Others are out making pilgrimages around the globe and I/we sit in my/our little world at home. Some of you are doing much more triumphant things such as traveling the world making music, or awaiting the birth of the next generation, or spending every waking hour in support of the next generation, or studying the world of wine making, or recreating Chagalls. Oh this list is impressive. My women friends and relatives are impressive. PLEASE ADD TO THE LIST IF I HAVE LEFT YOUR ACTIVITY OUT!
Most times I feel like I am not taking advantage of the opportunities I have to make a difference in the world. I have been given so much and instead of traveling to places to try to find out how to live in a world without war, I stay home irritated with dirty dishes in the sink. Not always but you understand, yes?
Anyway, I am encouraged to I think that I and those of us staying home living simpler lives, am/are doing the same "work" as those visionaries who are exploring the world. It all comes down to trying to learn to love and to live without war and to let life continue to express herself through us.
So thus begins the too long message. The text below shows the progression I followed this morning. Blue text are not my words and are duly given credit in the links.
In case you are up in the wee hours it will give you something to read.
FIRST THE SENTENCE THAT GOT ME STARTED.
Beyond Boundaries pilgrims will journey to several of these places, including: The Ojai Foundation in California, Tamera in Portugal, Auroville in India, Findhorn in Scotland, Damanhur in Italy and the Biosphere Foundation in Indonesia.
DAMANHUR? WHAT IS THAT? SO I LOOKED IT UP.
Damanhur in Italy
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
TAMERA IN PORTUGAL? WHAT'S THAT?
Tamera in Portugal
http://www.tamera.org/index.
Sabine Lichtenfels
http://www.grace-media.org/sites/sabine-lichtenfels.com/en/Grace.html
Sabine Lichtenfels started her pilgrimage in 2005 in the Black Forest in Germany in the name of Grace. She walked towards Israel without money with the slogan: A Peace Village instead of a tank! On her way through Germany, Swiss, Italy and Greece she gave lectures to this subject.
http://www.sabine-lichtenfels.com/en/Grace_Article.html
Excerpts:
At first I turn to the human being who happens to be my counterpart and let myself be touched by his or her history. To do this, I anchor myself as far as possible in the present moment. Again and again I imagine that the person sitting in front of me could just as well be me. I could be a woman settler, a Palestinian woman or a young Israeli woman about to enter the military. I could be the soldier that is about to shoot at Palestinian kids with tear gas. I look for the core of the human being in all its roles and behind all the masks of alienation. It is often difficult to be in this kind of presence. How often have I been outraged about the views of the world which I had to endure listening to from for instance an extreme rabbi or a fanatical Muslim? And how often did I feel an inner defensiveness or a reaction of disgust when listening to the never ending accusations and stories of suffering from the Palestinians in the West Bank or to the fanatical speeches of the settlers?
In search of a name for the pilgrimage 2007 in Israel we came across the term GRACE. Grace has many connotations and in English comprises more than the word "Gnade" does in German.
GRACE is mercy, favour, charm, sweetness, readiness, charity, consideration, congeniality and also stands for the act of Grace itself.
GRACE reminds me of walking in the service of the higher mission, in the service of life and its inherent justice. Those who are walking in the name of GRACE do not come to accuse. They do not come to impart a new ideology on a country or on a land and its people – they come in the service of openness, of perception and of support.
GRACE pledges not to worsen a war but rather to end it wherever it happens to be. In the name of GRACE I am always on the look out for a non-violent solution, a solution which creates justice and healing amongst all concerned. Often clear judgement is necessary to do this, but never condemnation.
GRACE says: I am willing to end the war and to understand the means by which it can be ended and I place myself in the service of a solution.
Now everything depends on whether I will be able to tell him the truth of what I see without any fear.
THIS LEAD TO LOOKING AT DIETER DUHM'S SITE AND SEEING ART CLASSES:
http://www.dieter-duhm.de/
In the art courses that are held in the project since many years back, only one instruction is given: Engage with the world and not with your personal problems. The participants gladly follow these instructions with a clear sense of relief. Ten days in the world without any navel-gazing. Ten days in a space without psyche, without reacting with fear or comparison. Doing something for ten days that has no purpose or duty, free of all pangs of conscience, thereby finding the joy, the humor and the enthusiasm of “meaningless” creation. For this is how Creation creates.
Art Course near the lake of Cola, Portugal
The art courses are ten days of community experience, usually at selected places in nature, which reveal other things to the participants: the metaphysics of small things, the tangibility of things as they stand in the presence of the Universe, the reflections in the water, the meaning of color, the silver grey green olive trees against the blue sky. When it enters the inner area of perception, art becomes a celebration and a thank you to Creation. Art and cult begin to come together. One not only wants to paint this way, but in reality one wants to live this way. Art becomes a preliminary draft of a different, desired state of being. It is in this sense that it should be introduced into life, into Eros, into religion, into everyday life. In a painting one wants to recognize the birth of a piece of life. The artistic act itself can liberate life and that is its highest criteria, as it is in music. That is also the trend toward a new concept of art that is integrated into the healing process.
