Peace in the Time of Quarantine ~ Announcing Blog 4 Peace NOV 4, 2020

Wherever you find your peace....

share it with others. It's time to Blog4Peace. November 4th is the day.

It is our 15th year of peace blogging.

I still find my own peace in the sanctuary of silence, meditation and prayer. Living in the days of a global pandemic calls for more and more of whatever brings you to the place you call peace. 

I love Natalie Grant's honest emotional performances. Those strings!

 That choir!  Recorded with The London Studio Orchestra earlier this year, I was shocked and inspired to see that one of the cellists looks exactly like my Papa, my grandfather, the marble-giver, the one who set my life on a path of discovering peace. Coincidence? Or is it a wink and a nod from Heaven....Papa always leaves me clues. I think this is no different.  

We Blog 4 Peace November 4, 2020. Wherever you find your solace in this year of upside-down humanity, please prepare to share it with us. The world needs peace like never before. 

Our 2020 theme is Peace in the Time of Quarantine. 

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My Peace Stories

#blog4peace #NOV4

 It's a launch!  Dona nobis pacem in the blogosphere has begun.

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Living with Lou Lou Peace Globe #10,494

Living with LouLou

France

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Living with Loulou Peace Globe #10,493

Living with Loulou

"Peace Engenders Peace"

France

LouLou writes..."even a tiny gesture made toward peace is the pebble in the pond of unrest, generating, we hope, circle upon circle of calm."

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Living with LouLou Peace Globe #10,492

Living with Loulou

France

Here's an excerpt from her wonderful post. I hope you will click above and read the rest.

"In blogging for peace, all of us who blog are offering a few words that might make a difference if joined together into one plea, one wish.  That we live in peace with one another, despite differences, since differences are what each human being is born with.  Thank heaven, or we might be bored to tears in a robotic, sterile, world!

Peace on earth, good will toward anthros and animals.  Do we have that?  I think not.  But perhaps we might reflect on it for one, sweet day.....Perhaps our meows will be heard, perhaps not.
But at least we opened our muzzles and put our paws to work to call for a better world."

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Living with Loulou Peace Globe #10,491

Living with Loulou

France

"We would like every day to be Blog for Peace Day."

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Lavender Luz & The Singing Sisterhood Peace Globe

Entry #10,490
CLICK the PIC to Hear them sing "Dona nobis pacem"

Lavender Luz 

Lori Holden, Writer
Denver, Colorado
Hear them sing HERE
YOUTUBE SINGING SISTERS - Beautiful

https://www.facebook.com/LavenderLuzWriter/

https://lavenderluz.com/blog4peace/

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MANX MNEWS ~ Peace Globe #10,489

Annabelle

MANX MNEWS

Original Peace Blogger

Florida

United States

MANX MNEWS ~ Peace Globe #10,488

 Manx Mnews: Angel AbbyGrace
In Memoriam
Original Peace Blogger

Florida

United States

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MANX MNEWS Peace Globe #10,487

 Manx Mnews: Angel AbbyGrace
In Memoriam
Original Peace Blogger

Florida

United States

She writes, " Each year the need for peace magnifies.

We fly our Peace Globe with

hopes of just a small ripple in the

bigger ocean to be granted peace. 

Dona Nobis Pacem."

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Susan, continued...Susan's Poetry Peace Globe #10,486

Susan, continued....

Susan's Poetry

Original Poem by Susan Chast

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Villages tend Peace

like food, cultivating by

hand and in person.

A Fountain of Youth

central to all—Peace quenches

thirst freely, fairly

Let's imagine it

now, here, building with stone soup -

Perfect! Possible!

(Dream Peace Haiku

by Susan Chast)

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The Horoscope Junkie ~ Peace Globe #10,485

The Horoscope Junkie

Wanda Dawn Gilbert

Canada

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White Dog Diary Online Blogs For Peace #10,484

White Dog Diary 

The White Dog Army

Sue Smith

Albuquerque, New Mexico

They write, "There is nothing we more humbly ask for than a world in harmony, respecting each other and our planet, and harnessing the power of love."

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One Gal's Musings ~ Peace Globe #10,483

Hailing from the great state of Chicago....It's The Gal Herself!

One Gal's Musings

Chicago

She writes, "So today, change your personal climate. Turn down the heat that's firing your resentments. Assume good intentions and respond in kind.

Let's manifest peace beginning with one another. Let's unmake violence and destruction, one heart at a time, starting with our own."


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Shannon's Moments of Introspection ~ Peace Globe #10,482

Moments of Introspection

Shannon Wamsley

Wisconsin

In honor and memory of her wonderful son Colt. Shannon candidly shares the pain of losing her child to cancer, struggling for peace, and keeping his memory alive. Many prayers and much love to this dedicated and passionate peace blogger. 

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Waiting for the Muse ~ Peace Globe #10,481

Waiting for the Muse

Ann Tracy

Maine

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Mindful Palate with The Spoon Mage ~ Peace Globe #10,480

Mindful Palate

"Feeding the World One Ravioli at a Time"

The Spoon Mage

What a story!! Peace in action. Humanity in action. Love in action. Janice writes about her special aunt-in-law, specifically how she blessed an entire generation of folks by example and ravioli.  Please read! Here's just a part... "Please work with us all to stop the damage to our earth and regain the vibrant life that allows us to create ravioli and tomato sauce. Choose one aspect of a healthy planet and focus your efforts there - bees perhaps? Can't grow any plant without bees." 

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Doses of Wild Yam with Yamini ~ Peace Globe #10,479

Doses of Wild Yam

Yamini MacLean

Scotland

United Kingdom

Everyone on the planet should read this post! The trees, the forest, environmental care, protecting ourselves and our environment from disease and mismanagement - all crucial issues for this particular time in history. Please click HERE and read Yamini's excellent essay. Here's just one quote,  "Oh yes, dear ones, it must never be forgotten that all the plants of this earth, but the trees most of all, are the planet's lungs. They are also, like the canaries in the mines, an indicator of the environment's general health." 

I learned so much from this post.

Peace graphic by Ann Adamus @ Zoolatry, Photo Mimi Lenox

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Jamie's Place For Stuff ~ Peace Globe #10,478

Jamie's Place For Stuff

Tacoma, Washington

Jamie writes, "White storms continue to get greater and wilder, there is still time for a change to help ease climate change and to also bring peace to the world. That is the promise of the rainbow. It signals the storm has passed and in the peace that follows to reach out to cure the pains of the world."

and as always....The fabulous Bear-A-Tones!





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Stardreaming with Sherry Blue Sky in Canada ~ Peace Globe #10,477

STARDREAMING with Sherry Blue Sky

Vancouver Island, Canada

Sherry pens a fabulous poem for peace day called Shinrin Yoku (Forest Bathing)

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With These Wings from New Zealand ~ Peace Globe #10,476

 Catherine Reddell and her hand-sewn "Peace Quilt"
With These Wings

Christ Church, New Zealand

She writes, "Maybe I'm a small triangle on a very big quilt. Maybe I am just a single stitch. But my contribution, no matter how small, it counts. Your contribution counts too.
We all need to understand that it is our individual contribution that will work towards world peace."

Read the rest of her peace quilt journey HERE.  Her words definitely count!

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Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty ~ Peace Globe #10,475

Athena Cat Goddess Wise Kitty 

London, England

United Kingdom

Quotes from Athena -  "Climate change is real and we can help change the climate. It starts with you. Each and every one of us. We can all do our bit to save Mother Earth. There are things we can all do as individuals to save our beautiful planet!"

#Blog4Peace #ClimateChange

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Dona Nobis Pacem ~ Bathing In Persimmon Trees

Welcome to the 14th launch of BlogBlast For Peace aka Dona nobis pacem in the Blogosphere. 

Our theme this year is Change Your Climate. Many are choosing to write about global climate change. Others are choosing to write about the need to change their own personal climates in order to create peaceful spaces for themselves ( ie: eliminating stress, self-care). I have chosen the latter.  

Please sign the Mr. Linky at the end of this post so that others may visit you and see the beautiful peace globes throughout the Blogosphere. Remember to tag me on Facebook  or wherever you are on social media. Thank you for being a part of this community of peace bloggers. Your words are powerful and important to all of us. May we lift and encourage in our quest for a peaceful more sustainable planet earth.  Grant us peace!  

Bathing In Persimmon Trees

As she got older and more introspective, my mother would spontaneously start talking about random things from her faraway childhood. On this day, she began to weave invisible spinning yarn in the air in front of her. "There are these threads....you see....threads...." as her hands moved in and around them,  making sense of mysteries in her mind,  weaving and talking as she spun, connecting branch to branch to branch. Except she wasn't really sitting there with me. She was somewhere back in time playing dodgeball with the curse.
 "I can see them going back generations." "What kind of threads?" I asked.  "Poverty. Brokenness. Abuse. Depression. Alcoholism. Divorce. Conflict. Addiction.  Bad threads....don't you see them, Mimi?" Yes, mama, I've always seen them.
Like shadows on trees in a cemetery, cast long from eons of time and generation, I had always seen them. 

If you want to go mad,  cover them up.
If you want to break the curse,
stand in the Light.
Generational threads can tie together what desperately needs to be broken. They are inherently binding and strong.
Made of flax. Faith. Fiber. Custom. Tradition. Tribe. Toxicity. Untruth.
Even and especially love.
Whether they remain tied and woven into the next generation depends not on the strength of the cotton, but on the spinning of the pattern. Twisted legacies take whole life spans to unspin. It requires laser-sharp discernment and a willingness to plant a new field. To begin a better story. Harvesting new tribes is not for the faint-of-heart. My mother was anything but faint.

And that's when I began to remember...
warm water washing down my back.
I felt the heaviness of long tangled hair.
Soap.
And her hands in my hair.
Scrubbing and soothing at the same time.  Bare feet on a dark linoleum speckled floor, bent over the kitchen sink in the middle of a fifties wood frame in the heat of summer and the only running water in the house.  Daddy hadn't finished the bathroom yet. My mother stood untangling the mane that was always tangled and drying me off with a ragged towel. 
And then I started to cry 
Uncontrollably. Sobs from an eight-year-old that should never be heard by a mother.  She knew. I could see it in her eyes. She knew. From the covering of shame I felt underneath the thinness of fabric that could not cover could not cover could not cover the confusion and tremble of a skinny little girl who had just been reminded of more than innocent suds running down the back of a dark-haired freckle-faced me with grownup questions swirling in her mangled head. She looked straight into the dripping freckles and raised her eyes to meet mine.

It was my mother's greatest gift to me. 
Unwavering trust. Unquestioning acceptance. She believed what I was about to tell her before I said it. I can still taste the shampoo on my lips and see the horror in her eyes, the quiver in my voice. I remember the way my eyes wanted to only stare at the linoleum while she gathered herself.  Standing there dripping in a torn towel while she called someone to tell them what she'd seen in her daughter's eyes. I never had to see him again. She saw to it.
She sacrificed family and relationships to protect me.  Had she chosen to look the other way, I am sure without a shadow of an oak tree doubt,  I would have crumpled into a broken twig on the sudsy floor and never recovered. Instead, it was the moment that defined me. 

In the deepest part of me that day, she taught me to trust the sacred places that no one should touch.  I owned every nook and crevice again before she even finished with the tender drying  because my mother believed me  she gave me permission to trust myself She had no idea that she'd just given me my voice.

Of all the trials that came later - our arguments, her quirky temper, my stubbornness - our differences growing wider in the middle of our lives, then circling back to unconditional love, as happens with mothers and daughters  - I'm not sure she ever fully recovered from the sadness of that moment. 
Threads You see them, don't you Mimi?

I wanted so much to know her and understand her better and all that mysterious weaving in the spirit. Those strands had names. They had stories. But there wasn't time and she was gone.  What made her so unbreakable? What stopped her from untying the last piece of tangled life and freeing herself? What kind of woman knows by instinct and love how to run straight into battle for her daughter?  That's the indestructible mother I longed to fully know.

When I felt she had no faith in my endeavors or no understanding of my independence, in hindsight, now, I wonder if the moment under the towel defined the way she would forever try to keep me from straying too far into unfamiliar territory. As I spread my wings to fly away, perhaps her holding on was the only way of protecting me.  Perspective.

I went through some things this year that broke my heart. Multitudes of unkindness and wholly undignified days. But the more vile they became, the more grace I received. 
 My body is recalibrating. Balancing. Resetting. Changing my climate, my environment, is not just necessary for peace of mind, it's mandatory for my survival.  I am ready to put this decade behind me but not without the wisdom it contains.

Standing under the canopy of trees gives me courage and strengthens my vulnerability - that delicate balance between authenticity and prudence.   It resembles the act of protection and trust. Intimacy and connection.  You might not have a lifetime or even a decent swath of moments like these with the people you love. 

But it only takes one.  

Divine grace echoes on the walls of my heart. 

My mother's grace reverberates decades later.

And she is the reason that I can stand uncovered in a field of persimmon trees

without fear 

without shame

without scars


I finally learned to accept all our twisted roads and fallen places.  How she tried to exhume the genesis of those invisible threads in her hands, never quite finding where the first broken piece began and the last continued.    You see them, don't you Mimi?
She died before she could unravel all the threads But she deposited in me just enough spitfire to keep my end of the peace treaty intact: To leave the untelling on the kitchen floor  To live without hiding behind trees 
To forgive those who want to see me broken To be open and brave when your words need wording and to be loud in the most vulnerable of places
and that's why I need trees Had you told me a year ago that people can feel energy from trees, I would have silently patted you on the head and sent you on your way. And yet, since her death six months ago, I find myself running to the forest on my mountain, sitting for hours in the sanctuary of their branches. Breathing in oxygen. Absorbing life into the cells of my stress-laden body.  Finding the Mother trees. They shelter the young saplings and strategically branch out in directions that give them the most nourishment from the sun. Did you know there are mother trees?
We are made stronger when we understand where we came from when we uncover what is hurting us We discover which branches are strong and which need pruning. I am learning to be thankful for the miles of memories that created me all of them
Safety sometimes lies in being unseen but never in being unheard.

Please sign the Mr. Linky below

Photo credit: Mimi Lenox

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Blog 4 Peace 2019 Participants

1. Sherry Blue Sky 2. Claudia Hall Christian 3. Cate Reddell 4. Mimi Lenox 5. Jamie White 6. Yamini MacLean 7. The Spoon Mage 8. Waiting For The Muse ~ Ann Tracy 9. Moments of Introspection 10. Athena Cat Goddess 11. The Gal Herself 12. The White Dog Diaries 13. Dawn 14. Wanda Dawn Gilbert 15. Scrappin With Life 16. Callie 17. Tinkerbell in the Netherlands 18. Animal Shelter Volunteer Life 19. Bonnie @ Bonnie's Books 20. Zoolatry 21. Mickeys Musings-Dona Nobis Pacem 22. Laurie @ Meditations in Motion 23. Linda Lee Lyberg 24. The Spoon Mage 25. Bertram's Blog 26. Stunning Keisha 27. Mama Pajama 28. Susie Clevenger 29. Speedyrabbit

30. Mike ZGolch 31. Mike Golch 32. Friends FurEver 33. 15 and Meowing 34. Louie's Chaos 35. Eileen Trainor 36. CyberCelt 37. The Island Cats 38. Canadian Cats 39. Sandra Hammel 40. Brian's Home Blog 41. Gemma Wiseman - Mornington Peninsula Daily 42. Sicily Scene A Welshwoman in Sicily 43. Sandra Hammel 44. Friends FurEver - BlogBlast4Peace 45. Sparkle Cat 46. Lone Star Cats 47. Waiting For The Muse ~ Ann Tracy 48. Kinley Westie 49. Kathy Duffy Thomas 50. The Matriarch's Corner 51. Karen Nichols 52. Mickey's Musings 53. Loristory 54. Charmed Chaos 55. Diane Hasz Blog4Peace DJ 56. Raven Wolf 57. Two Spoiled Cats 58. The Psychokitty Speaks Out

59. Just Ducky 60. The Cat on My Head 61. Forty Paws 62. Blog 4 Peace The Official Gallery 63. Little Binky and Granny 64. Marcia McLees Bogaert 65. Binding Ink ~ Michelle Culp 66. Clawdia @ Bonnie's Books 67. Kim Marie Moon 68. Thumper Thinks Out Loud 69. Diane Hasz 70. David Timothy Holdsworth 71. Deb Reslake 72. Amarillis Kroon 73. Diane Hasz 74. Ken Smith 75. The Cat Blogosphere 76. Catscue 77. Mark's Mews 78. Driller's Place 79. Spike William Pratt A Cheshire Cat 80. Julia Phillips Smith 81. Correna Grogan 82. Speedy The Cheeky House Bunny 83. Bluezy 84. Jessica Obsenschain 85. Sue Earle Glashofer 86. Sanni Jansen 87. Bud 88. Living with Loulou

Learn more about Blog 4 Peace 2019 here.
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Romania, Belgium, Thailand and British Columbia blog for peace

There are 214 countries and territories who've blogged for peace in the past thirteen years. Where are you from? Is it peaceful where you live? Can you think of a way to influence your corner of the world for the common good? I know! I have a fabulous idea!

Join us NOV 4 and fly a peace globe. Below are four stellar examples from the past to inspire you.

Canada

Belgium

Thailand

Romania

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Powerful Moment in Chile

Even in the midst of turmoil and war, beauty can erupt. 












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You Could Learn a Lot From a Cat

Animal Volunteer Shelter Life in Connecticut

Did you know that cats use their humans to blog for peace?
It's true! Everybody knows who's in charge. The cats!

Lone Star Cats from Texas

Hundreds of kitties can be found making puuurfectly peaceful blog posts on November 4th in all corners of the blogosphere. They're busy right now getting ready for BlogBlast For Peace.
I challenge you to make peace a priority on November 4th. 

Here are a few of the marvelous peace globes made by the cat blogosphere!

Kevin Hattori 

George Clooney the Cat

Stunning Keisha!

Meezer's Mews

Mickey's Musings

Shelter Cats

Stunning Keisha

Stunning Keisha

Trav's Thoughts in Washington

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