Poets (and stories) for Peace

Here are two things that people sent me today. I thought that I would put them up since, I have had so much to do the last few days. The first one below is humorous, but, unfortunately, I have a friend who has a close relative working for the airlines, and told me the following. There are not always enough mechanics at all of the airlines, especially smaller ones. There is not so much concern, since they are insured by Lloyd's of London and are not going to take a personal hit, if the plane fails and hundreds of people die. I heard that some were better than others--one being one that has a similar name to that of a bank that recently changed their name from something that sounded like a major airline. There is that politically correct enough. Hope I don't get sued LOL There are several links at the bottom and are several versions of the same thing. I thought that it was interesting. I put several links, so that hopefully one will work for you. It is a video that has

I am in the middle of writing something. I thought that on this rainy day it would be a good time to post the fall pictures by Lida that I found (see below).

by Roseroberta Pauling Harvest Moon Japan. A time for moon gazing ceremonies in the teahouses of Kyoto. Golden and full, as I drive home last night, the moon is calling out to me. Did you know that in Japan they say there is a rabbit in the moon? I could not see it last night? I looked, trying to make sure I did not go off the road, while the man in the moon gloated and towered over the city. I could remember being told about this rabbit in the moon, while I was living in Japan. I looked for him over and over and over. One day, I finally asked a Japanese friend about it. How could I not see it, and she pointed to the floppy ears and said, "Can't you see him dancing." "Dancing." I had been looking for some big eyed, buck teethed face, and then for a minute, I saw him too. If a Japanese person gets told about the man in the moon, what do you think happens? It is not very different you know. We see him looking out at us, and they are looking for this full figure?n

Today, I have been thinking about silence in relationship to peace. There is a tendency to think that silence, since it reminds us of the quiet of nature, is always a good thing, but is it? I tend to think of silence that way myself--the quiet space inside oneself. It is very much a part of the next thing that I wish to post to this website. But, silence has its limitations. There is also the silence that does not speak the truth to save another, when one could make a difference or even the silence that suppresses truth or wishes to control another or not hear the truth, as in the silencing of another or a group for personal gains. Today, I thought about the fact that not all silence is peaceful. We would not allow a child to stick their hand in a fire. Who would sit silently and do that with a child? Yet, with the fellow humans around us, how often to we choose silence. Most of us know the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

THE STRONGEST WARRIOR By Rose-Roberta Pauling Realize you're going to find the entrance into the most wonderful house you've ever been in. Not yet, but at the end of your day, you're going to go into the bedroom of this house and stretch out in bed and you're going to remember this bedtime story. It's the kind of bedtime story that clears the way for us to new adventure--just like a children's story. The room you'll be entering is done just the way you like it. The bed is comfortable and clean. The sheets are cool and soft. The pillows are just the way you like them. I'd like you to imagine that you are preparing to enter that room now as you read this story. Get just as comfortable inside yourself as if you were stretched out in bed. Maybe you can relate to this story or maybe not or maybe over time the story will come to have more meaning for you. It's something that happened once a long time ago though. As I tell you the story, you may find yourse

* I am still having uplloading dilemma. Changes in formatting are aplenty, so these stanza are not set exactly as they were written. A Thousand Petaled Syncronicities By Rose-Roberta Pauling 6/7/05 This year's rain seems to last forever. It is thundering outside. Inside There is a well that is full and brimming asking to be spent, but with ease. Silence circles round in wider and wider spirals like an eagle flying along a mountain nest in some far off tree till I am left only being. Yet, still the storm rises like an unruly child and traces its way backwards to a spot uncared for in knowingness. It is the Medusa's head with snakes unfurling in a thousand worlds within a single life? each world's core in a central beingness that took an excursion somewhere to the great unknown. How not to make a journey from disconnectedness, but with congruency? Isn't that always the question? God seems such a far away thing to me. It is like the unfathomable journey to another univers

Leaving the house to go for coffee with a friend, there was frost everywhere--on my car windows, the grass now yellow--and it seemed to leave a coating on me also, as I entered my car with not enough clothing on me. I drove to the coffee shop in the Pavillion overlooking the lake. On the way there, I passed the golf course. The small ponds were glazed over like broken sheets of glass floating on top of them--not yet the deep white grey ice of winter. By the time we left, it all had melted. We had been talking about the world of storytelling, about its silences, giving up the need to say you know, but catching ourself mid-stream with the phrase, as we expressed why not to. You know--that phrase that is so often unanswered, overused and covers our needs for agreement from our listenener--a need often unanswered or answered with things like someone looking at their watch, instead of the open moment. Do you know? Frost laying out its blanket has a silence to it. It speaks of something. Can

It is Thanksgiving Weekend. I have had so little family in this life. I have had to make the world and the people that I meet in it my family. This world full of boundaries, daily events, busy people and distractions, often does not show its true face. This is a place for people to show the true face of their struggles and victories to create peace in their hearts and their world. There is so much to do that one often does not know where to start or feels too overwhelmed. This blog is a small start for the peace of others in a world where there is so much to do.