A Season for Nonviolence, Week 2

Personal centeredness gives us the inner peace and calm to respond to situations with nonviolent means. Building that inner center is the first act of peace making.

Day 8 – HEALING (Feb. 6)
Writer, poet, activist, and professor Maya Angelou turned a traumatic childhood experience into a catalyst for creativity and achievement. Today, choose a painful incident in your life and find the “gift” it has given you. Consciously share this gift with others today.

Day 9 –DREAMING (Feb. 7)
Martin Luther King, Jr. had a great dream. What is your dream for peace? Write it down. What is one thing you can do to honor your dreams? Do it today.

Day 10 – FAITH (Feb. 8)
When Cesar Chavez was organizing farm workers, he challenged them to say, "Si, se puede" (yes, it is possible) when they didn't know how they would overcome obstacles. Today say, "yes, it is possible, " even if you don't know how your goal will be realized. Have faith, and say "it is possible” until you find, or are shown, a way.

Day 11 – CONTEMPLATION (Feb. 9)
For at least three minutes, relax, breathe, and let your mind be fed by "whatsoever is good and beautiful and just." Sacred scripture states, "as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. "

Day 12 – GROUNDEDNESS (Feb. 10)
Gandhi said, "To forget how to dig the earth and t end the soil is to forget ourselves. " And Black Elk said, "Some little root of the sacred tree still lives. Nourish it, that it may leaf and bloom and fill with singing birds." Today place a seed in the earth, plant a tree or nurture an open space.

Day 13 – CREATIVITY (Feb. 11)
The worst thing you can do to a human soul is to suppress its natural desire to create. Identify at least five ways in which you express your creativity everyday. Today, allow something unpredictable and joyous to express through you.

Day 14 – HUMILITY (Feb. 12)
Making mistakes is a part of learning and growing, simply an "error in approach." Today, freely acknowledge at least one mistake you made today, and reflect for a couple of minutes on what you have learned.