"Peace, Love, and Understanding"

photo by Craig Smith


"As I walk on through this wicked world,
Searching for light in the darkness of insanity,
I ask myself, Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain, and hatred, and misery?

And each time I feel like this inside,
There's one thing I wanna know,
What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding?
What's so funny 'bout peace, love, and understanding.?"

~ Lyrics from the song "Peace, Love, and Understanding" written by Nick Lowe

"Rhythms Of The Gods" - click to listen

composed and played by Guitarist Craig Smith

We Must Get Back To Our Natural Rhythms

picture from Brazil by one of our friends

Inca Legend tells of a time when the world is turned upside down, and a new consciousness emerges from it because we go within to know ourselves and heal the wounds of the past.

Planet Drum

Planet Drum is an organization with a truly important vision for our planet:

here is an excerpt from their home page http://www.planetdrum.org

"What approach can we take to move beyond environmental protests and actually begin living sustainably wherever we are located?"

"Planet Drum was founded in 1973 to provide an effective grassroots approach to ecology that emphasizes sustainability, community self-determination and regional self-reliance. In association with community activists and ecologists, Planet Drum developed the concept of a bioregion: a distinct area with coherent and interconnected plant and animal communities, and natural systems, often defined by a watershed. A bioregion is a whole "life-place" with unique requirements for human inhabitation so it will not be disrupted and injured. Through its projects, publications, speakers, and workshops, Planet Drum helps start new bioregional groups and encourages local organizations and individuals to find ways to live within the natural confines of bioregions."

To learn more, go to Planet Drum.Org http://www.planetdrum.org

A Simple Walk

You will feel a new rhythm flowing through you when you take a walk, breathe deeply, and notice nature.

"I only went out for a walk, and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in." ~ John Muir

The Whole Truth

photo by Craig Smith


Whenever we are only told part of the truth and not the whole truth ~ it can cripple us and make it harder for us to ever achieve excellence in what we do.

Wisdom Can be Found In Many Places

...including in an unusual movie like "The Weatherman", starring Michael Caine and Nicolas Cage.

Father: "David, sacrifice is...to get anything of value, you have to sacrifice."

David: "I know that, Dad, but I think that if we continue down this road, it's gonna be too detrimental for the kids. It's just too hard."

Father: "Do you know that the harder thing to do and the right thing to do are usually the same thing? Nothing that has meaning is easy. 'Easy' doesn't enter into grown-up life."

....And, here's more "Wisdom" from two Academy Award acceptance speeches this year:

1) Original Screenplay for "Crash" by Paul Haggis & Bobby Moresco
"Bertolt Brecht said that art is not a mirror, but it is a hammer. It is not a mirror to hold up to society, but a hammer in which to shape it." ~ Paul Haggis

2) Adapted Screenplay for "Brokeback Mountain" by Larry McMurtry & Diana Ossana
"The duty of art is to send light into the darkness of men's hearts." ~ Diana Ossana


Artists, in general, have an edge on tolerance...because art is about the whole world. ~ Patty Ann Smith

Musical Instruments

photo by Patty Ann Smith

"Life becomes complete when humankind and Nature move in harmony, hand in hand. When melody and rhythm complement each other, music becomes beautiful and pleasing to the ear. Likewise, when people live in accordance with the laws of nature, the song of life becomes sweet." ~ Amma

"All music is what awakens from you ~ when you are reminded by the instruments." ~ Walt Whitman 

We Are "One Planet"

"I pledge allegiance to the Earth,
and to the flora and fauna,
and to the human life that it supports,
one planet, indivisible,
with safe air, water, soil,
economic justice, equal rights and peace for all."

(~ from the Women's Foreign Policy Council, 1989)

Respect for our Differences

photo by Craig Smith

"I believe America has a rendezvous with redemption
and that the spiritual question is the principle one.
We are intended to establish respect for our differences
and then, on the basis of that respect,
transcend our differences
to embrace the highest common denominator
of the human spirit."

~ Al Gore

 

a warm and loving message

The Fabric of The Heart

A cold heart restricts every part of the body. A warm and loving heart sends messages for life. "What the world needs now is love, sweet love. That's the only thing that there's much too little of."

To have life-giving activities rather than life-destroying ones ~ helps our hearts stay healthy.

"This is what I want from now on:
a slower pace, a more centered existence, and
the feelings of perfect happiness to be found
in the moments I come home to myself." ~ Linda Weltner

"Awaken From The Illusion Of Our Separateness"

"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn." ~ Henry David Thoreau

"We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness." ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

"Taking life for granted ~ such an easy thing to do, and such an important thing "not to." ~ Patty Ann Smith

Harmony and Real Freedom

photo by Patty Ann Smith

"...I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better."

from "Sleeping In The Forest" by Mary Oliver

Greatness is "A Heart Full of Grace and A Soul Generated By Love"

Greatness was Corretta Scott King

The Most Comforting Speech in the World

"What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows! Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. And, as long as it talks....I'm going to listen." ~ Thomas Merton