We are at the 6 month countdown to Peace Day 2010!
On the weekend of May 1-2, let's begin by simply connecting with local neighbors and residents, to prepare for Peace Day on the week of September 21. Start meeting new people who are interested in Peace issues, by organizing a group meeting or event. Ask friends or fellow co-workers to help. Here are 9 ways to get the ball rolling:
1. Have coffee... or tea.
2. Host a film screening.
3. Invite a guest speaker.
4. Setup a volunteer event.
5. At events, crowds or classrooms, pass around a contact sheet for those interested in Peace Day.
6. Invite local nonprofits who work on "Peace" issues in your community.
7. Meet at a home, school, office, church, bookstore, bar, yoga studio or cafe!
8. Call the event/meet-up "Peace in (your city/town)".
9. Organize a monthly "Peace" themed event.
Suggestion: Create a new Facebook page to promote meeting(s) and the build-up to Peace Day 2010. For example: "Peace Day in (city/town)". Share with us your page if you do! We'll link to your page, to help others find you!
CPI will continue to share ideas, updates and highlights of the build-up to Peace Day online and through our newsletters. By the way, our Facebook page has nearly 19,000 participants! www.facebook.com/peaceday.
UN Observances and theme: Representatives from organizations within CPI are working with the United Nations Deptartment of Public Information on this year's theme for the International Day of Peace. Human rights, environmental sustainability and the Millennium Development Goals are all being considered. We will keep everyone informed when a theme is announced.
Peace Day Global Broadcast: The Unity Foundation is seeking submissions for the 2nd annual Peace Day Global Broadcast, subtitled: Building Peace Through Sustainability. This year's focus will be on the Millennium Development Goals. To learn more go to www.peaceday.tv. For video submission forms, sponsorship applications, affiliations, and other information please contact Bill McCarthy at unityfoundation1@aol.com.
The Music4Peace Initiative and Tour aims to educate, empower, and improve the world, by striving to eradicate hunger and violence while providing clean water. The first events announced for the 2010 tour include: a Hip Hop Summit in South Africa during the World Soccer Cup in June, and the Gandhi Tour in Brazil on the International Day of Peace, Sept. 21st. Music4Peace has also announced the launch of a Film 4 Peace Contest. Visit www.music4peacetour.com for more details.
You are a pathway to Peace,
Your dedicated Team at CPI
"Be the change you want to see in the world." - Gandhi
________________
This newsletter is presented by Pathways To Peace, the International Secretariat of the Culture of Peace Initiative, a UN designated Peace Messenger program, that includes thousands of organizations across the globe. Pathways has been involved with the International Day of Peace since it's inception in 1981 and has nurtured this occasion into an annual global observance, that is intercultural and inter-generational in nature, and reaches hundreds of millions of people worldwide. Governments, religions, educational institutions, businesses & professionals, non-profits, the media, grassroots organizations and people from all walks of life are involved. To learn more about our programs, networks, campaigns and support materials see our websites below.
Acting in concert, we do make a difference in the quality of our lives, our institutions, our environment and our planetary future.
Through cooperation, we manifest the essential spirit that unites us amidst our diverse ways.
Pathways To Peace
PO Box 1057
Larkspur, CA 94977
http://www.cultureofpeace.org/
http://www.pathwaystopeace.org/
www.internationaldayofpeace.org
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Thursday, April 15, 2010
When does an act of service become an act of peace?
I attended a free webinar sponsored by edutopia.org. about Three Cups of Tea. It was a great experience to share my computer with 5,000 teachers and students around the USA. I hope the webinar will be made available to teachers because it had great pictures and a powerfull Q/A with Greg.
Greg focused on placing importance of learning from elders. This is alive and well in Pakistan and Afganistan, he said, but seems to be a lost treasure in the USA.
Another image he left in my heart was "some of the balls kids play with in America are made with "Afganishtan slave child labor."
I wish I was able to recall all his words, but the ones left in my memore are about some of the lessons the military learned from Three Cups of Tea:
Listen more
Respect
Build Relationships
Greg also stated that if you educate a boy, you educate the individual; if you educate a girl, you educate the community.
Another statement he made that I want to remember was: "When your heart speaks, Take GOOD NOTES.". This was his answer to a kid who wanted to know where he found his inspiration.
He talked about Pennies for Peace and service-learning projects generated from Pennies for Piece for local causes like the Little Red Wagon Foundation, an 8-year old kid who will walk for one million dollars to help homeless children.
He also mentioned that American pennies have the power to erradicate illiteracy.
Greg stated that the Taliban is afraid to destroy some of his schools because they were build by free labor from the communities where they stand.
He ended his presentation with a few suggestions
1. Empower elders in Afganistan
2. Do not shelter our kids from the realities of the world
He ended with a quote from MLK "Even if the world ends tomorrow, I will plant my see today."
I look forward to his presentation at Lloyd Noble, APRIL 21, 4:00 P.M. FREE ADMISSION.
The Pinwheels for peace and the Pennies for Peace Project will be the Casady YAC projects-all school project- for next year in the month of September. The project will start in August and culminate on September 21, International Day of Peace.
Circle the World
By Dana Lyons
What if we could circle the world
Flying peace doves beneath the sun
Giant twenty foot wings of fabric
That are hand made by everyone
Pmce a uear we circle the world
Saying ain't it time to burry the guns
Our time has come and we have begun
To Circle the World
Its a dream and its a vision
Its a prayer that we may see
When every person, every creature
Will be treated with dignity
When every war will be a memory
We never shall repeat
Our time has come and we have begun
To Circle the World
Its a parade and its a party
Giant puppets with many drums
Its a song with many rhythms
That is sung in many tongues
Its a giant snake dance
In every country beneath the sun
Our time has come and we have begun
To Circle the World
www.cowswithguns.com
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Update on the Six Billion Paths to Peace Retreat
I contacted the organizers in San Francisco and this year, there will not be an application process. Shinnyo-En is not collaborating with Youth Serve California. They are going to have a retreat with only one topic, Six Billion Paths to Peace. It is very important to register as soon as the registration becomes available in the month of April at http://www.sef.org/community/annual-retreat/. The current information is on last year's retreat.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
The courage to teach and the courage to change
Three members of the emerging Six Billion Paths to Peace Oklahoma attended a presention at OCU by the author of the Courage to Teach. Carmen Clay from Casady School Service-Learning, Rachel Rettinger from the Peace Education Institute, and Patt Webb from the Silence Foundation.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
What is Six Billion Paths to Peace?
Haru, Executive Director of the Shinnyo-En Foundation plenary speech at the 2009 Conference in service and volunteering sponsored by the Foundation in San Francisco. The 2010 conference is in New York this year. http://www.volunteeringandservice.org/
Six Billion Paths to Peace Retreat at Marconi Center, San Francisco, August 13-15: Last year's at: http://www.sef.org/community/annual-retreat/
Dear Oklahoma Six Billion Paths to Peace Team and Friends:
Happy New Year of the Tiger! A member of JASO (Oklahoma Japan America Society) told me that it is the year of the white tiger, which only occurs every 60 years! In this extraordinary year, I wanted to share the pictures "Rice Fields of Japan." It shows how ordinary people become extraordinary when they create together.
I also wanted to share that the Shinnyo-En's San Francisco annual retreat topic is "Six Billion Paths to Peace." The cards have joined us in exploring a retreat of similar topic in Oklahoma. I still want to continue our conversation regarding this possibility for our city, but I wish to communicate to you that I will be applying to attend the retreat when the application becomes available at their website. I hope we could have an Oklahoma group. The highest cost is the transportation to and from San Francisco, as well as the transportation from San Francisco to Marshall, the city where the retreat center-Marconi- is located.
In the past, I went the day before and stayed a day after at a local hotel because my teens wanted to see a little bit of San Francisco. The cost of the retreat last year was $100 per adult and youth, I cannot remember if $30 or $60. The girls took care of their registration. The registration fee covers all retreat expenses, meals, and accomodations at Marconi (Friday afternoon to Sunday noon). Let me know if you are interested in applying.
Please find below a note sent by Abby Nathanson, Shinnyo-En's Program Coordinator regarding the retreat. Happy New Year, may peace come to your hearts and minds throughout the year! Carmen
Dear friends,
We are in the process of planning the Annual Retreat at the Marconi Conference Center in Marshall, CA. We reserved the Center for August 13th-15th. Before we announce it widely on our website, we’d like to have a sense as to approximately how many of you or your representatives would be interested in coming to this year’s Retreat. As you know, the space is limited at the Center but we are hoping that we could fill it with a lively group of about 70 of returning/regular and new participants! So, we would appreciate it greatly if you could let us know how many of you plan to attend it.
This year, we plan to focus on Six Billion Paths to Peace more intentionally and globally than in years past. We hope to articulate this theme more clearly and feature individual and group endeavors around the world that have embodied Six Billion Paths to Peace uniquely. Other than this large theme as a framework of this year’s Retreat, we haven’t worked out any content or logistical details yet but we hope to maintain some of the formats and climates that have worked well for you in the past. So, please feel free to share with us what particularly worked well for you and why you thought it worked briefly. One or two highlights of your retreat experiences will give us a good starting point to blend the ideas from experienced and new participants!
Thank you again for your help and I look forward to hearing back from you!
Abby Nathanson
Program Coordinator, Shinnyo-en Foundation
201 Mission Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415.777.1977, Fax: 415.777.1987
Email: anathanson@sef.org; Web: http://www.sef.org
give grow transform
Support the UN Millennium
Development Goals -
Toward Prosperity, Security
and Human Rights for all--
learn more at www.un.org/millenniumgoals/
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Positive Psychology: Shawn's Path to Peace
Introducing Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness: Shawn Achor
Tetrais Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QNsxXTuuQ. Contact information: http://www.aspirantworld.com/
Traditional psychology is about how we can move depressed people back up to average; but Achor worries that only reduces the purpose and project to only how we help people become average. If we study positive outliers, we can move up the average to a higher place, and help everyone to become happier. We need to stop focusing on ‘getting rid’ of the bad things and focus on “other side of the curve” towards thriving.
Our brains are not just hard-wired for sympathy, but we are also hard-wired for empathy. Just as we pick up smiles and yawns so quickly, and so powerfully, we also can mirror (in our mirroring nuerons) others’ anxiety, stress, sadness. We need to watch for this in our schools.
90% of our longterm happiness is affected by the lens through which people view the world around them, NOT by the actual realities of that world around them. So no matter how fabulous your external circumstances, 90% of your experience will be subject to how you see and feel those externalities.
Harvard is Achor’s focus: “the more I loved Harvard the better I did there:” we need students and teachers to love being in our schools.
So the project we have is how to help people see the world around them. Achor tells of a study of 1600 students at Harvard.
75% of your job success is predicted not by your intelligence, but by your positivity and performance. “If I know your level of intelligence, I can ONLY tell 25% of the reason you may or may not be a success in life.”
Dopamine, the happiness hormone in our brains, turns on all of our learning zones in our brain. A brain primed to be positive has higher success rates than one primed to be negative or neutral. Hapoiness is a precursor of success, NOT merely the result of it. If we can get teachers and students positive going into learning, we can have higher results.
The Happiness Advantage: better secure jobs, better keeping jobs, better productivity, more resilient, less burnout, less turnover, greater sales.
Another wonderful video about the value of joy in the world
Achor makes the point that when these people, happier, go into their classrooms, they are that much more primed to be successful in their day.
How create this happiness advantage?
Raise optimism and success rates for six months, after 21 days of training. 21 days is enough to create a habit.
3 Gratitudes: 2 minutes a day writing what you are grateful for.
Journaling: Five minutes a day about a positive experience.
Exercise
Meditation
Random Acts of Kindness: praise somebody, five minutes day, in a way different from usual.
What is the mental barrier that gets in the way of doing all the good ideas we have learned?
Achor urges people to retrain your brain, using these five tools, which are available at his site here.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER: MIRROW NEWRONS: SMILE CONTAGIOUS, DOPHAMINE Why important: MIRROW NEWRONS BEING ACTIVATED, our brains are linked to one ANOTHER
WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BUFFER OURSELVES, BUT NOT TO LOOSE THE MIRROW NEWRONS
HOW CAN WE RIPPLE OUT THE POSITIVE CHANGES…for him going to Harvard: FOCUS ON THE PRIVILEDGE, not focus on the NEGATIVITY…NOT AS SMART AS OTHERS….
THE LENSE IN WHICH YOU VIEW what happens IS WHAT DETERMINES HOW HAPPPY YOU ARE
OUR ATTENTION IS MOTIVATED….if OUR BRAINS are FOCUSED ON THE BAD, THAT IS WHAT WE WILL SEE. YOUR SUCCESS IS PREDICTED NOT BY YOUR INTELLIGENCE BUT BY YOUR BEHAVIOR MATTER! POSITIVE FAMILY SUPPORT SYSTEM
EVERYONE EXPERIENCES STRESS, THEY MANAGE IT IN A POSITIVE WAY
Tetrais Effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QNsxXTuuQ. Contact information: http://www.aspirantworld.com/
Traditional psychology is about how we can move depressed people back up to average; but Achor worries that only reduces the purpose and project to only how we help people become average. If we study positive outliers, we can move up the average to a higher place, and help everyone to become happier. We need to stop focusing on ‘getting rid’ of the bad things and focus on “other side of the curve” towards thriving.
Our brains are not just hard-wired for sympathy, but we are also hard-wired for empathy. Just as we pick up smiles and yawns so quickly, and so powerfully, we also can mirror (in our mirroring nuerons) others’ anxiety, stress, sadness. We need to watch for this in our schools.
90% of our longterm happiness is affected by the lens through which people view the world around them, NOT by the actual realities of that world around them. So no matter how fabulous your external circumstances, 90% of your experience will be subject to how you see and feel those externalities.
Harvard is Achor’s focus: “the more I loved Harvard the better I did there:” we need students and teachers to love being in our schools.
So the project we have is how to help people see the world around them. Achor tells of a study of 1600 students at Harvard.
75% of your job success is predicted not by your intelligence, but by your positivity and performance. “If I know your level of intelligence, I can ONLY tell 25% of the reason you may or may not be a success in life.”
Dopamine, the happiness hormone in our brains, turns on all of our learning zones in our brain. A brain primed to be positive has higher success rates than one primed to be negative or neutral. Hapoiness is a precursor of success, NOT merely the result of it. If we can get teachers and students positive going into learning, we can have higher results.
The Happiness Advantage: better secure jobs, better keeping jobs, better productivity, more resilient, less burnout, less turnover, greater sales.
Another wonderful video about the value of joy in the world
Achor makes the point that when these people, happier, go into their classrooms, they are that much more primed to be successful in their day.
How create this happiness advantage?
Raise optimism and success rates for six months, after 21 days of training. 21 days is enough to create a habit.
3 Gratitudes: 2 minutes a day writing what you are grateful for.
Journaling: Five minutes a day about a positive experience.
Exercise
Meditation
Random Acts of Kindness: praise somebody, five minutes day, in a way different from usual.
What is the mental barrier that gets in the way of doing all the good ideas we have learned?
Achor urges people to retrain your brain, using these five tools, which are available at his site here.
THINGS I WANT TO REMEMBER: MIRROW NEWRONS: SMILE CONTAGIOUS, DOPHAMINE Why important: MIRROW NEWRONS BEING ACTIVATED, our brains are linked to one ANOTHER
WE NEED TO FIND A WAY TO BUFFER OURSELVES, BUT NOT TO LOOSE THE MIRROW NEWRONS
HOW CAN WE RIPPLE OUT THE POSITIVE CHANGES…for him going to Harvard: FOCUS ON THE PRIVILEDGE, not focus on the NEGATIVITY…NOT AS SMART AS OTHERS….
THE LENSE IN WHICH YOU VIEW what happens IS WHAT DETERMINES HOW HAPPPY YOU ARE
OUR ATTENTION IS MOTIVATED….if OUR BRAINS are FOCUSED ON THE BAD, THAT IS WHAT WE WILL SEE. YOUR SUCCESS IS PREDICTED NOT BY YOUR INTELLIGENCE BUT BY YOUR BEHAVIOR MATTER! POSITIVE FAMILY SUPPORT SYSTEM
EVERYONE EXPERIENCES STRESS, THEY MANAGE IT IN A POSITIVE WAY
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