Peace Academy | Dare Boldly

I taught at the Peace Academy last night.

Thirty creative peace-makers gathered together to explore the creative core of being human. Of making peace with our inner muse.

What a gift to be in the presence of each person who came and shared their time with such grace and ease to create a magical evening of wonder together.

There is nothing quite so enlivening and rewarding as watching faces light up with smiles, and relief, as the realization hits — being creative isn’t scary. Being creative is how I am born to be me.

Life is an act of creation. And we are miraculous beings created to be loving and joyful in a world of peace.

Last night the muse lit up the hearts of everyone in the room as we created together — acts of peace that sang on the magnetically charged air of creativity in motion. Words of love that flowed onto the page, that streamed into the air around us.

We drew and made paper airplanes and tossed crumbled up pieces of paper onto the floor. We scribbled and brainstormed, we chatted and mindmapped. We were all present in the act of creation. We were all present in the art of being human. And we were all blessed by one another to be together in the act of making peace happen.

And when it was over, when the last bit of paper was filled with words, when the last idea was drained and examined, when the last line was drawn in the sands of possibility, it wasn’t over. It was just the beginning.

Always begin again.

Never let the end of what was become the end of what can be.

Always begin again.

Open up to the beauty and magnificence of the essence of being human.

Explore. Dig in. Dig out. Dig under. Dig into the soils of creativity, rich and fertile, at the heart of being human.

Always begin again.

To create. And be and become and emerge and evolve.

Always begin again.

It never ends, this being creative, this creating for creation’s sake. It’s just sometimes, we forget, or have lost the way, to our hearts. But when we take the time to stop and listen to our heart’s calling, we awaken to the truth of our own magnificence.

We are all acts of creation. And life is forever changed when we let go of playing in the shadows of our fears and step wild and free into the waters of life flowing all around us.

Life is forever opened up when we give into the brilliant truth of our being who we are and where we are right in this moment of creation. This is our birthright. To be free. To be creative. To be great. And in our greatness is the difference we make in the world. Unique. One of a kind. Priceless.

We are each of us born to shine. To run and laugh and sing and dance and play and leap and cavort. To be silly and serious. Funny and wise. We are each of us born with untold gifts to share and to be known.

We are each of us magnificent.

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And… over at Make Peace Happen I share today’s poem on peace: Peace Be Among Us

I lay in bed and wrote my blog in my head this morning. Just fifteen more minutes, my sleepy mind cajoled. Oh come on, another five. Eventually, 15 + 5 equalled a half hour. When I did get out of bed, my blog had vanished with the dawn breaking over the prairies to the east.

Now, what was that thought? What were those thoughts of making a difference I so wanted to share?

In my grappling to remember my thinking, unease arose, discord rippled. Dang. Why didn’t I just get out of bed when I should have? Why didn’t I ignore the voice of slumber and awaken into my day when I was supposed to?

And in my discordant thinking and self-critical evaluation, my heart became unsettled. My thinking unclear.

I breathed. Deeply. I invited peace into my thinking. Let it sift down through the tendrils of unease into my heart. I breathed again. Slowly. Deeply and felt peace descend as my mind quieted and eased angst out of my heart.

Peace. It is within me. And when I allow myself space to feel it flowing through and in and of me, I settle into being present with grace and ease. And in the moment, the words flow.

While I was in San Francisco, here in Calgary on June 21, Summer of Peace Calgary 2012 kicked off. Over 200 people gathered to drum and sing and dance and share peace, love and joy. “Sounds like a 60s revival,” a friend said when I told her about the event.

I laughed. “Whatever era it revived, awoke or created, peace is needed today, just as much as it was needed back then.”

We all need it. Peace.

Where is yours? What does yours look like?

Are you a peace-warrior? Or, do you prefer to see yourself as a peace-builder? A peace-nik? Will you sit in it or march? Will you rise up or lay down before the guns of war, the volleys of strife, the staccato of unease washing over our world?

What will you do for peace? How will you make a difference that creates peace in our world today?

These are important questions we all must ask if we are to rebuild peace within our hearts. If we are to reclaim that state of grace that knows, deep within us, that being-at-peace within is our birthright, our natural way of being, our gift to the world.

What will you do to create as we invite everyone at Summer of Peace — Peace in the Heart. Peace in the Home. Peace in the Land. Peace in the World.

At Summer of Peace, we’ve created the Peace Academy — an opportunity for Calgarians to join together to dig into the fertile soils of peace that lay fallow within each of our hearts. Through dialogue and active engagement, we will nurture peace into fruition and in its blossoming out, we will create gardens of hope, love and joy for all to enjoy.

For five weeks of summer, the Peace Academy will open minds, touch hearts and lift spirits up. For five weeks of summer you can learn how to create peace within your heart, your home, land and world.

Now is the time for peace. No matter your age, no matter where you live, make peace a priority. There is no better time than Right Now to make peace with your past. To make peace with those for whom unforgiveness holds you in its thrall.

Make peace in your heart and let the peace within you become the world all around you.

What will you be doing this summer?

I’ll be making peace at the Peace Academy. Please, do come join me and others as we create a world of difference through re-building peace, one thought, one step, one deed at a time.

And from each one of us, the many will be connected. And in the many, we will create a world of difference. We will rebuild a world of peace.