This month's View from the Bridge is a connected series of reports
from various members of the Peace Bridge group.
Ilkin says:
World Dreams Peace Bridge began the month by having our Jean and
other members back safely from the Hurricane Isabel and a newly
designed web page by Liz Diaz. Although Jean had nearly three
weeks out of electricity and internet connection; she managed to
reach us at ASD Psiber Conferance, Bulletin Board and sometimes
personally with all her creativity, sometimes from her local
library sometimes by packages from post which make us the happiest
person on the world. She even wrote a special book in spite of the
hurricane lady Isabel about "Women and Peace" which will be in
Ilkin's treasures for her lifetime. Jean's creating a special book
about women under the furry of a hurricane named after a female,
is a great example for us how powerful women can be in all
conditions and how important the peace is.
"Once the lights went out, early in the morning of the day of the
hurricane, I realized that I would have some time when I couldn't
really do anything else but make the book. I felt like your paper
about women and peace needed to be commemorated...And the words of
your paper, Ilkin, helped me through a day which was really pretty
scary. I mean if you haven't been through a hurricane, you can't
know how unnerving it is to have the wind blowing at 50 miles per
hour for twelve hours...and that was only the average speed.
There were gusts much stronger than that. I could look out my
window and see the trees tearing apart in the wind and rain, but
every time I was afraid, I could look at your words about how
women fare in other places. And it made me calm down. It made me
remember that there were other places and times in the world, and
people who cared deeply..."
October has been a busy month for The World Dreams Peace Bridge.
Many of our members had the opportunity to meet on the different
parts of the world for representing WDPB in workshops, conferences
and meetings. Victoria and Kathy met in Brisbane. Jean was in
California meeting with May and ASD chair members, Nick and
Victoria held a "Peace Train Workshop" in Australia, Jeremyn and
Ilkin participated IFLAC Ataturk Peace Conferance in Bursa,
Turkey; performing an exibition of World Children Peace Trains, a
workshop on "Peace Trains" and taking part in "Women and Peace"
forum. A great number of WDPB members also participated ASD
PsiberDreaming Conferance online.
Kathy adds:
World Dream Peace Bridgers were there in force at the latest
Psiber Dreaming Conference held this month. We love to play and
especially love to play with dreams! Jean, our moderator, was an
organizer and facilitator and presented a paper on WDPB dreaming
activity -- showing how we have taken the possibility of PSI
dreaming into new areas. Our DaFuMu (a dream of great fortune) is
a collective experiment in PSI dreaming. Nick, Liz and Ilkin
worked as volunteers helping to make the conference run smoothly
and brilliantly. And of course others of us were there asking
questions, making comments and joining in the wonderful PSI
contests. Then there was SAO's (a lurker on the WDPB) art gallery
of dream inspired art. Again many WDPBers were there. Liz and
Richard (another lurker) presented surreal computer generated
dream images. Their art showed the significance of creating
images as a way of allowing both the dreamer and others to have
access to an intimate showing of the dream. Laura showed
delicate silk screen paintings, one of them a painting of a dream
of Ilkin's. Kotaro exhibited a beautifully elegant Japanese
booklet of his drawings accompanying Ilkin's poems to children
caught up in war. Mary had a number of shaman/dream inspired
figures. One was a wonderful dot goddess. SAO's images and
dream story boards were exciting and beautiful renditions of his
dreams. And then there was his water music -- intriguing
beguiling sounds. His wonderful psiber world waitress was the
poster for the conference. You can see it on the ASD Bulletin
Board (search for the announcement for the Psiber Dreaming
Conference). This is written from memory so there may well be errors
but soon the art gallery will be available for all on the ASD site
-- you'll be amazed!
Ilkin continues:
Nick offered a "Rainbow Dreaming" after the conference. First
dream was from Victoria:
"In my last nights dreaming, it felt as
though I were part of a massive circle of people - connected in
goodwill albeit not physically together...who had made white light
appear- first in a circle between us then up into the air so that
it looked like a lightening star. In the middle of the star was a
revolving marble-sized ball that could have been lapis lazili, but
was definitely blue. Combined goodwill was keeping it afloat.
These seemed to be mass relief and relax."
Jean's "Dream Scouts" begun their adventure heading to their
agent. All the members gave their supports with DaFuMu and waiting
the reply with excitement.
Jodine Grundy's son Dr. Dave turning home from Iraq opened a photo
exhibition about real face of the war. Jody writes:
"A projector is cycling 300 photos of the war, terrible, tender, playful, bored,
grieving, of our soldiers and the Iraqi people including women and
children. Yes, the atrocities are show. So is the humanity.
Imagine more than 200 people coming in in small groups of 10 to 15
and sitting silently for 35 minutes taking it all in and then
coming out in the hallway and talking and talking. Some just
silent. It was an amazing experience."
Chayim talks about his project:
The "Hands Across The Jordan" Project is reaching more and more
everyday. With all the contacts we have made either snail mail, or
email we know we can reach a guest limit of at least 500.000 or
maybe a million people around the world. Hands across the Jordan
is alive I hope." In other mails he wrote "If peace was so easy we
would all be doing it" and "Like a bridge over troubled water.More
than a song in the Middle East there is the reality of war.The
continuous cycle of turmoil for generations has seen it's time
and now must stop.We are all from the same dough just baked in
different.ovens.There is a choice to live together nicely or
continue the horror. Lets start together in a simple
way.Nov.16th,2004 we shall come together and build a foot bridge
across the Jordan River.After we finish building our bridge we
will hand in hand pray for peace in silence across the River. Come
and join us.in peace."
And Ilkin reports on the Peace Conference
During IFLAC Ataturk Peace Conferance in Bursa, Turkey; Jeremy and
Ilkin represented WDPB in "World Children's Peace Train"
exibition, workshop and "Women and Peace" panel. Jeremy writes:
"Our presentations at the IFLAC conference in Bursa the old
Ottoman capital of Turkey were well received. The extensive and
colorful Turkish Children's Peace Train collected by Ilkin
stretched out nearly in front of the audience of mostly Turkish
participants, but also representatives from Kosovo, Israel, Egypt,
Argentina, India and elsewhere. The Turkish pictures reflected the
universal desire of children to live in peaceful and happy, loving
and free surroundings. These samples were drawn and painted with
great care and many demonstrated great imagination. Participants
were drawn to and reflected on the messages held within, and then
moved on to the Ecuadoran Children's Peace poster and the strings
of South Korean Children's Peace Trains which were on large color
xerox paper. Explanations were also written on the walls. Next
time a expanatory recording would be in order."
Jeremy and Ilkin gave a spoken introduction of the Childrens Peace
Trains to the general session of the conference and it was happily
received. Jeremy spoke of the plight of street child, a girl of
about 10, who came banging on their taxi window in the rain at
night calling out "Baba, baba..(dady, dady) ...! I am hungry!
"This was on the way to the Conference, and it is for her sake,
indeed that the Children's Peace Trains are running. For adults
and other children to be aware of the plight of such children and
do something about their conditions - in this case caused by the
civil war between ethnic Kurds and Turks in Eastern Turkey. If
better off children become aware of the struggles of their
brothers and sisters in other places they can feel sympathy for
them, and this early heart-training in the desire for and ways of
peace is something they can carry on into adulthood. Ilkin told
the story of the background of the girl, and the two presenters
then went on to describe their pictures and how they were
collected from children in the respective countries. The UNESCO
special representative to the conference, as well as a very
distinguished old Turkish professor of International Relations had
very high praise for the picture exhibition."
Ilkin's paper on "Women and Peace - Can Women Create a Massive
Movement for Peace" was describing women as also being a "side" as
gender in wars:
"We must understand that although the tradition of
women banding together to resist war is at least as ancient as
Lysistrada, there is a perhaps even more ancient instinct and
tradition of women fighting like female tigers to protect their
families and their children...we must understand that as much as
we may despise the endless cycles of vengeance that perpetuate
violence, many women are raised in a culture in which revenge is
valued and women play an honored role...This is a phenomenon that
recurs around the world...We must understand the desperation of
many women who live in occupied countries or places ravaged by
civil war...We must seek to grasp the global nature of our
quest... Those of us who have the luxury to meet and talk about
peace must extend ourselves to understand those who live with the
daily reality of war...Maybe we can create a massive movement of
women for peace only by creating this bond of mutual understanding
and sharing."
And finally
Harry Bosma is prepearing to host his second "More Lucid Dream"
group and Mary Novek is about to start a "Dreaming Project" to
practice work with Energetic Spaces and their clearing and
healing.
The World Dreams Peace Bridge is a group that uses personal dreams for public world peace. You can find out more about the WDPB at:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org
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