Friends, I send greetings from San Blas, Cusco. I am diligently working on installations for an exhibition opening here April 8.
Meanwhile, the world turns. In Brussels this morning there were bombings. For me it is personally disturbing Belgium being a country where family and friends live, where I once lived and attended Quaker Meeting near one of the bombing sites (see “Busing at the Berlyamont” 18 June 2009).
The fact is that there are bombings continually going “off” in the world, as there always seems to be war on our planet. The fact is that everywhere in the world is someone’s home. The fact is that across the world children continually are suffering such violence.
My work in community arts intersects what pulls my heart. Healing from violence has been central to much of my programming and creative expression since 2006, such as the 2012 project “Words & Afterwards”. Before then, peace activism among academic peers and local community was paramount (see “Cross the Border” 11 Nov. 2010).
Today I reflect how bringing Beauty to the world is an act of peace, how creating art is a chance to create community, and how truly small our world is (see “The Intertidal Zone: In Flow with Community Arts” 17 Nov. 2014). I am grateful for the chance to contribute harmony to our hurting world. May our planetary circle be healed with every kindness we can extend to every human and every being.
I close this note with wisdom expressed by Dhyani Ywahoo of the Etowah Band of the Eastern Tsalagi (Cherokee) Nation in her book Voices of Our Ancestors: Cherokee Teachings from the Wisdom Fire (1987):
To have the gift of a body, to be alive in this time is indeed an opportunity to co-create, to bring forth a family of dignified human beings. Through right relationship with one another, through actions that bring forth good for the people, through clear intelligence we see what is open before us and we choose wisely what is the best course–peace. We come again to the Beauty Path by walking in beauty within ourselves and by honoring and respecting that seed of beauty within one another.
