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Back to the Garden |  |
 Hi! If
the little tyke to your right on the screen were talking yet, he might be
saying that. I know he would, he's a friendly kid. In fact, I know for sure,
because the photo you see is in fact me, somewhere around the tender age of two.
My father, Marijan, had relatives in Hoboken, New Jersey, and there was a
playground nearby. It's a black and white photograph that's been colored in. I
hadn't collected any of the string of AKAs I sometimes sign personal letters with,
yet, except for Junior - which didn't stick, thankfully.A
playground
is a fun place to be. Besides gardens and the soft, well-tended
grass of a park, or the sandy beach of a lake or a sea, I can't think of a
"funner" place for a young child to be, under the watchful eye of older siblings
or loving parents. Maybe that's why we decorate the walls of our rooms in winter
with pictures of seashores and mountains and National Park scenes. These days,
with trouble in mind, people in too many places are struggling to keep the
playgrounds in their cities and towns the safe, peaceful places they are intended
to be. I pray a simple prayer that it may be so: Let the Burden be Lifted, May
the Healing CONTINUE. If this simple prayer works for you, please feel FREE to
share it with others. You need not attribute it's origin to me, because it is a
gift from the Merciful ONE. |
| Healing resources |
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See
this phrase translated! |
GARDEN
of
GOD
Full Image
Is 48k
The sign in the photo of my mother's Irises
was made at her request by my brother John
I have had my mother described
to me by a dear friend who met her as
AGNES of GOD
Let me simply say one thing:
People become saints in quiet ways
from day to day
Many people will say "GOD" is nothing
but a three letter word
that zillions fight and kill each other over
Be that as it so terribly STILL is
I agree
with what Israel Ben Eliezer
the Baal Shem Tov
once said
There is no room for G_D
in one who is full
of
oneself
Gardens
have always had a strong appeal to me. My parents were avid green thumbs.
Dad - whose Serbo-Croatian nickname was "Yosh" - loved to grow his own onions.
Before she gave birth to my younger brother, my mother would "can" beans, and make
"bread and butter" pickles. Yum! Brother John, Agnes (mom's name), and I would
pick blackberries in the same places her mother, Julia, had taken her. Then, she'd
have me help her make jam. I'm sure many of my readers also have fond memories of
these things. I have been pleased to see people in urban places, "sprout" gardens
in desolate, litter-strewn vacant lots. It is as if Eden - or whatever it
may be called in other Traditions - were reclaiming this world from WAR, vacant
lot by vacant lot. May Myriads of such gardens ARISE, and provide
this starving planet with PLENTY! Even window sills have become
herbiaries!! Those of us who were raised in gardens may be able to recall being
held in a sling of whatever sort as our parent spaded the dirt, pruned the vines,
picked the peppers. Even before we could talk, and think in words, we were
already familiar with the idea of growing what we eat. How
marvelous! No wonder we associate gardens with PEACE!! I have visited
botanical gardens in large city parks, whenever I've had the chance, and
will continue to do so, as my days dwindle down...I
remember vividly the day I saw Peace, as people came to call her, walking
through the Indiana Memorial Union building on IU's campus back in the Seventies.
I was stunned by her quiet radiation of compassion, yet was all too busy about
something or other, and didn't follow to find out where she was headed just then.
Later, I would find out what she was about, and even discover her book, the cover
of which is my link to her site - below. The book has been a valuable
resource for me in my travels, with its quiet assurance that the Merciful ONE
takes care of those who are MERCIFUL...May your journey be as peaceful as hers was
- she gave her life that we might find our way BACK to the GARDEN. Peace Pilgrim Pages  Friends of Peace Pilgrim 43480 Cedar Ave. Hemet, CA 92544 tel. (909) 927-7678 Here
is the organization devoted to telling the story of Peace Pilgrim. They
follow her wishes in making the materials on their available to the who wish to
carry on Peace Pilgrim's work.Living
in a peaceful world does not only involve stopping WAR, an activity
of human beings which is having a tremendously deleterious effect on the planet's
biosphere. It implies reviewing economic activity that arises out of the desire
for large short term financial gain. Not clear-cutting redwoods would be a major
step in the right direction. The TREE WOMAN, Julia Butterfly Hill, has
been dwelling way up in
a giant redwood in Northern California for nearly two years now. Here's
a picture and a quote that you'll find on the first page of
Lunatree.org's site. I've taken the liberty of copying it to this page
in order to give the TREE WOMAN a human face for you to look at here.
Click Butterfly, above, for her amazing story. Hopefully,
it'll be a glorious day when Julia can descend, knowing that stand of
trees is safe, and that they can live out their own span of years. Julia, "...of
Thee I SING: "Let me tell ya bout the birds and the bees and the flowers and the
TREES, and a thing called LOVE." May an abundance of
BLESSINGS be yours to SHARE, BUTTERFLY.(BY NOW, those of you who check the media regularly know that Julia's climbed down from LUNA...The lumber company and her support group came to terms to preserve the stand of redwoods around LUNA. You can read the entire story on her site.) I'm
dedicating
this Peaceful Place to some folks who have helped me get this far
on line: John, Ethan, Scott, Neil, Rachel, Todd, Tim, Susan, Jim, Ladybear,
-*KAI*-. You
know who you ARE. May you live all your days in ~PEACE! pass it ON~PEACE on the county courthouse square Sure would like to see a statue like this everywhere I go around this wide, wonderful world! |
The full image is 26k
|
The
statue
shown here is on the old courthouse square in downtown Bloomington,
Indiana. It's on the southwest corner of the grounds. At the feet of the statue of
PEACE is an open book with the following inscription engraved on its pages:
BLESSED are the Peacemakers, for they shall be called Children of
GOD I like the symbolism of the dove taking wing...HOPE springs ETERNAL.
May this BEATITUDE, from the Sermon on the Mount of Olives, be univerally realized
at least in the life time of children born as this is being written - November 9,
1999. Here are the BeatitudesIn the
days ahead, links to other Peaceful Places will appear here. I've been
going to these places on the WEB, and I want to make them available to you, as
they were provided for me. Simple...do for others as has been done for
you.Here
are some of the writings of Morihei Ueshiba, who developed Aikido - The ART
of PEACE. So far, I have purchased and given away a paperback
book of his writings four times!First,
let me send you to the place where I found a number of the Peace Links I
will post here. There's a true wealth of other features at Peaceday.org. Miami is
fortunate have these
folks resident.You
can go directly to Ladybear's Peace page from here. You'll see some familiar names and faces. Back in January of this "triple-zip" year, My friend, Ladybear, forwarded me the text of His Holiness The Dalai Lama's Speech on the occasion of the "new" millenium, which had been sent to her, I also forwarded it to some friends and made"hard-copy" prints of the speech for friends about town here, in Southern Indiana. Today, while perusing RadioWoodstock's Woodstockvibe e-zine I found this commentary: Time/Warner, AOL, and the Dalai Lama. Please check this commentary out. As the Nick Lowe song made popular by Elvis Costelo says, "What's so Funny (read un-newsworthy) about Peace, Love and Understanding?" The
little
tyke you saw/see at the top of this page is more or less the same age
as Sadako Sasaki, the young Japanese child who was 2 at the time Hiroshima was
bombed. Sadako began folding origami cranes, afterwards. ("It is Japanese
legend that folding 1000 cranes - SENBAZURU - so pleases the gods that the folder
is granted a wish.")I was
born the day after the First A-BOMB was tested in New Mexico. I sometimes
contemplate the idea that some mortal was being born, when the 2 bombs were
dropped on those two cities. Would there ever be any record of that actually
happening? As the KID from Hibbing said, "...Fear to bring children into the
world..." (BobDylan - Masters of WAR). Find out more about CRANES FOR PEACE. See a
selection of photos of a statue of Sadako Sasaki sculpted and erected in Seattle,
Washington: Sadako statue. She would have been 57/8 years of age come next
year...You'll find
many links listed here, including several places devoted to SENBAZURU -
folding 1000 Cranes.Show me the ruins of the buildings once so tall And I'll show you a young land with so many reasons why There but for Fortune, go you or I, you or I" -American topical song writer, Phil Ochs How Many More? I have
sat
on the streets of a mid-west Indiana town, singing,"How many times must
the cruise missiles fly, before they're
forever banned?" for more than a month now. The sense of deja vu is
suffocating! What
was Dresden like the night before it was bombed? Is there, can there ever be any
comparison? Yes, I have heard the official explanation from DC. Is it the WHOLE
TRUTH, and nothing but? The adults make the ordnance and declare the combat
zone(s) off-limits, but the innocents suffer. In dark moments, I wonder - maybe
the immortal words of Welsh bard Dylan Thomas are all there is to say: "AFTER
THE FIRST DEATH, THERE IS NO OTHER" Then a ray of HOPE enters the cave of my
mind and I realize there are many things a person committed to PEACE can
do.here's an effort that is making progress: Peace TREES-Vietnam They are working to find and neutralize land mines left during the Vietnam conflict...and to plant trees...I found an ad for this organization in The Bloomington Independent a free weekly newspaper.  Clear them all! I found this link on Country Joe McDonald's site...good work JOE! Some families of 9/11/01 victims have banded together to form September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows "One fact of the Persian Gulf War seems to have been recorded in invisible ink: the United States is the first nation in history to have intentionally bombed an operating nuclear reactor." - Suzy T. Kane, Metal of Dishonor: Depleted Uranium What could be more demoralizing than discovering the extent to which kids are getting used as combatants in rebellions, banditry, and civil conflict? Coalition to stop the use of Child Soldiers Human Rights Watch Visit this Peaceful Place often, and watch the Peace Links grow branches, sprout leaves, blossom, and bear fruit. Better yet, let us all work together - Peacefully - one day, one step, at a time, to take Planet Earth, the third stone from the SUN, BACK to the GARDEN |
You are invited to a Marriage Banquet
Here are some Peace songs:
Baby Spoons
Make our DREAM come TRUE
It's Not the END...
Family Of PEACE
PEACE Is not Simply The Absence of WAR . . .
(For further thoughts on PEACE, click the link, s'il vous plait.)
