This is an exerpt from “Creating True Peace: Ending Violence in Yourself, Your Family, Your Community and the World” By Thich Nhat Hanh

Included in these pages are examples of agreements that you can make with yourself, your partner, and your family. These treaties commit us to practice reconciliation and communication with loved ones, friends, colleagues, and other people with whom we live and work. They are concrete commitments to transform our lives.

To make a personal peace treaty we can write: “Dear Self, I promise to practice and live my daily life in a way that will not touch or water the seed of violence within me.” We are determined in every moment to protect ourselves from negative thinking and to nourish loving-kindness within us. We can also share this commitment with our beloved ones. We can go to our partner, our son or daughter, and say, “My dear, my beloved one, if you really love me, please do not water the seed of violence in me. Please water the seed of compassion in me. I promise to do the same for you.”

You can honor this commitment in many ways. You can avoid situations that make you angry or create conflict with others. For instance, when you read a magazine you may encounter ideas and images that water the seeds of hatred and fear in you. Or while you are conversing with someone, the discussion may make you upset and you may feel anger rise up in you. During these moments, your practice is to become aware that the inner seeds of anger, fear, and hatred are being watered and that these emotions can lead to violence in your thinking, in your speech, and in your actions. Please put away any reading material that does not nurture love and understanding. Please avoid taking part in conversations that water negative seeds in you. Let your beloved ones know how they can support you in preventing irritation and anger from growing in you.

In a similar way, you can support your beloved ones in the practice of peace. When they share with you what makes them sad, angry, or depressed, take note, and with kindness act in their best interests. Try to avoid doing or saying things that you know will water the seeds of conflict within them. This is a concrete, intelligent way to practice peace.

Many young people alive today have not endured the great pain of war. They do not remember the horrors brought about by mass violence. We must help our children awaken to the fact that they have within themselves the capacity for violence and war as well as the capacity for caring and loving-kindness. With mindfulness, we must also teach our children concrete practices that nourish the positive seeds within them and avoid strengthening the negative seeds of anger, craving, and fear. We should begin this learning process when our children are young so that as they grow they have the strength and skill to be calm and to act nonviolently and insightfully.

Before he died, the Buddha instructed his disciples, “Be a lamp unto yourself.” In this way, he urges each of us to light the lamp of mindfulness in our own hearts. My dear friends, let us practice energetically so that we may light the way of peace for our beloved ones, for our society, and for future generations.

http://gallery.tmpp.org/gallery/en/index.jsp

3 Cups of Tea is a true story which begins with a man on a solo mission to climb a mountain. Having fell severely ill, the author, Greg Mortenson, is nursed back to health by a small Pakistani village. In return, Mortenson promises to build a badly needed school for the village. This first endeavor has since transformed into the Central Asia Institute (CAI), a non-profit started by Mr. Mortenson that has established more than 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. 3 Cups of Tea is not only an inspiring story of one man’s passion, it is also a fascinating account of how educating the young, particularly young woman, can promote peace and prosperity.

www.threecupsoftea.com
www.ikat.org
www.stonesintoschools.com
www.penniesforpeace.org

how do you wear your charm? send in photos!

Sorry for the hiatus with posting on the site…  in any case, here is something uplifting to think about — I’ll have more stuff with substance next week.

and the article isn’t half bad, either.  check it.  from the NYTimes.

here’s an excerpt from the article, titled “Uganda Enlists Former Rebels to End a War”:

In an unorthodox strategy that could help end this seemingly pointless war, the Ugandan Army is deploying special squads of experienced killers to track down the L.R.A.’s leader, Joseph Kony, one of the most wanted men in Africa, who has been on the run for two decades.

I just read about this company, Oliberté.  They design and manufacture premium men’s footwear in Africa.  Check them out below–info is from their website.

Our logo represents a new voice in footwear and for Africa. During a revolt, when rebels finally gain their freedom, they take the country’s most important symbol, the flag, and rip out the middle stating that a new beginning is here.

Africa is more than just poverty and Oliberté is the start of a revolution that shows, through urban footwear, this is the real Africa!

With every pair of Oliberté you buy, you are making a powerful statement that Africa is proud, free and full of potential. You do this all while being a hero, because you are the reason men and women from Liberia to Swaziland to Ethiopia have a job, have food on the table and can send their children to school.

Oliberté is not a charity – it is a company that believes you can change how the world views Africa and help build lives every time when you buy a pair of Oliberté shoes that are made in Africa.

a picture can tell a thousand words.  the saying is cliche, but it’s there for a reason.  photographs can be revealing, educational, evocative — they can help someone form an opinion, or change his or her opinion  altogether.  eric, peacephotography.org’s creator, is working with photographers and various non-profits in promoting their work and bringing it to you, the customer, in a 120-page book full of photos.  the photos demonstrate the possibility of finding peace and contentment in a world where it may not seem possible. sales of the book go toward the contributing photographers and supported organizations (including Amurt Haiti and the Center for Development in Central America).  check out the website.  there are some beautiful photos on it.

what do you think?

The Associated Press (AP) reported today that President Obama and Russia’s president Dmitri Medvedev have agreed to sign a “historic new treaty” to reduce both the US’s and Russia’s nuclear arsenals.  The presidents have planned to sign the treaty in Prague in two weeks, on April 8th.  States the AP, “the deal is seen as an important step toward rolling back global nuclear dangers and sealing an increased level of trust and cooperation between the U.S. and Russia, who possess the vast majority of the world’s nuclear arms and have labored under strained relations in recent years”.  US Democratic Senator John Kerry said, “A well-designed treaty will send an important message to the rest of the world that America is prepared to lead efforts with key stakeholders to reduce the threat of nuclear weapons”.

For more information, check out the AP article, as well as the article in the New York Times.

So I know this is a day late, but I figured I would enlighten you guys anyway.  Yesterday was World Water Day, and in its honor, I am posting about one of my favorite charities.  It’s called charity: water.  Here’s an email I got from them just yesterday:

Today is World Water Day, and we’re proud to launch Unshaken.
Unshaken is a campaign to help Haiti recover by providing long-term clean water solutions. Watch the trailer now and help us spread the word.

Unshaken - charity: water’s campaign for Haiti from charity: water on Vimeo.

Ever since the massive earthquake struck Haiti, charity: water has been working with our partners on the ground to find solutions to the growing water needs. Over a million people have been displaced from Port-au-Prince, and the need for clean water in the rural areas is greater than ever.

charity: water has identified 11 areas that need help now. We know exactly how much money is needed, and as always will use 100% of donations to directly fund projects, proving each one using photos and GPS.

There’s an incredible amount of work that needs be done in Haiti, but the first step is simple.

charity: water has raised a ton of money, and 100% of donations go to their projects.  (They have a group of private funders who sponsor their administrative costs.)  This is hugely important, as for many organizations, so much of donations ends up going to maintenance and administration.  The 100% of charity: water’s donations go toward projects such as hand-dug wells, deep wells (boreholes), rehabilitations, spring protections, rainwater harvesting schemes, and biosand filters. They have water projects in schools, clinics and villages in locations such as Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Honduras, Haiti and many others.

There are so many people in the world who don’t have resources; water is the most basic need to stay alive, therefore places where it’s hard to come by have the potential for conflict over it.  Getting rid of that potential is one thing charity: water does, and it is impressive indeed.  For more information, go to www.charitywater.org, and check out what they’re doing.  Tell your friends.  And if you have any feedback for me, comment, comment, comment!