Embracing the Universe

when we see peace, we give praise.
when we see violence, we wage peace.

words eye have lived by.

~*~

we have a Giant soul.
very big feet, for our very big shoes.
we are vision from a different Angle,
we bring to the world an enlarged perspective.

We See More.
when we look at OurSelves, We See More.
We See Everything!
when we Look at the World, we see Everything.
The Entire Universe, in a drop of Water.

when you ask a prayer from what is now Named god,
you are asking the universe, the part of it within you,
to allow you a Possibility.

Anything is possible.

we are the universe, and the universe is us.
we Are the World, and the world is in us.

what we do for Ourselves, we do For the world.
what we do for the world, we have done for eachother.

we see others a a lens
a Lens through wich we see the universe,
a lens through wich we see ourselves.
we see ourselves as the universal lens.
we are not different at all, "you" and "I".
we are in many places, yes.
we can clearly see everything.
yes, we embody seporate physical forms,
that does not change any of this,
for we are all made of stars.

~*~

When We see that the World does not agree with Us,
first we look to OurSelves, and We see two things.
We all have two I's, after all.

We may see that We do not agree with OurSelves,
that from a wider perspective, more than a singular perspective,
Perhaps we even begin to see OurSelves from a Universal perspective -
We can choose not to do again what We have done in the past.
We all have that choice.

when We see Peace, we Give Praise.
when We see violence, we Wage Peace.

when We see that the World does not agree with Us,
first we look to OurSelves, and we see two things.
We do have two I's, after all.

When we look at the world from a wider perspective,
from the Universal Perspective,
and We see that we do agree with OurSelves,
and We see that the World does not agree with Us,
We see two things.

We see people,
and we see Ideas.

What We believe about Ideas,
is that you can not force
a Person
to believe in an Idea
that we are not allowed to Change.

when We see People,
hurting other People,
because of an Idea,
that we are not allowed to Change,
We do not see a fault in the People,
We see a fault in the Idea
and the belief that we can not Change.

when we see peace, we Give Praise.
when we see violence, we Wage Peace.

~*~

If we see a part of the world doing harm to another part of the world,
our universal perspective Demands that We Wage Peace.

We may find ourselves in strange company by doing so.
We may find ourselves embracing People,
People who have ideas about the World
that we Universally do not agree with.
we may find OurSleves
in mind or in body,
in distant parts of the world,
distant parts of the human experience,
embracing and defending the existence
of people we may not agree with,
knowing that their ideas about the Universe
have been formed in a very strange, often brutal World.

when We see peace, we Give Praise.
when We see violence, we Wage Peace.



~*~

Waging Peace to the face of War

woke up this morning to angry voices-

I never heard Sir yes Sir, though the feeling was exactly just that tone.

secure in the delirium of sleep and the warm arms of a lover, for a time I was too calm to find any of this disruption a discomfort. I did not rise instantly to restore the serenity - it took a lot of yelling over the next two hours to disturb that sort of peace.

as the noise from our bed receded, the war chant across the block continued. The space I inhabit is very close to the Campus Naval Academy, so it was not too a far stretch to imagine the source and justify my lack of immediate response to the conflict. However, as this racket carried on for the next few hours, faculties of reason began to question why on earth this should be happening.

I admit, it was a good time before it clicked on me that this was a war chant.
I was Hearing that the noise was too close for comfort.
I was Hearing that it could not possibly be from the parade grounds on campus,
I was Hearing that these boys were conducting a war, a war on my block.
I wanted to push back.

I scouted around, not knowing the exact location of the sound. When I found them, They were getting their first haircuts. Their leader would say something, an acronym or other command, with the idea that his charge holler back a specific response- as loud as they could without messing up their haircut.

Outside, two more recruits stood where they could yell at full pitch.

Memorization at thirty decibels.

In his dress browns, Their leader paced in and out, looking just barely out of the academy himself. When I walked in, the boys outside hadn't yelled in a few seconds. Let me say that although I stand a good measure taller than almost everyone, and by this nature seem to say even the kindest words with some amount of force.... In a warm tone, I calmly asked if they were the source to all this racket.

Knowing that this was a position he would have to defend, his response was to explain his orders. After the Marine stumbled through a sentence worth of words, I intervened, with a slicing gesture of my hand, and explained that I would not be having a war zone on my block. his attempts at defending the orders, repeated in a variety of flavors, were all met with the same reply -

I would not be having this war on this block.

I made it clear he could say whatever he pleased, but that the noise would be stopping. Some small debate as to the noise ordinance, or his possession of official permission was entertained, and I made it clear that he could stop or I could call the cops. in my words, I said that it was not necessary to yell in order to conduct a haircut, that they were disturbing my peace, and that they could take their war elsewhere, it was not welcome here.

Thankfully, after just one more call and response, The noise of the conflict was ended. The the commands and obedience training continued, however it was brought to a volume that was easily contained by the barbershop walls.

I feel compelled to note that in writing this down, It seems easy to embellish my own dominance of the moment and forgo the details of how that action was also soft in its strength.

This I inform you of, as a reader, on this Day, I feel honorable in my actions both against the War Machine, and in favor of the people and the souls who inhabit the roles within that machine. It is possible to do both at the same moment.

I encourage you to believe that this is a viable way to wage your own peace.

The story does not end here.