peace Day Magazine is brought to you by World Peace Emerging.” This is the first sentence I saw when I opened the online ezine.

Those last three words made my heart leap for joy: World Peace Emerging. Yes, oh yes, it is, it has to, we’re doing it was the not so subtle subtext. Also, please God, Goddess, Mother, Father and way too many other deities to list here.   Read more...

Hopping around from guru to guru and being disappointed with the results, or lack thereof, has led savvy women to become empowered when it comes to their health. In the process, they have learned a very big lesson. Modest lifestyle changes can add up to major results. You don’t have to be a raw-egg-drinking-ultra-marathon-running-twenty-four-seven-workout fanatic to live a healthy lifestyle. In fact, you can be fantastic just by making a series of moderate changes and good decisions over time.   Read more...

It was just a tiny article in the Arts section of The New York Times.

Orchestra for Peace to Play in Jerusalem Compiled by Julie Bloom Published: September 9, 2008

The World Orchestra for Peace, which draws players from 70 orchestras in 40 countries, will be conducted by Valery Gergiev, in Jerusalem on Oct. 19.

I didn’t know that there was or had ever been a World Orchestra for Peace, did you? And what a wonderful metaphor for the process of making peace! Music, always inspirational, and more—players from seventy orchestras in forty countries. Seventy, or more, talented people gather in one play to collaborate and create something that has never had life before.   Read more...

‘In our minds we have a vision; it’s in our hearts that we make it happen’
Dreams & Teams Course Books – Youth Sports Trust, UK

‘To inspire the desire to lead, to create one team, one dream, one world’ is a quote on the cover of the Dreams & Teams Young Leader’s Learning Log Book. So, this has got to be a special programme and it is.

As I sit here in the make shift Dreams & Teams secretariat at the Chipasula Secondary School in Lillongwe, Malawi, there are nineteen enthusiastic Young Leaders setting up for their maiden sports and arts festival for sixty young children from two local primary schools.   Read more...

This is one of those words, which our mom taught us, before we went to school and learned it in our ‘Rapid English Reader’ book. Say sorry when you make a mistake. Say sorry even when you have not made a mistake because in some way it was your fault that the other person was hurt.

It seeped into the subconscious so deeply that often I found myself saying sorry to tables and chairs and doors if I dashed against it while walking carelessly. “Ouch! Sorry.”   Read more...

U. S. President John F. Kennedy called Dag Hammarskjöld “the greatest statesman of our century.” Mr. Hammarskjöld was the second Secretary-General of the United Nations. Not only was he a Swedish diplomat, but he was also a Christian mystic. His diary, Markings, is a wonderful taste of one man’s spiritual journey.

I don’t know where I read this quote attributed to him, but I believe it with every cell of my being.

“Unless there is a spiritual renaissance, this world will know no peace.”   Read more...

Steve and I met on a subway. He was sitting across from me and looked just like my childhood playmate grown up. So when he got off, I followed him and started a conversation. It turned out Steve and I were kindred spirits: both loving to travel, both open to adventures, both consciously trying to learn and grow, both wandering souls, if you will.

Despite our twenty-year age difference, we got along well, so I did some wheeling and dealing to get him a part-time job at my college. That way we could meet several times a week and talk to our hearts’ content. Of course, our friendship deepened.   Read more...

I know you’ve heard of it…the little magic pill you can pop to help accelerate fat loss, speed up your metabolism, block carbohydrates from entering your blood stream and trick your mind into thinking that you already ate.  It’s not sold on street corners like the illicit drugs of the urban ghetto though.  No, this little pill is readily and legally available to all – even hawked in magazines that you find on popular retail shelves.  It’s promoted on television by health experts, celebrities and even some doctors. And your best friend’s cousin’s hairdresser even heard about it on Oprah last week.  It’s sold in bright-colored little boxes and marketed under various brand names.  It comes in different forms – sometimes blended in a shake, crushed into a nutrition bar or soaked into a frozen meal, but at the end of the day one aspect of this little pill is consistent.  It always represents a pipe dream.   Read more...

Oh my, oh my, I cannot begin to tell you how delighted I am to introduce to you (unless you already know her!) the stellar, brilliant, inspiring, ever-deepening work of urban shaman Queen Mama Donna Henes. What appears below is excerpted from her Queen’s Chronicles newsletter. Her latest book, The Queen of Myself, is a daily inspiration to me. Find more or sign up for The Queen’s Chroniclesat her website.

Donna’s paean to one of my favorite peace sheroes made my heart sing. So to begin the school year, I invite you to swim in Donna’s wondrous prose on the subject of Peace Pilgrim. It is followed by a prayer for peace penned by Ellen Bass that had me weeping by its triumphant end.   Read more...