Do you remember the song “Let There Be Peace on Earth”? In the summer of 1955, Jill Jackson Miller and her husband wrote that song and within weeks it touched lives. A music director for a national conference of Christian and Jewish teenagers brought the song to the inter faith and inter racial workshop. After singing the song once, the 180 teenagers quickly made it their theme song and wanted to share and live the message. They sang it in a circle and envisioned the world in the middle of the circle. That was just the start for this powerful song; for the next 10 years, the Miller’s spent 30 hours a week answering fan mail.

I love the line ‘and let it begin with me” for that is where everything starts – with you. How you ask? If you want peace in the world, be peaceful in your own Place in the world. Speak of love, gratitude, appreciation, forgiveness, abundance, and peace. Turn your attention to those who are making positive changes in the world. Speak of solutions. Laugh a lot. Give of yourself to others. And when you need a little reminder of peace, think of those 180 inter faith, inter racial teenagers who in 1955 joined together to sing about peace on earth.

Quotes of the week

“When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others.” ~ Peace Pilgrim

“When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~ Jimi Hendrix

“Let us forgive each other – only then will we live in peace.” ~ Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy

“Peace is a daily, a weekly, a monthly process, gradually changing opinions, slowly eroding old barriers, quietly building new structures.”

~ John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Soulful Links

Let There Be Peace on Earth ~ Vince Gill

Peace Train ~ Cat Stevens

Peace Train ~ Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens)

Give Peace a Chance ~ John Lennon

Give Peace a Chance ~ Peace Choir

For the next week I invite you to be peaceful by choosing to

Start your day by saying let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me.

Be gentle with yourself and with others

Love yourself, love life, and love others

Speak about peace rather than war

Spend five minutes each day to sit with the thought of a peaceful world and sending out that intention

Mostly, I wish you a week filled of peaceful hearts. Choose to think of love, compassion, appreciation, forgiveness rather than fear. Choose to change conversations of war/terror/poor economy to a conversation of hope and allowing. Choose to be peaceful with yourself if you are going through a contrasting experience to what you want knowing this too is a learning experience to grow from. Choose to be at peace with yourself, with life, and with others.

Until next time, Peace Out!

 Did You Know…  

That there is a group of amazing world citizens called The Elders who are leading a global pathway of hope and  peace? The idea originated from Peter Gabriel and Richard Branson in the late 1990s and they took it to Nelson Mandela and Graca Machel in 2001. The Elders, Nelson Mandela, Graca Machel, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Ela Bhatt, Lakhdar Brahimi, Gro Brundtland, Fernando Cardoso, Jimmy Carter, Mary Robinson, Muhammad Yunus, and Aung San Suu Kyi, are committed to supporting people who are making the world a better place. 

Our 7th Free Hug event of 2008 came to a close at noon today. What amazing weather, amazing huggers, and amazing huggees!! Each month I fall in love with this event a little more thinking it can’t get better — but it somehow does. We had 18 huggers out on Michigan Avenue distributing hugs and lightening hearts.

From the left Judith, Kali, Cassie, Lena, Dawn, Michelle, Sharyl and Jenilyn front and center were some of our huggers for the day.

The trolley passengers wanted hugs and we were quick on our feet to oblige.

Chicago’s finest need hugs too. The other officers opted not to get a hug, but this female officer jumped in.

The lady to the left was in town with several friends celebrating her birthday that was today! Birthday cake and hugs, does it get better?

We had so many huggers and not enough signs. Gary was so generous to go buy some supplies and makes more signs right on site!!

Many of our Naval men came by to receive our arms.

This woman was in town with an interfaith group to bring peace to the world. She’s Palestinian and there were people from Syria and Israel in her group.

Ask and you shall receive — he asked for a group hug and we gave it to him!

Front left – Kali, Cassie, Judith, Livi, Gary, Dawn

Middle left – Chris, Lena, Noah, Joann, Jenilyn, Maureen, Rossi, Arqui

Top left – Sharyl, Michelle

We had such a great time and I am so grateful for the experience, for the huggers, for the huggees, for the weather, and mostly I am grateful for the opportunity to bring this to Chicago monthly.

To see more pictures: http://www.positive-focus.com/wpg2?g2_itemId=1709

July Free Hugs picture montage

Hugs,

Carol

Happy Wednesday!

Have you ever thought about life as being one big spice rack? You get to choose which ingredients to add to your life. You can choose loving ingredients, or you can choose fearful ones. You can choose peaceful or hateful. You can choose abundance or scarcity. You can choose light or dark.

Be the best chef in your life by taking a pinch of several ingredients you choose, blend them together, keep them at a nice simmer, add more as needed, and enjoy your Happy Life recipe.

Quotes of the day:

“What is the recipe for successful achievement? To my mind there are just four essential ingredients: Choose a career you love, give it the best there is in you, seize your opportunities, and be a member of the team.” ~ Benjamin Fairless

“There are three ingredients to the good life: learning, earning, and yearning.” ~ Christopher Morley

“The ingredients of health and long life are great temperance, open air, easy labor, and little care.” ~ Philip Sidney

Soulful Links:

A Recipe of Love ~ Harry Connick Jr.

Recipe for a Happy Life ~ Serenity

Happy Marriage Recipe ~ Carol Miller

For the next week, I invite you to create your recipe for a Happy Life by mixing the following ingredients:

Gratitude: A healthy blend of gratitude is a key ingredient. When you can be grateful for your contrasting experiences it is a tasty treat of knowing you are on a path for a happy life. You simply know this is just a momentary experience that is helping you grow and evolve.

Love: loving you, loving life, and loving others should be a daily ingredient and used often. When challenges arise, ask yourself, ‘What would love do?’

Forgiveness: forgiving others is truly a benefit for your well being. Even more importantly is forgiving yourself for allowing others misdeeds to permeate your being. Forgive yourself for taking things personally or your involvement in the contrasting experience.

Trust: Trust in yourself knowing that each experience you choose whether caring or contrasting are part of your life path – you chose, so trust you chose well.

Allow: Everyone’s path is slightly different, some have more bumps, twists and turns, but each is the right journey for that person. Allow everyone to mix their ingredients for their life without judgment.

Mostly, I want you to remember that even the best cook ruins a recipe on occasion. But a true chef doesn’t give up, (s)he just works on perfecting it. Have fun blending the ingredients to create your perfect recipe.

Until next week, happy cooking!
~Carol