Inspirational leaders risk making bold requests of others: to be in integrity in the face of their fear, to be generous in the face of scarcity, to let go of the "sure thing" in service of creating the new or the impossible. Making a bold and principled request is simply another way of declaring what we stand for in the world. We stand solidly in it enough to be a demand that others stand in it too!

My bold request this holiday season is that YOU be an inspirational leader!

One way you can do this is to give to causes that make a difference in the world. I honor the people I love this holiday by giving money in their names to Kiva, Oxfam and other organizations that create new possibility (loans, learning, mentoring) for others. This is both meaningful for me and those I honor as well as transformative for those who receive the gift. And that's a "three-fer" which of course is waaaaaay more valuable than a "two-fer" or a "one-fer".

Love,

Darlene

Give Peace!

The best gift you can give someone this holiday coincidentally also happens to be the best gift you can give yourself: Peace! That's a two-fer.

And you will know that you have created it when you are no longer compulsively filling the empty spaces in your life buying gifts people do not need and attending gatherings that don't delight you. Imagine the space you create as filled with Peace. And if you must buy something, donate to a nonprofit in someone's name. Give to people who truly need your gift.

Peace is the reason for this season. Be Peace and give it away with love.


Love,

Darlene

Doing the Truth in Love!

Happiness can be fleeting, hinged to the temporal, to circumstances, to getting. It is often conflated with joy. Michael Hines says that joy is something quite different. It is "doing the truth in love....a profound conviction that (this) is a good way to live life and spend one's energies and talents." This may be why joy is found in giving, particularly in giving the gift of our authentic self.

I say joy is access to sustained Peace.

How might you "do the truth in love" today, and for a stretch do it all day?

Peace.

Love,

Darlene

Be the Beloved for Peace

Henri Nouwen invites us to "honor the deepest current in our lives, the deepest truth" which is THAT YOU ARE THE BELOVED! I put this in bold so you can really, really hear it. The greatest joy and PEACE comes from fully claiming that truth and resisting it is a source of great suffering.

Your Peace practice today is to be the Beloved in the concreteness of your daily life. And if you have difficulty with this PRETEND you are a 3 year old. Why? Have you noticed that young ones haven't yet forgotten that they are the Beloved!

Have fun. Have Peace.


Love,

Darlene

A U.S. Department of Peace?

What do you think would happen if our government had a Peace Department? I suspect having a federal focus for Peace might expand our awareness of the real price we pay when Peace is abandoned. It could counterbalance our tendency to see force as an effective solution. This falls under the heading of "if you build it they will come" or "what you focus on expands". A Peace Department could make both the moral and economic case for Peace at the highest level of government. Justice, commerce, education, health and war all have federal emphasis. It's about time Peace had the same.

This Saturday 11/21 at the Corte Madera, CA Town Center Lorrie Norby will talk about her intention to create a U.S. Department of Peace! If you would like to lend support or attend the meeting contact Lorrie at 415 381-2157 or lnorby@post.harvard.edu.

Our hearts speak in the silence!

I just saw The Chosen, a play about faith and spirit, in which a young rabbinical student confesses that his father's seeming cruel silent treatment has been a blessing; that he learned with time to "hear the silence".....that it is wonderful and the only place he can truly hear his heart speak!

Most of our days we are immersed in noise, the external busyness of the world or the more intrusive cacophony of our streaming judgments. It is challenging to hear our wisdom in the din.

This Peace Tuesday practice being silent and thoughtless so you may hear the soft voice of your wise heart in the stillness inviting you to Peace.

Love,

Darlene

Peace....... from Rainer Maria Rilke

"Be ahead of all parting, as if it had already happened........
Be. And know as well the need to not be.
Let that endless ground of all that changes
bring you to completion now.

To all that has run it's course, and to the vast unsayable
numbers of beings abounding in Nature,
add yourself gladly, and cancel the cost."

Be in awe. Be grateful. Be complete. Simply be. For Peace.

Love,

Darlene