Victory in 2007

2007 is close at hand and now is the time when the people in my faith community look at their determinations from the past year and assess how far they have come. Then they write a new list of determinations and put them in a safe place while they are working on them throughout the new year.

Setting goals or making determinations create openings that seem to materialize where none were there before. In setting goals and announcing them to others, we create a sort of verbal contract that we are going to make every effort to achieve success in these aspirations. Somehow, that makes the goals more likely to reach fruition.

So Happy New Year. May every goal, aspiration and determination result in a victorious 2007.

Turning predictions inside out

Create peace and justice from the inside out. Did anyone ever tell you that you wouldn't amount to anything? Are you living out that false prophecy? Did anyone say you are making the wrong choice of career? job move? educational goal? course selection? Did you prove that person right? or wrong?

We allow other people's false views to become our reality. Why?

We must take responsibility for our own outcome, not follow the predictions of others. How do we break through those abusive labels and create healthy labels of our own? By rejecting those false views and creating goals that fulfill our own dreams.

We can write goals for anything we desire, and by taking action, make them come true. But then, only we are responsible for the joyful results that we attain.

I learned that children should be seen and not heard; that ladylike behavior means acting in a non-assertive manner. I had to unlearn those "rules" before I could speak my mind and disagree without being disagreeable. It took lots of practice.

I still feel afraid and consider my words very carefully before I disagree with another person or speak up when I feel that justice is not being served. But when I finally express my views, I know that I am contributing toward a more peaceful world.

Creating peace and justice from the inside out means taking care of our personal peace and justice in order to show proof to others that it can indeed be accomplished.

Making waves

Creating peace and justice occurs at many levels - at home, in my community, in my country and in the world. What a huge task. Where do I start?

At home, see the commonalities in us all. Look at the good. Create an environment of peace and I will see peace all around me. Create an environment of anger and I will see anger all around me. Create an environment of ugliness and I will see ugliness all around me.

My responsibility is to create an environment that reflects back to me feelings of peace, compassion and justice but how do I do that?

I see myself as a wave in the ocean, emerging from the depths, growing larger, bumping into other waves as I gradually reach my peak and then begin to decline. Other waves are growing and declining at their own rate - some faster, some slower. Some larger, some smaller.

The waves and I shape each other and respond to each other in a give-and-take relationship. Our interactions are part of a whole - the ocean - and as we cycle through our existence, we use our power for good.