21 September 2020

hope is a discipline

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on September 21. The UN General Assembly has declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, through observing 24 hours of non-violence and cease-fire.


The 2020 theme for the International Day of Peace is Shaping Peace Together. Celebrate the day by spreading compassion, kindness and hope in the face of the pandemic.


While many join together to spread peace, there are those who sow divisiveness and dissent, using the current crisis to promote their agenda of discrimination and hatred.


It is a sad and sorrow filled day for Filipinos around the world who recall the atrocities of the Marcos regime and dictatorship on the anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the Philippines.


It’s an act of rebellion to show up as someone trying to be whole and — I would add — as someone who believes that there is a hidden wholeness beneath the very evident brokenness of our world. ~ Parker Palmer


A Valley Like This by William Stafford

Sometimes you look at an empty valley like this,

and suddenly the air is filled with snow.

That is the way the whole world happened—

there was nothing, and then…


But maybe some time you will look out and even

the mountains are gone, the world become nothing

again. What can a person do to help

bring back the world?


We have to watch it and then look at each other.

Together we hold it close and carefully

save it, like a bubble that can disappear

if we don’t watch out.


Please think about this as you go on. Breath on the world.

Hold out your hands to it. When mornings and evenings

roll along, watch how they open and close, how they

invite you to the long party that your life is.

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