A Life Connected

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Gandhi said it and corporations and politicians co-opted it and sucked the life out of it.  But make it real and you’ll change the world.

You’re part of a NEW social movement built on compassion and personal responsibility.  Social change comes from the people UP, not from the top down.  The state of the world isn’t something being done TO us; it is being done BY us.

Each of our choices in the past built the world we live in today.  And each of our choices from this moment forward will build the world we live in tomorrow.  We will build a world reflective of our values when our everyday choices are aligned with those values.

So, c’mon!  Join the land of the living.  Be part of the solution simply by living your life completely and connectedly.

This is from our A Life Connected brochure:

How To Live A Life Connected.

You were born with values that connect you to humanity and to the world in which you live — values of justice, kindness, and compassion. Reconnect to who you truly are. Put your compassion into action and make our world a better place.

1. Connect with yourself. Become re-aware of your moral values.

2. Connect with others. Become aware of how your everyday choices impact other people, the planet, and animals.

3. Connect your choices to your values. If your choices are truly aligned with your values, stay on that path and find even more connections. If your choices are unaligned, make new, better, and more connected choices.

Thank you for all that you do!

All one,

:) m

“To attain inner peace you must actually give your life, not just your possessions. When you at last give your life – bringing into alignment your beliefs and the way you live – then, and only then, can you begin to find inner peace.” - Peace Pilgrim

Peace Pilgrim was a connector who, in the name of world peace, walked the United States for over 28 years until she was killed in an automobile accident.

Peace’s Pilgrim’s only possessions were the clothes on her back and the few items (a toothbrush, a comb, and a pen) she carried in her pockets. She carried no money and would not ask for food or shelter. It had to be offered without asking. For 28 years, all her needs were met.

“Aren’t people good,” she would often say. She spoke to all who would listen about peace — peace among nations, peace among groups, and about inner peace because she believed that was where peace began.

From the book, “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work In Her Own Words”…

“After a wonderful sojourn in the wilderness, I remember walking along the streets of a city which had been my home for a while. It was 1p.m. Hundreds of neatly dressed human beings with pale or painted faces hurried in rather orderly lines to and from their places of employment.

I, in my faded shirt and well-worn slacks, walked among them. The rubber soles of my soft canvas shoes moved noiselessly along beside the clatter of trim, tight shoes with stiltlike heels.

In the poorer section I was tolerated. In the wealthier section some glances seemed a bit startled and some were disdainful.

On both sides of us as we walked were displayed the things we can buy if we are willing to stay in the orderly lines day after day, year after year. Some of the things are more or less useful, many are utter trash. Some have a claim to beauty, many are garishly ugly.

Thousands of things are displayed – and yet, my friends, the most valuable are missing. Freedom is not displayed, nor health, nor happiness, nor peace of mind. To obtain these things, my friends, you too may need to escape from the orderly lines and risk being looked upon disdainfully.”

View a 1-hour documentary about Peace Pilgrim (streaming RealPlayer)

(Get RealPlayer Here)

“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” - Mohandas Gandhi

There may be some people who are still skeptical of Nonviolence. They may not yet understand its power or its core principle that a connected society is a just society. Maybe they think violence might hurry things along. Some may even think, “Sure, you do Nonviolence and I’ll do violence… together we’d be a great team because people will be afraid of me and then they’ll negotiate with you.” It doesn’t work that way. When you are perceived as part of a movement and you are violent, the movement is perceived as violent regardless of the ratio of violence to Nonviolence.

Nonviolence is like a glass of clean water. Even one drop of blood (violence) makes all of the water bloody. Once you bloody the water it takes enormous amounts of clean water without any additional blood to hope to ever again have clean water. And even then, it will never be completely clean.

There are many reasons why violence doesn’t work in the long run:

:) matt

There’s no real word for Active Nonviolence. Nonviolence is one of those “non” words — a “not” word. But it is much more than not-violence. It is active, creative, courageous, sometimes complicated, often difficult, organized, and driven.

It’s difficult to describe, build, or recognize something that doesn’t have a name. Did the word smiths purposefully write Nonviolence out of our language and therefore out of our understanding?

Even Gandhi struggled with what to call the Nonviolent fight for India’s independence. He announced a contest to find the best word to describe the new powerful movement. Satyagraha, roughly translated from Sanskrit to mean “Truth-Force,” won the contest. But the word Satyagraha hasn’t entirely caught on… it doesn’t really roll off the tongue.

In his book, Nonviolence: 25 Lessons From The History of a Dangerous Idea (meaning “dangerous” to the status quo) Mark Kurlansky asks what if “war” was a non-word? What if the only word for war was “nonpeace?” When we would talk about waging nonpeace, our natural question would be, “Why? Why don’t we want peace?” Nonpeace seems abnormal and impotent. It’s a non-word afterall.

Kurlansky’s book goes on to explore historical examples of Nonviolence, question some of the reasons people support violence, and delve into the “25 Lessons” — all of which are summarized at the end of the book. Here are some “lessons” we found particularly interesting:

• Practitioners of Nonviolence are seen as enemies of the state.
• Once a state takes over a religion, the religion loses its Nonviolent teachings.
• A rebel can be defanged (made less threatening to the status quo) and can be co-opted by making them into a saint after death.
• Wars do not have to be sold to the general public if they can be carried out by an all-volunteer professional military.
• A conflict between a violent and a Nonviolent force is a moral argument. If the violent side can provoke the Nonviolent side into violence, the violent side has won.
• Violence does not resolve. It always leads to more violence.

Thanks for stopping by.  And thank you for all that you do.

:) matt