The Peace Meal Project... Raising Awareness One Dinner at a Time

I just came across this website for an organization called the Peace Meal Project, and it sounds like such a great idea that I wanted to share it here. As Thanksgiving approaches, I know that many people do things like volunteer at soup kitchens, etc. This would also be a great idea though too... to organize your friends and family for a meal and then gather up support for a local non-profit or organization of your choosing. Anyway, you can read more about this organization here:

The Peace Meal Project is a grassroots organization located in Boulder, Colorado. We host a series of potluck dinner parties to bring people together for socializing as well as to raise awareness and funds for charity. 

Each of our potluck gatherings benefits a charitable cause.  We assist organizations that promote a peaceful existence for the people of their communities and the world.

homemade goodness

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The Peace Meal Project is a fun way to gather with friends while supporting a good cause.  We open our homes and hearts and share good food, laughter and love. Information on local and global charities is presented at each of our potluck dinner parties.  Guests may support these causes by making a monetary donation or by volunteering their time.  We provide contact information for each organization.

 

recipe for success

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~1. Bring people together in a social setting to re-connect with old friends, make new friends, enjoy stimulating conversation and share a delicious meal. 

 ~2. Help those in need by raisingawareness and funds for charities that work toward a peaceful existence for the people of their communities and the world.

~3. Blend together.

This Moment

'A Measure Of' is the lovely blog of Heather Yalin. Here she writes about being present and thankful for the 'now':


We have bucket loads of decisions to make every day, the most important ones having to do with our outlook. We can choose to be thankful, appreciative, compassionate. Or we can choose to dwell on what ails us. Right now, for instance, I decide to dodge the darker hollow and head for lighter ground. With one moment's gratitude list. Right now I'm thankful for...

{via}

this moment. 
I have pregnancy nose big time. The dry weatherscape here dries me out even more, so it's a pretty bloody mess lately, crescendoing this week. Not being able to breathe through my nose properly is suffocating enough, and if I ride that wave of thought, it'll make me panicky and most certainly grumpy. 

So this morning, just as I was rising to panic point, I let the wave pass. Focusing instead on all the good things about right now. Sparrows chirping, sudden flocks of ibis squealing overhead. Sun pouring through my window. A lapse in the neighborhood dogs barking. Warm inside while it's wickedly windy outside, clothes on the line so quick to dry. That if I calm + slow down, I can still drag a decent breath through my nose. That there's always the emergency back up of my mouth. I'm breathing for two. Our baby hiccuping inside. Sparrows. 

What are you thankful for?

Be the Change

From Crow's Feet:

2010 has been a year of upheaval, natural and manmade, for many including my own family, but deep within all that struggle and stress has lain an unexpected buried treasure - the gift of disbelief.

Faith may move mountains, but refusing to believe in limitations is what moves people.

In August this year 33 Chilean miners found themselves trapped deep within the Earth. As the whole world knows from bitter experience all mining disasters end in death and tragedy, but not this time! This time everyone refused to believe they wouldn't succeed. The families of the miners refused to leave ‘Camp Hope’ until every miner had been freed, the government refused to let the men die without trying everything to rescue them… and the world refused to stop hoping for a miracle.

They proved to the world that ordinary people really can do extraordinary things...

when they refuse to believe in inevitable failure.

On the very same day that the Chilean miners were being freed from the bowels of the planet my dad was getting ready to come home after a full month of being in hospital. A full month of having medical experts warn him, and us, that he was going to die… probably soon. He could have given up, we could have started preparing for the worst, but it just didn’t make sense that a healthy active man could fall ill and fade away in a mere month.

We refused to believe this fate was inescapable and that gave us, and dad, the strength to demand a new doctor who refused to believe too. This doctor was willing to try a little longer and experiment a little further. So, like the Chilean families, we set up our ‘camp’ as close to the hospital as possible and we kept on keeping on until dad was sent back home to us.

Sometimes you have to be willing to fight for what you refuse to believe in.

I do understand that all stories don’t end in miracles, but why shouldn’t we refuse to believe that all of them have to end in tragedy? My first Peace Globe day (2008), I wrote:

The truth is that as much as we may talk of Peace, pray for Peace or Blog for Peace, we cannever achieve anything unless we start from the simple truth that it has to begin from within. You cannot change the world to change people – people have to change themselves in order to change their world.

This year I realised that it’s is not enough to believe in peace and change -

you have to also refuse to believe in things staying the same.

We have to refuse to believe that we are doomed to continually repeat the mistakes of history – whether that be on a personal, national or global level. Can we refuse to believe in war in order to bring about peace? I don’t see why not. Gandhi refused to believe that violence would bring freedom and he certainly managed to change the world. ;-)

I saw the most gorgeous headline on the internet recently. It was on NASA’s news website: "Transcending Distance to Make a Difference." That’s what this day is about for me, what Mimi’s marvellous idea has become - all of us transcending distance to make a difference, because we refuse to believe that we are too small, insignificant or ordinary to make a difference.

It’s not just what you believe in that matters - what you don’t believe in matters even more!

I don’t believe in failing,

I don’t believe in giving up,

I don’t believe this world is doomed...

how about you?

A Lesson in Being

From A Diary of Little Things and Curiosities:

one of my best friends--who was also my roommate throughout college--makes sure to take a bath every day... yes, without exception. every. single. day. 

for a long time, this absolutely baffled me. see, i was raised to live by the clock (always set five minutes fast, so as to never, ever be late) and i just couldn't understand it... didn't she have laundry and work and errands to do? didn't she feel guilty wasting that block of time? and how--how?--on top of this time-wasting bath habit could she also justify taking naps?!

well, she called me tonight--from the bath, of course--and it finally clicked. finally.

because yes--yes she has laundry and work and errands to do. she has plenty of things she could be filling her time with--but she chooses to put herself on the top of that list. each and every day, my best friend allows herself that little space of time to just be. 

and i've decided that i'm going to work on this--on this "stepping-outside-the-day-to-just-be" thing. it's important, i think, to sit in silence, to be your own company. and i used to claim that writing did that for me, but even writing requires a certain degree of alertness, a certain degree of worry.

so for the rest of the month, i'm going to take a note from her and become the sort of girl who takes baths. the sort of girl who sits still, who lets the worries slip to the side for a while as she steals a few moments for herself. 

i'm curious: do you have a daily escape habit? what is it?

{photo: molly merrick}

Blog Blast For Peace

Have you heard of the Blog Blast for Peace? It started in 2006 and is every year on November 4th. Obviously it already happened this year, but I just heard about it and wanted to share it so that we can get the word out.



Here is what Mimi writes:

It's inception began in 2006 with one single post and a cry for peace in our world.

A small group of bloggers answered that challenge and it began to spread across the internet in ways that humble me still. It reaches across political lines and religious creeds, abides in corners of unrest and places of hope, gives voice to individual beliefs and promotes tolerance for diversity. It celebrates the genius in each one of us, found in sparkling conversations of passionate pleas for change in the earth. It is that hope for change that motivates us.

It was the Internet's first ever online movement of its kind to invite bloggers to post the same message on the same day. From blog to blog it has moved and continues to grow. It is a virtual inscription of hope. We have been amazed to see the power and passion shown each year displayed on pages across the world. We visit each other with our prayers and scribbles, prose and poetry, art and angst, heart and hilarity - and we are moved by it. From one post to thousands of others in fifty countries and almost every state in the United States, something rare and wonderful happens on BlogBlast For Peace day.

I am privileged to witness it.

I invite you to experience it.

It's time.

Join us!

Finding Peace Within Yourself (Even When The Path Is Dark And Your Heart Is Hurting)

From Jen K. May:

Okay my dear, beautiful friends… This SPECIAL message is something I wrote just for my personal list only. For those who took the time to subscribe to my newsletters and committed themselves to building their mindset and HEART through what I share. I make it a purpose to give them that little ‘extra’ because they truly took the time to invest in themselves. (You can do this also by just subscribing to the right ==> or above) But basically my point is I was so overjoyed by how clearly this message came to those on my list, the response was beautiful… I HAD to share it, it was no choice by the time I read the last email….

So here you go, this is FROM ME TO YOU and I hope you truly SOAK it in and remember YOU are in control of your life, your outcomes and how you feel…  And most of all start working on finding the PEACE within yourself, because it IS there…

Finding Peace Within Yourself…

Do you ever wonder why things happen the way they do? Do you ever try to find the deeper meaning behind it? Are you open to taking the difficult road verses the easy road?

I say this because at this moment in my life, in my business and most of all my heart… I have found peace. I found that missing link that I thought was not there for most of my life.

You can probably relate. Spending most of life trying to fill that empty space, trying to find what is supposed to be there, I just kept searching outside myself to find it…

I was searching in the WRONG PLACE…

I already had that missing link, right inside of me. It was there and it was NOT missing, I just did not become open to it or AWARE of it because I was searching for someone or something else to fill it in.

Once I found that the difficult roads I took, the experiences I had in my life, the meaning behind all of it… How it all came together and really was necessary for me to be here now at this point in my life. I was completely and utterly at PEACE. I found my true connection to this universe and literally went from allowing my feelings control me to becoming carefree, heart driven and full of faith EVEN when the hardest, most complicated things happen in my life.

(And TRUST ME if you really knew my life’s story, you would be FLOORED as to all I have been through.)

So my message to you is to become OPEN and AWARE of what you already have inside of you. Your faith, your heart, your purpose, your BEING. That is the missing link. It is not someone else, something else or outside of you…

You have it right there, just DECIDE to connect to it. Become one with it and realize that life is meant for joy, happiness and laughter. And that circumstances and experiences are JUST THOSE, circumstances and experiences. They are no more than what YOU make them out to be and they do not make you who you are. You are already who you are always, which is determined by something much deeper, stronger and beautiful than just life’s happenings.

Make happiness, joy and laughter come out of every situation and have a DEEPER FAITH that the moments, experiences and even hardships in your life are there to make you better, build you and allow you to GIVE BACK to this universe (which is TRULY what we are meant here to do).

Take today to dedicate to finding peace within yourself and become so absolutely honest with YOU. Then take the time to connect with YOU and this amazing universe that we are in. You would be surprised on how amazing you feel and what you get. It is beyond words. The beauty, the heart, the faith and most of all the BEING of life…

You DESERVE it. You really do.

So my friend.. how do you feel? What do you think? Where are you at on your journey to this point? What have you experienced once you were open and aware? Have you been on this journey to finding peace within yourself lately? Would love to know your thoughts, feelings, heart filled messages below… it is always wonderful to hear from you.

P.S. If you felt this has encouraged, inspired or empowered you please pass it along to Facebook, Twitter or any social media site or networks out there online. I know someone will truly benefit from this. And it is time to open people’s hearts and minds to their true purpose. Thank you!