A new mission

To End War

in my World

I invite you to join me to

Give Peace a Year

It was my hair conditioner that did it.

I was warned, the bottle was clear but I wasn’t paying close enough attention and it got past me unnoticed.   

I wanted smooth hair, shiny and soft too if possible, and imagined something soothing.

It wasn’t until later that I found out what was on the bottle…

I can’t remember why I looked closer… checking for parabens I think, whilst dry and dressed and with my glasses on. 

No information about parabens, I assume the worst, but the bottle said quite clearly, so I can’t blame it for not warning me, that this hair conditioner would fight signs of damage.

Look!

I felt shocked! Are you shocked?

And then I thought it was laughable

My heart sank. The fighting talk has spread everywhere

and has now reached my shower.

My shower!

Where, so far thank goodness, there has been no threat to life, and never any conditions that I thought called for combat.

I wanted to reassure my conditioner, and those who wrote the words for the bottle….

It’s alright. Easy now, I see you’re willing to go to quite some lengths on behalf of my follicles, but it’s alright, that won’t be necessary. Soothing and smoothing would be lovely. Fighting – no. Not needed, not what’s called for here at all. All’s well.

See… see how good soothing and smoothing feels?

There now… all’s well.

It’s something and nothing I thought. 

Then… no…  really no.

NO!

Time to stop with the violence

I’ve noticed before that a fight is rarely what I’d like but is often what is said and wrote before about this, the seemingly ‘‘good’ fight.

It seems to have spread further now

– In hair conditioner where soothing and smoothing is what I’d rather have

– In health ‘ fight disease’ where healing is what I’d rather have

– In word, in thought and in deed, in all sorts of places.

Doing its bit pervasively creating a combative climate that’s hard work to live in. Requiring an ever alert and wary state.

So I’m starting.

To end war in my world.

I’m going to 

Give Peace a Year.

Join me to see what difference we can make if, together, we

Give Peace a Year 

Come and meet either in person or online, or both.

A regular time, fortnightly, throughout the year to,

– give conscious attention to where there is violence in our world;

             in words, thoughts and deeds (starting in February with words)

– consider the impact of those words, thoughts or deeds;

             on blood pressure, body chemistry, the climate around us and interactions with others

             on our parenting, management style, leadership, in our organisations

 – give thought to whether a fight is how we’d like that to go or whether (in the case of my hair) we’d       rather have some soothing and smoothing of the follicles

        

– give thought to how we’d prefer it to be worded, thought about or done differently. Can a      nonviolent way be found.

It’s surely not beyond the wit of wo(man)

  

And then 

– to decide whether, and how, to do it differently for those instances where we’re the one who decides what will happen

or look for ways to do it differently or create nonviolent ways to do it differently, if none yet exist that we’re aware of.

For those things outside our sphere of influence or decision making, to consider whether there’s anything we could do to influence the situation.

Ask me about my phonecall to Proctor and Gamble.

One word at a time. One person at a time.

Within our own world and sphere of influence. Taking it gently.

No pressure, no prescriptions. 

See what a difference can be made if we

Give Peace a Year. 

 

In person meetings

I’ll be there. Every fortnight. In person.

Starting on

Thursday 11th February 2016, 7.30 – 9pm

To hear each others examples and how we translated them or get help to translate them and think through what we’d like instead. We’ll divide the time so we each get examples heard and help if wanted.