Summer of Peace | Dare Boldly

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.

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.