Community, Environment

Community.

* Compassion
* Solidarity
* Peace
* Equality

It's about being aware. To See people, whether close to you and your home or on the other side of the world and a stranger.
It's about responsibility - for home, family and the Earth... Doing your part of making a difference. It doesn't have to be something grand! Even a small act of goodness can make a world of difference - bigger isn't better.

The opposite of Community is Indifference.

Environment.

It's where we are, where we live and breathe and bring up the Future. There are no other options but take responsibility, show consideration.

The opposite of Environment is... The End!

"We do not own the world, and its riches are not ours to dispose of at will. Show a loving consideration for all creatures, and seek to maintain the beauty and variety of the world. Work to ensure that our increasing power over nature is used responsibly, with reverence for life. Rejoice in the splendour of God's continuing creation."

(Advices&Queries no.42)

Peace

Peace.

 
* Tolerance
* Equality
* Solidarity
* Love
* Forgivness

The opposite of Peace is Hate, Darkness, Fear...

"A good end cannot sanctify evil means; nor must we ever do evil, that good may come of it... It is as great presumption to send our passions upon God's errands, as it is to palliate them with God's name... We are too ready to retaliate, rather than forgive, or gain by love and information. And yet we could hurt no man that we believe loves us. Let us then try what Love will do: for if men did once see we love them, we should soon find they would not harm us. Force may subdue, but Love gains: and he that forgives first, wins the laurel."

- William Penn, 1693 (24.03)

"...That way of peace is not to be found in any policy of 'unconditional surrender' by whomsoever demanded. It requires that men and nations should recognise their common brotherhood, using the weapons of integrity, reason, patience and love, never acquiescing in the ways of the oppressor, always ready to suffer with the oppressed. In every country there is a longing for freedom from domination and war which men are striving to express. Now is the time to issue an open invitation to co-operate in creative peacemaking, to declare our willingness to make sacrifices of national prestige, wealth and standards of living for the common good of men."

(24.09)

Equality, Honesty, Integrity

Equality.

* Inclusion rather than exclusion.
* Seeing 'that of God in everyone'.
* Solidarity

I wish I had more to say about this, but, it is such an obvious Truth to me that I'm stuggling to find the words to explain how and why I feel the way I do.

We're unique, individual, creatures with the same worth, value and rights as each other. Period.

The opposite of Equality is Discrimination.

Honesty and Integrity.

* Tell the truth.
* Be true to who you are.

The opposite of Honesty and Integrity is Deceit.

"...it has always been a simple truth that a life led honestly, without deviousness or deceit is always a life which is simpler to lead than a life in which one must keep careful track of any dishonest dealings lest one is caught out."

Mariposa

I've sent my butterfly in solidarity with girls and women in Nicaragua. Have you? http://t.co/g5DbpjV

Love&Light,

The Porcupine and Solidarity

Once again fabulous words of wisdom from Paulo Coelho's blog. A cute story with profound depth, what I've come to expect from this amazing author/philosopher.



(image: Google)
During the Ice Age many animals died because of the cold. Seeing this situation, the porcupines decided to group together, so they wrapped up well and protected one another.
But they hurt one another with their thorns, and so then they decided to stay apart from one another.

They started to freeze to death again.
So they had to make a choice: either they vanished from the face of the earth or they accepted their neighbor’s thorns.

They wisely decided to stay together again. They learned to live with the small wounds that a very close relationship could cause, because the most important thing was the warmth given by the other.

And in the end they survived.

My calling...?

I think I may have figured mine out...my calling that is... can one actually do that?! :)

I want to be a teacher, I'm learning to be one. :) I'm feeling fairly confident about that role. But, I want to be more than that...I want to be a good person who does and sees the good in others. I'm not perfect but neither is anyone else...we're all human, have the same worth...

All these things are coming together for me recently and I'm still not sure what it all means, where it will all take me but I'm trying to "go with the flow" because I don't feel all that in control of the situation (as I'd like to be). I feel gently but firmly urged, nudged into a place that feels both scary and yet so obvious...

....

I don't know...maybe I've just finally grown up or something but for the first time (ever?) I feel an urge to do something, to use my voice and embrace me - all that I know (and have been told) I am but have been fighting against... Gosh! Sounds like total gibberish doesn't it!? As I said, I don't really know what I'm in right now but I'm fairly certain I'll keep on going right into it.

Weird...

This wasn't really how I'd thought this post would turn out, I thought that I would be able to be a bit more specific but apparently not.

Solidarity

It thought that I'd already shared this here but when I went looking for it it was "gone"... ;) :D So...here it is "again". ;P
‎

"Solidarity is not a matter of altruism. Solidarity comes from the inability to tolerate the affront to our own integrity of passive or active collaboration in the oppression of others, and from the deep recognition of our most expansive self-interest. From the recognition that, like it or not, our liberation is bound up with that of every other being on the planet, and that politically, spiritually, in our heart of hearts we know anything else is unaffordable."
- Aurora Levins Morales
Here in Sweden we're coming up on election soon (Sept. 19th) and to be honest with you, the policies the opposing parties are presenting are almost too similar to tell them apart. "Pest eller kolera?" we say in Swedish (transl. to plague or cholera?) when it's a choice between two uncomfortable options.

BUT! The ideological differences are still there - how people/humanity is viewed and I can not vote for those who exclude rather than include!
This is my penny's worth about politics and it's about all you'll hear me say. :)

Eid Mubarak.