A Practice of Peace (Tova Averbuch)

[Judi Richardson]

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



>>> owenhh at 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

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