Bubbly and peace go together

We gathered together last night to celebrate the completion of “Summer of Peace Calgary 2012”. Seven of us communed around my dining room table, sharing a meal, laughter, companionship.

This is community.

No matter our purpose, our objectives, our goals, this is community. People gathered together, sharing, caring, being of one voice, committed to furthering that goal in ways that create more…. peace, harmony, forgiveness, kindness, … whatever the overarching purpose, it is the fact we are united together in community that makes the biggest difference.

Early last spring when the amazing Kerry Parsons approached me to ask if I wanted to be part of Summer of Peace Calgary, I was a bit dubious. Seriously? You want to do all that by June? Kerry’s passion and commitment to making a difference was compelling. So I joined the group of ‘peace angels’ as Kerry calls them and turned up at meetings.

Turning up is the first step.

Every Tuesday evening, from 7 to 9, we’d meet, talk about ideas, what we could do, what we needed to do to take just one of those ideas forward. The uber-talented Judy Atkinson of Circles of Rhythm generously offered up one of her regular Friday night drum circles as a venue and vehicle to connect people into the rhythm of peace and Drumming up Peace Calgary was imagined.

Dianne and Judy toast peace

It begins with imagining what is possible.

Once we’d imagined what could be,we focused on making it happen and it began to unfold. And it all began with the imagining of the possibilities. What if we could get 150 people to come and drum up peace with us? What do we need to do to make it happen?

At one of the meetings I told the story of my heart rocks and a peace rock ceremony was created. We needed the rocks, Dianne Quan set out to acquire them. We needed to paint peace symbols on them. Dianne had the method, I had the dining room table.

And so it went. From drumming to peace circles to the Peace Academy, peace came alive this summer in Calgary because from our imaginings we made space for it to happen. And in that creative, collaborative and co-generative space, peace happened. In that space of peaceful co-existence and recognition of our essential natures to be ‘of peace’, we set in motion what needed to unfold in order for Summer of Peace to come into being.

And it did. Come into being. In grand and gentle and rhythmic ways. In small and vibrant and resonate notes.

On Monday, Kerry was interviewed on CBC’s drive home program, The Homestretch about Peace Calgary and a $1200 grant we received from GIG YYC as part of Calgary’s year as cultural capital. While chatting with the announcer before her interview he posited that peace wasn’t really happening in Calgary. But it is, replied Kerry. There are so many small and yet significant events happening. Many people gathering to talk about and take action on peace.

Kerry & Marilyn share in peace

Peace is everywhere.

There is always room for peace. Always a place for peace at my table. In my heart. In my life. In my world. There is a place for peace and that is at the centre of my being at peace with where I’m at, what I’m doing, how I’m being in this world to create more of what I want, and less of what I don’t want.

It isn’t that peace doesn’t exist. It is that we often take the path of least resistance, the road well-travelled to get to our destination, to create what we want in life. If we were to stop and ask ourselves — will this create more peace or less if I do it this way? — before doing — we might make different choices.

Like anger, peace requires a change of thought. Counting to ten when anger rises up gives me time to assess how best to express my anger, without causing discord in my life and the life of those around me.

Counting to ten before taking action gives me time to check into my peaceful, or not, state of mind and ask myself, “Is this the path of least resistance? Will it create peace, or not?”

It all began with an idea.

It began with one woman believing it was possible to shine a light on peace in our city. From that tiny seed of a thought, an idea grew into a series of events awakening the possibility of peace.

From that one idea community was created, a community that gathered together last night to share in all that makes us magnificent human beings — our capacity to create change, to ignite possibility, to inspire greatness.

I witnessed an idea evolve into a community of gifted and caring people working together to make peace happen. Now. I am blessed.