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Mahatma Gandhi
"You must be the change
you want to see in the
world."
- Mahatma Gandhi
This past Monday was September 11th. It's
importance to America is obvious. Most people
associate 9/11 with sadness, grief, loss, fear and dis-
empowerment. We see it differently. Maria and her
son were recently blessed to participate in an event
at the newly opened "I AM Bookstore" on Main Street
in Huntington. She discovered what a significantly
positive date 9/11 has been over the past 100
years - all around the world. It was on 9/11/1906
that Mahatma Gandhi made public his Non-Violence,
peace and ethical politics program and changed India
and the World forever. Through his example of
personally living a life of non-violence and
peacefulness - regardless of how much violence the
opposition imposed upon him, others saw his example
and changed their behavior which ultimately
changed the oppressors as well.
The bookstore was hosting the 100th Anniversary
celebration of Gandhi’s manifesto by showing movies
about his life, talks and discussions on how we can
make an individual difference in our own lives and
the world.
I was astounded to learn that through following his
ideas of Non-Violence and peacefulness, 14 countries
have made the change from violence and oppression
to peacefulness already.
The Rules of Non-Violent Resistance laid down by
Gandhi are:
- No hitting back (no retaliation).
- Endure personal pain and suffering, even death if
necessary.
- Express love and forgiveness toward the
oppressor.
- Harbor no intent to harm or humiliate the
oppressor, but rather maintain a desire to settle
(reconcile) all differences.
We prayed for peace in the world and lit candles for
peace at the celebration. As I see it we have two
choices every moment of the day. We can either
stay in the past and drum up all the hurt and reasons
why we should be at war with each other and
maintain the dance of negativity and "pity-parties" or
we can choose to live in the Present Moment of Now
and be a part of the change in bringing peace to
ourselves, our families and our communities one
moment at a time. In this moment of time. In other
words, one person CAN make a tremendous
difference to the World and, in fact, does so every
time they choose peace in their own life. YOU can
too.
Every time you feel a negative feeling or think a
negative thought, you can change it by saying to
yourself, "I choose peace instead of this." And then
let go of anything but peace.
You also can "Choose peace instead of being right."
Peace is "of the heart" and being right comes "from
the mind," where the ego resides. It is often the ego
mind that gets us into most of our trouble in life.
You can choose to be peace or you can choose to
be right. The choice is yours. We suggest peace
every time. It has a lasting effect upon you and the
World.
You may wish to visit the I AM Bookstore on 315
Main street, Huntington village, NY, 11743. We think
you’ll find it to be a wonderful place to find most
metaphysical books and lots of other items of
interest to those who enjoy unique items and are
open minded souls.
Click here for more information on Gandhi’s work.
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Blessings to you all.
We currently live in a time of great contrasts. It
appears to many of us, from what we are exposed to
in our daily lives, that the world is falling apart into
turmoil through fear, anger, war, destruction and
stress. We are
constantly bombarded with negativity by radio,
television, movies, or many experiences in our
personal
lives. As a result, we often find ourselves unable to
see the many wonderful, positive and inspiring things
happening around us all the time. So, we felt it
might be helpful to share some of those wonderful
things with you to help you change your focus and
see them with us more often.
For starters, as we start to experience the Fall, it
brings to mind that the "old" parts of vegetation fall
away only to make way for the seeds naturally
planted within the earth that are to be birthed in the
Spring. Similarly, we can allow ourselves to let go of
our "old" beliefs, habits and programming in order to
make way for the new and positive ways of being in
the world in the future.
Many people ask: How can one person change the
world? Here are some encouraging ideas on how
each of us can make individual changes in our lives
that can and will ultimately make a tremendous
difference to you and to the world.
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| Forgiveness |
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Forgiveness is the key to happiness, but many of us
just can't let go of our anger and resentment against
others. It's not as difficult as you might think, if you
change your perspective.
If you want to read a great book on how
to forgive, attain greater understanding of, and love
the
oppressor, we highly recommend "The Little Soul and
the Sun" by Neal Donald Walsh. This book has had
the most profound effect on our lives and has been
instrumental in allowing us to forgive all those who
have hurt us the most. It has helped us to find
peace and understanding of the roles we all play in
each other's lives and why we chose our experiences.
Every time we feel a negative feeling or think a
negative thought, we can change it by saying to
ourselves, "I choose peace instead of this," and let
all those negative feelings and thoughts go. We can
also say to ourselves, "I chose peace instead of
being right." Peace is of the heart and being right is
of the mind. The mind also holds the ego which is
often what gets us
into trouble. Ultimately, it is our choice to walk the
path of forgiveness, love
and kindness.
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| Thursday September 21st, is International Day of Peace. |
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"There is no way to Peace, Peace is the way."
-
Mahatma Gandhi
September 21st is being observed all over the world
as a day to reflect peace, cease fire and celebrate
the unity we all can be.
There are many ways to participate on this Day of
Peace to show your unity with the world. You can:
- Hold a minute of silence at noon wherever you
are and ask Spirit to connect you with all beings that
peace may prevail on earth.
- Spend 5 minutes at noon or as long as you can
praying for peace among all nations while imagining a
pink and or golden light surrounding yourself and all
people on earth. Feel, sense, see the peace
descending upon you.
- Attend some of the planned events around your
area. See the web-site, www.
internationaldayofpeace.org, for more
information.
- Plant a peace tree on your property, school or
park.
- Pray that you yourself may remain at peace
through out the day and refrain from any angry and
negative actions.
- Hold a "cease-fire" of arguments in your own
families.
- Ask the Angels to send love to people you are in
conflict with.
- When you get up in the morning, take a minute to
think of something you are thankful for and feel that
gratitude grow like a ball of light in your heart. See
yourself smiling as you really feel it in your heart.
Then, imagine your heart opening as a beautiful
flower and ask that this love light flow out from your
heart before you, greeting everything in its path
ahead of you, where ever you go.
- Say this prayer:
May the next Country over
be Peaceful.
May the next Country over be Open
and Wise.
May the next Country over be
Peaceful.
And may Sacred Traditions Survive.
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For more information on International Day of Peace, visit www.internationaldayofpeace.org. |
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| Eating Healthy |
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Choose this day to eat lots of fruit and fresh
vegetables and refrain from eating any kind of meat
in observance of peace day. You will notice that the
lighter and fresher the food you eat, the lighter and
more energetic and peaceful you will feel.
For breakfast, enjoy a big bowl of fresh fruit
(blueberries, strawberries, peaches, plums, mangos,
pineapple, or whatever may be in season in your part
of the world), perhaps with a muffin and choice of
beverage.
For lunch, dig into a refreshing salad made with mixed
greens, chickpeas, 1 hard-boiled sliced egg, cherry
tomatoes, sliced red onion, sliced cucumber, frozen
peas or succotash (mixed vegetables), broccoli, a
couple of baby carrots, dried cranberries, pecans and
thinly sliced apples.
Drizzle juice of 1/2 lemon over salad or add a small
amount (1 tablespoon) of your favorite dressing.
Mixing your dressing with lemon juice brings out the
flavor of most dressings.
For dinner, warm yourself with this easy to prepare
healthy vegetable soup.
Serves 4
Ingredients:
8-10 small new potatoes (or 4 baking potatoes cut in
8-10 pieces)
1 small bag of baby carrots
1 quart fresh or low-sodium canned vegetable
broth
8-10 oz. frozen peas
8-10 oz. frozen corn
Peel the potatoes and cut into quarters. Put them in
a large pot. Add the baby carrots and vegetable
broth. Bring to a boil. Simmer and cook for 10
minutes. Add the peas, corn, and tomatoes and
chick peas. Heat everything through thoroughly and
add pepper, kelp and paprika to taste.
Add the chopped parsley before serving.
Total cooking time is about 15-20 minutes.
Serve with french bread or perhaps corn bread. You
can be creative and add any vegetable in season
such as fresh cauliflower, broccoli, brocco-flower,
chopped kale, etc.
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