In the last few weeks members of the World Dreams Peace Bridge have been reaching out
in all directions to support peace.
Ilkin, from Turkey, alerted us to problems in relation to women's rights in the new
constitution being drafted for Iraq: as far as I know the new constitution will say
"Women have equal rights as far as they are not against religious laws (sheriat)...".
Nobody, not NGOs nor any reporters seem to be concerned with this, while it is very important.
This law will take away all women rights, which they had even during Saddam Hussein's dictatorship.
Sheriat is religious laws which can be interpreted very strictly. It turned Afghanistan into a hell
during Taliban. Because of Sheriat women still can't go out or drive alone, or vote, have to
wear head covering, can be divorced only when their husbands say "you are divorced" three times,
and are treated as second class citizens. Ilkin has reached out to women all over the world,
seeking support, for the women of Iraq.
Jeremy (from South Korea) and his daughter Ellie, on their way to a Peace Conference in Europe,
visited Kay/Olivia in England for a "perfect day" – ending up being caught up in the immediate
aftermath of the attempted bombings of the transport system.
Kotaro, from Japan, is visiting Hiroshima, to mark the 60th anniversary of the dropping of the
atomic bomb onto that city. He is carrying our wishes for peace and our acknowledgment of the
horror of the bombing and the wonderful resilience of the people.
Victoria and Nick, from Australia, are also planning peace activities to mark the anniversary
of the bombing of Hiroshima. They will be directing Peace Train workshops, and there will be
a Peace Train display at the Town Hall. Victoria has sent us a great plan from an Australian
peace group, to draw Hiroshima Shadows around the city. Would you like to organize something
like this in your city? Just visit this website, grab some chalk, and on the evening of the
5th August (the day before the anniversary of the bombing) leave your mark on your city.
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/hiroshimaday.htm
You can even mark this anniversary more quietly by lighting candles and remembering.
Be part of the candles around the world:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/hiroshimaday.htm
OR you can ring out your remembrance. Ask a local church to ring its bells at the time
the bombs were dropped:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/hiroshimaday.htm
While we were planning to remember the past as a way to greater peace,
we were also now caught up in the urgent needs of the people of Niger
(the second poorest country on earth), who are facing starvation and
death as a result of drought and locust plagues.
From Australia, I sent out an urgent appeal for funds to feed the starving
children in Niger. The idea for a simple way of raising the money needed
(as a result of an aid shortfall of over $10,000,000) came from a dream.
It was a simple dream, but what struck me about it was the way it showed
my dreaming mind selecting images, not in a linear pattern but in a
multidirectional pattern:
I find a sandstone carved book and set it on a little reddish brown rock ledge
in a rock pool by the sea. I take a tiny stone out of the rock face and find a grotto.
Inside there are a few cone shells in yellows and browns, further back
(it is much larger now than I'd thought) I see many of those lovely brownish red
long cone shells. I wonder at the little girl collecting so many and wonder too
if there is something else that I will find in the grotto once I work out how to enter it.
The pattern of imagery followed a sound pattern (sandstone, sea, shells);
a colour pattern (the purple red of sandstone, the brownish red of the sea rock,
the brownish red of the cone shells) and a meaning pattern: sandstone, sea, shells.
The multi-directionality of dreaming mind’s pattern reminded me of a neuron.
The image of the neuron’s multi-directions stayed with me for a whole week.
When I heard of the disaster in Niger, I wondered how to help.
The solution was there: in the pattern of the way my dreaming mind makes connections.
I thought: we can easily reach $10,000,000 if one person were to donate a small amount
of $10.00, then ask 5 other people to do the same (donate just $10.00 and each to ask
another five people to donate) and then each of those were to do the same. If we did this
we would reach $10,000,000 really quickly. We would all be connected like neurons lighting
up all over the world, each giving a small amount, but using the power of our connections
to create an enormous amount of money and preventing a large disaster from happening.
If you’d like to join in this simple pattern of connection and easily prevent children
from starving, then please join in. Go to:
http://www.worlddreamspeacebridge.org/niger.htm
You will find a copy an email you could use to contact people and also more information.
Baomei gently and mindfully has lit a candle at my window every evening for the past four weeks,
for "our Iraqi friends and children, for Jeremy, Ellie... and all of us. For the world."
On the World Dreams Peace Bridge we quietly use the power of connection, in waking or dreaming life,
to support peace. Our activity is just like Kahlil Gibran’s image: “ A root is a flower that disdains fame”
(forwarded by Jean from Art Funkhouser, Switzerland).
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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