peace-making | Dare Boldly

Beaumont: Every moment is the perfect moment to rest.

One of Leonard Cohen’s most immortal chorus’ from his song Anthem is,

“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.”

So often, we search for the perfect moment, the perfect setting, perfect everything before taking action in our lives.

There is no perfect anything that will create peace or joy or contentment or love.

Peace, joy, contentment, love, all matters of the heart, are not found in our search for perfection, they are found right where we stand, right where we are at, as we are.

They are found in our acceptance, our allowing, our being who we are in the moment of noticing that this moment, right now, is filled with potent possibility. This moment right now is the one that counts because this is the moment we have to take action, make a difference, make a decision to choose love over war, peace over discord, joy over sadness.

We seek perfection yet, it lives right now, in every moment, full of the delicate grace that comes when we sink into the stillness within and stop our mind’s constant striving for the more perfect moment, person, job, situation, idea. The more prefect time to be happy, content, joyful, loving, peaceful…

When we shine our light on what is and see what is present in its many facets, we find ourselves filling up on the beauty, wonder and awe of everything.

When we breathe deeply into the cracks in our heart, the broken places and the worn down edges of our dreams, the light shines through, showing us, all is not lost. It is all still present in all its perfect imperfections, cracks and all.

There is no perfect moment to love, or dance, or laugh or spin about in joy. There is only now. Perfectly illuminated by the light shining through the cracks we couldn’t see when our eyes were closed in the darkness of beliving, now was not the right time to let go of the things that hurt, the things we cannot change.

As Cohen wrote, “there is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”

In every crack there is the possibility of light shining through, as long as we open our eyes and choose to let the light in through Love.

It was an evening of grace, of community, of peace-building.

We gathered under pregnant grey clouds lumbering slowly across the sky above us. We gathered, young and old, to remember, to commemorate, to be together.

The skies could not wait and rained down upon us.

The crowd stayed.

The event began and together, we held a conversation about peace. About nuclear disarmament, about what we as one people, one community can do together to create peace.

There was poetry and music. Drumming and flute and didgeridoo. Sheri-D Wilson performed a spoken word, Trevor Uruski and Ancient Echoes enchanged with their compelling music. Nobue Henmi, a young university student born and raised in Hisoshima shared her stories of visiting the A-bomb memorial as a child, the tears and fears of living under the dark cloud of what had happened before she was born.

Earth Beat performed 5 songs in 6 different languages. They were stunning. Japanese, Chinese, Iraeli and Arab singing together, in harmony. One voice. One people. One song.

Judy Atkinson and Circles of Rhythm drummed. Our hearts were stirred. Our minds opened.

It was the children who were the most disarming. In their simple and poignant offering of the story of Sadako, the young girl who in 1955 died of Leukemia, the A-bomb disease, she left a legacy of 1,000 origami swams as a reminder to all of us to never give up on peace. Never give up on believing we can find a way to disarm. Find away to live peacefully with one another.

We are one planet. One human race. One people.

The air I breathe is the air you breathe. The earth I walk, is the earth you walk.

When we walk in peace, we create peace around us.

When we arm ourselves to protect against one another, we are hurting ourselves and one another. We are actively engaged in defying peace, preventing it, stopping it.

There are so many ways to make peace.

It begins in each of our hearts.

It begins right where we stand.

It begins right where we are willing to let go of hatred, anger, discrimination…

It begins where we are.

What are you willing to do today to make peace in your heart? What are you willing to let go of? Hold onto? Change? Create?

A couple of years ago, I spent a year writing C.C. a love poem a day. Last night as I listened to poet/performer Sherri-D Wilson recite a poem she’d written about love and peace, I was reminded of the power writing a love poem a day had on my heart.

I decided, it is time.

Time to create peace.

Time to write a poem a day for a year about peace.

I begin. Where I am.

IT IS TIME

It is time.
Time to awaken, to rise up, speak up, step up
Time to open our hearts, shift our minds and let peace enter.
It is time to put down arms without fearing for our lives
Time to hold out our arms in love for every life on this planet we share
together
Together
it is time to move away from discord and unease
it is time to move into harmony and joy
loving kindness
and peace.
oh yes.
Peace.

It is time for peace
peace in our hearts
peace in our minds
in our families and communities
in our cities and provinces
states and countries
it is time for peace in all our world
It is time.

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Thank you Karen Huggins, Project Ploughshares Calgary, the 2020 Vision for Humanity Network, John Lavoie, Shinobu Apple, Sally Hodges and friends, Freshwater Creative, TSGI and all the many volunteers who helped make our gathering and remembering and building peace possible. And thank you Niki Baker whose vision several years ago gave space for the Floating Lantern Festival in Calgary.

Namaste.