Healthy Happy Loving Life: Quiet Peacemaking

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effective living strategies, Kebba Buckley Button, peace, Peacemaking, quiet peacemaking, stress

© 2021 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved. http://www.kebba.com

Image from Megapixl

 

Can we all agree that the World can use more peace and accord currently?  Uproar has broken out in many countries and at many borders.  Millions are on foot, trying to find a new country.  For 15 years, I have served with others who would like to bring worldwide peace into reality.  I am a Board member of the Franciscan Renewal Center (Paradise Valley, Arizona) Nonviolence Council.

Many think peacemaking is a group of people with signs, launching a march from the Capital area to downtown, or whatever your city’s equivalent may be.  But we have found that profound peacemaking can take place face-to-face, in discussion groups, reconciliation practice, and creating peaceful events.  Sometimes peacemaking emerges from a group, and sometimes it’s an individual saying “no” to violence in a surprising way.  Peacemaking takes many forms.

Recently, at a favorite convenience store, James Kilcer, ex-Marine in Yuma, knocked a gun out of a robber’s hand.  He did this ONE HANDED, LEFT-HANDED, then held the robber until police came.  I frequently have fantasized a hero making such a move, while I watch TV dramas.   Why don’t more characters simply knock the gun-in-their-face out of the villain’s hand?  Here, Kilcer barely leaned to his left to reach the robber’s gun and knock it upward out of the robber’s grip.  Look for the video!  One man took two steps to prevent violence, peacefully.

CBS recently shared a story of Dads On Duty in Shreveport, about 40 dads (in logo shirts) being present at a formerly tense school, in shifts.  They cheerfully greet students and generally seem to offer the dad-vibe.  The leader points out that many kids have no dad and feel good being around these nice dads.  Is it testosterone? Is it the male vibration? Is it grownups welcoming kids to school with smiles of genuine warmth?  I have seen this done at churches with great success.  It sets people at ease and makes them feel warm toward the group.  Remember when Walmart had greeters?  Didn’t that make a difference?  Certainly, warm smiles and pleasant greetings set forth a ripple effect of cheer, of happiness, of calm: it’s quiet peacemaking.

Are there things you do, that change the atmosphere around you and/or your community, rippling peace outward in waves?  Then that’s you, making peaceful progress with us, ever more Healthy Happy and Loving Life^sm!  

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Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert, holistic healer, and award-winning author who celebrates life.  She has a longtime natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. Among her books are: Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), Inspirations for Peace Within:  Quotes and Images to Uplift and Inspire, and Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine.  The books are available on Amazon and through Kebba’s office.   To email us, kebba@kebba.com .

Books by Kebba Buckley Button

Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr.

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AGNT, Kebba Buckley Button, Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolence, peace, peace within, Peacemaking, Season for NonViolence, SNV

© 2015 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM. World Rights Reserved.

 

© Etien – Fotolia

 

 

On January 21, 2013, U. S. President Barack Obama took the Oath of Office for the second time.  He held in his hand the personal Bible of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That’s the Bible the King family normally keeps in a glass case. That’s the one with Dr. King’s handwritten notes in the margins. That second inauguration also fell on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  The day was first signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, to honor the civil rights leader.  The date was selected as the third Monday of January each year, to be close to Dr. King’s birthday, January 15th.  The holiday was finally adopted by all the States as of 2000.

 

Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?

~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was a pastor known for nonviolent methods of creating social change, especially working against poverty, racism, and violence.  He lived in a time difficult for some to imagine, when there was great stress between Blacks and Whites in this country.  There were separate hotels, restaurants, and water fountains for Blacks. Blacks had a hard time riding buses, at least in the fronts of the buses. Blacks couldn’t vote. Some Blacks in relationships with Whites suffered violence or death. During these years, an organization called the Ku Klux Klan, or KKK, committed many acts of hatred, cruelty and destruction in the name of White Supremacy. They were famous for wearing white cloaks with pointed hoods and burning crosses on front lawns; also burning homes and churches.

In contrast, Dr. King led peaceful protests and marches to draw attention to the need for equality. Some of the demonstrations were met with hatred, tear gas, and high pressure water hoses. In part due to the work of Dr. King, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was enacted, and the next year, the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Now the law said it was illegal to discriminate against anyone, based on their race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. And now the law prohibited racial discrimination in voting. However, not all in the U.S. agreed with equal rights.

Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, April 4, 1968, having traveled there to support striking African-American sanitation workers seeking rights.  He is remembered for poetic and strongly inspiring speeches, such as the “I have a dream” speech.  In that speech, he said,

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’  I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood…

In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed into law a bill that made Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a National Day of Service.   Organizations and volunteers now match with each other for needed service, on the federal website, MLKDay.gov.  The site can also connect volunteers with opportunities for service throughout the year. As Clinton said at his second inaugural address, “We must be repairers of the breach.”

On President Obama’s second Inauguration weekend, Bernice King, the youngest daughter of Dr. King said, “Everyone is important, no matter how you define yourself.  We have to finish the work of Dr. King.”

Each year, the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT) celebrates a Season for Nonviolence (SNV), from the anniversary of Ghandi’s death to the anniversary of Dr. King’s death, January 30th to April 4th.  The SNV offers opportunities to explore the qualities and actions of nonviolent solutions, leading to peace prevailing on this Planet.   Together, let us celebrate Dr. King and the strides made as a result of his work.  Together, let us celebrate the good works of good people around the Globe.  Together let us celebrate the question, “What are you doing for others?”

For more on the work currently being carried forward in Dr. King’s name, visit the King Center for Nonviolent Change, http://www.thekingcenter.org/.  For more on AGNT:  http://www.AGNT.org.

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Energy – Peace – Meditation

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister. She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition(http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc ). Her newest book is Sacred Meditation: Embracing the Divine, available through her office. Just email SacredMeditation@kebba.com.
• For an appointment or to ask Kebba Buckley Button to speak for your group: Calendar@kebba.com .

Upbeat Living: Gratitude, Power, Peace

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David Steindl-Rast, Gratitude, Kebba Buckley Button, Melody Beattie, peace, peace within, Peacemaking, personal peace, stress, UpBeat Living

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

Fotolia

This morning I woke up realizing my mind was chanting “thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.”  I had a perfect day yesterday, with meaningful paying work, good food, satisfying writing and editing, a client meeting, and a professional meeting full of loving colleagues and friends.  After the meeting, I drove home in my cute PT Cruiser with the great air conditioning and hung out with my amazing, delightful husband.  I was (am) so grateful!  It would be hard for life to be sweeter.  My consciousness was so filled with peace within, so permeated with my gratitude, that my brain was chanting it when I woke up today.

 In daily life we must see, that it is not happiness that makes us grateful, but gratefulness that makes us happy.

~ Brother David Steindl-Rast

So: what if everyone on the Planet were this grateful and happy for the Good?  Wouldn’t there be less stress and more Upbeat Living?  Would we not all be quicker with appreciation and slower to anger (Prov 14:29)?  Could we end up with peace among peoples and nations?

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. 

~ Melody Beattie

Do you dream of world peace?  A basic practice of peacemaking is to BE the peace we want to see. Then our inner peace multiplies all around us into a force of and for peacefulness.  One of the negative human traits that generates the most conflicted thinking and conflicted interacting is resentment.  And the most effective antidote for resentment is gratitude.  When we are unhappy or frustrated with someone else’s choices, we feel resentment.  And resentment can turn into anger, conflict, and violence.  Resentment is the basis of racism and of religious hatred.

But if we focus on how grateful we are for our good and for the good of others, we cannot simultaneously be in resentment.  Focusing on the good, and our gratitude for every positive thing and every positive happening, is the basis for joy.  And joyful people emanate peacefulness.  They BE the peace they want to see.  Are you in?

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

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UpBeat Living: Forgiveness Part 2: Forgiveness for Empowerment

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allergy relief, Amish, at choice, Dr. Eileen Borris, forgive, Forgiveness, Grudges, moving on, peace, peace within, Peacemaking, personal peace, stress, The Dalai Lama, UpBeat Living

© 2014  Kebba Buckley Button,  MS, OM.  World Rights Reserved.

 

Dr. Eileen Borris

In Forgiveness Part 1  (http://wp.me/pw4HM-jI), we talked about how important it is to your own health and wellbeing, to forgive.  The extraordinary forgiveness of an Amish community showed how humans can choose to follow their faith, forgive murders, extend compassion to the family of the murderer, and move on in constructive ways.  This time, we consider the work of an international reconciliation expert and how we can choose to be affected by her work.

 

Dr. Eileen Borris (www.globalpeaceinitiatives.com) can teach you what you need to know about finding forgiveness.  She has been teaching forgiveness and reconciliation around the world for the Institute for Multi-Track  Diplomacy (Washington, DC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM).  The last time I saw her she had just returned from giving workshops in Kuwait.  She was about to go to Rwanda, for the Healing Wounds of History Conference.  Wherever she goes, Dr. Borris transforms.

 

It is possible to realize that the past is past, that continuing to feel anger and hatred serves no purpose.

~ The Dalai Lama

 

In her book, Finding Forgiveness, the Foreword is offered by none other than His Holiness, The Dalai Lama.  His Holiness points out that: “When we become angry, we stop being compassionate, loving, generous, forgiving, tolerant, and patient altogether.  We deprive ourselves of the very things that happiness consists of…it is possible to realize that the past is past, that continuing to feel anger and hatred serves no purpose.”

 

Dr. Borris’s core methodology involves 7 steps:  becoming clear, telling your story, working with anger, working with guilt, reframing the situation, absorbing pain, and gaining inner peace.  She does not ask you to deny the wrong that occurred.  She does not ask you to forget it.  She does not ask you to not-seek appropriate justice where a crime has occurred.  What she does do is expose the complexities of forgiveness and invite you to work this process, ultimately setting yourself free.

© 2014 Kebba Buckley Button, MS, OM

 

Why do we need to forgive?  The final purpose for the individual is empowerment.  You  are at choice at all times.  When you forgive, you get back your power over whoever made you their victim.  Dr. Borris makes the point that animals do not hate.  Hatred requires conceptual thought.  But humans are able to hold thoughts of hate and vengeance lifelong.  How much energy does this steal from a person’s upbeat living lifestyle, joy, health, and productivity?

 

Try this for a moment:  bring to mind some terrible personal injustice that was done to you, which you have had trouble forgetting.  Perhaps someone attacked you.  Perhaps a boss treated you badly or even fired you unfairly.  Perhaps Mom always loved your sibling better.  Perhaps someone badmouthed you, telling tales that were totally unfounded.  Bring this injustice to mind and feel vividly the stress and emotions that come with it.  Did your heart hurt or your back tighten up between the shoulder blades?  Did your shoulder tops tighten painfully?  How about your neck, your head, or your stomach?  Do these sensations feel like they are blessing or enhancing your beingness in any way?  Of course not.  So what has the toll on your mind, heart, body, and spirit been, in the months or years since the injustice occurred?  Is that toll enriching your life in any way?  Of course not.

 

 Whatever your faith basis, does it make sense to hang onto any burden you do not need to hang onto?

~ Rev. Kebba Buckley Button

 

If you would like to challenge yourself, try the following exercise.  Get a pen and paper, and make notes of your thoughts and experiences as you do this.  Imagine your life if the injustice had never occurred.  What hours would you have spent enjoying life and your loved ones?  Would your marriage be better?  What friendships might you have developed, based on sharing happiness and companionship, that you did not because of the injustice?  How well would you have slept?  What excellent health would you have had all this time?  How much better would your concentration have been, on the job or in fulfilling recreation or charity work?  Would you have earned more money?  So what if you could have forgiven this injustice early in the game, and not spent any of this time on distraction, negativity, complaining, and generally experiencing a burden?  These may be tough questions for many of us.

 

Whatever your faith basis, does it make sense to hang onto any burden you do not need to hang onto?  You are always at choice.  What is your willingness to possibly hang up self-burdening beliefs about the importance of an injustice to you?  If these questions are provocative for you, why not pursue them further?  Your journey can be very freeing.

 

Now imagine living in a community where everyone is compassionate, everyone forgives and there is no impulse for revenge.  Now imagine that in the World community.  Countries would be waging peace, not war.  Imagine.

 

Some resources for further reading and techniques include:  Bruderhof Forgiveness Guide (www.foregivenessguide.org), A Course In Miracles (acim.org), Forgiveness Foundation (forgivenessfoundation.org), and the Forgiveness Project (forgivenessproject.com).

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a stress management expert.  She is the author of the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br), plus the 2013 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core, Second Edition (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Liked this article?  You can buy Kebba’s books:  just click the links!

• Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br). 
• Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (Second Edition) (http://tinyurl.com/mqg3uvc)             

● Enjoyed this post?  Please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column!  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

● Please comment!

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● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UpBeat Living: What to Do After Boston?

Tags

Boston Marathon, peace within, Peacemaking, personal peace, terrorism, The life you want

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Photo by Kebba Buckley Button

By now, you know very well that bombs went off near the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon yesterday.  About 27,000 runners were participating, from most States and from 100 countries.  Many thousands more were watching.  About half had already crossed the Finish Line.  According to CNN, 8-year-old Martin Richard of Boston hugged his dad at the Finish Line.  Then a bomb went off, killing Martin, and seriously injuring his sister and mother.  Martin’s sister lost her leg, and his mother has brain injuries.  Martin lost his life.

Amazingly, massive presence of medical personnel onsite, and ambulances standing by, resulted in the speedy transport of patients to area hospitals.  Several hospitals together treated 176, while 3 died.  About 20 lost limbs, and as of this morning, 3 limbs were potentially being lost.  Dr. George Velhamos, chief of Trauma Surgery at Boston General Hospital, said, “[T]he patients are amazing!”  He said the medical resources at his hospital were virtually limitless, with staff staying for multiple shifts and “pressing through” pleasantly.  One BGH doctor, who had run the Marathon, reported to the hospital, dehydrated, to assist in treating patients.

Video immediately after the bombing showed servicemen in desert camouflage gear already helping to move the injured.  How did they get there instantaneously?  They were already there:  they had been running in the Marathon, with full packs!

Dr. Ron Walls, of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said that BWH took 31 patients after the Marathon bombing.  In this group there was one amputation and there were 2 limbs at risk, as of this morning.  Impressed with both the patients and his staff, Dr. Walls said, “[T]he more people are challenged, the more they rise.” He also commented that because the hospital was staffed up for race day, and because it was daytime, “we had virtually the entire surgical staff available”.

The wife of the Ohio Secretary of State, Tina Husted, is an elite runner who completed the Marathon well ahead of the bombing.  Interviewed by CNN, she agreed with everyone else that “[T]he medical support at this race is incredible.”  One CNN commentator said there were actually four doctors for every patient on the ground.

Law enforcement was similarly speedy and organized, with the FBI and ATF appearing almost immediately, as the thousands of remaining runners were diverted and offered transport.  Governor Patrick and Boston’s Police Commissioner apparated in minutes and coordinated press briefings.  They said the Mayor was on his way from the hospital; the Mayor arrived in a wheelchair, wearing a suit, with a cast on his foot.  A microphone was already in place at the correct height for the Mayor’s comments.  Established  protocols for municipal emergencies and terrorism were snapped into place, and well-rehearsed connections were made and well-utilized.  The CIA was briefed and the President appeared in a televised message, offering whatever Boston needed.

Within hours, they announced the restricted area was shrinking.  Although the bombings were not expected, the interlocking response teams were ready.  They moved swiftly, smoothly, and expertly, against the effects of vicious bombings.  The damage to  people’s lives and bodies was minimized by the swiftness of the responses.  Now we need to overcome any fear, find our personal peace, and let the experts do what they do so well.

With the experts at work, now what can we all do?   We can do three things.  First, let’s pray thanks for all those expert responders and the incredible work they do.  Second, let’s keep praying for the victims, the loved ones, those who saw horrible things, and those who are still treating the victims.  Third, LET’S FLY OUR FLAGS and show we’re more united than ever.  The FBI Agent-In-Charge in Boston said, the best thing we can do is go about our lives and show the terrorists we don’t fear them.  We love this country, and we intend to live our lives.  So FLY YOUR FLAGS, wear your flag pins, put those flag decals on your car and window.

Boston, we’re with you!  More united than ever.

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● If you enjoy this post, please click “like” in the FB widget in the right hand column.  You’ll have our undying gratitude plus a huge rise in your Good Karma.

 

● Kebba Buckley Button is a Master’s Degree scientist, a minister, and the award-winning author of  the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (http://tinyurl.com/abd47jr), and also Discover The Secret Energized You (http://tinyurl.com/b44v3br).  She also has a natural healing and stress management practice and is a celebrated public speaker.

 

● Your comments are welcome!

 

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

 

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

 

 

UpBeat Living: Peaceful World: Day 15 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Reverence

Tags

inner peace, nonviolence, peace, Peacemaking, SNV

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Illustration by iClipArt

We’re now beginning the third week of the 64-day Season for NonViolence (SNV).  The SNV was created by the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), as a way of inviting people to develop their consciousness and practice of nonviolent approaches to problem solving.  When we look at peaceful living, we find that much of the process of developing nonviolence actually begins with one’s relationship with self, together with one’s relationship with all Life.

Here is AGNT’s meditation for SNV Day 15:

 

DAY 15 Feb. 13:  The thought for today is REVERENCE.   Reverence for all life is fundamental to Ahimsa; it is the ultimate rationale for nonviolence – for how can one willingly do harm to that for which one has reverence – and towards which one has the love that reverence engenders?

In the main, reverence for life dictates the same sort of behavior as the ethical principle of love. But reverence for life contains within itself the rationale of the commandment to love, and it calls for compassion for all creature life.   –Albert Schweitzer

Reverence is a virtue that prepares us well to belong to one another; it reaches out to those who have given messages of not wishing to belong.  When we approach others with gentle reverence, we bring gifts and share theirs with us.  -Paula Ripple

 

Today:  I open myself up to a feeling of reverence for all forms of life, especially each and every person that I meet during the day.   I’ll take a walk outside and experience the beauty that surrounds me as I BE with the sky, the plants and animals, as well as my brothers and sisters.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Peaceful World: Day 14 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Humility

Tags

choices, Ghandi, nonviolence, Peacemaking, Season for NonViolence, SNV

Photo by Fotolia

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Who doesn’t love peace?  Who wouldn’t love a world in which all peoples treat each other like, well, people?  Who wouldn’t love a world in which countries are in robust commerce with each other, and everyone is prospering, and everyone has food, shelter, and health care?

Now, think of the most prominent terrorist dictators of the last century: didn’t they seem to feed on the power, rather than opportunities for peace?  Did their egos feel the violence they fomented?  Would humility have changed how these dictators behaved and how many of their own countrymen they killed?  Could they have operated as they did, had they been humble?  Today, the 14^th day of Season for NonViolence, we consider the quality of humility.

Here is AGNT’s meditation for Day 14:

DAY 14 Feb. 12:  The thought for today is HUMILITY.  Making mistakes is a part of learning and growing, simply an error in approach.  Paradoxically, the only way we can begin to escape from the consequences of our actions is to stop running from them and to face them with fortitude and humility.  In this sense, every difficult situation is a precious opportunity for learning.

When we humbly acknowledge our mistakes and reflect on what we have learned, it frees us from the need to be defensive.   Being free from defending our position creates an opportunity for nonviolence.

The seeker after truth should be humbler than the dust. The world crushes the dust under its feet, but the seeker after truth should so humble himself that even the dust could crush him. Only then, and not till then, will he have a glimpse of the truth.

-Gandhi

Today:  As I gaze up at the stars tonight, I am aware of how small I am, how my life is but a fleeting moment in the vast scale of time and distances of the solar system and the universe.  And in that moment of humility, I acknowledge that I DO make a difference.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Peaceful World: Day 13 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Creativity

Tags

choices, Effective living, Ghandi, Martin Luther King, MLK, nonviolence, Peacemaking, SNV

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Illustration by Microsoft

What if we lived in a world without violence?  How would you feel about that?  What if every person on Earth were focusing their creativity on joyful growth? Now on the 13th day of the Season for NonViolence (SNV), we have been unfolding ways to find and grow nonviolence within ourselves.  What new thing might Martin Luther King, Jr. be thinking about doing today? How would Mahatma Ghandi spend an extra hour today? NonViolence really begins with what is inside each heart.   Are you in?

From the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), here is the meditation for SNV Day 13:

 

DAY 13 Feb. 11: The thought for today is CREATIVITY.  The human soul’s natural desire is to create.  The best thing you can do to a human soul is to express the natural desire to create.  Your life is your creative expression.  Creativity allows something unpredictable and joyous to express through you.

“Why should we use all our creative power? . . . Because there is nothing that makes people so generous, joyful, lively, bold and compassionate, so indifferent to fighting and the accumulation of objects and money.”  -Brenda Ueland

Today:  I reflect on what I am creating in my life today by identifying at least five ways in which I can express my creativity joyously.   I will create something that expresses my feelings about nonviolence.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Peaceful World: Day 9 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Dreaming

Tags

Martin Luther King Jr., MLK, nonviolence, peace, Peacemaking, Season for NonViolence, SNV

© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Image by Microsoft

Slow down for a minute or two.  Come to a stop if you can.  Now take 2 minutes and imagine how you would like the world to be.  If you could wave your magic wand and change some things, what would you change?  How would people treat each other?  How would countries interact with each other? Martin Luther King, Jr. gave a speech in which he talked about having a dream (http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/martin-luther-kings-speech-dream-full-text/story?id=14358231).  Among other things, he said he had a dream “that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ “

So be as abstract, concrete, general, or specific as you like, as you journal to yourself about your dreams, for this country and for the Planet.  Having a dream will change you.  Having a dream may change your choices and actions.  Moving toward a peaceful world:  are you in?

Here is the AGNT meditation for Day 9 of the Season for NonViolence (SNV):

DAY 9 Feb. 7: The thought for today is DREAMING.  Martin Luther King, Jr., had a great dream.  Follow your dream; follow your heart; follow your inner light.

We need men (and women) who can dream of things that never were, and ask why not. –George Bernard Shaw

 

There are those that look at things the way they are, and ask, ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were, and ask ‘Why not?’–Robert F Kennedy

 

Today:  I take ownership of my own dream for peace and nonviolence.  I will write down and act on at least one thing to honor my dream today.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .

UpBeat Living: Peaceful World: Day 8 of Season for NonViolence (SNV): Healing

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Ghandi, healing, peace within, Peacemaking, Season for NonViolence, SNV

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© 2013 Kebba Buckley Button.  World Rights Reserved.

Does your soul yearn for a peaceful planet?  Would you like to help bring about a sustainable peace for the planet, without waiting for the next peace march?  Good news:  most  peacemaking has nothing whatever to do with making signs and marching through your city.

We now begin the second week of the annual Season for NonViolence (SNV).  During the SNV, we celebrate nonviolent solutions on every level.  In examining strife, we often see there is something in our personal selves that needs love, education, understanding, or healing.  The more we find peace within, the more we express peacefully with others.  In that peaceful relating, we contribute to world peace.  Today’s theme is healing.

Have you ever had a traumatic experience?  Would you like to lighten up the power of those bad memories?  Are you ready for some release and healing?  Today we are invited to experiment with a mantram (yes, a word related to mantra), a holy name or phrase, repeated again and again with calming effects.

Depending on your faith tradition, you may want to try one of the names by which you address your Divine, for example: Jesus; Lord Jesus Christ; Allah; Rama (Ghandi’s mantram: eternal joy within).  A short phrase  may also serve you : Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you [me];  Om Shanti (invocation to eternal peace); om nama shivaya (I bow to the Divine within).  Consider joyfully playing with different mantrams, and experiencing which may take you deeper.  After you have a session or two with your repeated mantram, consider the traumatic experience you wanted to lighten up.  Doesn’t it feel less heavy now?  Or have your feelings about it begun to dissolve?  Is it only a set of facts now?  Or from that pain, was there some kind of turning point or “gift”, some insight that has helped you deal with life differently since the trauma?

Here is AGNT’s meditation for SNV Day 8:

DAY 8 Feb. 6: The thought for today is HEALING.  Poet and activist, Maya Angelou turned a traumatic childhood experience into a catalyst for creativity and achievement.    She used this experience as a reason to bring peace to the world.

We all have had such experiences, sometimes holding on to the experience for a very long time.  A mantram is a wonderful way to resolve conflict we hold in our mind and one of the best times to repeat the mantram is while falling asleep at night.  Tuck yourself in, close your eyes, and start repeating your mantram.  Between the last waking moment and the first sleeping moment, there is an opening into deepest consciousness.  You can send your mantram in through that opening, repeating itself in your sleep, healing old wounds and restoring your peace of mind.

Today:  I will reflect on an incident in my life to find the “gift” it has brought me.  I will write down two ways I can use this memory to become a more creative and peaceful person.  Consciously, I share this gift with others.

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● Kebba Buckley Button is a corporate stress management trainer and the author of the 2012 book, Peace Within:  Your Peaceful Inner Core (on Amazon.com >Books>Button) and the award-winning book, Discover The Secret Energized You (on Amazon.com >Books>Buckley).  She also has a natural healing practice and is an ordained minister.

● Your comments are welcome!

● Get these articles by email– just click the Subscribe Free option in the right column.

● Reach the writer at kebba@kebba.com .