A friend and I were recently talking about how Reiki can be used to help plants survive and thrive. It reminded me of how I had used Reiki on a newly planted tree in my front yard that was showing no signs of thriving. Here's a 1 minute video I made documenting the effects of Reiki on my now stunning tree that graces me with its beauty every day:
I love this quote by life-long pacifist Jeanette Rankin, the first woman ever elected to the U.S. Congress and the only woman from Montana to ever have been elected.
The idea of war has always puzzled me, even as a small child. I can remember hearing adults talking about WWII and I would wonder why men had to fight one another. Why couldn’t they just settle their differences by talking it out instead of fighting. But then, I was just a child, and of course, couldn’t possibly understand the adult concept of war.
The Vietnam war was heating up when I was in my early 20s. Again, I found myself wondering why so many young men, men my age, were being drafted and sent to fight a war that seemed to me to be insane. My husband’s draft number was going to be called, so he decided to enlist in the Air Force. I was relieved when he was stationed at a base in northern Maine for two years and then sent to Japan for two years before being honorably discharged.
I’m trying to remember a period in my lifetime that we weren’t engaged in some kind of war and for the life of me, I can’t think of any. Did we “win” any of those wars? Did ANYBODY win any of those wars? What would “winning” look like anyway, with dead and wounded on both sides. It’s just as Jeannette Rankin states: “You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.” What will it take for the human species to understand the futility of war and make a different choice? It will take a change of consciousness — a consciousness that “only love prevails.”
Please consider joining the Only Love Prevails World Peace Experiment, an experiment aimed at achieving peace through a shift in consciousness.
We will always meet people who come from a different point of view. It is my belief that it’s important to keep an open mind and try to find common ground. This blog post illustrates how I did this when I received the following email from a person who had registered to participate in the World Peace Experiment. After registering he had followed a link to my personal website where I have a great deal of information about my political views.
Here is what he wrote:
"The “onlyloveprevails” site was so good and I liked your prayers, etc. that I submitted my name along with my wife’s to make the 80,000. Then I went to your site and found something completely different (I guess I shouldn’t have gone to the Politics page first). I am a supporter of the president AND of peace, but all I saw on that page was leftist propaganda garbage that did not seem to come from someone who meditates from the Course in Miracles. I hope someday you rise above duality consciousness and really represent a peace movement. I am not there yet either which is why the Politics page struck a bad chord. Peace, Lee”
I responded with the following:
Dear Lee:
Thank you for your email and for your heartfelt observations about my CarolHansenGrey.com site. I took your email into meditation with me this morning and asked for guidance.
I do believe that “only love prevails” and practice its principle in my day-to-day life. However, I also believe we each have a responsibility to work in our own way toward making our world a better place, whether that be in areas that personally touch my heart (including raising spiritual awareness, promoting peace, facilitating health and healing, supporting truth and integrity in government, helping to empower the disempowered, safeguarding our environment) or in other areas just as important. One of the reasons I created the CarolHansenGrey.com site was to give me a space to share my work and my personal views on various topics.
That being said, I also know that there are ways to share my views that are respectful rather than sarcastic. You did not specifically indicate on which page you found the “leftist propaganda garbage” so I took the time to carefully review the material on my site. I agree that some of the material I have posted in the political humor section and the political quotations section of the site is not respectful and I will be taking down the material that, in my opinion, fits that description.
Other than that, however, I found only articles that were a meaningful representation of the concerns I have regarding the direction the current administration is leading this country and accurately reflect my point of view. I am sure that your point of view is much different than mine and that does not mean you are wrong or I am wrong — it’s simply a different perspective.
Most of us are aware of the political polarization in the U.S. (and throughout the world). My sense is that there is actually more common ground between those who find themselves on the left or on the right of an issue than what appears on the surface. I believe if we were willing to start from that place of common ground we could begin to explore many ways to heal the polarization. I admit, however, that sarcastic humor is not one of those ways. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to see an area in myself that is in need of healing.
Thank you also, once again, for participating in the World Peace Experiment. Together, no matter what our political views, we will work to co-create a world of peace where… Only Love Prevails, Carol"
A few days later I received the following response:
"I really didn’t expect a reply, seeing as how I live in the “red” heartland and you live on the “left” coast, but my heart was warmed as to how you responded. You obviously do study the Course in Miracles (I have on and off for two years now).
Since you were willing to re-evaluate some of the text on your website, I felt that I had to do the same (since I started this). It will be hard to get rid of a whole section of Hillary humor (there is a lot of funny stuff there, but it does create divisiveness). I will also get rid of the political quotes section showing the “less-than-fully-awake” statements of Kerry, Gore, Dean, Pelosi, Harry, and the rest.
Einstein said that a problem cannot be solved at the same level it was created. For years, I have gotten really good at debating the polarizing issues of the day. I’ve got the facts on my side, but the problem with that is – you and many others have a different set of facts from which to operate.
You are probably right about us having much common ground and I am sorry that I came down so hard on your personal web site. I guess it stemmed from a seminar I went to the previous weekend, given by Judith Pennington. She is a highly-evolved person who occasionally lapsed into duality-consciousness when talking about the president (I believe that Bush 43 is the most honest and straight-forward president we have had in my lifetime). Anyway, I saw how this highly-evolved person quickly came down into the lower vibrations and brought me down also.
My goal in life is to be able to rise above the chatter and really “know” the material in Course in Miracles and the other study group I attend – A.R.E (Association for Research and Enlightenment). Thank you for rising above my accusations and raising the bar for me to do the same.
It is true that Only Love Prevails, Lee"
This exchange helped me to see the importance of keeping the lines of communication open, even if the person is coming from a completely different viewpoint. I feel a closeness with Lee now, where if I had chosen to simply ignore his email or even worse, had responded in anger, that bridge to common ground would have never been built.