Movie done by participants

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Something positive

I have a feeling that we are living in the environment (at least I and people I see around)surrounded with rather negative emotions, feelings, vibrations:)

One of my friend inspired me today to write this post. He came to the office surprisingly happy. He was smiling, he said that he had a great day at work, that he saw the first snowdrop and how nice it was. "It is not normal", I though, "is he making fun of us? What does he wants?". After some time I just realized he is simply having a good day, and I have found it not normal because it doesn't happen very often. Unfortunately.

I just looked back on the last few days and realized how much I am surrounded with the negative feelings and emotions. At work everyone is stressed, overloaded with job and all the time tired, with friends every single conversation we start with complaining about our life and reality, the same with media that presents mainly negative news. It is not surprising for me now that I was so shocked with my friend's happiness.

This situation made me think more and driven me to some kind of generalization. There are so many positive things in our life, but we rarely share them. We see only this what is lacking, what failed etc. Maybe it is the some with peace. Maybe there are as well many example of peace but no one is sharing that. Maybe there is a lot that we can learn from, a lot of good practices, examples, or things that can motivate us.

So I want to start something new. Let's stop talking about negatives, about all of this what is missing, and try to find example of peace and write about them.

I am waiting for comments, new articles, and peace :)

Photo Project - It is in your hands

Photo Project - Let peace be your ultimate goal

Photo Project - Want some peace?

Photo Project - Want to try some peace?

Inner Peace. Keep it with you. Always.

Photo Project - Join Army of Peace Today

The Seven Doors Room

This was the fist post on "peace please" blog...

Thirty five young peace activists were destined to meet in Wroclaw (the meeting place). Coming from seven different countries, some of which have major political conflicts, it sounds impossible to find common grounds for dialogue. The funny thing is that was not a problem at all.

Speaking of myself; one random laid-back Egyptian, lying in the bed of my Latvian friend Marcis, listening to the snoring noises of my Armenian friend Zaven, who is supposed to be in the middle of his photography workshop, I feel like talking about Peace.

This is not my first youth exchange, and it wasn’t my first time to tackle the subject of peace with young people from different backgrounds. But what was surprising was the potential! Those people, most of which 3 or 4 years younger than me, showed an amount of creativity during the workshops that made me stop and reconsider my perspective when it comes to the implementation of positive peace among different societies.

In one of the workshops we decided to create a blog, not for meeting up and sharing our memories, but as one step towards the sustainability of the work we did. We need to speak out and have our voice heard AND REPLIED TO. After seeing it in 35 pairs of eyes, I believe it is going to happen.

Imagine a room with seven doors, where someone enters from each door and it closes behind him. Those people know, almost, nothing about one another and they are requested to spend some time together. They are requested to coexist. That is how it was. I believe most of us learnt more about peace not from the workshops but during our free time, our sleeping time, on the dinner table and so on where Ania, the beautiful Polish organizer/ team leader/ moderator was screaming her lungs out on us to respect the rules of the dorm, or talking with the Chef about the different demands of vegetarians, Moslems and allergics.

Now imagine that room when the doors open and everyone goes back to where they came from.

I see hope :)

Hussein

TV room

11.12.09

4:00 pm -4:00 am

Why the Dove is the Bird of Peace

Once upon a time, so an Azerbaijani legend says, there were two kingdoms in Central Asia led by two kings who hated each other. For many years their enmity grew, and their armies and armories grew, and the threat of war seemed an ever-greater likelihood. One day, something happened that no one now remembers, but this forgotten event caused the hatred between the two kings to erupt and war was declared, one upon the other.
As the kings arrayed themselves for battle, one of them called for his armor and helmet, shield and spear. The king’s men-at-arms and servants went to retrieve the helmet and armor, shield and spear, but when they returned, they did not have the king’s battle gear with them.
The king demanded to know why they had disobeyed his order. None of the servants spoke until the king’s own mother stepped forward and said “I commanded them to leave your helmet and armor undisturbed.”
“For what reason do you dare to block my command?” asked the king.
His mother said, “I will show you a secret, wonderful thing, the thing that has made me defy your order.”
She took him to the royal armory where the helmet and armor, shield and spear were kept. “Behold!” said the mother of the king, and motioned to the helmet. And there within, a dove had built her nest, and there the dove sat, trembling in fright, protecting her newborn chicks.
The king, the great leader and warrior, was touched by the simple sight of a creature so small and beautiful, willing to risk everything to protect her small brood. He decided to risk his own life by entering the battle without his helmet and armor, and let the dove remain at peace on her nest.
“Perhaps,” he said, “if I foster and protect this small dove, the gods and goddesses will shelter and protect me in battle” And forth he went.
When battle was met, the opposing army rushed forth, their king at the head of his troops. He strode forth to meet his rival hand-to-hand, but stopped when he saw the other king standing before him without helmet or armor. This second king was surprised, but also secretly afeared — was this king so powerful as to need no armor? Had he enchantments of special favor of the gods and goddesses that he dared enter battle without a helmet?
So the second king called halt to his army, and shouted across the field “Why do you come for battle without aid of helmet or armor?”
“Come forth to parlay and I will tell you,” the first king replied. So both kings laid their weapons down and strode forth to talk. And the first king told the second of the dove nesting in his helmet, and how he had been so moved by the bravery of this small bird and the love that she bore her nestlings that he had left her undisturbed.
Now the second king had always believed his rival to be a great tyrant, with only cruelty and greed in his heart. And yet here was his bitter rival risking his life and kingdom for the benefit of one small dove. So moved was the second king that he laid aside his own armor and helmet, and sought peace between the kingdoms rather than war. And in this way, the dove became known throughout the land as a bird of peace.
This story may be an ancient one, but it is one of the many myths from many cultures that revere the dove as a symbol of peace, and it is still taught to children in Azerbaijan. For many thousands of years, in places utterly different in geography and culture, the dove emerges again and again as the symbol of peace, love and the representation of the divine.
Most of us are familiar with the ancient Sumerian and Hebrew myth of the great flood and the building of an ark to save the animals from the divine wrath that caused the flood. In the most ancient accounts, adapted later by the early Christian church and persisting to this day, it is the dove that brings the news that the flood is over. She returns to the ark with an olive branch in her beak, signifying peace between the beings of the Earth and the divine.
Aphrodite, ancient and lovely, is borne in her chariot drawn by doves, and has often been depicted with doves because She brings love and beauty and peace in which to enjoy the bounties of love. Aphrodite’s daughters, the Pleiades — the Seven Sisters in the night sky– were also known in Greece as “a flock of doves.”
Thousands of years later, Christians adopted the dove as the symbol of the “Holy Spirit.” Artists have often painted doves flocking about Jesus, drawing from the many Biblical associations of the dove with the presence of God. In the New Testament, Mary is told of her conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit descending as a dove. The four main gospels of the New Testament describe the baptism of Jesus when “the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove” came down from the heavens.
Islam too, holds the dove sacred as a representation of the divine. It is told that a dove flew from Mohammed’s ear, convincing those who heard him that his message came directly from the Divine.
It is not only in Near-Eastern and European cultures that we find the image of the dove associated with peace, love and divine presence. The Aztec Goddess Xochiquetzal is, in part, a goddess of love and she becomes the mother of humanity after the great flood in Aztec mythology. It is She who gives the gift of speech to humans, descending on humankind in the form of a dove to create the languages of the world.
In some northern American indigenous cultures, the spirits of the dead take the form of a dove immediately after departing the body. Dove feathers are sometimes incorporated into prayer sticks as a means of connecting with the guidance of the spirits.
In India and South Asia, Kamadeva, the Hindu god of love, is depicted armed with a quiver of flowers and riding on a dove. Again, the dove becomes the symbol of divinity, love and peace.
It is 2002 in the United States, and we are again on the brink of war. Of what significance is the dove to us, as pagans, as Americans, as warriors or as pacifists? Perhaps it is the very universal nature of the dove that we must heed — the presence of this gentle bird in cultures across the span of time, culture, and geography, always representing love, peace and presence of the god and goddess.
If the dove could halt a war and bring peace between bitter enemies an eon ago in Azerbaijan, perhaps it is not too late in our own time and place. Can we bring the gifts of the dove into our circles, into our hearts, and find divine insights into the protracted violence of the modern world? Can this bird, a symbol of peace and divinity common to Judaism, Christianity and Islam provide guidance to us to bring peace within and between those religions?
As pagans, we take responsibility for our own personal reality. We work for the greatest and highest good. Too often our vision is clouded, our spirits muddled with fear, anger, or confusion. It is not a simple world we live in, and commonality becomes elusive as society becomes fractious. But perhaps if we focus on the dove — whose wing-beats resonate peace throughout the cultures of the world — she will show us what the greatest and highest good can be.