Imaginal cells, nutrient soup and the Summer of Peace

Caterpillar image by beamish
A morgueFile Free Photo

Imaginal cells. Microbiologist and philosopher Elisabet Sahtouris tells of imaginal cells, biologists' term for the cells in a mutating pupa that feed on the caterpillar's body, now a "nutrient soup," and transform into a totally different organism, a butterfly.

Sahtouris likens our current human state to that of the caterpillar, consuming everything in sight in preparation for its long sleep and transformation.

The caterpillar is focused only on survival until, bloated, it hangs itself from a branch and falls asleep. Its skin hardens into a protective covering, and the imaginal cells that have been accumulating for some time burgeon.

You and I, Sahtouris says, are imaginal cells. As we waken, become more and more aware, we feed off the nutrients of our culture even as we transform it to something new and utterly beautiful.

Enter the Summer of Peace 2012

Butterfly image by mrmac04
A morgueFile Free Photo

One way we imaginal cells are transforming our world is through a vast, worldwide network of peace builders. The Shift Network hopes to expand and amplify this network through its Summer of Peace 2012 initiative.

In a talk last night at the Red Victorian Peace Cafe on Haight Street here in San Francisco, Shift Network Program Director Philip Hellmich spoke on plans for the Summer of Peace.

The Summer of Peace begins on the solstice, June 22, and concludes on the fall equinox, September 21. If you haven't heard of it, here's a synopsis of the vision from the web site.

The Summer of Peace 2012 is a global celebration of and call to action for inner and outer Peace ... and will feature media campaigns, online actions, conferences, music concerts, film festivals and grassroots activities around the world. All the activities will be designed to accelerate humanity’s shift to a culture of Peace.

The Summer of Peace 2012 aims to involve leaders from many sectors ranging from Nobel Peace Prize laureates to business, education, media, religious, military, and non-profit leaders.

Our overarching goal is to activate the largest global commitment to Peace in one season in the history of humankind mobilizing grassroots participation of people worldwide

Summer of Peace 2012 Vision

Did you catch that reference to including military leaders in the mix? We need to stop fear-based ideology, Hellmich says, and replace it with acknowledging and celebrating what works. Even the world's military, like every other human enterprise, is evolving, he says.

People within the military establishment are learning new, non-violent ways of making and preserving peace, and they're training others. Hellmich witnessed such peacekeeping and peace building activities when he worked in Sierra Leone during the civil war and genocide there some years ago. Without the military peacekeepers, he says, there would be no peace there today.

Of course, he doesn't give all credit to the military. They were just one part of the peacemaking process. He cited a complex and sometimes disarmingly simple set of strategies and individuals that resulted, ultimately, in the end of unspeakable violence.

I wish you could have heard his talk. There is so much more I'ld like to share. I'll leave you with just one nugget. You may have seen in the first line of the quotation above that the Summer of Peace calls for action for both inner and outer peace. Hellmich's first call to action was that we implement a daily peace practice, if we don't already have one--meditation, prayer, whatever works to strengthen our inner peace.

I can attest that something as simple as standing for peace in silence five minutes each day changes the heart, changes how I relate to others. Another useful strategy, especially in times of stress, is to take ten to meditate. You can do it any where, any time with no one the wiser to quickly reduce stress and calm frazzled nerves.

With regular inner peace practice, Hellmich contends, and I agree wholeheartedly, heck, I've said it here plenty of times, we facilitate peace building in our lives, rippling out to the world.

One tiny example: How often has a friendly smile and kind remark lifted your spirits at the end of a long day and sent you on your way smiling too? People smile back when they see a happy person walking down the street. When their spirits are lifted, they smile at others.

Smiling at our neighbors as we encounter them on the street is an act of both inner and outer peace. Could we really kill each other once we got in the habit of smiling genuinely each time we met? I wonder.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Standing for peace, we are all one

Before heading off this morning with another grandmother to stand for peace in front of city hall, I ran across this video, We Are All One. It says everything we need to know about why standing for peace is so important, and it says it in a way that heals my soul, encourages my heart. May it do so for you.



Wherever you may be this morning, whatever you may do, take a few minutes to stand in silence for peace, with peace. Perhaps it will change your life as it is changing mine.

Breaking silence

Update 10:55 a.m.

We broke silence during our stand today, distracted in part by activity around us, then full of thoughts we were eager to share. I enjoyed the discussion, as I always do with Sharon.

I am also aware how much I missed the silence, how precious, now, the few minutes of quiet meditation on either side of our conversation. Not that it was off topic or disrespectful of our purpose, for it was neither, but that an hour of silence in that space, filled with intent to bring peace to our city and our world, grounds me. That grounding informs my entire week, is behind every decision I make, and gently settles me when I tend to flare.

So I'm thinking about silence, how I relish it, living in the city as I do, where the streets around me are seldom without noise. I'm thinking about the few times I have been in a gathering of several hundred people, all silent, not even a speaker to guide us; and the near silence of the woods, far from any town.

What do you know of silence? Have you found it useful at times? Have you experienced silence in a profound way? I would deeply appreciate your thoughts.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

Standing for peace, we are as stones

San Francisco City Hall from our standing
point November 26, 2011
© L Kathryn Grace

We stood for peace again this Saturday. I have to tell you, even though we are only two, I feel empowered.

When we stand before an edifice dedicated to assuring that the economic interests of a city are served, we stand at the seat of power. Here the influential, and those who do their bidding, make decisions that bring peace--or violence--to our lives.

In this world-class city, those decisions affect the lives not only of San Franciscans, but of people throughout the state and around the world. Whether we're banning plastic bags in supermarkets or shipping our collected "recyclables" overseas where the poorest of the poor sort our mountains of trash to salvage what can be melted down and remade, the impact of our city is felt near and far. Decisions made in this building ripple across the planet, like a skipping stone on water.

Let's face it. Making peace is about economics. All war, all injustice comes down to economics and greed. "You have what I want. If you won't give it to me, won't sell it to me for the price I'm willing to pay, I will take it from you."

Yet, because individuals stood up over the years in this town, walked and marched and stood in the halls of this building, many decisions made here reflect a concern for the well-being of our people. Not only the wealthy are served; but also those of us who serve the wealthy; and the thousands of immigrants who grow, harvest, prepare and serve our food, clean our homes and offices, cut our hair, and who work tirelessly to achieve a better life for themselves, their families and friends.

Green Vehicle Showcase
© L Kathryn Grace

Individuals made and continue to make calls, set up committees, and take action to lessen our collective impact on the environment as well. One example, immediately in front of me as I stand: nearly half a block of  recharging stations for electric cars, several of which bear the city seal on their doors. That sign in the background of the image to the right says "Green Vehicle Showcase," and in a small way, it is.

Of course, we are also a city known to house some of the most shameless--and shameful--human trafficking and sex trafficking rings in the country, for just one example of the other side, and a homeless population larger than the town my children called home for eighteen years, for another. All is not charm and beauty here.

These thoughts flow as I stand, at first flushed with the rush to get here, the too hot tea in my thermos burning my tongue and throat, watching tourists dance toward the shining glass and brass doors below the rotunda, fifth largest in the world, with a dome higher than that of the US Capitol building. They take pictures of one another posing first on this side of the street, then again on the steps of the building, under the great frieze of naked and partially clothed mythical figures.

We do not speak, my standing partner and I. We shift our bodies, arching our complaining backs and relaxing them, rocking on our feet to keep the blood flowing and the stiffness at bay.

Soon, my body settles into the rhythm, my mind quiets, the calm of standing in peace fills me, seems to grow and surround us. A white haired woman arrives, across the street, stands against a concrete pillar for nearly the entire hour. We wonder if she is the woman who told us she would stand with us today.

The longer the hour stretches, the more comfortable I am. The longer I stand, the more I feel what it would mean, what might happen if hundreds stood with us, thousands around the world. Though I gently return my focus to my breathing whenever my mind wanders, inevitably it fills with this image again and again and again: Grandmothers all over the world, standing in front of their city halls, their churches, mosques and synagogues, whatever symbols of power in their towns and villages, standing in silence, hearts open to the possibility of peace.

Changed, as we are changed standing here, they--we--just may begin to influence those within our sphere, who in turn may influence others, rippling, rippling, rippling. We are as stones.

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We stand for peace as part of Grandmothers for Peace Occupy SF, which we initiated after an OccupySF peace meditation. You can read about our experience and why we started Grandmothers for Peace Occupy SF on Yes, we did Sit4Change.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.

How the Occupy Movement gains consensus through stack, twinkle and block

Have you watched any of the videos showing how peacefully the people in the Occupy Movement communicate with one another? If you haven't, prepare to be awed, inspired, and delighted. In the video "What are consensus, stack, twinkle, and block?" we see how effectively hundreds, even thousands of people can communicate with one another without so much as a megaphone.

We see, too, how the occupiers create instant classrooms, teaching one another; how they make decisions through consensus; how they assure that every voice is heard; and how one dissenting voice, when it matters enough, can block a decision and call for more discussion.




I am fortunate to have experienced the gentle power of the People's Microphone personally at an OccupySF meditation. (See Good News Friday: Ultimate transformers Sit4Change.) At that event, unlike the speakers and amplifiers in this video, no one shouted. Still, we in the back heard perfectly, better, in fact than we might have with shouting.

What do you think of this innovative amplification tool, and of the methods the audience employs to respond to speakers? How might you and I use similar communication tools in our everyday lives, and what would be their ramifications?

For me this as an important step forward, perhaps a quantum shift, in building a world more like The Village of Ordinary. May we all continue to speak--and to listen.

My thanks to MoveOn.org for bringing this video to my attention.

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We make peace in a million small ways every day.

All text and images, unless otherwise noted, copyright L. Kathryn Grace. All rights reserved.