I rowed in peace at the gym because I’ve been reading Thich Nhat Hanh’s How To Smile. He writes about walking and breathing in peace a lot and so it came easily to row peacefully as an exercise. Tonight I did the same thing on the treadmill, walked and ran peacefully not forcefully.
A few days before this I went to my first sound bath. It was a big room in a church where there were a ton of crystal bowls. Go to this link to learn more.
The bowls are said to have precious stones ground up in them or something. They are all kinds of pretty colors, and hum and vibrate and fill the room and bounce around internally and externally. I guess they have special magic qualities but I just like their ring. They make pretty sounds that integrate your group and individual chakras that are lined up like a strawberry patch responding to the sun and rain.
We also made a sound together involving no bowls. We made a tone for maybe two minutes and it was like we just attuned as a group into one tone. I was surprised with how quickly this brought us into a solid collective feeling.
I wonder if we used to do this a long time ago or on some other planet before meetings or discussions or eating food. It’s a cool way to tune in. It’s like it levels the area more evenly. It’s not the loudest or highest note, it’s harmony.
The next day, first thing in the morning, was an active shooter drill at work. I had a choice to decide if I would run, hide, or fight. I usually hide but this time I wanted to fight instead. When it started, I followed habit and hid in the bathroom, sitting on the floor with another coworker until we stopped hearing the sounds of wood blocks clapping together up and down the hall.
We had a debriefing about how everyone handled it, where they hid or ran or what sort of weapons were found in the clinic to use as a defense.
I wanted to say, in front of everyone, “how ‘bout we get rid of the guns? I think that would help a lot more than practicing dodging bullets.”
I biked to campus to watch Atomic Bamboozle- which was about nuclear power- and the current propaganda message that it is green energy. Nothing that makes radioactive waste for 100,000 years is green.
I wondered why anyone would want nuclear power over renewable energy and one reason is bombs. You ever heard of a solar bomb? A wind-powered bomb?
There are other reasons like government subsidies and making a lot of money, then running when things break.
Oregon currently has a rule where we can’t have nuclear energy because there is no method to safely store the waste. Let’s keep this rule in place. Pay attention, vote.
Einstein said we cannot solve problems with the same consciousness that created the problem.
We have to raise the collective vibration, the tone, attune to peace, reach for it. Thich Nhat Hanh said the greatest gift you can show is no fear. Even if there are things to be afraid of.
Be fearless about peace!
Attune