Follow Your Bliss...

Happy Wednesday everyone...

Follow your bliss and don't be afraid, and doors will open where you didn't know they were going to be.  ~Joseph Campbell

morning practice

sunrise

each morning when i rise, my eyes seek the tibetan prayer flags that hang in my backyard.

bathed by sun

drenched in rain

blown by wind

or covered in snow

each set is an impermanent, yet beautiful, constant in my life.

snow fall

earlier, i made these wishes for you, for all sentient beings and for me (i have learned that this is not an act of selfishness, but rather an act of self love).

om ah hum

may i be happy

may all beings be happy

may i know peace

may all beings know peace

may i move through the world with an open heart

may all beings move through the world with an open heart.

in peace,

mary jane

do you have a special way you begin your day?

here we are again -

can you believe we begin our 6 month countdown to the international day of peace

(or as it is also known, the 'culture of peace initiative')? i also like peace one day.

the way is through the heart

speaking for most of us, the days since sept. 21st of last year have held many challenges -
and challenges present opportunity.

if you are new here, welcome! i encourage you to scroll back to see the beautiful work that was hung and placed around the globe - it was incredibly moving and inspiring.

while surely our goal is to share the work we make in honor of peace, i would love to expand upon what we do here

to continue to have discussions, share insight on how you get to peace or where you get to from peace in your daily life... in your dark moments, what kept you whole? how do you share your joy? 

it's connected, as are all beings

and i am hoping we can help each other.

our current culture is demanding and quick moving - 
unnaturally so.

we seek balance
wholeness
happiness
love
serenity
security
understanding
community

we want to live, to be awake

many think it is unattainable.

but the way is through the heart 
the way is through the heart
through the heart
the heart

the way is through the heart

like anything worth achieving, it takes practice - 

but the community is in place
the safety net is present
you need only to reach out.

anyone may participate - just send us an email and you will be added as an author - we ask only that you be respectful of the intention of the blog & kind to those who share.

we are all connected -

i see in you the divine spark that resides in me...

my pain is your pain

your joy is my joy 

may we all continue to work for peace with love and diligence - 

we remember those lost so tragically in newtown, ct  and wrap their families and community in love and hope... 

life is beautiful

i saw this video on another blog this morning and had to share it.
i hope it brings a hopeful, cheery, heart tugging smile to your face as well - 

I know there's peace around the dinner table, and I know there's peace as in countries around the world minding their own business, tending to their own backyard, and playing nice with each other. And I know there's peace as in around the water cooler, but today I think about peace through the lens of Nancy. For Nancy and others like her who simply have a different way of being in the world . . .

I wish them
understanding instead of scorn
and acceptance instead of ridicule

I wish them
care instead of abuse
and tenderness instead of harm.

I wish them
to be seen and not overlooked,
to be respected and not dismissed.

I wish them
ample opportunities for expression
and the materials to be creative.

My biggest wish is not for all the Nancys in the world to be more like us,
you see,
but for us to be more like them.

Then, it seems to me,
we would know peace.

_______

She draws:

Then I stitch:

And that's how we do it.

~~~~~~~~~

She is my developmentally disabled sister-in-law, Nancy,
and I am Jeanne, the woman who flat-out loves her.
Go here to start at the beginning of our collaborative creative project and read your way current.

Requesting permission...

As some of you know, here in Maleny in Australia we encouraged a few artists to participate in Flags for Peace 2012, and to fly their flags on International Day of Peace. We included them here and here.

Since then we have been fortunate to receive a grant (around A$1700) to use the photographs of the Maleny Peace Flags and to publish them in a Blurb book. The book will be a hard cover, coffee-table kind of book which we will donate to schools and public Libraries in our area.

We have enough money to publish 40 books.

We are also hoping to tell the story of how the Maleny Peace Flags fit in with this blog and the project started by Mary Jane, and would love to include as many images from here as we can at the back of the book - to show how it fits together.

If you would be willing for us to use images of your flags as posted here and include them in our book could you please either leave a comment or email me (fiona.dempster1@bigpond.com) and let me know it's OK?

The book will also be available to purchase from the Blurb book site once we have published it. The cost will be around A$40.00 and we expect that it will be available sometime in December.

We are excited that we will have the opportunity to share the beauty and variety of peace flags, and the idea that artists around the world believe in peace and wish for peace.  It will be wonderful for the schools to receive a copy and who knows, it might lead to them getting involved themselves next year?

Thanks for your participation so far, and hopefully for your permission to use images of your flags in this publication.

Many thanks and go well, Fiona. Here are my peace flag weather-grams, still flying as the tree buds and grows around them...