*Wage Peace*, borrowed whole from Philip Carr-Gomm's blog today

Of course, I wanted to add my small voice to the shouting and despair about France, about everywhere.  The despair that terrorists WANT us to feel.  I couldn't think of anything to say.  Except 2 things - that obviously, had I been there I would likely be raging, or made  to feel horribly mental.  I would likely be dead or lost.  I doubt I would have any calm, or perspective, at all. 

Also, that I don't blame the people of Europe for seeming more upset about this than more far away incidents, even though those happen with horrid frequency and many more casualties.  It's normal to identify first with those you reckon are closest and more like you, on the surafce at least.  Those whose homes and areas look so like your own.  That's just human nature.  As long as that then radiates out, soon, to all others and makes us think what we can do to help, to help everywhere...As long we look at the causes, and see where we in the West helped make the circumstances for all this to happen.  Not blameless.  No justification, but clear thinking necessary.

But, from this distance, which is by no means numbing, unlike usual, my reaction this time was not to want vengeance (I am usually a very angry person).  This time - I saw utter dark, and it made me want to hold up a huge light.  Not to ignore, or to be fluffy and rejecting of reality in the face of so much blood and pain and cruelty - but because DESPAIR is a lie, I think it might be the worst reaction we can have. 

Philip Carr-Gomm, from OBOD posted this up today.  I couldn't agree more. I hope he doesn't mind the share - there was no button for it on his blog...

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Wage Peace

Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings
and flocks of redwing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children
and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.
~ Judyth Hill