What does peace mean to you?

Some of my fave peace Quotes:-

Poetry is an act of peace. Peace goes into the making of a poet as flour goes into the making of bread.

-- Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace.

-- Kofi Annan

Peace, to have meaning for many who have only known suffering in both peace and war, must be translated into bread or rice, shelter, health and education, as well as freedom and human dignity.

-- Ralph Johnson Bunche (1904-1971)

One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)


If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

-- John Lennon (1940-1980)

Peace may sound simple - one beautiful word - but it requires everything we have, every quality, every strength, every dream, every high ideal.

-- Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999)

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens - when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing.

-- Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

-- John Muir (1838-1914)

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.

If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.

If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace between neighbors.

If there is to be peace between neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.

If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.

-- Lao Tzu (570-490 B.C.)

Peace, in the sense of the absence of war, is of little value to someone who is dying of hunger or cold. It will not remove the pain of torture inflicted on a prisoner of conscience. It does not comfort those who have lost their loved ones in floods caused by senseless deforestation in a neighboring country. Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free.

-- The XIVth Dalai Lama

It is possible to live in peace.

-- Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)

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Personal and Global To-do Lists

When I wake up and go to sleep at night often it's with a thought to what I have or have not addressed on my mental To-Do Lists. It helps me keep track of my long term goals, it helps motivate me, and often the largest motivations are much larger than simply for me and mine. People give in many different ways. We may look out for our elderly neighbour, sponsor a child or volunteer. In many cultures round the world helping people is built in; people go out of their way to be neighbourly and ask for nothing in return. Here in France neighbours will help with your garden, give lifts to the hospital or even get your car out of a ditch. People don't wait for the 'Authorities'. They help with whatever and however they can.

I like to do a little something every day towards my both my Personal and Global To-Do Lists. It means I can leave this world without the regret that I didn't do anything to clean up the mess. Someone has not gone hungry or homeless because I did something. Perhaps someone hasn't died, because I did something. Perhaps because I did something, even though the situation has not changed now, a future generation will not have to address this because I left it for them to solve - to me that's gross negligence. Doing something is doing whatever you are capable of or have the capacity for - not overstretching your limits, although sometimes I think that's a necessity. The Berlin Airlift was and overstretch and 71 Pilots and other technicians lost their lives ensuring that 100'000's of tons of food and supplies were delivered over several months during the blockade. It was truly an astonishing effort. I wonder if we are capable of similar gestures now that are not rooted in economic motives but simply because people need the help and for as long as it is needed. The Haiti Earthquake, the Tsunami - these terrible disasters actually unite us through heroic acts of a generous nature. And if there's anything we need most it's unity... There is enough love on this planet to do EVERYTHING on our To-Do Lists and to do it in style...

Personal To-Do List

1 - Clean everything! WARNING Hurricane Lou is in the house

2 - Do garden; weed, lay compost,mulch, sow endives, cabbage, beans, fennel, kohlrabi, beet, spinach, carrots, radish and lettuce

3 - Have a Bonfire

4 - Finish Illustrations for Book!

5 - Ah and get creatures food

Global To-Do List

1 - Stop causes of global conflict (Don't fund them via your supermarket)

'Those who start wars - never fight them. Those who fight wars never like them' Michael Franti

2 - Care for refugees and IDP's (some folk may need to look that word up, it's 'C.A.R.E'). Let them have futures, not incarceration.

3 - Help grow food for the 1billion hungry folk - abolish hunger. When we've done that I may begin to consider calling us a 'civilisation'.

4 - Look after the orphans of AID's, conflict and poverty. This means school, love, everything they need...

5 - Care for the elderly. Only the best... for the old folk. None of this squalid hospital negligence.

6 - Change law and paperwork requirements for immigrants and homeless folk so that they have OPTIONS! An option for a homeless person means a piece of paper, not the nothing that forces them to become a criminal or become ill and die. It means something that offers them an education or a job, or a Community Service option. Anything is better than nothing.

Sometimes the only reason we're stuck is because there's no box for the life we've led...

It's not for lack of trying. It's a bureaucratic wall that's impossibly high to climb over... We are all immigrants and any of us could become a refugee in any moment.

7 - Stop Human Trafficking by convicting the enablers whatever their station whether they have diplomatic immunity or not... Human Trafficking is about to surpass Drugs in its scale...

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